### Fuel  

1. The draft instruction "On Firewood Procurement" was discussed and adopted by the **Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom)** on November 29, 1919. The instruction was published in *Izvestia of the **VTsIK*** (No. 269, November 30, 1919) as an addition to the **Sovnarkom** decree of November 21, 1919, "On Involving All Employees of the Forestry Department in Firewood Procurement..." (*Izvestia of the **VTsIK***, No. 268, November 29, 1919).  

2. A note to Section 6 of the draft was worded as follows:  
   "*For employees of the forestry department not engaged in the tasks specified in this section but subject to labor conscription, regional forestry committees shall establish average norms based on local customary practices for fellers and woodcutters.*"  

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### Note to S.D. MARKOV  

**December 11, 1919**  

**Comrade Markov!**  
Please read the attached document and return it to me with your remarks: is it feasible, etc.?[1]  

Regards,  
**Lenin**  

[1] **Lenin** was referring to a letter in which F. Syromolotov, a member of the Presidium of the **Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh)**, proposed organizing regular shipments of combustible shale from Simbirsk to Moscow. Markov responded as follows: "The question of the feasibility of transporting shale from Simbirsk will be reviewed today by the Supreme Transport Council, but I believe it would be difficult due to the priority of grain shipments along that route, which we are barely managing to handle as it is."  

At the top of Markov’s response, **Lenin** noted: "*To the archives (for reference) regarding shale.*"  

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### Directive to the Secretary  

**[December 23, 1919]**  

**To Brichkina:** Contact **Ksandrov** and report what has been done.[1]  

**Lenin**  

[1] Written on a telegram requesting urgent delivery of firewood to the Kolpino workshops, which were engaged in national defense production.  

**Note:** V.N. Ksandrov was a member of the Collegium of the **People’s Commissariat for Railways (NKPS)** at this time.  

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### Telegram to I.N. SMIRNOV  

**[December 26, 1919]**  

**To Smirnov, Military Revolutionary Council of the 5th Army.**  
**Omsk and relevant locations.**  

Regarding your message No. 4211: dispatch not one hundred, but two hundred trains and locomotives.[1] Concentrate all efforts on accelerating coal shipments and clearing the railway line, as well as securing property from looting.[2] Report more frequently on progress.  

**Lenin**  

[1] In his telegram (No. 4211) addressed to **Lenin**, I.N. Smirnov, a member of the Military Revolutionary Council of the 5th Army, provided an update on coal shipments from the Kolyvansky and Kuznetsk basins.  
[2] The reference is to the protection by Red Army troops of property in Omsk and along the railway lines stretching to Irkutsk, which had been abandoned by Kolchak’s retreating forces.  

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### Notes on a Telegram from the Military Revolutionary Council of the 5th Army  

**[January 1, 1920]**  

The entire Kuznetsk Basin has been captured. At the Sudzhensk and Anzhersk mines, 8,000 workers are operational. There are 750,000 poods[3] of coal above ground, with daily extraction at 200–250 thousand poods.  

The shortage of technical supervisors threatens to reduce coal extraction. A management board has been formed for this mining group, chaired by Comrade **Chugurin**. The second group of mines in **Kolyvan** has about a million poods of coal above ground. Workers have been placed on full army rations, except for wages. The unloading of the **Siberian Railway** will be completed within the next three weeks. Partisans are being integrated into reserve regiments. We expect to turn them into disciplined regular troops within a month.  

★  

**Copy to Krasin**  
*(This copy is for the **Council of Defense**)*  

1. Workers have been placed on army rations[4] (Smirnov’s telegram).  

[3] *1 pood ≈ 16.38 kg*  
[4] This issue was discussed by the **Council of Defense** on January 16, 1920.  

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### Notes on a Telegram Regarding the State of the Chelyabinsk Coal Mines  

**[January 4, 1920]**  

...During the four months since the mines were abandoned by the Whites, nothing has been done to increase coal reserves in open-cut and underground operations. Due to the inexperience of supervisors, the primary sources of extraction will be completely depleted within the next one to two months. Reducing underground operations to the required productivity of 1,500 thousand poods per month currently seems impossible...  

*Marginal notes:*  
On the document, a secretary’s notation reads: "To **Rykov**, **Milyutin**."  

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**Note**: This translation preserves original terminology (e.g., **Sovnarkom**, **VTsIK**, **VSNKh**, **NKPS**) and maintains the formal bureaucratic tone of Soviet-era official correspondence, while adhering to paragraph structure and annotations. Units (*poods*) are clarified in footnotes.