September 23, 1918.

Having heard the draft decree on imposing a tax in kind on agricultural producers in the form of a deduction of part of agricultural products, the Council of People’s Commissars at its meeting of September 21 of this year adopted the following resolution:

To instruct the Commission in its previous composition (representatives of the Commissariats of Finance, Food, Agriculture, Internal Affairs and the Supreme Economic Council), including in it a representative from the Central Statistical Board, Comrade Popov, to revise the draft decree in the following way:

1. A most popular introduction.
a) Surpluses and equalisation (Articles 17, 12 and others of the law on the socialisation of land); b) complete expropriation of the bourgeoisie; c) regarding the rich peasantry not expropriation, but taxation, fair, full; d) for the middle peasantry — mild taxation; e) for the poorest — none.

2. Introduce into the law itself a division into the poorest peasantry (no taxation), middle (very mild taxation) and rich.

3. Make the percentage of the poor not less than 40%, the middle — not less than 20%.

4. Reduce the taxation for the middle greatly.

5. Regional Soviet organisations are granted the right to raise the question of changing the norms of taxation for the rich.

6. Give the poor priority in receiving part of the levy (for food and seed).

The revised draft to be submitted to the Council of People’s Commissars not later than Thursday.

Instruct Comrade Krestinsky to immediately publish the main ideas of the decree. 2

[Pencil note at top: “Secret. copy. Received in the registry at 1:15 p.m. 13/IX. Received in the forwarding office at 1:25 p.m. Handed to the dispatch riders at 1:45 p.m.” — Ed.]