Date: 1918-06-02
Source: ru:LS/v18


1.
LENIN'S NOTE.
1. Do you know Birscher?1
-{-and —  him?
2. Can he be given special powers for the transportation of grain?
3. Is it true that there is a bottleneck of 8,000 wagons in Vyatka?
4. Why don't you fully take on Gorbonov?2
5. Have you doubted his ability?
II.
NEVSKY'S RESPONSE.
1. I do not know and have never heard of him.
2. Therefore, I cannot answer.
3. There are significant difficulties in Vyatka, but not 8,000 wagons, and they are not as great as they say. In three hours, they will report by telephone exactly how many wagons are there.
4. I not only took Gorbonov, but he is very helpful to me. The only problem is that now he has seen for himself what kind of situation my collegium is in (for example, today it came in full force to oppose me, thinking that I would introduce a decree on the organization of the Commissariat, a decree whose project was rejected by the collegium).
5. On the contrary, it would be useful to appoint him a member of the collegium: in my opinion, he could fix what Sholomovich3 and Rogov4 have messed up. Kobozhev is going.

1 Birscher — head of the convoy detachment.
2 N. P. Gorbonov — secretary of the Council of People's Commissars.

A. N. Sholomovich — member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Communications.

A. Rogov — member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Communications.
t a
NOTE TO A. D. TSURUPO.
Tsuro.
[No later than June 15, 1918] 1
Birscher has a food supply detachment of about 600 people.
Birsher asks: send me off sooner.
Trotsky assigned to review the detachment. They reported to Trotsky that the review yielded favorable results.
This matter cannot be left!
In my opinion, you should immediately give an order:
to combine Birscher's detachment with two good Petrograd detachments under the overall command of a reliable person or to assign 2-3 reliable commissars and instructors to Birscher's detachment with the requirement of reports 1-2 times a month.
1 The date is established based on the letter from A. Tsuro, which instructed Birscher to transfer the detachment to the acting chief commissar of food supply detachments, Zusmanovich, and to carry out work according to his instructions.
20W
LETTER TO G. E. ZINOVIEV, M. M. LASHEVICH, AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON MASS TERROR.
26/VI 1918.
Comrade Zinoviev! * Only today we heard in the Central Committee that in Petrograd, workers wanted to respond to the murder of Volodarsky1 with mass terror and that you (not you personally, but the Petrograd centralists or regionalists) held them back.
* At the top of the letter, Lenin made the following addition: "Also to Lashevich and other members of the Central Committee." Ed.

LETTER TO G. E. ZINOVIEV

I protest resolutely!
We are compromising ourselves: we even threaten in the resolutions of the Soviet with mass terror, but when it comes to action, we hold back the revolutionary initiative of the masses, which is entirely correct.
This is un - ac - cep - ta - ble!
Terrorists will consider us cowards. This is a time of extreme war.
We must encourage the energy and massiveness of terror against counter-revolutionaries, especially in Petrograd, which sets an example.
Greetings! Lenin.
P.S. Detachments and detachments: use the victory in the re-elections. If the Petrograders send 10-20 thousand to Tambov province and to the Urals, etc., they will save themselves and the entire revolution, completely and surely. The harvest is gigantic; it only needs to last a few more weeks.
1 V. Volodarsky participated in the revolutionary movement since 1905, joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 after the February Revolution. After the October Revolution, he was a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, editor of the Petrograd "Red Gazette," and when the Petrograd Commune was formed, he was the commissioner for press, propaganda, and agitation. He was killed on June 20, 1918, on his way to a meeting.
The telegram to the heads of requisitioning detachments about the introduction of the strictest discipline was written at the initiative of V. I. Nevsky, who, in connection with the receipt of several telegrams about the improper actions of detachments in the field, turned to the People's Commissariat of Food Supply with a request to instruct the requisitioning detachments not to allow abuses in the confiscation of grain. At the same time, V. Nevsky, on June 25, 1918, informed Lenin in writing about this, attaching copies of the telegrams from the field. On V. Nevsky's document, Lenin made the following note:
"V. V. Bonch-Bruyevich, in agreement with Nevsky, should (has and does) draft a telegram."
Apparently, not waiting for this draft, Lenin wrote the draft of the telegram himself and submitted it for approval to the SNK on July 4, 1918 (SNK protocol No. 154, archive I. L. 44657).

The text of the telegram survived in a typed version with handwritten corrections by Lenin, written in ink and partially in pencil.
Nevsky's postscript was crossed out by Lenin, probably during a second review and signing of the telegram. The date of the document is established by the SNK protocol, as it can be assumed that Lenin wrote the draft of the telegram on the day of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars.

ON THE INTRODUCTION OF THE STRICTEST DISCIPLINE IN REQUISITIONING DETACHMENTS.
TELEGRAM. TO THE HEADS OF REQUISITIONING DETACHMENTS ALONG ALL RAILWAY LINES.
[[July 1918]]
The Council of People's Commissars is informed of the completely unacceptable and harmful behavior for the Soviet power of some requisitioning detachments. The detachments were sent to perform responsible service on railway lines to combat actual speculation. The heads of the detachments are required to maintain the strictest discipline in the detachments, and for the lack of such, as well as for all offenses of the detachment, the heads will strictly answer before the merciless court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. It is announced to the detachments that the Council of People's Commissars is convinced that conscious workers will not allow the violation of the strictest proletarian discipline and will treat with the greatest condemnation those who, with their actions, disgrace the Soviet power. If hooligans have infiltrated the detachments, who do not obey the orders of the Central authority and their own heads or disgrace the Soviet Republic with bribes from bagmen, they must be immediately arrested by their own heads and local Soviets and delivered under escort to Moscow for trial by the strictest court of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Ulyanov (Lenin).*
After Lenin's signature, there is a postscript by V. I. Nevsky: "Very good, it would be necessary to add that the detachments should search the bagmen but not take bribes from them. Nevsky." As can be seen from the text of the telegram, Lenin used Nevsky's remark and made an insertion: "or disgracing the Soviet Republic with bribes from bagmen." Ed.

RESPONSE FROM P. P. BRUKHANOV TO V. I. LENIN

NOTE FROM A. D. TSURUPO ON STRENGTHENING THE WORK OF HARVESTING DETACHMENTS.
Tsuro.
[August 8, 1918]*
We must now, with all our might, focus on making the two decrees (on harvesting detachments and on collective trains)*1" in practice merge and give us new detachments.
What is being done for this?
1) Instructions: in collective trains, so many (1 in 5, for example) should be from professional unions
2) develop and strengthen Article 7 of the decree on collective trains***
3) their relationship (in practice to =  assistance) with the requisitioning detachments...
4) Assign them all to a maximum of 2 districts from the best and clean them out thoroughly.
Brukhanov's note is a response to Lenin's proposals on strengthening the work of harvesting detachments, as set forth in the note to A. D. Tsuro (see the previous document).
11790
RESPONSE FROM N. P. BRUKHANOV TO V. I. LENIN ON STRENGTHENING THE WORK OF HARVESTING DETACHMENTS.
To V. I. Lenin.
[After August 8, 1918]
As for the specifically harvesting detachments, this matter — by mutual agreement — is handled by the Commissariat of Agriculture. Information about their work is provided by a comrade from Agriculture. I can only say that, according to my observations from meetings with representatives of workers' organizations, there is no particular desire among workers to participate in the harvest.
* The date is written in the hand of A. D. Tsuro. Ed.
** See pages 131-132 and 129-130. Ed.
*** See page 130. Ed.

Regarding the collective trains, today Nevsky informed me that ten trains are being formed, all of which are to be sent to the Saratov province. I am now going to speak with Nevsky about the fact that the dispatching of trains should be carried out not according to the preferences of the detachments, but according to the instructions of Comprod.

The fact that railway workers are demanding trains everywhere is a fact, unfortunately, partly caused by the careless telegram from Comrade Nevsky, which directly contradicts our instructional telegram. We propose recognizing the certificates and the right to organize detachments only for large professional associations—All-Russian and regional centers, provincial councils of trade unions, district, provincial, or regional associations of factory committees, and on the railways—by Sovprofzhel, the line road council of trade unions. In this way, we believe we can ensure a better composition of the detachments. Meanwhile, on August 8, Nevsky sent a telegram to the lines, in which he literally states: "the decree grants the right to organized detachments, elected by workers, craftsmen, and employees from each separate large station, from several stations, from workshops, from a section, from a district, to go on trips to the grain-producing provinces for grain procurement." This is a genuine organization of profiteering; there is little hope for discipline, consciousness, and assistance from these detachments composed of railway workers.

I received Nevsky's telegram (with this quote) only today and will have a discussion with Nevsky about it.

Instructions for our food supply organs on how and where to direct the detachments and how to guide their work upon arrival at the locations were given by us as early as the 7th (I sent you a copy). Comrade Tsyrupa is conducting negotiations with the Council of Trade Unions and together with them is developing organizational measures. I know that scouts—messengers from the professional council—have already been sent to specific districts in the Oryol, Voronezh, and Chernigov provinces. Some of them have already provided valuable reports from the field. Tsyrupa can provide more detailed information on this.

The work of the detachments and, in general, all the work on extracting grain is concentrated mainly in two districts of the Kursk province, in two districts of the Oryol province, in two districts of the Saratov province, in two districts of the Samara province, and in the Voronezh province. The Tambov province, rich in hopes, is now being surveyed by Comrade Vladimirov. I will not yet speak about the sad fate of the detachments cut off from us in the Kazan and Vyatka provinces.

N. Brikhanov.