Decree No. U.
DECREE ON THE MOBILIZATION OF LABOR FOR GRAIN PROCUREMENT
BY LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS.
[August 3, 1918]
1) Major professional workers’ organizations (including railway unions), as well as federations of Factory and Workshop Committees, and county and city Soviets, are hereby authorized to form food detachments composed of workers and the poorest peasants, to be dispatched to grain‑producing provinces in order to purchase grain at fixed prices or to requisition it from kulaks.
2) Each detachment shall be led by a group of responsible leaders elected by the organizing body of the detachment itself; these leaders shall include representatives appointed by the central and provincial Soviet authorities. All such leaders are accountable to the Soviet authorities for the lawful conduct of the detachment’s activities.
3) The procurement of grain by these detachments within grain‑producing provinces may only be carried out upon presentation of certificates issued by the organizations that dispatched the detachments, duly registered with the local Provincial Food Administration of the province where grain is being procured, and shall be conducted in accordance with the directives and under the supervision of the food administrations of the grain‑producing provinces within the procurement region. The Provincial Food Commissions of famine‑stricken provinces, after verifying the detachments’ certificates, are obligated to promptly register and issue travel permits to the detachments. The Provincial Food Commissions of grain‑producing provinces are likewise required to provide resolute and comprehensive support to the work of these detachments.