Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

REVISION OF THE PARTY PROGRAMME177beginning of the discussion of the various draft programmesby our Central Organ. Comrade Larin dwells especiallyon that section of the programme which I had no occasionto work upon, and the draft for which is in the possession ofthe editors of the “Subsection on Labour Protection”, thesubsection was formed at the Conference of April 24-29, 1917.Comrade Larin proposes a number of additions which seemto me quite acceptable but which, I am sorry to say, are notalways quite accurately expressed.One point seems to me to have been ineptly formulatedby Comrade Larin: “The correct [?] distribution of thelabour force on the basis [?] of democratic [?] self-governmentby the workers in deciding how to employ [?] theirpersons [?]”. In my opinion this is worse than the formulationof the subsection: “The labour exchanges must be proletarianclass organisations”, etc. (see Materials, p. 15).Comrade Larin, moreover, should have gone into the problemof a minimum wage much more thoroughly. He shouldhave formulated his proposition with greater exactness,and should have related it to the history of the views of Marxand Marxism on this subject.Furthermore, Comrade Larin thinks that the politicaland agrarian parts of the programme should have been “morecarefully edited”. We do hope that our Party press forthwithbegins to discuss the question of editing this or thatdemand, without waiting for the congress, since, firstly,we shall not have a well prepared congress, and secondly,everyone who has had occasion to work on programmes andresolutions knows how often a careful editing of a certainpoint discloses and eliminates vagueness and disagreementsof principle.Finally, concerning the financial and economic part ofthe programme, Comrade Larin writes that “it is almosta blank, no mention is made, even of the annulment of warloans and the state debts contracted by tsarism [only tsarism?]or of the struggle against the fiscal utilisation of statemonopolies, etc.”. It is extremely desirable for ComradeLarin not to postpone his practical proposals in anticipationof the congress. He should bring them up immediately, orwe shall not be well prepared for the congress. On the questionof the annulment of state debts (and of course, not of