507. To THE CHIEF OIL COMMITTEE OF THE SUPREME ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Written on January 15, 1920 · First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51. Printed from the typewritten text, added to and signed by Lenin. · page 331

I enclose a cutting from Izvestia No. 8(855) for 14/1. 20, and ask to be informed whether you are aware of the facts stated in this paragraph,^[2] and how far the figures given in it may be regarded as trustworthy. What practical measures are being taken in this connection?^[1]

V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

Notes

[1] This sentence is in Lenin’s handwriting.—Ed.

[2] The paragraph in Izvestia, entitled “A Wealth of Oil Products”, stated that the oilfields near Berchogur, in the neighbourhood of Zhilaya Kosa, had available stocks amounting to 20 million poods of oil, 300,000 poods of paraffin and 200,000 poods of petrol. In addition, oil was gushing from four wells.