V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v35;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

I am informed that grain is arriving at the receiving points in large quantities in a damp condition owing to the rainy summer. There is fear that it may easily heat and lose its economic value.

Please inform me whether this is true and whether proper measures have been taken to preserve the harvested grain, and also who is personally responsible for this on an all-Russia scale.

Gleb Maximilianovich informs me that the great danger to the tax in kind lies in the fact that a large quantity of food supplies, up to 10,000 carloads, is held up at the points of destination—Moscow, Petrograd, Samara, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and other places—owing to the shortage of storage space at the points of destination and the general delay in unloading.

The re-routing of consignments from one point to another does not appear to have yielded favourable results so far, because after re-routing the cars continue to stand for weeks at other points awaiting unloading, containers and storage space.

Owing to the congestion of the warehouses, a particularly dangerous moment is evidently now approaching.

Please inform me what the position is at present with regard to the unloading of grain and what measures are being taken by the People's Commissariat for Food to expedite it.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)