Letter to V.M. Molotov, September 24, 1931

Source: Tom 17

Hello, Vyacheslav!

I received your letter.

You are right that in view of the new circumstances (the financial crisis in England, etc.) we will have to reduce our imports. I have no doubt that without cutting the import quotas approved at the beginning of the year, we cannot manage. At the beginning of the year, conditions were one thing; now they are different (they have worsened). This must be taken into account without fail.

As for the VSNKh department stores, you are of course right. Regards!

24/IX-31.

I. Stalin

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Source: Letters of I.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925-1936, p. 238.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5388.

NOTE: The question of organizing VSNKh department stores was considered at the Politburo session of September 18, 1931, on Molotov's initiative. The Politburo decided to include the supply of VSNKh department stores in the overall supply plan established by the STO and instructed the STO to determine the number of VSNKh department stores to be opened and their supply norms. By January 1932, 83 department stores had been opened, distributing scarce goods only to workers and employees of the factories and plants assigned to them.