TELEGRAM FROM THE FIRST LABOR ARMY
February 20, 1920
The Main Forest Administration reports:
In view of the disruption of transportation and the impossibility of transferring fodder [from] the Urals to the consuming provinces of central Russia, in order to intensify the procurement and export of firewood, it is necessary to utilize these local reserves by expanding logging operations [in] the northern Urals. According to data from the Main Forest Administration, approximately 700,000 cubic meters of ready‑to‑ship firewood are stored in the forests of the Urals and must be transported out. Large-scale procurement and transport zones should be organized through the Labor Army and the local population in the Verkhotursky District and the Tavda District, to meet the needs of Ural industry and to supply forest materials to the steppe regions of Western Siberia for purposes of barter trade with those areas, as well as in the Solikamsky and Cherdynsky Districts—partly for local consumption, but primarily for the purpose of floating firewood and construction materials down the Volga River to the lower reaches, and for ensuring adequate timber supplies for the Don region and the Transcaucasus. [97]
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin.
Chairman of the Main Forest Administration, A. Lomov.
1 Logging operations in the Urals were the subject of numerous discussions within the Soviet Trade and Industry Council. For example, the question “On the Decline in Labor Productivity in the Urals” was debated at the STIC following reports by Lomov and Svidersky on January 23 and 30, and February 17, 1920. Furthermore, on January 16 and 23, a special item on the agenda was the question “On the Multiplicity of Authorities in Logging Operations in the Urals” (Lomov), arising from the tensions that had emerged between civilian authorities and the Labor Army (in Yekaterinburg).
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