# Date: 1919-04-29

TELEGRAM
TO THE REVOLUTIONARY MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE EASTERN FRONT
[April 19, 1919] (Lit. military secret)
4 addresses Samara Revolutionary Military Council
Copy Samara to Deputy People's Commissar of Food Briukhanov
Copy to Commander-in-Chief Frunze¹
Copy to Znamensky, Samara, Voznesenskaya 134

I consider the immediate departure from Samara of Irtur² absolutely
necessary. In view of the enormous technical value of this organization and
the possibility of its utilization for other urgent state work, I request that
extraordinary measures be taken for the immediate relocation of Irtur's
property, employees together with their families and personal belongings to
Penza, where further instructions will be issued. Provide assistance to Irtur
employees with monetary funds, which will be reimbursed by Irtur, and
provide railroad cars and other transport means. You will be held responsible
for failure to take actual measures for the relocation. If evacuation by rail
is impossible, take urgent measures immediately for evacuation of Irtur's
property by water to Saratov.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin *

Printed from typescript

1 N. P. Briukhanov — party member from 1902. After the Great October
Socialist Revolution — Deputy People's Commissar of Food; from December
1921 — People's Commissar of Food.
M. V. Frunze — party member from 1904. After the Great October Socialist
Revolution held responsible party work; at that time — commander of the
Southern group of the Eastern Front; subsequently — commander of the
Turkestan and Southern (against Wrangel) Fronts; after the end of the Civil
War — commander of troops of Ukraine and Crimea, plenipotentiary of the
Revolutionary Military Council of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1925 — Chairman
of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and People's Commissar
for Naval Affairs. From 1921 — member of the Central Committee of the
RCP(b), from 1924 — candidate member of the Politburo of the Central
Committee of the RCP(b).
2 Irtur — administration of irrigation works in Turkestan; in October 1918
a group of specialists was dispatched by the Council of People's Commissars
to Turkestan for the purpose of preparing a cotton base for the textile industry.
On this question see also V. I. Lenin. Complete Collected Works, vol. 50,
p. 455.
* The telegram was signed also by the People's Commissar of
Transportation L. B. Krasin.

NOTE OF S. P. SEMYON
ON A TELEGRAM FROM KOTEL'NICH

To Semyon in the Council of People's Commissars.
What is the matter?¹
29/IV. [1919]

Is it correct that district land committees are not permitting redistribution
of land and meadows, which were divided unfairly in '18? Now families of
Red Army soldiers do not receive equal shares with their fellow villagers.
Pestov, Igumnovsky volost, village of Spodyakhino

Published incompletely in 1976 in the book "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Biographical Chronicle", vol. 7,
p. 127

1 The document bears a notation by S. P. Semyon: "To Berzin. Urgent" and
Berzin's report on this question: "Families of Red Army soldiers must
absolutely be satisfied equally with other agriculturalists. With respect to
temporary redistributions, one must be guided by the directives of the
People's Commissariat of Agriculture on this matter. Provide exhaustive
explanations to the petitioners. 30/IV".
S. P. Semyon — member of the RSDLP from 1903. After the Great October
Socialist Revolution — People's Commissar of Agriculture.

NOTE FOR S. P. SEMYON¹

To Semyon for his opinion: what is the matter here?
is everything correct? and what measures have you taken?
2/V [1919]
Lenin

1 The note was written on a copy of a telegram from Kursk to the People's
Commissariat of Agriculture, copy to Lenin, dated April 30, 1919, from the
chairman of the First provincial congress on land organization that was taking
place at that time. In the telegram, based on statements of delegates from
local areas, it was reported that the population was interpreting one-sidedly
and incorrectly the provisions on socialist land organization regarding the
distribution of land for individual use, and a special clarification on this
question, published in No. 77 of "Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee" on April 10, 1919, signed by the Chairman of the Council of
People's Commissars V. I. Lenin and People's Commissar of Agriculture S. P.
Semyon, [stating] that such an interpretation paralyzes the possibility of
correct implementation of the plan for land organization of Soviet economies
and the establishment of collective associations; the congress requested that
an additional clarification be given by telegraph on an urgent basis.