Review of the political state of the USSR

Review of the political state of the USSR in April 1925

June 1925

Moscow city

Ex. No. ...

Top secret Store as Tov code ....

An overview of the political state of the USSR for the month of April 1925 is being transmitted. The review was compiled on the basis of data from the state information of the OGPU Information Department, supplemented by materials from the OGPU departments: Secret (antiSoviet parties and groups), Special (Red Army) and counterintelligence (banditry).

This survey, in view of its top‐secret nature, should be kept on par with the code. Making copies and making extracts is not allowed in any case.

The PP of the OGPU and the chiefs of the OGPU governorates should acquaint the heads of the OGPU DTO with the overview. In addition, they can give an overview for reading to the secretaries of regional committees, provincial committees, regional committees in the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP, as well as the chairmen of the executive committees and CECs of the autonomous republics.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda

Head of the Information Department of the OGPU

Butsevich

WORKERS

In April, the work issue begins to come to the fore. There is a further increase in the number of conflicts in industry (compared to March). Although the number of strikes per month is not more than in March (24 strikes), the strikes are more acute and tend to spread to neighboring enterprises. In addition, strikes in April fall mainly on the main industries: textile (the number of strikes increased from 3 in March to 8) and metallurgy (from 4 to 8). The causes of conflicts continue to be dissatisfaction with the low level of wages, the further increase in production rates and the abnormality of the campaign to increase labor productivity.

For individual industries, the situation is characterized as follows:

Textile industry

Strikes. In the textile industry, 8 strikes were noted in April, including 2 short‐term and 2 ʺItaliansʺ; 2 of them are on strike in the Union, the rest, as well as ʺItaliansʺ, fall on Moscow. One of the most serious is the strike at the enterprises of the Glukhovsky district of the BogorodskoShchelkovsky trust. On April 4, 430 spinning workers went on strike for one hour on the basis of low rates. On April 7, 4 departments of the Paper Spinning Mill of the same manufactory, including 600 people, went on strike, demanding an increase in wages; work began after the factory committee promised to transfer the issue to the RKK for permission. On April 8, the Novo‐Tkatskaya factory of the same manufactory (6,000 people) went on strike due to a decrease in prices from 5 to 20% when switching to direct piecework, a group of supervisors was the initiator of the strike, on whose initiative a meeting of workers was convened.

On April 9, a short‐term strike took place in the mule department of the Likin factory of the Orekhovo‐Zuevsky trust on the basis of low wages; demands were made to raise wages by 20% and switch back to 2 sides and 2 machines (3500 workers at the factory). RKKʹs claims were rejected.

At the Vysokovskaya convent of the Tverskoy Cotton Trust, 100 weavers went on strike, demanding a transfer to 2 looms due to the poor quality of the weft and the worn‐out looms; on the same day, an unauthorized transition to 2 looms began (out of 700 weavers, only 80 worked at 3 looms). At the Khapilovskaya weaving and dyeing aperture factory of Vigontrest, 200 workers were ʺItalianʺ because of the impossibility to fulfill the quota due to the worn‐out machines; among the workers there was talk of a general strike in view of the RKKʹs reduction in piecework rates by 30%.

Ha M. Kohomskoy linen convent in Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. 100 watermen went on strike one day, demanding an increase in wages. At the Rodnikovskaya monastery, Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. (10,650 workers) workers of two shifts of the spinning shop went on strike in view of their transfer from piecework to day work. The strike was liquidated on the same day by way of clarification.

Increasing rates and lowering prices. Increases in production rates without a corresponding increase in wages and continuing reductions in prices in places are the main causes of conflicts and strikes in April. The discontent is aggravated by the fact that in many cases all these events are carried out without a preparatory campaign. There have been a significant number of cases where workers learned about reduced rates only on the day they received their wages. At the Glukhovskoy m‐re and the Paper‐spinning factory them. Rykov, the Bogorodsko‐Shchelkovsky trust, the prices were reduced by 20%, which the workers learned only when they received their wages. At the Yuryev factory ʺProletarsky avant‐gardeʺ (Vladimir Gubernia) the workers learned about the reduced prices from the pay books; to an appeal to the director and the factory about the reasons for the decline, a response was received that the prices were approved by the trade union and were not subject to change. The workers accused the administration of being afraid to post the quotations in a timely manner and called these quotations underground. A similar phenomenon took place at many enterprises in the Yaroslavl, Kostroma and other provinces.

Transition to 3‐4 sides and 3 machines. The most acute conflicts are caused by the transition to 3‐4 sides and 3 machines. The workers oppose this measure, pointing out the impossibility of working on 3 machines due to worn out equipment and poor quality of raw materials. On this basis, only one Moscow province. 4 strikes were marked. In a number of cases, workers arbitrarily switched back to work on 2 machines. At the Vysokovskaya field, workers demanded a return to 2 looms, 120 weavers unauthorizedly switched from 4 to 2 looms; at the Khapilovskaya finishing plant, with the transition to a new system, 200 people were ʺItalianʺ, the workers demanded a return transition to 2 machines. A similar phenomenon took place at the Vyshnevolotsk factory of the Tver province, where the first shift of the weaving department, coming to work, worked on 2 looms, stopping the third (there were up to 500 looms); the second shift also stopped the third machines (when working on 3 machines, workers receive the same amount as on 2 machines). The conflict was resolved by promising a pay increase. At the factory ʺKrasny Vostokʺ of Ryazan province. the workers refused the offer of the administration to switch to 3 machines.

In many factories, workers, in connection with the transition to 3 machines, complain about the wear and tear of the latter, about poor quality raw materials, which does not give the opportunity to work out the norm (the Krasny Profintern factory of Vladimir province, B. Kokhomskaya district of Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province; the latter, the workers submit mass applications for leaving the factory, since work on 3 machines, when they are worn out, in the opinion of the women workers, will cause illness among them).

Many complaints in connection with the transition to 3‐4 sides are aroused by the mismanagement of the administration, which causes downtime. At the Krasny Tekstilshchik factory of the Serpukhov Cotton Trust, due to the fault of the technical personnel, for 9 days there was 81853 idle spindles, at the Rudzutak factory of the Linodzhut Trust, 128 out of 512 machines worked.

Demands for higher wages. The relatively low wages of textile workers create a movement for higher wages. In some cases, demands for higher wages are put forward by workers in response to attempts by the administration to raise rates and lower rates. At the Glukhovskoy monastery of the Bogorodsko‐Shchelkovsky trust, among the demands during the strike was a demand for a 15% premium on high prices. At the Yuryev factory ʺProletarsky avant‐gardeʺ, Vladimir province. the workers demanded an additional payment of the difference between the March and February wages, since in March wages were reduced by 3‐4 grades from 24 rubles. 50 kopecks ‐ 19 rubles. up to 17‐22 rubles, and only one worker managed to work out 23 rubles. (workers learned about the decline only when they received paybooks).

At all Ivanovo‐Voznesensk textile factories, workers pointed out that the 10% increase in the cost of money already introduced there was insufficient (Rabkrai factory of Ivtekstil, M. Kokhomekai, Mr. and a number of others). At the sarpin‐weaving factories (Nemrespublika), workers demanded a 50% increase in wages.

In some factories, appeals were circulated calling for a categorical demand for higher wages. Proclamations found at the Zaryadye factory (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk Gubernia) say that the Soviet government gives the worker a 10% increase with one hand, and takes 20‐30% from them with the other, lowering the rates for piecework and increasing the production rate.

Metal industry

The metal industry has also seen an increase in conflicts due to higher norms and lower prices, although not to the same extent as in the textile industry (the size of conflicts is smaller, the number of strikers is small, strikes so far cover relatively small enterprises).

Strikes. In April, 7 strikes were noted, 2 of them in Moscow (at the Kosa plant, 20 polishers and grinders went on strike for one day due to a reduction in prices; at the Krasny Proletary mechanical plant, 67 workers of the blacksmith shop stopped work, demanding not to increase the production rate, which was supposed to be increased by 10% from May 1. A number of strikes took place in the Bryansk province; at the Bryansk plant ʺProfinternʺ 44 slotters went on strike due to low prices; for this reason, 120 molders of the foundry of the Duminichesky plant ʺRevolutionaryʺ went on strike; workers indicated on the tightening of the working day, the transition to simple piecework and the rise in prices for essential products). Across Ukraine, a partial strike was noted at the Krasnaya Zvezda plant in Odessa province, where a group of unskilled workers demanded an increase in prices.

The reasons for the strikes among metalworkers, in addition to raising rates and lowering prices, were also delayed wages (Selmash plant No. 1 in Kaluga) and the failure to provide maternity leave (foundry of the Lyudinovsky Machine‐Building Plant).

Increasing rates and lowering prices. Dissatisfaction with the increase in production rates and lower prices is noted in almost all enterprises, especially where this measure was carried out without the knowledge of the workers. In many enterprises, the workers, dissatisfied with the rise in norms, deliberately undeveloped them, lowering the intensity of labor. For example, at the Krasnaya Zarya plant (Low Current Trust) in Leningrad and at the Morse plant, the work resembles an ʺItalianʺ strike; at the State Mechanical Plant of the Tver province. in connection with the revision of prices, workers lowered productivity from 40 to 70%. At the Kolomna Machine‐Building Plant (Moscow), workers lower their productivity for fear of exceeding the norm. In the Odessa province. at the plant them. Marty in some shops, productivity dropped by many percent.

There was a case of an attempt on the administrationʹs life on the basis of an increase in norms. On April 7, the senior instructor of the shell shop of the Zlatoust plant (member of the RCP) was wounded in the arm by workers, revenge for the increase in production rates is expected. The anger of workers intensifies where the ongoing increase in the norms is not explained in a timely manner (at the Zlatoust plant, the head of the central tool shop increased the production rate on his own; at the Krasnaya Zarya plant of the Low Current Trust in Leningrad, due to a reduction in prices on the initiative of the plant management, the workers chose two delegates to find out the reasons ; neither in the factory committee nor in the RKK did the workers receive an answer; in connection with this, there are many absenteeism at the factory).

Demands for higher wages. Demands for higher wages were put forward by workers at a number of factories (the Mariupol factories in Yekaterinoslav, the Izhevsk factories in the Votsk region, and a number of factories in Leningrad). In the machine shop of the Bryansk plant ʺProfintern,ʺ the grooving workers demanded that the 8th grade rate be 50‐60 rubles. while in March it did not exceed 35 rubles; for an increase in salary, they applied to the plant management and employees, having submitted a collective statement indicating an excessive increase in grain prices; Signatures are being collected in the railway shop of this plant on a statement on the reduction of production rates by one worker, a former Socialist‐Revolutionary.

