Postponing the printing of the decrees on the food council until the meetings of the food congress and emphatically recommending that all food workers not leave their posts and avoid partial conflicts,

The Council of People's Commissars proposes to the All-Russia Food Council and the Commissariat for Food to intensify the dispatch not only of commissars but also of numerous armed detachments to take the most revolutionary measures for the movement of freight, the collection and delivery of grain, etc., and also for a merciless struggle against speculators, up to and including proposing to the local Soviets that they shoot exposed speculators and saboteurs on the spot.

The Council of People's Commissars proposes not to increase the ration, but to dispatch route trains intensively, carefully tracking their movement.

To clear the Petrograd junction, take emergency measures, assigning responsibility for this work to the All-Russia Food Council.

Oblige the All-Russia Food Council to report daily to the Council of People's Commissars on the progress of food affairs and to submit a plan of food operations.

Written January 14 (27), 1918.

First published in 1931 in Lenin Miscellany XVIII.

Printed from the manuscript.