**ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE KURSK MAGNETIC ANOMALY REGION**
**(DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF LABOUR AND DEFENCE, 21 AUGUST 1920)**

For the purpose of the earliest possible commencement of work on the exploration of the region of the Kursk magnetic anomalies by deep drilling and the uninterrupted execution thereof, the Council of Labour and Defence hereby decrees:

1. To recognize all work connected with the exploration of the Kursk magnetic anomalies as being of especially important state significance.

2. In addition to the decree of the Council of Labour and Defence of 7 July of this year, to extend, in accordance with point 2 of this decree, to the directorate and its bodies engaged in deep drilling of the Kursk anomalies, based on the number of workers and employees as of 15 August of this year, the general regulation on militarization of 28 November 1919, with those additions and amendments thereto which are provided for by the decree of the Council of Defence of 9 June of this year, with the exception of those specialists in mining and petroleum affairs who are exempted by a special decree of the Council of Labour and Defence.

3. Workers of unskilled labour are to be assigned to the work by order of the Main Committee for Labour.

4. All workers and employees, both at the work sites and in the directorate for deep drilling, are to receive enhanced food rations according to the norms for miners engaged in especially heavy work and are to be supplied with work clothing.

**1920**

5. The necessary living quarters for employees and workers, as well as for the directorate, are to be provided by means of compulsory service of the population.

All cargoes consigned to the directorate for deep drilling are to be transported by rail and water without any delays whatsoever, and such cargoes are to be given priority over all other cargoes, except operational cargoes, and in necessary cases, cargoes weighing up to 50 poods may, in each individual instance, be transported as baggage on passenger trains, in view of the need to transport very fragile and valuable instruments and equipment.

6. For the transportation of cargoes, workers, and employees, the directorate for deep drilling is to utilize, through the Department of Transport, the horse-drawn transport service of the local population out of turn. To instruct the Main Committee for Labour to submit to the Council of Labour and Defence a draft resolution on the exemption from mobilization of horses, precisely indicating the minimum number of horses necessary for the drilling work on the Kursk magnetic anomalies.

7. To instruct the People's Commissariat of Food Supply to place at the disposal of the directorate for drilling in the region of the magnetic anomalies a monthly fund in the amount of a one-month supply of food for 115 persons.

8. In view of the exceptional importance for the Republic of the speedy completion of work on the exploration of the region of the Kursk magnetic anomalies, all Soviet, civil, and military authorities are obliged to render full assistance to the said work, in no way permitting interdepartmental friction and red tape.

Chairman of the Council of Labour and Defence
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Printed from the original signed by V. I. Lenin.