Skilled workers leaving. Skilled workers are leaving many factories. At the Kulebaksky and Vilsky factories of the Prioksky Mining District, due to lower prices and higher rates, many workers move to other factories or leave to the south. Similar phenomena are observed at Krasnoy Sormovo (GOMZ). At the Duminichesky iron foundry, Bryansk province. a lot of applications for dismissal are received in connection with the letters received from the acquaintances of workers of southern factories about good earnings (70 rubles a month). Up to 16 people have already left alone.

Mining

Higher production rates and lower prices. In the mining industry, the same phenomena are observed, although there were no particularly acute conflicts during the campaign. Dissatisfaction with the increase in production rates is noted at a number of mines in Ukraine (named after the October Revolution of the Zhel [ezno] ore region, the mines of the Bokovo‐anthracite mining administration and the mines named after the Comintern and named after comrade Maksimov; on the last, on April 2, workers were small wages, the ʺbagpipeʺ is eliminated by adding 30% to the March salary). At the manganese mines

(Yekaterinoslavskaya guberniya), a 1‐grade decrease in hauliers caused a decrease in productivity not only for them, but also for the miners; the same is noted at the mine. Comintern. In Siberia, the reduction in prices causes many conflicts at the coal mines of the Anzhero‐Sudzhensky region, where workers raised a scandal when issuing prices. they threw the rates back to the administration, saying: ʺWe have a flourishing exploitation, which was not under the tsar, specialists are ready to remove the head of the worker, but our heads, trade unions do not understand anything and only assent to them.ʺ On the basis of the introduction of new rates, there is a massive departure of workers from the mines: from April 1 to April 20, 111 workers voluntarily left.

On average, wages at the Anzhero‐Sudzhensky mines fell by 15%, while labor productivity increased by 30%. A seven‐day strike involving 600 people also took place at a mining site in Karelia, where workers demanded a 50% increase in wages.

Delayed wages. Delay in wages and at present in some more remote areas remains a sore point and in some cases reaches 3 or more months (Suchansky mines in the Far East, Anzhero‐Sudzhensky mines in Siberia; individual mining administrations in Ukraine).

Glass industry

Higher production rates and lower prices. Conflicts and strikes over higher production rates and lower prices have become more frequent in glass factories. At the Dulevo porcelain factory (2,800 workers), 400 grinders filed a written demand for an increase in wages, threatening to strike; a strike by the latter could bring the entire plant to a standstill.

Movers

Strong dissatisfaction with the reduction in tariff rates in April was noted among porters and resulted in a series of strikes. In the Samara province. due to a decrease in earnings by 90 kopecks. the city porters, quitting their jobs, also tried to call the railway porters and carters of the local branch of Khleboproduct to a strike; the main initiator of the strike was a loader ‐ a member of the RCP. A two‐hour strike took place among the loaders of Uralsibgruz on 15 April; the latter, at the end of March, presented a demand for a 50% increase in wages. Discontent with low rates is noted among Odessa porters, where this discontent is used by anti‐Soviet elements, who say: ʺBe patient, you wonʹt have to wait long for the departure of Soviet power, then we will immediately recoup.ʺ One loader, a former RCP member who was fired for embezzlement, openly states,

Other industries

On the basis of low rates, a strike of workers at the Mologoles warehouse in Novgorod province took place. (earnings do not exceed one ruble with a long working day). For the same reason, a strike of workers of the Alazano‐Pikarsky irrigation canal in Georgia was noted (the rate of workers is 51 kopecks per day, recently 180 people have deserted from work) and two strikes of construction workers in Novonikolaevsk.

In the sugar industry to this day, there is a systematic delay in wages. The same is observed in the timber industry.

Workersʹ mood

Aggravation of dissatisfaction with the trade unionists. A characteristic of the mood of the workers is dissatisfaction with the trade unionists, especially in the textile and metal enterprises, where the factory committees, for the most part, stood aside or acted in concert with the administration when carrying out the reduction of prices and high standards. Particularly strong anger against the factory committee was noted at the Novo‐Tkatskaya factory of the Glukhovsky district, where during the strike the representatives of the factory were not allowed to speak and were shouted: ʺThey must all be killed.ʺ In some factories, one of the main demands of the strikers was to immediately re‐elect by the factory; at the Yuryev factory ʺProletarsky avant‐gardeʺ, Vladimir province. the workers, having learned about the reduction in prices from their pay books, told the chairman of the factory committee: ʺWe chose you as a good person, and you turned out to be worse than the one before you.ʺ At the Teikovskaya factory, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. in April, at a meeting, the workers indicated that the union supported the administration, and that the members of the factory who spoke were not allowed to speak. At the textile factory ʺRed Laborʺ Vyatka province. At a meeting for re‐election of the factory committee, one worker said in his speech: ʺWe are making the state treasury until we bloody sweat, but we ourselves work for bread and water, we get sick from malnutrition, the factory does not care about us, we must unite ourselves and demand an increase in wages.ʺ At the Radishchevskaya monastery, Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. workers say: ʺAs soon as a worker is chosen from the machine, he begins to receive a large salary and forgets about the plight of his former comrades.ʺ At the glass factory. Zudova Guskombinata Vladimirskaya lips. workers pointed out that the factory committee did not protect their interests at all, receiving high rates (the salary of members of the factory committee and the RKK is 260 rubles per month),

Anti‐Soviet speeches and agitation. The growing dissatisfaction with the difficult economic situation and pressure to raise labor productivity develops especially in the textile industry and is used by all kinds of anti‐Soviet elements (including former members of the RCP) to create dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime among the broad mass of workers. Among the Kostroma textile workers there is talk that foreign workers live better than in the USSR; we do not have Soviet power, only one name remains; in the RCP there are only careerists and selfseekers. At the factory ʺKrasny Profinternʺ of the Vladimir province. Guskombinat individual workers declare that ʺthe party is the enslavement of workers; life is worse than under tsarism.ʺ Former Socialist‐Revolutionaries at this plant often hold meetings and conduct agitation against Soviet power, enjoying great popularity. At the Teikovskaya factory, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. some former communists at an extended delegate meeting argued that women are not liberated by the Soviet regime, but are enslaved. At the Shpilechnoblock factory of Volyn province. Poles‐workers agitate that in Poland the workers live better, since everyone feels free, and if there are landowners there, then in Russia there are communists, ʺthe same landownersʺ; under the influence of this agitation, some workers are going to leave for Poland. In the area of Makhorochnaya factories and mills in Yaroslavl, 30 monarchist leaflets were posted with an appeal: ʺto wake up, shake up the violence and cut the stakes at the top, cut the parasites drowning in pleasure.ʺ At a general meeting of the Union of Builders in the city of Pokrovsk (Nemrespublika), the workers, according to the report of the representative of the Soviet Union, said that “the workersʹ life is worse than under Nicholas II, and that in fact the only difference is that one tyrant was replaced by many. ʺ From the group of those present a voice was heard: ʺLong live Nicholas II.ʺ

Campaigning for a general strike. Campaigning for a general strike is taking place in some industrial areas. In the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. the evening shift of the workers of the factory of B. IvanovoVoznesenskaya convent was met by a group of workers, apparently from another factory, and told them: “You, Kuvaevites (previously this factory belonged to the manufacturer Kuvaev), you need to fight and not allow a reduction in prices, and if you [do not] protest, the reduction will be carried out in other factories as well. As a measure of the struggle against the decline, the Kuvaevites were proposed to declare a strike and, in the event of the intervention of the Communists and the administration, it was recommended that the latter be taken out in a wheelbarrow to the river. Take away; These same workers told the Kuvaevites that the workers of other factories were already ready for a march.

Unemployment

Dissatisfaction among the unemployed continues to be caused by the difficult financial situation and the lack of demand for labor. In April, there were excesses among the unemployed. Thus, at the Minsk Labor Exchange in Belarus, the unemployed, because the demobilized were sent to work in the first place, broke the partition behind which the employees of the exchange were working, one employee and a policeman were beaten. Here, a group of unemployed were looking for the head of the stock exchange to beat him on the grounds of nonpayment of benefits for the first half of April. In the Saratov province. there were tendencies among the demobilized to go out to the demonstration with a poster “Get to work”. In Kolomenskoye. Moscow province. at the county conference of the unemployed, the speakers said: “The term of patience has run out, the RCP Ukom is in charge of the stock exchange,

In connection with the reduction of 350 workers of the Arzhen cloth factory, one of the laid‐off workers posted an announcement threatening to kill and rob after the reduction of all. Another proclamation was discovered in which the workers were called upon to join the struggle against the layoffs and the sent workers in charge. In the Kiev district, unemployment is growing dissatisfied with unemployment, attacks against the communists and Soviet power are noted.

In Moscow and many provinces of Ukraine (Kharkov, Kiev, etc.) unemployment is increasing due to the influx of peasants from the villages. In Kolomenskoye u. unemployment among peasants who previously worked in production reaches 70%.

PEASANTRY

The political state of the village

The political situation in the countryside is determined, on the one hand, by the activation of the anti‐Soviet strata of the countryside, which finds its expression in a number of all kinds of protests, on the other hand, by the difficult economic situation of the peasantry, especially in areas where the consequences of last yearʹs crop failure are most pronounced, which creates the basis for the success of anti‐Soviet agitation. In addition, the political situation is characterized by the attitude of various strata of the peasantry to the new course of the Soviet government in relation to the countryside.

