DECREE ON THE FOOD DICTATORSHIP

DECREE ON THE FOOD DICTATORSHIP

1) Instructs the People's Commissar for Naval Affairs to transfer all coal reserves, except for the absolutely necessary amount for the maintenance of the Fleet, to the disposal of the Commissariat of Communications within a week.
2) Entrust Comrade Vladimirov, the authorized representative of the Extraordinary Commission for Evacuation, to convene an interdepartmental meeting, immediately account for all available automobiles, and hand over the surplus to the Commissariat of Food.
3) Request the Central Executive Committee to appoint a Commissar of Communications as soon as tomorrow.
4) Request the Supreme Council of National Economy to expedite the reorganization of Glavod on the principles of dictatorship and instruct the Chairman of the VSNKh to present a report on this in the coming days.
5) Entrust Comrade Vladimirov with providing a more detailed project on the repair of defective locomotives.
6) Entrust the Commissariat of Food to develop a decree on the introduction of fixed prices for widely consumed goods.
* DECREE ON THE FOOD DICTATORSHIP
May 9, 1918
The disastrous process of disintegration of the country's food supply, as a severe consequence of the four-year war, continues to expand and intensify. While the consuming provinces are starving, the producing provinces currently still have enormous stocks of even unthreshed grain from the harvests of 1916 and 1917. This grain is in the hands of village kulaks and rich peasants, in the hands of the peasant bourgeoisie. Well-fed and secure, having accumulated huge sums of money obtained from the state during the years of war, the peasant bourgeoisie remains stubbornly deaf and indifferent to the cries of the starving workers and poor peasants, does not transport grain to collection points, hoping to force the state to raise grain prices again and again, and at the same time sells grain locally at exorbitant prices to grain speculators—bagmen.
This stubbornness of greedy [peasant predators] village kulaks and rich peasants must be put to an end. The food practice of previous years has shown that the failure of fixed grain prices and the abandonment of the grain monopoly, by facilitating a feast for a handful of our capitalists, would make bread completely inaccessible to the millions of working people and subject them to inevitable starvation. There remains only one way out: to respond to the violence of the grain owners against the starving poor with violence against the grain owners. Not a single pood of grain should remain in the hands of the peasant, except for the amount necessary for sowing his fields and for the sustenance of his family until the next harvest.
The immediate implementation of this measure is especially necessary because, after the conclusion of peace with Ukraine, occupied by the Germans, Russia can no longer count on receiving grain from Ukraine and will have to make do with only the grain resources of the North Caucasus and Siberia, and these reserves will just barely, with difficulty, suffice for sowing and sustenance.
Having considered the situation and taking into account that only with the strictest accounting and distribution of all grain reserves will Russia overcome the food crisis, the Council of People's Commissars resolved: 1) Confirming the inviolability of the grain monopoly and fixed prices, as well as the necessity of ruthless struggle against grain speculators—bagmen, to oblige every peasant or other grain owner to declare for surrender, within a week after the announcement of this resolution in each volost, all excess grain beyond the reserves for sowing fields and personal consumption until the new harvest according to established norms. The procedure for these declarations is determined by the People's Commissariat of Food. 2) Call upon all working poor and landless peasants without grain surpluses to immediately unite for a ruthless struggle against the kulaks. 3) Declare all grain owners who have surpluses and do not transport them to collection points, as well as all those squandering grain reserves on moonshine, enemies of the people, to be handed over to the Revolutionary Tribunal and henceforth subjected to imprisonment for not less than 10 years, confiscation of all property, and permanent expulsion from their community, and moonshiners, in addition, to compulsory public works.
4) In case of discovery of any excess grain not declared for surrender according to paragraph 1, the grain is confiscated free of charge, and the value due for the undeclared surplus, calculated at fixed prices, is collected in half by the person who reports the hidden surplus after the actual delivery to the collection points, and in half by the rural community. Reports of hidden surpluses are made to local food organizations.
Taking into account further that the struggle against the food crisis requires the application of rapid and decisive measures, that the most fruitful implementation of these measures, in turn, requires the centralization of all food-related orders in a single [source] institution, and that such a [source] institution naturally is the People's Commissariat of Food, the Council of People's Commissars resolved: to provide the People's Commissar of Food with the following extraordinary powers for a more successful struggle against the food crisis: 1) To issue mandatory resolutions on food matters that go beyond the usual scope of the People's Commissariat of Food, 2) to repeal resolutions of local food bodies and other organizations and institutions, to the extent that they contradict the plans and actions of the People's Commissar, 3) to demand from institutions and organizations of all departments unconditional and immediate execution of the People's Commissar's orders in connection with food matters, 4) to use armed force in the struggle against the peasant or other bourgeoisie in case of resistance to the seizure of grain surpluses or other food products, 5) to dissolve or reorganize local food bodies in case of their resistance and sabotage of the People's Commissar's orders, 6) to dismiss, remove, hand over to the revolutionary tribunal, and detain officials and employees of all departments and public organizations in case of their disruptive interference with the People's Commissar's orders, 7) to delegate these powers to other individuals and institutions on the ground with the approval of the Council of People's Commissars, 8) all measures of the People's Commissar related by nature to the affairs of the Commissariat of Communications and the Supreme Council of National Economy are carried out in consultation with the corresponding departments, 9) the resolutions and orders of the People's Commissar issued under these extraordinary powers are reviewed by his collegium, which has the right, without suspending execution, to appeal them to the Council of People's Commissars, 10) this decree comes into force from the day of its signing and is put into effect by telegraph.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
* The draft resolution of the SNK on the mobilization of workers by the Commissariat of Labor to fight hunger was apparently written on May 9, 1918, at a meeting of the SNK during the discussion of the decree on granting extraordinary powers to the People's Commissar of Food (see p. 85). This resolution is not recorded in the minutes of the SNK, but in a letter to A. D. Tsyurupa (see p. 463), Lenin writes: "… I told him [Ivanov. Ed.] about yesterday's decree and the resolution concerning the urgent mobilization of workers by the Commissariat of Labor."

In a letter to A. D. Tsyurupa (see p. 463), Lenin writes: "... I told him [Ivanov. Ed.] about the decree of yesterday and the resolution concerning the urgent mobilization of workers by the Commissariat of Labor."