OF RAILWAYS  
(TELEGRAM TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF TRANSPORT, THE CHEKA, AND THE REVOLUTIONARY MILITARY COUNCILS OF THE FRONTS AND ARMIES)  
March 15, 1920  

In order to conserve locomotives and fuel, as well as to fully utilize the transport capacity of railways, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense has decreed:  

First—strictly prohibit the movement of emergency trains on the railway network of the Republic without loading them to the full hauling capacity of the locomotives, both with freight and passenger cars moving in the same direction as the emergency trains. The responsibility for enforcing this measure is placed on the individuals granted emergency trains and on the commandants of such trains.  

Second—within three days of receiving this dispatch, all military units, administrations, and institutions must release the locomotives they have permanently commandeered, except for those assigned to armored trains, repair trains, and railway battalions, as well as those stationed at the head sections of railways in quantities not exceeding what is necessary for the operation of those sections.  

Supervision over the execution of this decree is entrusted directly to the Revolutionary Military Councils of the fronts, independent and non-independent armies, and where such councils do not exist—to the army commanders, with the broadest possible assistance from the transport organs of the Cheka, the People's Commissariat of Transport, the Central Directorate of Military Communications, and the chiefs of military communications of the fronts and armies.  

Chairman of the Council  
of Workers' and Peasants' Defense  
Lenin  

Published according to the original signed by V. I. Lenin.