Attitude towards turning ʺfacing the villageʺ. The peasantry revealed their attitude to the turn ʺfacing the countrysideʺ primarily in connection with the appointment of a second re‐election. The kulaks everywhere assess this turn as a concession to Soviet power. ʺThe Soviet government has straightened, because it is paying attention to usʺ (statement of the kulaks in Yekaterinoslav province, Ukraine); the kulaks believe that the new slogan of Soviet power is a sign of its weakening, the surrender of its former positions. “The soil of the Soviet regime and the party is shaking” (Volga region, Saratov province); “The Soviet power is beginning to surrender, it is clear from everything that things are shaky, and is making concessions ‐ NEP, hard currency, democratic elections, and therefore the power of the Left Social Revolutionaries will soon come” (Ukraine, Kharkov province); ʺThe communists surrender without a fight, and power again passes to the wealthyʺ (Siberia, Omsk province). Approximately the same attitude towards the turn was determined in the Cossack regions. ʺNow our power has come, we will soon elect the volost chief and we will all have the right to voteʺ (North Caucasus, Stavropol District). In the Kuban Okrug, the slogan ʺfacing the villageʺ is interpreted by the Cossacks as ʺweakening and undermining the power of the communists.ʺ In this regard, threats are often heard ʺto get rid of all the Bolsheviks in a coupʺ and threats to nonresident¹⁴⁷. Such an appraisal by the kulak stratum of the village of the turn ʺfacing the villageʺ arouses the desire of these strata to penetrate the Soviet apparatus during the re‐elections, which they often succeeded in many regions.

The mood of the poor peasants, especially of the ruined part of it, enslaved by the fists, in connection with this slogan and the sharp turn of the course, in most cases suppressed. In assessing this turn, the poor often agree with the kulaks in the sense that they consider it a concession to the kulaks and even in some places a refusal of the Soviet government to help the poor peasants. This mood is especially evident in Ukraine and Siberia. ʺWe now have nothing to do in the Soviets, we now have other rulers who used to drink blood from us, and now they will drink even more when they became in powerʺ (Ukraine, Odessa province). The depressed mood of the poor was especially clearly revealed in the statement of the former chairman of the village council in a conversation with peasants in the Tatar district. Omsk province: “I went to the regional congress in Spassk, and when I heard the speeches of the kulaks on the report,

The middle peasants in most cases have a positive attitude to the slogan “facing the village”. In Ukraine, the middle peasants welcome this turn with satisfaction. In some places, the middle peasants in Ukraine were blocked in the elections with their fists, so as not to elect to the Council of communists and non‐cheaters. However, in some cases, there is a distrustful attitude towards the turn of Soviet power ʺfacing the countrysideʺ on the part of the middle peasants. ʺIt is even doubtful about the actual veracity of the slogan, since we often see in practice that they are turning backwards towards usʺ (Center, Kursk province). Among the underprivileged part of the middle peasants there are sentiments similar to those of the poor: “Late the communists began to turn their faces to the village, and now they do not need us” (Ukraine, Donetsk province).

Distrust of the firmness of the turn ʺfacing the villageʺ is widespread among the peasantries.

The growth of anti‐Soviet sentiment. The growth of anti‐Soviet tendencies is determined by the difficult economic situation in which the peasantry found itself in connection with the rise in price of grain in many regions and especially in areas of crop failure, with a shortage of seeds, with the death of winter crops. Particularly prominent in this respect is the Central Region, where famine is noted in a number of provinces and counties (Tambov, Voronezh, Ryazan, etc.).

The mood of the peasantry in connection with the lack of grain. Hunger and lack of bread gave rise to a variety of provocative rumors, in places deliberately spread by the anti‐Soviet element, and caused a decrease in the mood of wide circles of the peasantry. In some places, these same reasons cause dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime. A typical case, depicting the mood in connection with a lack of bread, took place in Ryazan province, where in Ranenburgsky district. a crowd of 400 people, mostly peasants, came to the building of the VIK demanding that a commission be allocated from members of the RCP to examine the situation of the peasants and satisfy the population with bread. From the crowd, shouts were heard with the threat of ʺunauthorized dismantling of the state grain reserves stored in the warehouses of this volost.ʺ

The growth in the activity of anti‐Soviet layers of the peasantry in the reporting period, in addition to speeches at the re‐elections, manifested itself in the further spread of the idea of cross unions, in the formation of kulak groups, in the distribution of anti‐Soviet leaflets, in anti‐Soviet agitation and the spread of provocative rumors.

Cross unions. The spread of the idea of a peasant union in the reporting period was noted in two provinces of the Center in 15 cases (out of which 14 cases in Moscow province), in two provinces of the West ‐ in 3 cases, in one province in Ukraine ‐ in 2 cases, in two districts of the North Caucasus in 11 cases, in four districts of the Urals in 4 cases, in two provinces of the Volga region in 3 cases, in two provinces of Siberia in 2 cases; in total in seven regions of the Union in 15 provinces and districts in 40 cases.

In March, the number of cases of manifestation of a tendency to organize cross unions reached 54 in 34 provinces. There were no attempts to organize cross unions during the reporting period. A very interesting way of spreading this idea was noted in the Resurrection and Mozhaisky districts of Moscow province, where an unknown person who called himself a beggar from Tambov province, entering villages and staying with peasants, left a handwritten ʺletterʺ when leaving ‐ an anti‐Soviet appeal, calling for the organization of the cross unions to refuse to pay the tax and to prepare an armed rebuff to the Soviet regime (see Appendix No. 2). This case shows that in some cases an organized group is involved in spreading the idea of the cross union.

The sympathy for the idea of a cross union on the part of the urban petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia is also interesting. In this respect, the case that took place in the Roslavl district is typical. Smolensk lips. (West), where at the PEC plenum a note was submitted with a proposal to organize a peasant union, written by a student.

As before, the idea of a cross union is being advanced by various strata of the peasantry. In the Volga region in the Penza province. at the Gorodishche district congress of Soviets at the end of April, the chairman of the village council, speaking the point of view of the poor, said: “In connection with the NEP, the prosperous peasantry completely crushed the poor, it is necessary to insistently demand the organization of a cross union, which could have an impact on Soviet legislation and conduct work in an organized way in the field of protecting the enslaved peasantry. Another delegate, joining the proposal, said that ʺthe peasants should not follow the same road with the communists.ʺ These statements seem to reflect a decline in the mood of the poor due to a misunderstanding of the partyʹs turn towards the village. The kulaks, represented by the cross unions, in their turn strive to create an organization, claiming to seize power. A typical case in this respect is the case in Siberia in the Yenisei province, where a kulak at a peasant meeting suggested organizing a cross‐union in order to ʺsend the Communist Party to the devil from running the apparatus.ʺ

Terror. During the reporting period, 101 cases of kulak terror were recorded in 33 provinces and districts of the Union (in March, the number of cases of terror reached 109 in 42 provinces and districts). In the first place in terms of the number of terror is the Center (26 cases), Siberia (22), Ukraine (16), West (16), Volga region (11), in other regions the number of registered cases of terror does not exceed 3 (see Appendix No. 2) ...

Despite the general decrease in the number of cases of terror, the nature of the terror directed against the grassroots apparatus and the communists is noteworthy in some regions. In Siberia, in some places, terror takes on the character of kulak reprisals against the communists and Soviet workers for their activities not only recently, but also in the early years of the revolution, directed against the kulaks. A very typical case was noted in the reporting month in Altai province. in Siberia, where in one village for several days one and the same group of kulaks committed a number of murders, wounds and attempts on the life of communists who worked in the grassroots Soviet apparatus. In areas where the issue of land management is especially acute and where land conflicts are often noted, there are frequent cases of terror against the grassroots apparatus and part of the poor, seeking to redistribute land (Ukraine). Besides,

Anti‐Soviet speeches. Anti‐Soviet protests, which took place in large numbers in March, continue to be observed in April, especially in areas where the secondary elections have not yet ended. At the Center in Voronezh province. in sl. Manina, at a non‐party conference, the chairman of the conference, a former merchant, said: ʺWe waited for the moment when our party members felt weak and turn to us to help them, but we will help them when we clear all the dirt in the party.ʺ The peasant who spoke proposed a resolution in which he proposed to all communists ʺto engage in arable farming, and to strip them off the same tax as the peasants on harvesting.ʺ Another peasant, speaking of the village communists, said that ʺthe peasants do not need cells and only expenses for them.ʺ

In the Volga region in the Samara province. in the village. Davydovka at the re‐election, after a report by the representative of the PJIKCM Ukom on the work of the RCP to strengthen the alliance of workers and peasants, at the suggestion of the kulaks, the following resolution was adopted: attention to the education of the peasants. In fruitful years, the RCP does not care about raising the peasant economy ‐ the peasants are not provided with sems and foodstuffs, the peasant farms are taxed in a larger amount than they should. ʺ In Siberia, in the Yenisei province. at the Tashtyp district congress by two citizens, the delegates of the congress were offered a mandate, which was to be announced at the district congress of Soviets. This order (not accepted by the district congress) said that so that ʺthe work of the party members is expressed not only in twisting and whipping up, for this has grinded the backs of the peasants under the tsars.ʺ In Krasnoyarsk u. at the District Congress of Soviets in the village. Voznesensky, the middle peasant, who spoke on the report of the PEC chairman, said: “You all remember the dear and holy words that we heard from the Bolsheviks in 1917 ‐ we will not pay any taxes¹⁴⁸, but what do we see: the tsar strangled us ‐ we threw him off, Kolchak began to strangle us, we drove him out, the Soviet government came, the communist party and began to skin us. ʺ In the Irkutsk province. at the Zimin uyezd congress, a resolution was proposed, proposing ʺto eliminate antagonism among socialist parties, to allow freedom of party groupings of socialist parties and to grant such freedom of speech and press.ʺ

In places the performances were in the nature of antagonism to the city. “The peasants are now in a situation of desperate need. The revolution and communism rewarded only the workers with the blessings of life, while the peasants were even deprived of what they had used before the revolution, for example, forests that were turned into state forests” (Voronezh province, Center). The mood of antagonism towards the city was revealed even more clearly in the speech of the peasant at a non‐party conference in Saratov province. (Volga region), which ended his speech with the exclamation: ʺDown with the workers, long live the peasant revolution against the workers.ʺ In some cases, the hostile attitude of the peasants to various public organizations was noted ‐ KKOV, MOPR. In the Northwest, in the Pskov province. in the village. Mijugi, after a report on the importance of the MOPR, adopted a resolution in which they stated the following: “We do not want to help any foreign revolutionaries and fighters for the workers ʹand peasantsʹ cause. Since they were put in jail, it means they deserve it: whoever sought what, he got it. ʺ

Anti‐Soviet agitation. Anti‐Soviet agitation continues to be observed throughout the Union and in some places is more violent than in previous months. So, in the Irkutsk province. (Siberia) a well‐to‐do peasant in a conversation with fellow villagers said: ʺReal power is nothing more than the dictatorship of strangling the peasants.ʺ ʺThe Soviet government has baseness and audacity to deceive and insidiously mock the peasants, calling itself their defender.ʺ Priests, monks and church councils also take part in anti‐Soviet agitation. An interesting case took place in Vyatka province, where in the town of Slobodskoy anti‐Soviet agitation was noted at the bazaar by a monk disguised as a peasant.

Leaflets and appeals. The appearance of leaflets and anti‐Soviet appeals was noted in a number of regions. At the Center in Moscow Province. in a leaflet entitled ʺSloganʺ (see above about the cross unions), it is proposed, in the event of an unbearable attack, ʺby the Soviet government, after refusing the tax, to sound the alarm and call for help from all neighboring villages.ʺ In the Northwest, in the Pskov province. marked the spread of appeals under the heading ʺCountrymen‐peasantsʺ of a monarchical nature. In Kursk province. (Center) marked the emergence of ¹⁴⁹ Black Hundred Proclamations, allegedly written by scrubbed pupils of the 2nd grade. One of them proposes ʺto arrange a second revolution for the liberation from the red bastards.ʺ The appeal ends with the slogan:

ʺLong live the great indivisible Russia.ʺ

Anti‐Soviet rumors. Various provocative rumors spread throughout the Union during the month under review. The most widespread rumors were about an impending war. During the reporting month, rumors of war were noted in 25 provinces. In most cases, they talked about the war with Poland, Romania, often about intervention by England and France. At the same time, rumors continued to spread about the arrival of whites, about Kolchakʹs ʺpressureʺ, about the arrival of Wrangel, about the occupation of Leningrad by the Whites, as well as about the appearance of Tsar Vladimir in the south, about the imminent arrival of Nikolai Nikolaevich and Kirill. Along with the spontaneous spread of rumors, several cases of the spread of these rumors by an anti‐Soviet element were taken into account. In Ukraine, in the Chernigov province. rumors about the war with Poland were spread by a young guy‐passer‐by. A ʺpreacherʺ appeared in the same province,

Kulak groups. The presence of kulak groups came to light especially during the re‐elections of the Soviets. In most cases, these kulak groups are led by former white officers, former guards and other anti‐Soviet elements. These groups are constantly conducting anti‐Soviet agitation and disrupting the work of Soviet elements in the countryside. So, in the West, in Belarus, in the Slutsk region in the village. Zhivoglodovichi, Krasno‐Slobodsky District, a group of 9‐10 peasant kulaks are spreading all kinds of provocative rumors and aggravating antagonism towards the city. In the Tatrespublika in the Chelninsky canton, nine kulaks in every possible way hinder social and cultural work; there were cases of denial of local Komsomol members to village meetings and attempts to undermine the authority of Komsomol members by false accusations.

The groupings are widely spread in Ukraine. In the Kiev province. in the Uman district in the village. Bagwa kulaks and some of the middle peasants organized night meetings at which they discussed various rumors and a course of action in the event of an attack by the Poles and Petliura. In the Poltava province. in with. In Vechorka, a group of 13 prosperous peasants organized conspiratorial meetings at which they discussed the issue of ownership of land, which, according to them, should be sought from Soviet power. In the North Caucasus in stts. Staro‐Titarovskaya has a group of anti‐Soviet people who declare that it is necessary ʺto expel from the village all the trash that has come down during the revolution.ʺ

In Siberia, in the Yenisei province. in with. Novoselovo, a group of kulaks, headed by a former officer, a former inspector of public schools and a postal official, is intensively campaigning for the exclusion of communists from consumer cooperatives and the Soviets. In the Far East Military District in the Trans‐Baikal province. in PetrovskoZavodsky u. kulaks and former White Guards are agitating against all measures taken by Soviet power. They all have weapons. In Chita u. In the same province, a group of 10 kulaks is campaigning to take up arms and free those in prison. This group also has weapons.

Along with the presence of groups of kulaks and an anti‐Soviet element, there are groups of kulak youth. So, in the Tver province. a group of young people was organized under the slogan ʺAgainst the Komsomolʺ. In the Moscow province. there was a circle of peasant youth in the village. Zhezhilino under the guidance of a teacher. In Ramenskaya parish. In the same province, there were cases when children of kulaks beat pioneers. In Kiev, an appeal was found signed by the ʺfighting group of the youth unionʺ, ending with the appeal: ʺYouth, the Komsomol is coming to replace the communist party, forward to replace the tired fighters of the revolution. Forward for the banner of individual freedom. All for the fight against communism, all in the fighting fives. ʺ In Siberia, in the Altai province. in with. The pit was marked by an attempt to organize anti‐Soviet youth. In the Yenisei province. the son of a kulak, together with a member of the RCP, created a non‐party youth circle, independent of any organization, which during its existence has become more authoritative than the Komsomol cell. In the same place (in the village of Aban) a cell of ʺgodfathersʺ was created, which included the children of kulaks, whose goal was to beat the Komsomol members and farm laborers. In the North‐West in Arkhangelsk, an attempt was noted by the Arkhangelsk scouts to organize scout units in the village.

The State of the Grassroots Communist Party

In the presence of the aforementioned sentiments and discontent in different strata of the peasantry in the countryside, all the shortcomings of the grassroots soviet acquire special significance. Recent materials indicate that there has been no noticeable improvement in the state of the grassroots apparatus. At the same time, the result of re‐elections (especially secondary ones) in a number of cases contributed to the excessive clogging of the Soviet apparatus in the countryside with politically undesirable elements.

Clogging of the grassroots co‐apparatus. The materials for some areas give a picture of the significant contamination of the secondary reelections of the village councils by the counter‐revolutionary strata of the village. The South‐East is especially characteristic in this respect. In the Don district, where there were definitely counter‐revolutionary demonstrations at the re‐election meetings in 23 villages, 20 former atamans (of whom 3 chairmen of the village council), 3 former bandits, 25 former white officers, 3 former members of the military field courts at whites, 3 former gendarmes, many former kulaks, active participants in the counter‐revolution, etc.; in 3 cases, former white officers were elected chairmen of the village councils. A similar picture is observed in the Kuban District; among those who passed there were former members of the military‐field court at the whites, former executioners, many Wrangelites, kulaks (in some cases the latter were promoted to chairmen of the village council). There is considerable material about the pollution of new village councils in Samara, Tambov and some other provinces.

Arbitrariness in the work of village councils. Cases of arbitrariness in the work of the lower Soviet apparatus (and especially in relation to the poorest strata of the village) continue to be a mass phenomenon. A number of typical cases of arbitrariness belong to the new village councils with a kulak composition. In the South‐East, in some places the grassroots co‐apparatus is characterized as ʺanti‐Sovietʺ. In stts. Nekrasovsk Donskoy district, a member of the presidium of the new Council, meeting a nonresident in the steppe, beat him along with three other ʺpublic workersʺ, saying: ʺHere is your land and freedomʺ (the chairman of the village council of the village is a former white officer who lost his leg in a battle with the Reds). In almost all provinces, there are mass phenomena of rudeness of the workers of the lower soviet to the peasantry, protection of the kulaks, bribery and abuse. This applies not only to village councils, but also to VICs.

Narsuds. Recently, the peasantsʹ dissatisfaction with the work of peopleʹs courts has attracted particular attention. This dissatisfaction is due to the red tape prevailing in the peopleʹs courts due to the overload of a mass of cases and especially the mildness of sentences. Due to the delay in cases, criminals very often remain at large for a long time, which causes anger among the population. On this basis, lynching develops, which have become an everyday phenomenon in many regions (see a particularly characteristic fact in Appendix No. 3 for Tula Gubernia). The abuses of the peopleʹs judges in the countryside are considerably developed.

Sowing campaign

Lack of semantic material. Sowing campaign issues played an important role in areas of crop failure. The released semssud for a number of non‐noble provinces far from fully covered the existing needs. Along the Oryol lips. the deficiency reaches 30‐40% (in some areas 50‐60%), in Tula ‐ 40‐50% (some areas). In the Tambov and Orel provinces, there were cases of issuing only one or two pounds of seeds. A significant lack of seeds was noted in Ukraine: in the Volyn province. (Zhytomyr and Emilchinsky districts), Kharkov province. (undersowing of spring crops up to 50%), Podolsk lips. (in one Derazhnyanskiy district 25000 poods of seeds are missing). In the Volga region, the sowing campaign was especially bad in the Penza province. (undersowing in the Saransk district was expressed in 3040%).

Eating semssuda for food. Due to the increase in hunger (especially in the Central region and, in particular, in the Tambov province), in a number of regions, crops were consumed as food. In the Tambov province. according to Kozlovsky u. about 50% of all semssud has been eaten, and in some places even more; a similar picture is observed in the Tambov district. The consumption of semssuda in some places is 100% noted in a number of regions of the Orel, Voronezh, Tula, Ryazan provinces. Many cases were noted in the Odessa province. (Kherson district), in the Astrakhan province. the poor have eaten up to 50% of the issued semsud, the same is noted in the Penza province. In all the regions noted, in addition, a strong rise in prices for bread and seven grain and an increase in speculation in bread on the part of the wealthy part of the village is noted.

Seeding campaign abnormalities. The abnormalities revealed during the sowing campaign boil down (in addition to the general lack of the semssud) to the following phenomena: 1) contamination of the semssud, 2) high prices for it, and 3) local abuse in the distribution of semssud. Weediness of the Semssuda was noted in the Tambov lips. (according to the reviews of peasants, millet from Tokarevsky and Zherdevsky elevators ‐ ʺuniform manureʺ), in the Voronezh province. (in some places the seed grain is clogged by 40%), in the Volyn province. (weediness 25%), in the North Caucasus and the Volga region (in the Astrakhan province, the ʺhareʺ released with seven grain does not suit local conditions at all). The price of a semomaterial in the central provinces is 2 rubles. pood and in the Ukrainian provinces in 2 rubles. 50 kopecks peasants are considered too high. Local abuse in loan allocation is extremely common, moreover, workers of the grassroots soviet, KKOV and cooperatives took part in this. Very often, the loan fell mainly to the well‐to‐do (in Ryazan province, in the Ryazhsky district, horseless people were not given a loan; in Kurdyukovskaya vol., Tambov province, the poor received 1‐3 poods, and the wealthy ‐ 10‐13 poods, etc.) ... Very often the semssuda was divided ʺequallyʺ. In stts. Kagalnitskaya Donskoy district on the basis of the misallocation of the Semssud almost a riot broke out.

