[September 10, 1920]

Rudakov, head of the fuel department of Petrokommuna, requests that the Military Commissar of Petrograd Bitkier leave him 1000 already-active Red Army soldiers for the unloading of firewood, until October 20.

(Otherwise an inevitable crisis, since there is already a bottleneck, and much more firewood will arrive).

((Gorky)).

Today on the agenda of the Council of Defense.¹
[1920, August, no earlier than 26]

To Rykov and Sklyansky

Urgently! The underlined is of paramount importance. Discuss with Lezhava.² Do not miss this!

Lenin

¹ The memorandum was written beneath a telegram from M. M. Litvinov, member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, to G. V. Chicherin. Litvinov reported: "...from Italy they are offering one hundred thousand military boots at forty lire. From there they are also offering flannel shirts at nineteen lire, workers' suits at sixteen and trousers at fourteen, overcoats at sixty-five lire. Further, one can obtain there at a comparatively low price several hundred airplanes, up to four hundred trucks, five of which were used but in good condition...". The underlinings were made by V. I. Lenin.

² A. M. Lezhava — member of the RSDLP since 1904. From 1921 to 1925 served as Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Trade.

¹ On September 10, 1920, at a session of the Council of Labor and Defense, the question of unloading floated firewood in Petrograd was discussed and the following resolution was adopted on this question:
"a) Instruct Comrade Bitkier, the district military commissar, to place at the disposal of the Emergency Fuel Committee 1½ thousand Red Army soldiers until October 15 of this year.
b) Instruct the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies to take all measures for the timely mobilization for forestry work of the civilian population both before and after October 15 of this year."