# PROJECT
Source: PSS vol 43

The primary task of the Soviet Republic is to restore productive forces and to uplift agriculture, industry, and transportation. The devastation and impoverishment wrought by the imperialist war are so immense that an economic crisis now rages across the globe—and even in the most advanced nations, which, prior to the war, had far outstripped Russia in terms of development and which suffered comparatively little from the conflict, the recovery of their economies proceeds with extraordinary difficulty and will extend over many long years. This is true even in many of the “victorious” countries, despite the fact that they are bound by alliances with the wealthiest capitalist powers and receive the enormous tribute imposed upon the defeated, dependent, and colonial states.
It is only natural that backward Russia—having endured not only the imperialist war but also more than three years of civil war, imposed upon workers and peasants by landowners and capitalists with the aid of the global bourgeoisie—should face incomparably greater difficulties in rebuilding its economy. The severe crop failure of 1920, coupled with food shortages and widespread livestock mortality, rendered the situation in the peasant economy intolerably dire.
In accordance with a decree issued by the All‑Russian Central Executive Committee, the system of requisitioning has been replaced by a tax in kind. It was established
267
The first page of V. I. Lenin’s manuscript “Instruction from the Council of Labour and Defence to Local Soviet Institutions. Draft.” – May 1921.
Reduced
269