TELEGRAM TO G. E. ZINOVIEV \
Petrograd, Smolny — To Zinoviev, and to Kotlyakov, Chairman of the SNKh of the Northern District.
Address: Petrograd, Algembа.
[March 19, 1920]
In view of the exceptional state significance of the construction, on an urgent basis, of the military‑operational railway
Alexandrov-Gai–Emba [in accordance with the prior directives
of the Council
of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defense dated December 24 of the previous year |, I request
your categorical instruction to all subordinate institutions and organizations—
the civil administration, the military authorities, and the Council of National Economy—
to extend every possible form of assistance to the agents of the Petrograd representation of the aforementioned railway
in order to ensure the successful fulfillment of the responsible tasks entrusted to them
[and in particular, to unconditionally prohibit any requisitioning of property,
evictions, and the overcrowding of apartments occupied by railway employees. I request that you report promptly on the prompt execution of this directive and of all related orders]. [182
Chairman of the Sovnarkom, Lenin.

ORDER TO THE SECRETARY!
November 20, 1920
Find Portnov (via Dzerzhinsky).
1 This order was written by Lenin above the text of Portnov’s report on the survey of the Donets Coal Basin and the salt mines of the Bakhmut District. Lenin underlined the report’s title twice.
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