Popov to Stalin

Bolshevik leadership Correspondence. 1912-1927
Collection of documents 1996.
Compiled by: A.V.Kvashonkin, L.P.Kosheleva, L.A.Rogovaya, O.V.Khlevnyuk.

Stalin Correspondences

P. I. Popov to I. V. Stalin

December 22, 1925

Copy.

22/XII-25

Urgently.

T. Stalin.

Dear comrade!

From the chair of the Party Congress 1 , speaking about the work of the CSB, you made a number of incorrect assertions.

You are one of the most responsible leaders of the Party, and I hope that you will not refuse from the pulpit of the same congress to correct your incorrect assertions.

You said:

“The same can be said about the unfortunate grain-forage balance of the CSB, given in June, according to which it turned out that the wealthy had 61 percent [cents] of commodity surpluses, the poor had nothing, and the middle peasants had the remaining percentages. The funny thing here is that a few months later the CSB came up with a different figure - not 61 percent, but 52 percent. And recently the CSB gave the figure not 52 percent, but 42 percent. Well, how can you count? We believe that the CSO is the citadel of science. We believe that no governing body can calculate and plan without CSB figures. We believed that the CSO should provide objective data, free from any preconceived notions, because an attempt to fit a figure to this or that prejudiced opinion is a criminal offence. But how can you believe after that the figures of the CSB,2

1) Your statement that according to the CSB it turned out that the wealthy had 61 percent of commodity surpluses is incorrect. This is not true because the grain-forage balance, as a certain statistical operation, could not determine commodity surpluses - its task was different - in order to compare production and consumption, to determine net surpluses, balance surpluses, which cannot coincide with commodity surpluses.

Firstly, you were undoubtedly incorrectly informed about the essence of the statistical operation (balance sheet) and, secondly, you (when you were present in the Politburo) did not pay attention to my categorical statements: that the grain-forage balance in no way determined commodity surpluses and could not determine.

2) Your assertion that "recently" the CSB gave the figure of 42% of commodity surpluses is incorrect. It is not true because the CSB did not give such a figure. You obviously did not quite understand the numerical data of the diagram that I demonstrated to the Politburo.

It turned out to be 42% surplus, and not 61%, not because the CSO replaced 61% with a new figure of 42%. No, not because. 61% was obtained if we combine the farms of 3 groups with net balance surpluses. Percentage of net (balance sheet) surplus:

6-8 tithes - 19

8-10" - 12

over 10 acres - 30

61

In the Politburo, I demonstrated the unification of not 3 sowing groups, but only two:

8-10 tithes -12

over 10 acres - 30

42

So, no substitution was made and the CSO did not give any incorrect figures to the Politburo. Someone, but not the Central Statistical Board, combined 3 groups, but I grouped them in my own way, meaning to single out the farms of 2 groups with a net surplus and at the same time having crops above the average.

3) Your statement that the CSB adjusted the figures to one or another preconceived opinion is incorrect.

It is not true because the CSO is a scientific institution and does not deal with fraud and never has.

I agree that fitting figures to a certain opinion is a criminal offense, but, on the other hand, it is necessary to somehow qualify the false statements that are spread about the activities of the CSO.

Your duty from the same high pulpit is either to publish my letter, or to state that your statements are not true.

You must know that CSO is not a private institution. It is a scientific institution and carries out certain work necessary for socialist construction. Throwing the above false statements into the ranks of the party comrades, and through them and through the press - and into the population, on the accuracy and completeness of information on which the accuracy and completeness of statistical information depends, you undoubtedly create conditions under which the work of state statistics cannot proceed normally, You are undoubtedly instilling suspicion and disbelief in the work of the CSO, because you say, "how can one trust the figures of the CSO after that."

You, a staunch and old Party comrade, are accustomed to telling the truth, and therefore I am deeply convinced that you will now tell both the members of the Party and the population the truth - that your statements about the activities of the CSB do not correspond to reality in the respect I have indicated.

With communist greetings, P. Popov.

PS A number of articles are published against the CSB in Pravda, my articles - answers - are not printed. Is it normal?

RTSKHIDNI. F. 558. Op. 2. D. 192. L. 1-2. Typewritten text.

Notes:

1 We are talking about the political report of the Central Committee, made by Stalin at the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) on December 18, 1925.

2 XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Verbatim report. M.-D., 1926. S. 44.