JANUARY 27 (14) — JUNE 7, 1918

On January 27 (14), 1918, the First All-Russian Soviet Food Congress was convened in Petrograd (jointly with delegates of the Third Congress of Soviets), with the agenda including the question of the general food situation of the country and the reorganization of the food supply system at the center and locally. The congress was preceded by a prolonged struggle for leadership of the food supply system between the People's Commissariat for Food on the one hand and the All-Russian Food Council and the All-Russian Food Committee on the other.

The All-Russian Food Council was organized on December 4 (November 18), 1917, at the All-Russian Food Congress in Moscow. The All-Russian Food Congress gave the All-Russian Food Council, the so-called "Group of Ten," headed by the Menshevik Groman and the Kadet Rozanov, a directive to adopt a "neutral" position toward Soviet power and to continue work in the previous direction, ignoring "interference from the group of usurpers." Only the arrest of part of the "Group of Ten" by the People's Commissar for Food, A. G. Shlikhter, forced the "Group of Ten" to submit and to call back to work the sabotaging officials of the food apparatus.

The second of the named organizations — the All-Russian Food Committee — also fought against the food policy of Soviet power, refusing to recognize the leadership of the People's Commissariat for Food.

The two documents printed below, "Draft Decrees of the Council of People's Commissars" of January 27 (14) and January 29 (16), represent an attempt to draw into food work those elements inclined toward cooperation with Soviet power.

This consideration prompted the draft decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 27 (14), 1918, written entirely by Lenin and fully adopted by the Council of People's Commissars at that same session. In the spirit of this decree, Lenin spoke at a meeting of the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet with representatives of food organizations on January 27 (14), 1918 (Works, Vol. XXII, p. 243).

In view of disagreements on the organizational question between the presidium of the food congress, the presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and the People's Commissar for Food, A. G. Shlikhter, the question "on the organization of a single center for food supply" was discussed at the session of the Council of People's Commissars on January 29 (16), 1918, where the first part of the draft decree "a" printed below was adopted. The second part of the draft decree "b," judging by the materials appended to the minutes of the Council of People's Commissars (the resolution of the Supreme Council of the National Economy on the impossibility of A. G. Shlikhter remaining in the post of People's Commissar for Food and the resolution of the All-Russian Food Congress on the impossibility of immediate joint work with the People's Commissar for Food Shlikhter) (minutes of the Council of People's Commissars No. 48), was apparently written at the same time, but was not entered into the minutes; it is unknown whether it was adopted.

Both parts of the draft decree were written by Lenin on a single scrap of paper. The second part is on the reverse of the first.

The All-Russian Food Congress took the path of supporting Soviet power, recognized the measures of the People's Commissariat for Food as correct and dictated by the interests of the "socialist worker-peasant revolution." The congress abolished all previously existing food centers and created a single supreme food organ — the All-Russian Supply Council.

This organization, however, proved unviable. The unfolding class struggle for bread raised the question of granting extraordinary dictatorial powers to the People's Commissar for Food.

## ON MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE FOOD SITUATION.
DRAFT DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS.
[January 27 (14), 1918]

Postponing the printing of decrees on the food council until the meetings of the food congress and insistently proposing to all workers in the food supply system not to leave their posts and to avoid partial conflicts, the Council of People's Commissars proposes to the All-Russian