We have a tremendous need for road-building machinery, equipment for bread factories and laundries. The manufacturer of these machines is a simple and quite manageable job for our plants. No one ever gives it serious attention (thinking it “trivial”), and therefore we are forced to spend hard currency. Ukhanov takes this matter seriously, but the Supreme Economic Council gives him no opportunity to do anything—its like a dog in the manger, not doing anything itself but not letting others do anything either. We must put an end to this muddle. We must address this issue at the Central Committee and make it incumbent upon Ukhanov (Moscow Soviet) to become involved immediately in the manufacture of equipment for large-scale mechanized bakeries and laundries (and road-building equipment as well)…
Joseph Stalin to Viacheslav Molotov, 1 September 1930, in Lars T. Lih, et al. edd., Stalin’s Letters to Molotov, 1925-1936 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995) 209.
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