ON THE ORGANIZATION OF SKI UNITS
(RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF DEFENSE, 2 JULY 1919)
1. To entrust the organization of ski combat units—consisting of
individual companies and battalions—drawn from contingents of youth aged 17–18 to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, which shall, with immediate effect and through the Main Administration for General Military Training, proceed to elaborate all organizational matters in detail and to formulate and put into operation the requisite staff structures, regulations, and directives, so that training in the newly organized ski units may be initiated as soon as possible and such units can be deployed by the Red Army in the very next winter campaign.
2. To assign to the Supreme Council of National Economy the responsibility for providing the newly formed ski units with all forms of proper sustenance and, in addition, for supplying them with an adequate number of skis, in accordance with the plan for organizing ski units and the established norms, in close consultation with the Main Administration for General Military Training.
Chairman of the Council of Defense
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)