Letter to V.M. Molotov, July 20, 1925

20/VII-25.
Comrade Molotov!
In issue No. 159 (July 15) of Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn I read a note entitled "Verification of the Dnieper Construction Project," from which it is evident that the party (and the VSNKh) may be imperceptibly drawn into the Dneprostroi project, which requires up to 200 million rubles, if we do not take preventive measures in time. Comrade Dzerzhinsky has issued, it turns out, an "order" instructing Comrade Trotsky to submit an economic-technical and financial construction plan "by mid-October," so that "the necessary credits for preparatory measures can still be included in the 1925-26 budget." Thirty thousand rubles have been allocated to Comrade Trotsky for preparing the plan. The note contains caveats about caution and the like. But since thirty thousand rubles have been allocated and a deadline for submitting the plan has been set, the matter is beginning to take on a practical -- and therefore serious -- character.

I think that neither this year nor next year can we, given the state of our finances, undertake Dneprostroi. Only yesterday we rejected the plan for an oil pipeline in Transcaucasia, even though it is more realistic at the present moment and four times cheaper. On what grounds, then, should we accept the less realistic for the present day and four times more expensive plan for Dneprostroi? Do we have so much money? Is the Donbass (the Dneprostroi region) experiencing a fuel famine, or is it the other way round? Where does this haste with Dneprostroi come from?

We need, first and foremost, new equipment for our worn-out plants and factories. Has this need already been met?

We need, further, to expand the agricultural machinery plants, since we are still forced to buy abroad the simplest agricultural implements for tens of millions of rubles.

We need, then, to build at least one tractor factory, a new and large factory, for without such a factory or such factories we cannot develop further.

We need, finally, to put the copper industry in order, develop the production of lead, improve our military industry, for without this we will be beaten with bare hands.

Has all this already been taken care of?

How can we, who suffer from a shortage of capital, forget about all this?

I think that in addition to every kind of danger, we have one more serious danger -- the danger of squandering whatever kopecks are being accumulated, spending them for nothing, thoughtlessly, and thereby impeding our construction work. A month ago, Comrade Dzerzhinsky understood all this. But now he has apparently gotten carried away...

I very much ask you, Comrade Molotov, to read this letter to Comrade Dzerzhinsky. In view of the importance of the question, also read it in the Seven and communicate its opinion in a couple of words.

I shake your hand.
I. Stalin.

Letters of I.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925-1936. Pp. 31-33.
RGASPI F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5388.

NOTE
The note referred to is as follows:
"In connection with the completion of the technical project for the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper River (Dneprostroi) and the need for a technical and economic evaluation of the project and the resolution of the fundamental questions regarding its implementation, the chairman of the VSNKh of the USSR, Comrade F.E. Dzerzhinsky, has issued a special order for the VSNKh.
The order states that in view of the closest connection between the projected electrical construction on the Dnieper and proposals for the reconstruction of the entire national economy of the Southern region, it is necessary to have a general plan of technical-economic measures in that region and a financial plan for their realization both during the construction of the station and after it enters operation.
Overall direction of all work on the urgent development of such a plan has been entrusted to a member of the Presidium of the VSNKh, Comrade L.D. Trotsky.
For the coordination of the plan being developed with the requests and requirements of the People's Commissariat of Transport, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, and other departments, and for the compilation of the said general economic-technical and financial plan, Comrade Trotsky is instructed to organize an appropriate interdepartmental conference.
The work must be conducted so that the report with a preliminary general evaluation of the project and a comprehensive economic-technical and financial plan are submitted to the Presidium of the VSNKh by mid-October and the necessary credits for preparatory measures can still be included in the 1925-26 budget.
A credit of 30 thousand rubles is allocated for the work of the special conferences. In addition, in view of the special importance of the Dnieper station for our entire economy, Comrade Dzerzhinsky considers it necessary to engage prominent specialists from North America in evaluating the station project.
The concluding part of the order notes that the VSNKh will consider itself entitled to approach the appropriate state institutions with a proposal to allocate the exceptionally large sums that will be required for the Dnieper construction and the measures connected with it only if past construction experience and its errors are fully taken into account and if, after a comprehensive review of the project on the basis of world experience, the national economy is given every guarantee of the expediency, timeliness, and economy of the planned gigantic works."