Pobrovsk
17 June 1919

The question of the stability of the defence of Astrakhan and its region is inseparably linked with the amount of food supplies, the stocks of which at the present moment are utterly negligible there. We order you to load—under the personal responsibility of the entire board of the Gubernia Food Committee and in particular its chairman Comrade Tretyakov—immediately, without losing a single hour, and dispatch to Astrakhan by rail in the order of shipment of combat supplies, addressed to the Revolutionary Military Council, from the Pugachev and Novouzensk uyezds for the supply of military units, the population, workers and fishermen—in thousands of poods: flour 100, groats 12, hay 75. Until the full execution of this order, cease all issue from your stocks to anyone whatsoever. On 21 June, appear at 2 p.m. at the direct line, call Moscow—Grain and Fodder to Senin, give him a report on everything done in accordance with this order.

Chairman of the Defence Council
Lenin

People's Commissar for Food
Tsyurupa