ORGANIZATIONAL REFORM OF THE RED CROSS.
THE SMALL SOVIET COUNCIL OF
The Small Council.
January 21, 1918.
With regard to the matter of reorganizing the Red Cross—now widely known through V. M. Bonch-Bruyevich—I strongly recommend that we:
1. Urgently request written explanations
(a) from all members of the Committee (Section 3, Division 1)
(b) from all relevant departments, which were required to send representatives
—
to provide clarifications regarding when the Committee convened, where its minutes are kept, and so forth.
It is not enough merely to expose these individuals; we must bring a number of them to trial—for failure to implement the decree.
Lenin.

Lenin’s letter was prompted by the following circumstances: on January 9, 1918, a decree was published (“Gazeta Vremennogo Rabochego i Krest’yanskogo Pravitel’stva,” No. 5, January 9, 1918) concerning the reorganization of the Red Cross, based on the dissolution of the “Main Administration of the Russian Red Cross Society” that had existed under the tsarist government. The task of reorganizing Red Cross institutions was entrusted to a committee, which was to include representatives from a variety of Soviet, military, and public organizations. The committee was required to submit its work plan to the Council of Medical Colleges for approval by the Sovnarkom. It was envisaged that the committee would assume leadership over all Red Cross organizations then existing within the RSFSR. Moreover, it was assigned responsibility for fulfilling all obligations and exercising all rights derived from the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements. Despite the significant political impor-
*
At the top of the telegram, Lenin wrote: “Please send me the bill for this telegram personally.” Pcd.

AMENDMENT TO THE DECREE ON THE COMMITTEE FOR STATE CONSTRUCTION
In the wake of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which had intensified efforts to provide aid to prisoners of war, the reorganization committee—notably since March 1918—had shown no signs of activity whatsoever, as V. M. Bonch-Bruyevich, a member of the Red Cross Committee, brought to Lenin’s attention.