V. I. Lenin

Telegram to

The Soviet Government Of The Ukraine

And the General Headquarters of the Southern Front

In reply to your telegram concerning the poor peasants I am informing you of my personal opinion. If
their temper is really revolutionary, the following should be
regarded as a programme: 1) collective cultivation; 2) hiring
stations; 3) confiscation of the kulaks’ land over and above
the labour norm; 4) grain surpluses to be collected in full, part
of the grain to be turned over to the poor peasants; 5) the
kulaks’ agricultural implements to be handed over to the
hiring stations; 6) these measures to be applied only given
successful collective cultivation of the soil, and effective
control. The question of communes should be posed last, since
nothing is more dangerous than the formation of pseudo-communes,
with the participation of individual militants who thus become
detached from the main body of the peasantry. The greatest
prudence should be exercised in introducing innovations, and the
possibility of achieving what is being undertaken should be
triple-checked.

Lenin

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars