Soviet Archives - Collection of Government Documents on Workers

From the Collection of enactment and decrees of the government for 1921, Administration of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

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strengthening the work on social security. ( Izv. No. 196, S. U. 62‐448 ).

Article No. 448.

Decree of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee.

One of the most important tasks of the Soviet government from the first moment of its existence was all‐round concern for poor farms. Providing the rural poor with everything they need, protecting them from oppression and exploitation by the kulaks — these were the basic principles of our work in the countryside.

Under the system of appropriation, the redistribution of the remaining products within villages and volosts was carried out immediately after it, and thus weak farms were provided at the expense of the strong with the help of the state coercive apparatus.

The general change in economic policy, the transition from the surplus appropriation system to the food tax, naturally led to the abolition of the forced redistribution of products, and therefore it was necessary to find new ways by which, in the changed conditions, it would be possible to protect low‐powered peasant farms from collapse.

The Soviet government, meeting the tendencies that have long been manifested among the peasantry, especially intensified during the years of the revolution, issued a decree on the Peasant Committees of Public Mutual Assistance.

The terrible natural disaster that has hit a huge region of the Republic at the present time makes this task especially striking, since the Mutual Aid Committees can play a huge role in helping the hungry.

Meanwhile, in the localities, despite the circular telegram of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party and the Chairman of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars of May 22, they still have not yet been imbued with a sufficient understanding of the seriousness of the work on organizing mutual assistance among the peasant population and still put the social security bodies in the sense of satisfaction their needs in one of the last stages, without strengthening their apparatuses so far.

The Presidium of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee hereby invites all Provincial Executive Committees:

1)                   Regularly submit reports on the work on social security in the Executive Committee.

2)                   Engage representatives of the Provincial Councils of Trade Unions (inter‐union associations) to work in the governing boards of the Departments of Social Security, as well as in responsible positions.

3)                   Strengthen the staff of the Social Security Department with political and technical workers.

4)                   To involve in the work of organizing Mutual Aid Committees all Soviet bodies that may be useful in this matter (Departments of Public Education, Political Education Committees, Labor Departments, etc.), obliging them to make reports on the work they have done in this area to the Executive Committees.

5)                   Satisfy the needs of the Department of Social Welfare, as a body of striking importance, in one of the first stages.

This letter must be accepted for unswerving execution and the results obtained must be reported to the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Social Security within two weeks.

Signed by:

Chairman of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee M. Kalinin .

Secretary of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee A. Yenukidze .

August 25, 1921.

Published in No. 196 Izvestia of the All‐Russian Central Executive

Committee of Soviets dated September 4, 1921.