Land management

With the onset of spring, the struggle of various groups of the peasantry on the basis of land management acquires considerable acuteness. The struggle is especially acute in Ukraine, in the Western region, in the North Caucasus. It is based on, on the one hand, the desire of lowpower groups of the peasantry (non‐spawners, nonresidents) to expand their allotments at the expense of the well‐to‐do kulak part of the village and, on the other hand, abnormalities in the work of the land apparatus on the ground (red tape, lack of land surveyors, abuse, etc. etc.).

The kulaks and the prosperous middle peasantry adjoining them are everywhere vigorous resistance to land management. In Ukraine, there are groups of kulaks created specifically for the purpose of opposing land management; terror is used against the instigators of land management. The grouping of the kulaks in one of the districts of Kharkov province, numbering up to 40 people, is characteristic. In Donetsk province. in one of the villages of the Artyomovsk district, the non‐cheaters, in their turn, in a posted announcement threaten ʺthe night of St. Bartholomewʺ interfering with land management.

The big evil is the red tape in the resolution of land affairs, noted almost everywhere. In Moscow province. land management cases in various instances are stagnant for a year or more. In some cases, this movement of affairs causes acute conflicts. In the Gomel province. such a conflict took place in Rechitsa Vol. on the basis of the cancellation by the center of the decision of the State Security Administration and the UZO on the exit of a group of peasants to the village; By this time, this group had already erected buildings on the allocated land (see Appendix on ʺLand Managementʺ),

In Donetsk province. there was a case when the land administration first allotted land to settlers and allowed them to build, and then, after the construction of buildings, offered to move out on the grounds that they were not Ukrainians. In Belarus, a large number of conflicts are caused by the fact that land management is limited to the allotment of land to the entire village at once without carrying out an intrasettlement redistribution.

RED ARMY

Supply status. The decentralization of the supply business of the Red

Army, on the whole, gave positive results. The Krasnoarmeyskiy boiler has improved qualitatively, supply interruptions are almost eliminated. However, along with this, there are also negative aspects in supplying the army. Due to the absence of powerful state and cooperative organizations in the regions where the units are located, capable of taking on the entire mass of procurements, and their frequent refusals to fulfill contracts, the units are forced to conclude contracts with private suppliers, which increase the prices of the prepared products; on the other hand, in a number of areas there is a weak training of economic workers, and sometimes mismanagement and deliberate crime. As an example of the unsatisfactory work of the supply bodies of the Red Army, we note the work of

Tsuvoenpromkhoz,

Nutrition. Reception and supply of substandard products, which take place in a number of parts of all districts, negatively affect the nutrition of the Red Army. In a number of parts of SKVO and ZVO, poor bread baking is still observed due to the low condition of flour, the lack of qualified bakers, etc. Among the Red Army men there are complaints and frequent refusals to receive food. The number of refusals is growing from month to month. In January there were 67 cases, in February 71 and in March 90. In the 10th regiment of the Western Military District, a whole platoon refused to eat. Cases of food with kerosene, rotten meat, rotten potatoes, etc. were given out. Three large worms were found in the soup of the CBO unit. In the 2nd regiment of the 2nd division, the Red Army men, after a dinner prepared from rotten meat, appeared vomiting and gastrointestinal diseases.

Outfit. By April, the situation with clothing allowance worsened. The uniform has expired. For a number of parts, the lack of shoes and uniforms reaches 50‐80%. This situation is due to the delay in the implementation of the VHU of the Red Army Plan No. 1, which dragged on until January of this year, which contributed to the rapid deterioration of things. The implementation of Plan No. 2 for the coming summer already now resembles the same story that was with Plan No. 1. The issue of camp property remains unresolved at the UHO until now; the district is not guaranteed against untimely receipt of these things when units leave for camps.

Monetary allowance. The issue of loans for postal and telegraph expenses, bath and laundry, repair of barracks, clerical and other household needs, and especially for travel allowances, is very acute. The credits allocated on this account cannot satisfy the needs of the units even by 50%, due to which huge indebtedness has formed, and the lack of credits forces the units to spend amounts not for their intended purpose.

Peasant sentiments among the Red Army. The political condition of the peasant masses has improved to some extent. Discontent over the collection of agricultural tax has decreased. Still, it should be noted that in some parts of the North Caucasus Military District and the North Military District, there is discontent among the Red Army men with a heavy tax. At a meeting in the Howb Division of the 32nd division, a group of 30 Red Army men declared their dissatisfaction with

Soviet regime in view of ʺthe wrong collection of agricultural tax and the Soviet governmentʹs deception of the peasants.ʺ Along with this, the Red Army men often talk about the privileged position of the workers. More and more often one hears statements from the peasant masses that ʺthe peasantry is a class of less importance for the revolution than the workers, and that the peasantry is incorrectly equated with the bourgeoisie.ʺ These specific peasant sentiments of the Red Army mass are largely due to letters from relatives from the countryside, in which they point to the destruction of the economy, the confiscation of property for tax purposes, wrong actions and arbitrariness of the local authorities, etc. Letters from the countryside significantly weaken the success of political work among the Red Army soldiers. Recently, the unit has received letters about

hunger. According to JIBO, the number of such letters is increasing.

Anti‐Soviet speeches. All these sentiments, in a number of cases, result in the actions of the Red Army men against the policy of the RCP and Soviet power. The communists are called a privileged caste. Discontent and distrust towards the political instructor and the political hour is also noted. “The political instructors are singing some rubbish to us that, they say, privileges are given to the Red Army soldiers, but in fact this is just a lie; when there is a war, first of all they will beat the communists and Komsomol members, and therefore it is terrible to enroll in the party” (26th division). In 21 divisions of the SVO, several Red Army men spoke openly about the need to raise an uprising against Soviet power.

Demobilization mood. In connection with the onset of the field work season, the desire to visit home among the Red Army is growing. Holiday moods are also triggered by letters from home. According to the ZVO, in 137 divisions, 40‐45% of personnel are covered by vacation moods. For 6 cavalry division in the letters of the Red Army there are requests to relatives to send them fictitious certificates. In order to obtain vacations, the Red Army often resort to simulation. In the VDU, 56 cases of simulation were recorded, in the ZVO ‐ 137, in the KKA ‐ 95. In the Arm [Yang] division, the simulation was massive ‐ 80% of the Red Army men visit the okolotok. In connection with holiday moods, unauthorized absences are also noted, which take on wide dimensions. 33 cases were registered in the HEI, 618 in the ZVO, and 159 in J1BO. In total, 1428 such cases were registered in three months.

Discipline. Among the reasons for the discontent of the Red Army, there is also an increase in discipline in the units. The Red Army men believe that all measures to establish discipline lead to the return of the old tsarist order. The Red Army men, in conversations with each other, express themselves: ʺDiscipline is worse than the tsaristʺ, ʺthey shake you like a dog,ʺ ʺnothing remains of Soviet policy except the RCP, the rest is all from the bourgeoisie.ʺ 18% of the letters contain a complaint about strict discipline and compare it with the discipline of the old army. Strengthening discipline in places is accompanied by unnecessarily drastic measures. In almost all districts, there is an overkill in this regard. Due to the wrong bias in the introduction of discipline, there have been many cases of indiscipline in recent years. For three months, their number exceeds 4000.

Command staff. The lack of discipline of the Red Army is the result of in some places also familiar relations with the younger and partly with the middle command staff. The orders are conceived in a ʺfamilyʺ form; therefore, 90% of non‐observance of orders falls on the orders of the junior command staff. In addition, the discipline of the officers themselves is not up to the mark. In the 57th division of the Privo Military District, cases of unauthorized absences and skimping on the part of the platoon commander were noted. The same is noted in the 5th division of the Western Military District, in addition, drunkenness is increasing among the command staff. For three months, 2359 cases of drunkenness were recorded in all districts. Among the junior commanders, there is a demobilization mood due to insecurity.

The relationship between the command staff. The previously noted uncertainty of the position of the command staff was replaced, in connection with the taken course of one‐man command, the desire to eliminate the political staff. In this regard, there is a demobilization mood or a desire to enter universities among some of the political staff. In the regimental school of the 16th cavalry regiment, at a meeting of the command staff, without the knowledge of the regiment command, it was decided that the political instructor should not

command ʺquietlyʺ in connection with the introduction of one‐man command. In the 69th regiment of the 3rd brigade of the North Caucasus Military District, the commanders regard the political instructor as a subordinate, which leads to a mutual collision.

Lack of junior officers. The success of the training conducted in the army units is largely reflected in the shortage of junior command personnel and their poor preparation for training with the Red Army. In a number of parts, the shortage of junior and middle command personnel reaches 50‐70%.

In the 12th regiment of the 4th division of the Western Military District, the shortage of junior command personnel is 30%, the middle one ‐ 75%; in the 22nd regiment of the 6th division of the Western Military District of the middle ‐ 25%, junior ‐ 60%; in the 24th regiment of the 6th division of the ZVO junior ‐ 60%, in the 5th division of the junior ‐ 60%; in the 27th division, the junior ‐ 60%, the middle ‐ 30%; in the 45th junior division ‐ 60%; in 44 junior divisions ‐ 48%.

The attitude of the old commanders to the VNO. In describing the mood of the commanding staff of the Red Army, it is necessary to note his attitude to the Military Scientific Society (Military Scientific Society). For example, the organization of the UPO at the headquarters of the 24th division is viewed by former white officers, currently demobilized, as a turn of Soviet power towards reducing the persecution of former white officers; in connection with the allegedly impending war, the Soviet government begins to change its attitude towards the former white officers, inviting generals and colonels, organizing them in the VNO. Some of the former white officers are in favor of joining the UPO, because using legal opportunities, it will be possible to turn it into your own organization.

ANTI‐SOVIET PARTIES AND GROUPS

Anarchists

In Moscow, work intensified among the student anarchist underground. The link between syndicalists and factory workers is revealed. On May 1, leaflets with an appeal to unite to fight the Bolsheviks were pasted up and scattered in the mailboxes. 30 people were arrested in Moscow.

In the provinces, the work of underground anarchogroups is noted in Vladimir, Saratov, Bryansk, Gomel provinces, in Belarus (Orsha district), in the Urals (Orenburg district) and in Tashkent. Anarchists ‐ administrative exiles in the Severo‐Dvinskaya and Tula provinces ‐ have shown noticeable activity. Attention is drawn to the increased dissemination of anarchist literature and the growth of leaflets in the provinces of Yaroslavl, Novonikolaevskaya, in the Urals and in the Trans‐Baikal province.

