V. I. Lenin

From The Council Of People's Commissars
To The Revolutionary Military Committee

The disruption of the food supply caused by war and mismanagement is being aggravated to the extreme by profiteers,
marauders and their accomplices on the railways, on steamship
lines, in transport offices, etc.

At a time of great national hardship, criminal plunderers are
jeopardising the health and lives of millions of soldiers and
workers for their own gain.

Such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated for a single day
longer.

The Council of People's Commissars orders the Revolutionary
Military Committee to adopt the most vigorous measures to
eradicate profiteering and sabotage, concealment of supplies,
the malicious delay of freight, etc.

All persons guilty of such actions are liable, by special
decision of the Revolutionary Military Committee, to immediate arrest and custody. in the prisons of Kronstadt,
pending their trial by revolutionary court martial.

All public organisations must be drawn into the fight against
the food plunderers.

V.	Ulyanov (Lenin),
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars