# Date: 1918-08-30

TELEGRAM TO ALL GUBERNIA, CITY,  
AND UYEZD SOVIETS AND FOOD COMMITTEES  

August 30, 1918  

The workers of Petrograd, Moscow, and industrial regions are starving. The salvation of the revolution lies in the intensive work of local food supply organs. It is necessary to expand their activity by involving new forces—those with sufficient administrative experience, namely members of executive committees. The executive committees, represented by the most class-conscious elements of the working class, managed to sufficiently cover and consolidate the administrative apparatus during the most difficult period of the proletariat’s seizure of power. They must now apply this experience to organizing food supply efforts.  

To this end, the following must be prioritized:  

1) Exert all efforts and involve as many members of gubernia, city, and uyezd executive committees as possible in food supply work, leaving only the minimum necessary number of comrades for current administrative tasks.  

2) The work must focus primarily on organizing and collecting food and grain shipments and dispatching them to famine-stricken areas. All organizational expenses will be covered by the People’s Commissariat of Food.  

3) Immediately gather detailed information on which gubernias, uyezds, and volosts are most in need of grain and other food supplies, and which have surpluses that can be transported to needy areas. This information must be centralized at the People’s Commissariat of Food, for which all gubernia and uyezd Soviets must report urgently.  

4) All gubernia, city, and uyezd Soviets are hereby instructed to immediately begin this work, strictly following the directives of the People’s Commissariat of Food and collaborating fully with local food supply organs.  

5) Notify the People’s Commissariat of Food upon receipt of this telegram and the commencement of work, and subsequently provide urgent updates on progress or obstacles encountered.  

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars  
Lenin  

People’s Commissar of Food  
Tsyurupa