Mensheviks

During the period under review, the Mensheviks did not display openly active anti‐Soviet activities. The publication and distribution of illegal literature was not observed. The Leningrad organization of the RSDLP (m) was liquidated. During the operation, a Mek printing house was taken, on which the Sotsial‐Demokrat magazine was printed, several lithographic and chapirographic presses. More than 100 people were arrested in total. Among those arrested are many active workers of the Leningrad organization of the RSDLP (m).

SRs

The peasant Socialist‐Revolutionary group, headed by a former member of the Constituent Assembly and a member of the State Duma ¹⁵⁰ Tolmachev, was liquidated. During the period under review, many right‐wing Socialist‐Revolutionaries who were registered with the party left the party through the press throughout the entire Union.

In April, Viktor Chernov spent most of his time traveling across Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. These patrols are associated with the creation of a united socialist front against the Comintern and the USSR.

Left SRs

The Information Central Bureau of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries and Socialist‐Revolutionary Maximalists is inactive, as are the surviving remnants of the Moscow organization. The activity of the Oryol group of Left Social Revolutionaries is noted. The administratively exiled Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries are especially active. Some of them express a desire to become illegal and move to work in Moscow. The foreign delegation is trying to strengthen its ties with organizations on the territory of the USSR and to arrange the supply of foreign literature to them (ʺThe Banner of Struggleʺ ₁₅₁) in view of the complete absence of underground publications in Russia. The recent correspondence, in view of the arrests that have taken place, is of an accidental nature. The Foreign Delegation is very active in the work of 2‐3 / 4 of International ¹²⁹.

Monarchists

As before, there is an increase in the sending of letters to the USSR with appeals of a counter‐revolutionary and monarchist nature from abroad (in particular, from Belgium and America). The monarchist magazine ʺOld Timeʺ was sent in large numbers. In addition to the appeals noted in the previous reviews, a rescript of Maria Fedorovna and Nikolai Nikolaevich is also being sent; in addition to appeals, clippings from Russian foreign newspapers are sent with messages discrediting the leaders of Soviet power. Up to 5,000 newspapers and over 250 leaflets were detained at the Moscow post office in a month.

Religious movements

Orthodox clergy. The biggest event in church life during the reporting period was the death of Tikhon. The published testament of Tikhon made a great deal of corruption in Tikhonovism in view of its [pro] Soviet character ¹⁵². the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Peter, a former official of the synod, is not authoritative as an overly obvious drunkard and debaucher. The monarchist part of the episcopate took a wait‐and‐see attitude, believing that Peter had to hide Tikhonʹs testament, since being himself a monarchist, he could not but understand the harm of its publication. The collapse went in full. So, for example, dissatisfaction with Peter resulted in the declaration by the Ekaterinoslav Bishop Ioannikiy of his diocese ʺindependentʺ, in which he was supported by two other Ukrainian bishops.

On the ground, reactionary clergymen are talking about an upcoming ecumenical council, considering it a great happiness that it will take place in Palestine in the hope of foreign interference in Russian church affairs. There is also an increase in the right‐wing church circles of rumors and rumors about the impending intervention by the Entente. In this regard, the monarchist agitation of the clergy intensified, up to open speeches, such as the commemoration of Alexander III and Nicholas II (Saratov and Vyatka provinces).

In Vyatka lips. Bishop Nektarios was asked by the laity to stop antiSoviet agitation, after which he left. A similar case with the priest took place in the Yenisei province, in Tobolsk and in the village. Karaulov, in the Urals, church‐monarchist agitation was marked by throwing leaflets.

A number of illegal organizations of Black Hundred churchmen were liquidated: in Vyatka province. (the organization included merchants, former princes, a former candidate for membership in the Constituent Assembly, etc.), in the Kuban (Wrangel bandits), in Novonikolaevsk (the group collected money for Nikolai Nikolaevich and distributed monarchist literature). There are a number of other illegal organizations. In the Poltava province, in the Smolensk and Semipalatinsk provinces, censuses of believers were carried out with threats against those who did not want to register. Along with this, there is an increase in the activity of the Tikhonists in the fight against the Renovationists: they knock down the locks from the Renovationist churches or hang the so‐called peopleʹs locks (Stavropol, Novonikolaevsk provinces and Turkestan). The successes of the Tikhonists in the struggle against the Renovationists, however, are insignificant.

Renovators. The resistance of the Renovationists to the onslaught of the Tikhonists is very significant. Their position was somewhat strengthened with the death of Tikhon, to which the Renovationists reacted by issuing an appeal in an irreconcilable tone. At the upcoming All‐Russian Council, it is planned to draw an irreconcilable line in relation to the Tikhonov Church. This intention is revealed at congresses and plenary sessions. An obstacle in the development of the activity of the renovationists is the difficult financial situation in comparison with the Tikhonovites, who received the monetary base from the Black Hundred merchants.

Sectarians. Recently, sectarians have been paying much attention to improving the material situation of their members. In Aktobe province. Baptists build homes for needy members. In the Novonikolaevskaya province. mutual aid funds are being organized. Among the Baptists of other provinces, it is planned to create collective cultivation of the land, artels, etc. Much attention is paid to young people, showing a tendency to escape from the influence of sects, and to women. In the Kuban, the Baptists centralized this work.

In many communities, despite this, one can observe the collapse, sects do not live together with each other, especially evangelicals and Baptists. The growth of mystical sects is still observed: runners ‐ in the Altai lips. and the Komi Oblast, the Kovcheg in the Kiev province, the Gulovites in Yekaterinoslavskaya, the Jehovists in Novonikolaevskaya, the Krasnovers in the Ural province, the Stepanovites in the Komi Oblast and the Shrieks in the Ukraine. It is characteristic that the Ukrainian shaking is led by a Russian emigrant who comes from America, who receives from there a monthly allowance of $ 50.

Anti‐Soviet activity of sectarians is observed in places, which is expressed mainly in anti‐tax, anti‐state and anti‐cultural agitation. Sectarian centers are fighting this, fearing an unfavorable attitude towards themselves from the Soviet government. Traveling Baptist preachers campaign for unconditional duty and military service. The meeting of Baptists in Chita and the Kamensk regional congress of Baptists decided to exclude all those who evade military service from the sects. Adventist groups in Kostanay province. recognized compulsory military service for their members.

[Intelligentsia]

Professorship. The political mood of the professors is generally satisfactory. Separate group‐minded anti‐Soviet are fighting for the retention of the old management positions and higher education teaching guide against the left‐wing ¹⁵³ and students, but beware do it openly for fear of worsen the governmentʹs attitude to himself.

In some places, the dissatisfaction of the professors with the proletarian composition of the student body is quite clearly manifested, which even resulted in a boycott of members of the RCP (b) and students sympathetic to the Soviet regime on the part of some professors of the

Leningrad Medical Institute.

Studentship. The toll campaign caused strong discontent among the non‐party students and a slight increase in their activity. In Moscow, for example, there was a fairly strong anti‐Soviet agitation, and the discontent was sometimes intensified by the rude bureaucratic behavior of the commissions on fees. During the reporting period, in connection with the end of the work of most commissions on fees, this issue has already lost its urgency, however, mass dissatisfaction on the basis of taxation with fees is still taking place in a number of universities, such as in Yekaterinoslav, Smolensk and especially Kiev, where students the Polytechnic Institute alone submitted up to 1,500 complaints to the Central Commission.

The mood of the student body is aggravated by its difficult economic situation, which has generally not improved noticeably. As an example, you can point to the students of Saratov universities, in search of earnings, breaking away from their studies. Among them, there are up to 2,000 unemployed.

The mood of students in higher educational institutions of the RSFSR is generally better than the Ukrainian and Belarusian ones. Anti‐Soviet agitation and a certain mass anti‐Soviet mood among university students can be noted only at the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. Groups hostile to the Soviet power exist and manifest themselves mainly in Odessa, Kiev, and at the Belarusian State University. At the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, a national antagonism is developing between part of the Ukrainian and Jewish students. The first is led by a group of chauvinists of the Petliura type, which enjoys the support of a like‐minded section of the professors; the second is led by the Zionists. The same phenomenon takes place among students of Volyn universities. The purge that took place in Kharkov and Kiev did not give the desired results, since most of the purged anti‐Soviet student body was restored.

Society. On the whole, with a few exceptions, the activities of scientific societies have not been marked by particular activity and counterrevolutionary tendencies. Of those who showed counter‐revolutionary activities, the main ones can be noted the society of Kharkov natural scientists, headed by the reactionary professors, the Orenburg Physics and Medicine Society and the Kirkrai Studies, consisting of cadets, Meks and Socialist‐Revolutionaries and anarchists, who expelled the Communards from their membership, VAI, whose Krasnoyarsk branch recommends subtle scientific sabotage to its members. There were separate attempts to oppose the societies of doctors to professional associations (Semipalatinsk and Tersk provinces).

BANDITRY

Central District. In the Central District, there is still significant activity of organized criminal gang groups and individual criminals. The wellknown positive results of the fight against banditry were noted ‐ a large Mandryka gang of 11 people and 7 other gangs with a total number of 49 people were liquidated.

Northwest Territory. In the North‐West region, there is a revival of small‐scale banditry in the Pskov province. Oberonʹs bandhaika, driven out of the Pskov province, moved to the Smolensk province.

Western edge. In the West, there is a further revival of criminal and political banditry, especially in Belarus. A number of new gangs were organized. In Slutsk and Mozyr districts, foreign gangs are showing themselves. In the Smolensk province. the Antonenkov‐Smirnov gang is carrying out terror against Soviet workers. As a result, the fight against banditry liquidated 3 gangs of 5‐9 people each and detained prominent leaders of the Govor and Smolyak‐Smolsky gangs.

On the territory of Poland, the formation of sabotage gangs under the leadership of the Polish General Staff continues, there is information about two gangs (one of 100 people).

