How We Should Reorganize the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection

Lenin’s article on the reorganization of the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection”, a state organ in Soviet Russia. The first draft of this work was dictated by Lenin between January 9-13, 1923. The second draft was the final version of “How We Should Reorganize the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection (Recommendation to the Twelfth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union)” and it was dictated by Lenin on January 20th, 22nd and 23rd, of 1923, and was published in Pravda issue No. 16, on January 25, 1923. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 33 of the first edition and Vol. 43 of the second revised edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

In addition to the Ministry of the People’s Foreign Affairs Committee, most of the state organs of the Soviet regime, which were created by the October Revolution in Russia, were the remnants of the old organs that had not been seriously changed. There were bureaucratism, dilatory work style, procrastination and low efficiency, which had affected the close contact between the state organs and the masses and socialist construction and the smooth progress of industry. Lenin, deeply convinced of the seriousness of the problem, dictated this article, further refining his vision of building the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate” as a contribution to the Central Committee in his Letter to the Congress, dictated in December 1922.

Around the issue of reorganizing the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection”, Lenin clarified the question of the significance, tasks and goals of reforming the “Central Control Commission” of the Party and the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection” organ of the Soviet Government. He regarded the transformation of the state organs inherited from the old regime as an important epoch-making task that All-Russian Communist Party (B) urgently needs to solve and complete. He pointed out that the goal of the reform is to enhance close ties with the people, improve the quality and efficiency of work, and strengthen discipline inspection and supervision over the leading organs. It is suggested that the 12th National Congress of the Russian Communist Party reorganized the “Workers' and Peasants' Inspection” in accordance with the experience of excavating and concentrating the outstanding elements and forces of the Party during the period of the civil war, and elect 75 to 100 new “Central Control Commission” members from among the workers and peasants; after the qualification examination arranged by the party, and they should go through the same Party screening as the ordinary members of the Central Committee, because they are to enjoy the same rights as the members of the Central Committee.

At the same time, the staff of the “Workers' and Peasants' Inspection” should be reduced to 300-400 people, should, on the one hand, perform purely secretarial functions for the other members of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection and for the supplementary members of the Central Control Commission; and, on the other hand, they should be highly skilled, specially screened, particularly reliable, and highly paid, so that they may be relieved of their present truly unhappy position of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection officials.

On this basis, he added: A union of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection with the Central Control Commission will be beneficial to both these institutions. On the one hand, the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection will thus obtain such high authority that it will certainly not be inferior to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. On the other hand, our Central Committee, together with the Central Control Commission, will definitely take the road of becoming a supreme Party conference, which in fact it has already taken, and along which it should proceed to the end so as to be able to fulfil its functions properly in two respects: in respect to its own methodical, expedient and systematic organisation of work, and in respect to maintaining contacts with the broad masses through the medium of the best of our workers and peasants.

In particular, Lenin stressed that the authority of Party Central Committee and the conditions under which this organ is working are not concurrent. Thus, the members of the Central Control Commission, whose duty it will be to attend all meetings of the Political Bureau in a definite number, should not allow anybody's authority without exception, not allow anybody to prevent them from putting questions, verifying documents, and, in general, from keeping themselves fully informed of all things and from exercising the strictest control over the proper conduct of affairs.

In Lenin’s view, the political advantages of such a reform can not only enhance the ties between the Central Committee and the masses, and working more solidly and methodically, and making full preparations for the meeting of the Political Bureau, can also reduce the impact of pure personal factors and accidental circumstances in the Central Committee and the danger of split in the Party. Lenin’s “Better Fewer, But Better” continued and developed the ideas in this article.