V. I.

Lenin

Comrade Shlyapnikov and Comrade Dzerzhinsky

The bearer, Comrade Vorobyov, a delegate from the Urals,
has excellent references from his local organisation. In the
Urals, there is a most acute problem. The boards of the
Urals works here (with offices in Petrograd) should be arrested immediately, threatened with (revolutionary) court
proceedings for bringing about a crisis in the Urals, while all
the works in the Urals should be confiscated . Draw up a
draft decree as soon as possible. [1]

Lenin

---
Notes:
[1]
After the October Revolution the board of the Urals Mining
Societies stopped remitting money to the plants in retaliation to
the introduction of workers’ control over the enterprises, and
this led to an extremely difficult situation at the plants. The
workers had not been paid wages for several months and were starving. The Urals Regional Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies sent one of its members, V. Vorobyov, to inform
the government in Petrograd of the slate of affairs in the Urals
and to settle the wages issue. Vorobyov gave all the details to
Y. M. Sverdlov, who took him to Lenin. When Vorobyov informed
Lenin of the state of the Urals industry and the mood of the
workers, Lenin gave him the note in question.

On December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918) the Council of People’s

Commissars adopted a decision on the urgent remittance of 5
million rubles to the Urals branch of the State Bank. The decision
was to have another 50 million remitted there by January 1 (14),
1918.

In January 1918, the Urals Regional Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies closed down the bureau of the Urals mining
industry conference, which was in Yekaterinburg (now
Sverdlovsk). In late December 1917 and early 1918, the most important
enterprises in the Urals were nationalised.