Ukraine. In Ukraine, there has also been a noticeable increase in banditry, which is of a criminal nature, but has data to turn it into a political one. The most affected are the provinces of Podolsk, Kiev, Chernigov, Donetsk. A number of sabotage gangs from Poland and Romania are operating in Podolsk province, which has recently been prosperous. From behind the cordon, a gang appeared, which made a sensation in its time, Orla‐Galchevsky. In Donetsk province. banditry feeds on the mass of the wandering unemployed. The attitude of the peasantry to banditry is hostile, the peasants are supporting our bodies to combat banditry. Due to the weakness of the punitive policy, lynchings against bandits have been developed. Of the major raids by gangs, 5 raids on railway stations and one raid on a steamship are noted. A large Levchuk‐Gilyantovich gang of 17 people was liquidated and a number of members and leaders of other gangs were seized.

North Caucasus. In the North Caucasus, there is a certain lull in the field of political banditry and an increase in criminal and ethnic banditry. The remnants of the political gangs of Shershnev, cornet Kozlov, Malatukhin are being liquidated. In addition, some remnants of some other gangs have been eliminated. In Chechnya, the famous bandit Iba‐Badagov voluntarily surrendered and some other gang leaders are pacified. On the border of the Stalingrad province. the appearance of the Kiselev gang is noted.

Transcaucasia. Most of the leaders of political banditry with the personnel of the gangs are located outside the cordon, mainly in Turkey.

A number of criminal gangs continue to operate on the territory of Transcaucasia. Trans‐cordon gangs intend to return to continue their anti‐Soviet work and terror (the Matitashvili and Aga‐Kasumov gangs). Banditry is almost eliminated in Azerbaijan.

Volga region. In the Volga region, there is an activity of criminal gangs in the Penza, Saratov, Astrakhan and Ulyanovsk provinces, carrying out raids on private citizens, Soviet workers and grassroots cooperation. In the 2nd Don district of the Stalingrad province. Kiselevʹs gang of 8 horsemen operated. The intensification of banditry is especially noticeable in the regions of poor crops in the Saratov and Penza provinces.

Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, due to the peculiar conditions of the pastoralist population, a strong cattle theft is developed. Participation in criminal gangs of representatives of local authorities is also noted (in the Kazalinsky district of the Syr‐Darya region, the local chairman of the VIC, the peopleʹs judge and the secretary of the peopleʹs court participated in one raid, accompanied by the rape of women).

Siberia. In Siberia, the bandit movement continues in Yakutia. Small gangs of Artemyev‐Karamzin are active in the area between Amga and Churanchi. One of the groups captured goods, tax affairs, two Soviet workers and a Red Army soldier during a raid on Omnouz on March 31st. Another gang under the command of Alekseev plundered the cargo of the Yakutsk State Trade Organization in the amount of 18,000 rubles. and 150 deer were captured.

Far East. In the Far East, the activity of political gangs in Kamchatka province, headed by Artemyev‐Karamzin, continues. In mid‐March, our detachment, which left Kolymsk, was defeated, and the bandit group took 6 machine guns, 59 rifles, 4 revolvers and 48,000 cartridges. As a result of the measures taken to eliminate banditry, Novo‐Ustye (near Okhotsk) was liberated and enemy reconnaissance of 18 people was repulsed. According to the ethnic composition, the gangs consist of 75% of the Tungus and 25% of the Yakuts, among the active leaders of the movement there are several former white officers and former Soviet employees.

On the whale [ai] side against the settlements of the Amur province. there is a concentration of significant Khunhuz gangs and white bands, it is planned to prepare a raid.

In Central Asia, the activity of the Basmak gangs is still noted, expressed in raids on the civilian population of villages, small military detachments and carts, the destruction of telegraph and telephone lines. In view of the terror of the Basmachi in the Surkhan region. the elders of the ʺurʺ clan appealed to the military command with a request to deploy a garrison to guard the villages. Two Basmachi gangs were liquidated.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda Deputy Head of INFO OGPU Butsevich

True to the truth: INFO Secretary Soloviev

APPENDIX No. 1

ECONOMIC SITUATION AND POLITICAL SITUATION OF

WORKERS

Textile industry

Go to 3‐4 sides. F‐ka Vysokovskaya m‐ry of the Tver Cotton Trust. On April 22, at 2 pm, 100 weavers working on 3 looms, in the amount of

100 people, went on strike, presenting a demand to the administration to transfer them to 2 looms, citing the difficulty of working on 3 looms in the presence of poor‐quality weft and worn‐out machines. On the same day 20 weavers unauthorizedly switched from 3 looms to 2. On April 23, 100 weavers decided to work on 2 looms. On April 26, 100 weavers, who switched to 2 looms, returned to work on 3 looms. An increase in the percentage of rejects was noted. Out of 700 weavers, only 180 people work on 3 looms. The total number of workers at the factory is 4,000 (Moscow province).

Khapilovskaya weaving, dyeing and finishing factory of Vigontrest. On April 24, the workers of the weaving department were transferred to 2 looms and, in addition, their second shift was destroyed. The existing serviceable machines are not enough for all workers. 120 people go out of work, and 200 workers ʺItalianʺ, complaining about the worn‐out machines and the impossibility of working out the norm. There are tendencies to file a collective statement of protest against the transfer to 3 machines (Moscow province).

Likinskaya factory of the Orekhovo‐Zuevsky trust (3,500 workers). At the mill, there was discontent among the female spinning workers with low wages. The issue of settling the situation at the factory was discussed by the Ukom bureau on April 7, which planned to purge the wake‐up element.

On April 9, an application was submitted to the RKK from the workers of the spinning department of the mill and water workers with a requirement to transfer to 2 sides and 2 machines. RKK refused. There was a several‐minute strike in the mule department. The mood of the workers is agitated. Agitation of persons from the group of former friends of the ʺRabochaya Gazetaʺ ¹⁵⁴ (Moscow province) is noted.

Rodnikovskaya factory. Dissatisfaction with the transition to 3 machines is noted. On April 11, workers in the spinning department of both shifts went on strike for 35 minutes, demanding that they leave the old system of work. The strike was liquidated by means of an explanation (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province).

Bolshaya Kokhomskaya m‐ra Tekstiltrest (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province). The female weavers of the Weaving Factory, working on 3 looms, submit applications for their dismissal, stating that it is too difficult to work on 3 looms with weak equipment of the looms. The women workers say that, despite the difficult economic conditions, they are forced to leave the factory that gives them a piece of bread.

Vyshnevolotsk district. (Tver province.). At the factory, due to the transition to 3 machines, the mood of the workers is agitated. This mood manifested itself especially sharply at one of the general meetings, when shouts were heard from the workers during the report of the representative of the trust that ʺwith the transition to 3 machines we were strangled worse than under Ryabushinsky.ʺ

F‐ka ʺKrasny Perekop” (Yaroslavl province). At the factory, there is still a murmur about the transition to a new generation system, the workers indicate that working on 3 sides is unbearable. Workers of the waterworks workshop, including 60 people, filed an application with a protest, in which it was indicated that it was impossible to work on 3 sides.

Reducing rates and demanding an increase in wages. Glukhovskaya mra of the Bogorodsko‐Shchelkovsky trust. On April 4, in the spinning department, on the basis of low prices, 430 workers ʺItalianʺ for one hour (Moscow province).

Paper‐spinning factory of the Glukhovsky district of the BogorodskoShchelkovsky trust. On April 7, the workers of the water department, together with the twisters, the bank, the throwing and dyeing departments, among 500 people, went on strike for 2 ʹ/ 2 hours on the basis of low prices. The workers demanded more wages. The work began after a promise to refer the issue to the RKK (Moscow province) for permission.

Novo‐Weaving factory of the Glukhovsky district. At the factory, in connection with a decrease in prices from 5 to 20% when switching to direct piecework, an increased mood of workers was noted. On April 8, a group of caretakers asked the workers to quit their jobs and hold a meeting; at this meeting, the workers put forward demands: 1) to make a 15% premium on high prices, 2) to revise prices for their increase, 3) to remove the red director, 4) to re‐elect the factory, 5) not to apply reprisals to delegates. The work began the next day at one oʹclock in the afternoon after the meeting, at which the Ukom secretary spoke. Five were elected for negotiations with the department of the trade union. The total number of workers at the Glukhovskoy mine is 14 thousand people (Moscow province).

Spinning factory of the Malo‐Kokhomsky linen convent (IvanovoVoznesensk province). With the drop‐in rates, discontent arose among the workers in the water department of the Spinning Mill, which culminated in a strike on April 6; all water machines were stopped. Vaterschiki in the amount of 100 people made demands for an increase in wages. Steps were taken by the assistant director to clarify. After promising to consider the demands presented, the workers went to work.

Factory ʺRabkraiʺ of Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. A group of workers, dissatisfied with the increase in wages by only 10% due to the high cost, came to the factory, demanding an increase in the increase.

Factory ʺZaryadyeʺ of the Voznesensk district of the Textile trust of the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. On April 9, two copies of appeals were found at the factory, calling on the workers to categorically demand higher wages. In the appeals, it is noted that the Soviet government gives the worker a 10% increase with one hand, while with the other it takes 20‐30% from them, reducing the rates of piecework wages and increasing the production rate.

Sarpin‐ weaving factories (Nemrespublika). The workers of the sarpinweaving enterprises, owing to the non‐payment of wages 2 months before, had become so weak from hunger that they could not unwrap the warp from the frames. The workers called a general meeting at which they demanded a 50% increase in wages. At this meeting there were speeches indicating that the administration is doing well and therefore does not take measures to ensure that the workers do not die of hunger, does not try to buy bread, but throws thousands of money anywhere.

Metallurgical industry

High rates and low rates. Kosa plant (Moscow). At the factory on April

16, 20 workers in the polishing, grinding and wire shops went on strike half an hour before the end of work and went to the factory committee for an explanation about the renegotiation of the collective agreement, according to which the prices for work were reduced. The reduction in prices is expressed in the following: for a polishing shop from 1 rub. 70 kopecks. up to 1 rub. 40 kopecks. for a hundred braids, for a grinding shop ‐ from 55 kopecks. up to 45 kopecks for a hundred and for a wire shop from 1 rub. 58 kopecks up to 1 rub. 50 kopecks for a hundred. The workers filed a collective application with the plant management threatening to stop working if the old prices are not preserved. The departure of workers of the specified qualifications is tantamount to the suspension of the entire plant.

