LENINSKY COLLECTION cancelled, i.e. cancelled by the decree on barrier detachments,
where the norm is reduced.
The first days caused a political shift favourable for us and some relief of the food crisis, but
later the situation worsened, and now it is of no significance
whatsoever.
M Note to A. V. Lunacharsky was evidently written at a session
of the Council of People's Commissars on 26 August 1918, during the discussion of the question of preferential
transport of grain, introduced by the Moscow Soviet (see p. 225). A. V. Lunacharsky — after the government moved to Moscow, being People's Commissar
of Education, remained working in Petrograd for more than a year.

August 4948 [sic] by signature of L. Kamenev the resolution of the presidium of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' and Red Army Deputies on preferential transport of food
products to Moscow (Izvestiya VTsIK No. 485) was announced. On 26 August
at the session of the Council of People's Commissars the draft decree on preferential transport of
grain (reported by L. Kamenev) was heard; on this matter the CPC adopted
the following resolution:
"The draft is rejected: a) To instruct the Commissariat of Food Supply together with the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions
to work out the question of privileges for the transport of grain for families of soldiers and workers returning from leave, to present the draft
within 2 days; b) to refer to a commission under the CPC the complaint of cooperatives that worker cooperatives were not given the opportunity
to purchase grain, in accordance with the decree of 8 August; c) to leave
open the question of the resolution of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Dep[uties]? permitting
the transport of one and a half poods of products to Moscow, and to request
the Central Committee of the Communist Party to consider it; d) to take note
of the statement of A. D. Tsyurupa that the barrier detachments
will freely let through workers carrying products" (minutes
of the CPC No. 487, archive I. L. No. 44870).

August, Lenin again put the food question on the agenda of the CPC, but then the question was removed
and transferred to the VTsIK, on which there is a note by Lenin: "transferred to the VTsIK". While the discussion of the question was going on, the completely

NOTE TO A. D. TSYURUPA ON 1 1/2 POOD-NICHESTVO

necessary resolution on the transport of 1 1/2 poods could not, of course,
at the same time not hinder the struggle against bag-trading and
the regulation of the activity of barrier detachments. L. I. Ruzer, member of the collegium
of the Commissariat of Food Supply, who was in charge of this work, submitted on 29 August 1918 a statement to the collegium
of the Commissariat of Food Supply, asking to be relieved of this
work, "since I can no longer find a formulation for any
instruction in response to local inquiries". On the statement of L. I.
Ruzer, A. Tsyurupa, who had a negative attitude toward "one-and-a-half-pood-nichestvo", made the following addendum:
"Neither any member of the collegium, nor the collegium as a whole has found
those formulations that Ruzer did not find. Conclusion: the order
of the Moscow Soviet of Deputies should be cancelled according to
roughly the following plan: the resolution is adopted by the CPC now and published; the resolution specifies the term for the termination of the
resolution of the Moscow Soviet of Deputies — approximately
15 September.
A. Tsyurupa" (archive I. L. No. 26454).
This prompted the note of Lenin, printed below.
26491
* NOTE TO A. D. TSYURUPA ON 1 1/2 POOD-NICHESTVO. *
To Tsyurupa.
[29 August 1918]
I do not advise putting it that way now (for here it is something in between, not that
ultimatum — the resignation of all, nor that vacillation of all with the determination
of one)
— it is better to exert all* our efforts on Elets+Petrovsk+the best
other uyezds and in a few days, having received at least the news that
so many hundreds of wagons are on their way, to pose the question more firmly.
* send threshers, some 2 thousand workers, for examp[le].**
' Above the document there is a note by A. D. Tsyurupa, written,
evidently, later in the process of sorting the archive: " ‘Reply to the statement’ of Ruzer
with my amendment", and there the date "29/VIII". Editor.
** The footnote is Lenin’s. Editor.