Instructions to the Red Guard H.Q.

V. I. Lenin

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE RED GUARD H.Q.

First published in 1931
in Lenin Miscellany XVIII

Published according
to the manuscript

From V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964

Vol. 26, p. 483.

Translated from the Russian
by Yuri Sdobnikov and George Hanna
Edited by George Hanna

Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@marx2mao.org (December 1999)

page 483

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE RED GUARD H.Q.

In view of the looming danger of famine in Petrograd, and in accordance with the Council of People's Commissars decision on the inspection of railways in Petrograd and its vicinity to discover any possible carloads of grain in the yards, the Red Guard H.Q. is hereby ordered to help carry out such inspection and apprehend profiteers and saboteurs.

With this aim in view, the required number of detachments must be immediately formed and dispatched tomorrow morning, January 13, to Comrade Nevsky or his Deputy at the Commissariat for Railway Affairs, to conduct the following joint operations with him:

(1) make a round of the stations and get their chiefs and other administrative personnel to sign written statements that there is not a single carload of grain or food stuffs (at the station or on the railway tracks);

(2) to verify that there are actually no carloads of grain, etc.; the check-up to be conducted jointly with railwaymen;

(3) in the event of false evidence or misleading reports, administrative personnel (by agreement with railway men's committees) should be arrested and handed over to revolutionary tribunals.

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