24 December 1918
To Bryukhanov for reply
Telegram Moscow Council of People's Commissars to Lenin.

The Soviet of Commissars of the Northern Region informs the Council of People's Commissars that communist workers sent from Petrograd in large numbers at the disposal of the People's Commissariat of Food are often left completely unutilized, and even more often are placed in such a position in which they are unable to conduct useful work. 2. The Soviet of Commissars of the Northern Region directs the attention of the Council of People's Commissars to the fact that without any serious grounds whatsoever the People's Commissariat of Food halted the dispatch of food trains to Petrograd and thereby placed the Petrograd population on the brink of destruction. When the People's Commissariat of Food decided to lift its ban, this was done with criminal bureaucratic red tape, which further aggravated the food crisis in Petrograd. The Soviet of Commissars of the Northern Region, having discussed the question together with representatives of the trade unions, insists that the People's Commissariat of Food be renewed in terms of its personnel and especially the central transport department. The Soviet of Commissars of the Northern Region for its part is ready to place at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars its best food supply specialists. *

Comrade Bryukhanov! Do you not consider it useful to reply: we would be delighted to accept them! Take them all. (More useful here than in the region).