V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v54;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

To the People’s Commissariat of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, Comrade Svidersky

1. I have information that the Administration of Island Economy of the Arctic Ocean is trading in spirits with the colonists of Novaya Zemlya and making the natives drunk.

According to reports, the Administration allegedly fixes such extortionate prices that the colonists try to sell their catch to Norwegian hunters who come there and offer goods at less extortionate prices.

2. I have been informed that as a result of the considerable decline in fishing during the war, the roach, which had lost its importance as a commercial fish owing to predatory fishing, has reappeared in commercial quantities in the Sea of Azov. There has also appeared a large quantity of young sturgeon, including the almost extinct beluga. But, on the one hand, an unrestrained, unlimited, predatory catching of young sturgeon has immediately begun, which may quickly nullify the favourable effect of the war. On the other hand, something incredible was allegedly going on, and perhaps is still going on, in the lower reaches of the Don. As an example, I have been informed that even the Water Protection Service of the Don Food Committee engaged in predatory fishing in the prohibited zone, and that there was a special scale of charges for permission to fish in prohibited waters—from 400 to 500 million rubles per single haul.

The chief of the Water Protection Service of the Don Food Committee was removed from his post for predatory fishing in the lower reaches of the Don. This gentleman was only removed from his post. It is necessary to find out where he is, and to make a more thorough check to see whether he has been sufficiently punished.

I request you to institute an inquiry into both matters and to communicate the results to me through Comrade Gorbunov in a brief note.

It is necessary not only to frighten them, but also to bring them properly to book and clean house for these outrages.

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars

V. Ulyanov (Lenin)