V. I.

Lenin

1921

263

To:   THE BAKURY VOLOST ORGANISATION OF THE R.C.P.(B.)

Bakury Volost Organisation of the R.C.P. , Bakury Volost, Serdobsk Uyezd, Saratov Gubernia
Copy to the Saratov Gubernia Party Committee and the Gubernia Executive Committee

Dear Comrades, The secretary of your organisation, Comrade Turunen ,
has informed me in writing that, at the request of the peasants, you have passed a decision to bring to my
knowledge through him the counter-revolutionary activities
of certain food-supply workers in your volost who are ill-treating poor peasants, robbing them for personal
gain, encouraging illicit distilling, getting drunk, raping
women, provoking attacks on Soviet power, etc. You ask me to take steps from here in Moscow to put an end
to these counter-revolutionary actions. But to fight on the
spot, with all your strength against counter-revolution
is one of the most important tasks of local Party organisations, including yours. Your bounden duty is, by getting
into touch with the Uyezd Party Committee, and—if that does not help—with the Gubernia Party Committee, to
secure the arrest and prosecution before the Revolutionary
Tribunal of counter-revolutionaries and scoundrels like
those about whom you are reporting.

What have you done in this direction?

In the second part of his letter, Comrade Turunen sets out your view that Soviet power, in order to overcome
economic break-down, must for some time lean on the peasantry as it would on a crutch. This is quite true. This
has been said in our Party Programme, and in the resolutions of Party Congresses. At the last, Eighth All-Russia
Congress of Soviets, the question of reviving agriculture
was considered in detail and very carefully, and the
Congress adopted important practical decisions, which you
will have to apply on the spot, as directed by the Gubernia
authorities.

These decisions have been published in the newspapers.
In addition, Comrade Turunen will bring you some supplementary material which he will have received at the People’s
Commissariat of Agriculture, where he was sent on my recommendation.

With communist greetings,
V. Ulyanov (Lenin )
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

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