V. I. Lenin

Note To F. E. Dzerzhinsky

With A Draft Of A Decree On Fighting Counter-Revolutionaries
And Saboteurs [1]

To Comrade Dzerzhinsky, Further to your report today on measures for
fighting saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries, would it not be
possible to submit a decree like the following ?

On Fighting Counter-Revolutionaries and Saboteurs

The bourgeoisie, the landowners and all the rich classes are
making desperate efforts to undermine the revolution, the aim of
which is to safeguard the interests of the workers, the working
and exploited masses.

The bourgeoisie are prepared to commit the most heinous crimes;
they are bribing the outcast and degraded elements of society and
plying them with drink to use them in riots. The supporters of the
bourgeoisie, particularly among the higher clerical staff, bank
officials, and so on, are sabotaging their work, and are
organising strikes to thwart the government's measures for the
realisation of socialist reforms. They have even gone so far as to
sabotage food distribution, thereby menacing millions of people
with famine.

Urgent measures are necessary to fight the counter-revolutionaries
and saboteurs. In virtue of this, the Council of People's
Commissars decrees:

(1) Persons belonging to the wealthy classes (i.e., with incomes
of 500 rubles or more per month, and owners of urban real estate,
stocks and shares, or money amounting to over 1,000 rubles), and
also all employees of banks, joint-stock companies, state and
public institutions, shall within three days [2] present to their house
committees written statements in three copies over their own
signatures and indicating their address, income, place of
employment and their occupation.

(2) The house committees shall countersign these statements,
retain one copy and send one copy to the municipality and another
to the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (address:. ... [3] ).

(3) Persons guilty of contravening the present law (failing to
submit statements, giving false information, etc.) and members of
house committees infringing the regulations governing the
collection, filing and presentation of these statements to the
institutions mentioned above shall be liable to a fine of up to
5,000 rubles for each infringement, or to imprisonment up to one
year, or shall be sent to the front, depending on the nature of
the offence.

(4) Persons sabotaging the work of, or declining to work in,
banks, state and public institutions, joint-stock companies,
railways, etc., shall be liable to similar punishment.

(5) As a first step towards universal labour conscription, it is
decreed that the persons referred to in § I shall be obliged,
first, constantly to carry with them a copy of the above-mentioned
statement certified by the house committees and by their chiefs or
elected officials (factory committees, food committees, railway
committees, employees' trade unions, etc.); the certificates must
indicate what public service or work is being performed by the
individual in question, or whether he is living with his family as
a disabled member thereof, etc.

(6) Secondly, such persons shall be obliged to acquire, within one
week from the promulgation of the present law, worker-consumer
books (specimen attached), in which their weekly income and
expenditures shall be entered, together with the public duties
performed by the individual in question, certified by the
proper committees or institutions.

(7) Persons who do not come under § l shall present to their
house committees a statement in one copy of their income and place
of employment and shall carry another copy of this statement
certified by the house committee.

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Notes:
[1]
Lenin raised the question of fighting the internal counter-revolution and sabotage before the Council of
People’s Commissars on December 6 (19), 1917, in view of the
fierce resistance to the measures of the Soviet Government and a
possible strike by senior civil servants. Dzerzhinsky was asked to
form a commission to inquire into ways of fighting the sabotage. On December 7 (20), the government heard his report, in
connection with which Lenin appears to have written his draft
decree. At the same sitting the government formed the All-Russia
Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) to Combat Counter-Revolution and
Sabotage. Dzerzinisky was appointed its chairman.

[2] In the
manuscript Lenin wrote within 24 hours above the words “within three days”-Ed.

[3] In the
manuscript Lenin left a space for the address.-ed.