Motivation

On Facebook, Vitaly Podolskyi shared a telegram sent by Stalin to motivate a plant manager, which translates as follows:

Telegram Nr. 1
City of KOVROV
Kirkik Factory Nr. 2
To:  Plant Manager Kuriatnikov
Cc: Party Organizer Gureev

It has come to the government’s attention that suspicious characters in the factory inhibit the production of the Degtyaryov machine gun with a 73-bullet drum. This gun is now needed by our Red Army, like air, like water. This machine will save the lives of tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers. The faster we receive thousands and tens of thousands of units of this machine, the better for the Red Army, which is waging war against the Finnish White Guards. In spite of this, suspicious individuals in the factory, bought by enemies of the people, interfere with the work of producing the machine.

You have two to three days to set up mass production of the disk. To do it simply and without tricks, all you have to do is copy the Finnish drum. If production cannot be set up by this deadline, the government will put your factory under special control and shoot all the rats sitting in it.

J. Stalin
January 28, 1940

The object of this telegram was a machine gun designed by Vasily Degtyaryov, which I believe is the following one:

The Finnish gun that was its inspiration is the Suomi KP-31:

The Kovrov plant still exists and makes weapons, and the company is now named after Degtyaryov.

The original telegram is as follows: