8/VIII [1919], I have just received a report from a reliable source that members of boards are starving (e.g., Markov in the People's Commissariat of Transport and others).  

I insist in the most emphatic manner that the Central Committee 1) instruct the Central Executive Committee to grant all members of boards (and those in a similar position) a one-time allowance of 5,000 rubles;  
2) permanently transfer all of them to the maximum specialist ration.  

Truly, it is not good otherwise: they and their families are starving!!  
100–200 people must be fed.  

Yours,