I have access to a library that has an official Soviet collection of the letters of V. I. Lenin that was printed in the 1960s. It’s a massive amount of paper, about 45 volumes, and they are all bound in red of course. Occaisionally I’ll randomly pick out a volume and page through it, and it’s obvious that there was no part of the early Soviet government Lenin didn’t directly control. He certainly had a platoon of secretaries at his command at all times, just as Napoleon did. Although he sometimes praises subordinates, which would be everybody, most of the letters seem to say the same thing: Get those people in line.