Date: 1921-07-19
Source: ru:LS/v23

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST FAMINE

material, and I have tasked you with directing [your] attention to this matter—50% of the yield—[to be] collected at the designated collection points according to the plan that is to be submitted to you without delay. I urge you to approach this task with the utmost care, ensuring that it is carried out meticulously, thoroughly, and in a truly economical manner, in accordance with the directives of the STO. Immediately explain the inevitability of this measure, appealing to the sense of proletarian and peasant solidarity, and emphasizing the categorical necessity of providing seeds in the current year to those gubernias that, over the past three years, have consistently delivered their surplus grain to the consuming, internally productive, working-class gubernias. Vigorously advance this campaign, with the aim that by the time of sowing, the seeds will already be in place. It is absolutely unacceptable to postpone the collection of the grain loan beyond August 15th. The Party pledges to devote close attention to the challenge of swiftly implementing this campaign. In the process of improving the Party apparatus, party discipline must serve to accurately determine the volume of the seed loan, to ensure its timely collection—and this point is particularly underscored by the gravity of the responsibility involved.
With the transfer of seeds placed at the center of our concerns, we instruct the provincial food committees and provincial land departments to report on their work within the prescribed deadlines, so that they may submit their reports to the STO as well as to the Central Committee. [0756].
Chairman of the Council for Combating Famine: V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
Deputy People’s Commissar for Land Affairs: I. Teodorovich.
Deputy People’s Commissar for Food Supply: Bryukhanov.
Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP: V. Mikhailov.
7664
TELEGRAM TO M. I. KALININ
AND L. B. KAMENEV
Kalinin and Kamenev.
July 19, 1921
Kalinin informed me of the emerging idea to collect an additional levy—specifically, one pound per pud of harvested grain—to aid the starving populations in the Volga region. I request that you inform me whether this proposal has been put forward and when you intend to bring it before the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee*. In my view, we should: 1) implement this measure without delay; 2) in the most urgent manner possible, demand that each county dispatch several railcars of grain to the Volga region, accompanied by two or three local peasants who are obligated to escort the grain—a practice that would not only ensure the safe delivery of the grain but also foster a spirit of mutual assistance among the peasantry. *Printed from a typewritten copy. Ed.