Mechanical plant ʺRed Proletarian” (1133 workers). On April 22, 67 workers of the blacksmith shop went on strike demanding not to increase the production rate: it was supposed to increase the rate from May 1 by 10%. After negotiations, the factory committee promised to revise the rate and reduce it by 2%. The workers, satisfied with this, set to work. On April 23rd, 23 workers filed an application to refuse to work, but after the administration agreed to dismiss them, 20 people took their applications back.

The Krasny Vyborzhets plant, Leningrad province. From the workers of the dish‐pressing shop, an application was submitted to the bureau of the collective for 30 signatures with a warning that if the production rate is not reduced and the prices are not revised, they will arrange an ʺItalianʺ strike.

Duminichesky iron foundry ʺRevolutionary” Bryansk province. Among the workers, there is discontent with the existing low prices, the tightening of the working day, the transition to simple piecework and the rise in prices for essential products. On April 4, 120 molders of the foundry went on strike on this basis, which lasted for one day.

Mechanical workshop of the Bryansk state‐owned plant “Profinternʺ, Bryansk province. On April 7, grooving workers working on a large frame grooving machine went on strike. The strike, which lasted 4 hours, was caused by low wages. The hammerheads demanded that they be paid a salary of at least 50‐60 rubles. per month instead of earnings in March, which reached 35 rubles in the 8th category. Workersʹ demands have not yet been resolved. By May 1, a strike of the entire plant was brewing on this basis. Employees of the entire plant also applied for an increase in salary, having submitted a collective application to the plant management. The statement indicated an increase in grain prices (from 1 ruble 63 kopecks the price of bread increased to 1 ruble 80 kopecks per pood). The rise in the price of bread causes discontent among the workers.

Shipyard named after Marty (Odessa province). At the plant, there continues to be strong worker discontent with the increase in production rates and lower prices. This dissatisfaction is aggravated by the rise in prices for essential products.

Factory ʺRed Star” (Odessa province). A group of unskilled workers doing the loading went on strike, demanding a salary increase to 1 ruble. per carriage instead of 50 kopecks. They got down to work after explaining that untimely loading would result in a fine of 200 thousand rubles on the plant.

Factory ʺRed October”, Kharkov province. Due to the decrease in prices for casting from 35 to 28 kopecks. for a pood, foundry workers gave up piecework, and individuals began to leave the enterprise. There are rumors among foundry workers and turners that if prices continue to decline, they will quit their jobs and take over.

Delayed wages. Plant ʺSelmashʺ No. 1 of Kaluga province. (230 workers). On April 15, workers went on strike over wage arrears. The strike lasted 2 hours and was eliminated by opening a loan in the district trade. The strike leaders are: turners Kvasnikov and ShurkoKorol, milling machine operator Matveev; blacksmith Matveev, hammer worker Nikitin and pressman Kirillov were the buzoters.

Failure to provide maternity leave. Lyudinovskiy machine‐building plant of Maltskombinat, Bryansk province. There are 981 workers. On April 22, after the holiday, 414 workers who came to work went on strike demanding maternity leave ¹⁵⁵. By the intervention of the regional committee of the Union of Metalworkers, the strike was liquidated the next day. The instigators were the workers Kucherov and Guardians.

Dissatisfaction with trade unions

F‐ka ʺFree Proletarian” (textile) Moscow province. (1500 workers). The secretary of the RCP cell has received an anonymous letter with a proposal to get out “pick up and go” for allegedly covering up the misconduct of the communists. This refers to the case with pom. director Shabanov, who beat the worker and received only a reprimand.

Teikovskaya textile factory, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. At an expanded delegate meeting on April 6, a former member of the RCP, Maleeva, pointed out to the workers that the factory was acting in concert with the administration in setting prices and introducing work on 3 machines and 3 sides. The members of the factory and communists who spoke at the meeting were not allowed to speak, meeting them with noise and shouts. During the strike on April 7, the workers put forward a demand to remove the factory committee.

Rodnikovskaya m‐ra (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province). There is discontent among the workers on the basis of the high rates received by the members of the factory committee and other professional bodies. The workers say that as soon as a worker is chosen from the machine as a member of the factory committee, he gets three times more worker and forgets about the material insecurity of the rest of the workers. Dissatisfaction with the factory committees is also observed among the workers of other factories in the province, workers often indicate that all their membership fees to the trade union go not so much for necessary purposes as for the maintenance of trade union ʺbigwigsʺ and so on.

Textile factory ʺRed Labor” (Vyatka province). When the factory committee was re‐elected, one of the workers, a carpenter of the factory, Baryshnikov, said: “We make the state treasury until we bloody sweat, and we ourselves work for bread and water, and as a result of malnutrition we often get sick and absent. The factory does not take good care of us, we need to unite ourselves and demand an increase in earnings. ʺ

Anti‐Soviet speeches

F‐ka ʺKrasny Profintern” Guskombinat Vladimirskaya province. In the premises of the RCP (b) cell, the worker declared that ʺthe party is the enslavement of the workers, life is worse than under tsarism, the people are downtrodden, a word cannot be said, I curse the day when I voluntarily went to the Red Army.ʺ He and another worker declared that we would not go to the lower grade, weʹd better go to the gang, now we donʹt care, we will go for anything ‐ a prison is like a prison. Former Socialist‐Revolutionaries Maslikhin, Safyanov and others often arrange meetings in production, carry on agitation against the existing government, they have won great sympathy from the workers, and every worker with any business goes to them for advice.

In the city of Yaroslavl, in the area of the Makhorochnaya factory and flour mills, leaflets of an anarchist nature were hung, urging workers to wake up, shake off violence, cut the stakes at the top, cut down on parasites ʺdrowning in wine and pleasure.ʺ In total, up to 30 pieces were pasted (printed on old paper from books, part of Soviet literature, part of religious).

In the Polotsk District (Belorussia), at the Trud glass factory, a former Socialist‐Revolutionary activist is conducting anti‐Soviet agitation among the workers, saying that ʺsome people have now won freedom only for themselves, and not for the workers, while the workers are still oppressed.ʺ It was established that as early as 1924, some persons sympathizing with the Socialist‐Revolutionaries gathered at this workerʹs apartment.

At the general meeting of the Union of Builders of the city of Pokrovsk (Nemrespublika), who spoke in the debate on the report of the representative of the Council of Trade Unions on the medi bureau, it was said that the worker is now much worse than under Nicholas II; the tyrant was replaced by many. To the speakerʹs question, put to one of the speakers, ʺDo you need Nicholas II?ʺ ‐ the latter said that it was better under Nicholas. After that, a voice came from the group of listeners: ʺLong live H ikolai II.ʺ

Among the workers of the Tobolsk power plant, the assistant driver Kovalenko and the political exiled Zundelevich are conducting covert propaganda against the Communist Party and Soviet power. The power plant locksmith, Pole Ivanovsky Anton, with very cunning approaches tries to convince the workers that Soviet power is not a workers ʹpower, and points to some kind of ʺworld workersʹ congressʺ, where the workers will tell how the Soviet power works under the guise of workers. Ivanovsky is trying to discredit the Communist Party in the eyes of the workers.

The mood of the Kostroma textiles is unsatisfactory. Textiles believe that when Comrade Lenin felt better, and when he died, they began to lean on the workers, increase their workload and thereby reduce wages. All this is happening, they say, because it is not so many workers who are in power as intellectuals. One communist said at the same time that “it is evident that we need to make a revolution again”, “workers live better abroad than in the USSR”, “we do not have Soviet power ‐ only one name remains”, “only careerists remain in the party and self‐seekers ʺ.

Arzhen cloth factory in with. Rasskazovo Tambov u. Several cases of actions against Soviet power have been noted. Worker Tetushkin K. K. pointed out that “workers are taken with iron gloves. From the first days of the revolution they were pampered with something, and now everything is being taken away, and in order for the worker not to go on strike, there is the police (the police were sent to guard the factory, the watchmen were removed, there should be about 50 policemen in the factory), as and in the old days, when the workers were clamped down before the strike, they sent Cossacks, and the Soviet government, probably, feels that the worker is dissatisfied, and sends the police. ʺ Worker Parshin said that the workers of the Soviet government were needed when it was weak, but now we put them in jail and they felt solid, so letʹs bend the workers. In a conversation with the workers, Zhitenev I.G. said that there must be a war and the Soviet power will not hold out, in America alone there are such airplanes that this alone will suppress it, because technology is highly developed there, and, besides, such weapons and gases are invented there, you will never be able to hold back, and we are not all right, every month there is unloading and the dismissal of workers ... Worker Pustovalov and Rudakov say that we do not care, that under Soviet power we also work, as under Aseev (the former owner of this factory). Worker D. Tetushkin (weaving department) says that the Soviet government cannot run the farm, which is why the worker and peasant suffer, and therefore the factory must be given to a tenant who will set up the business, otherwise we had a supply of wool for 10 years, and now wool there is no profit, but a loss; everyone says that the workers should be fired, and they conclude that they are only filling their pockets.

Mismanagement of the administration

At the Krasny Tekstilshchik factory of the Serpukhov Cotton Trust (Moscow Gubernia), strong discontent of workers (6200 people) caused 81854 spindles to be idle for 9 days due to the fault of the technical part.

Woodworking plant (Mosdrev). During the second half of March plant had simple in size 2 / 3 ‐time due to lack of materials. The workers resent the director for his mismanagement and rude attitude. A note appeared suggesting that the director be kicked in the neck. In the courtyard of the plant, ready‐made boxes worth 130,000 rubles are lying around in the open air.

At the Krasnaya Zarya plant (Leningrad Gubernia), about 10,000 pieces of headphones for radiotelegraphs were incorrectly made due to technical negligence.

There, through the fault of technical workers, about 1000 Ralet devices were altered.

At the factory [named after] Bela‐Kun (Leningrad Gubernia), workers repeatedly pointed out to the administration that it was impossible to work on the washing machines due to the worn‐out shafts, which is why there is a very large percentage of defects in products, but the administration does not pay attention to this despite the fact that new shafts have been brought in. ʺThe shafts are lying in the sentry box behind the factory and are rotting,ʺ say the workers.

At the Carriage Works. Egorov (Leningrad Gubernia), upon handing over the manufactured keys for the convoy, all of them, about 1000 pieces, were rejected. Of the 47 thousand bowlers made at Krasnoy Vyborzhets, 17,000 were accepted as suitable for the military department, and 30,000 were rejected. Due to an oversight of the administration, 2,000 pieces of aluminum boilers were subjected to the same operation twice, such as: cutting, bending, hardening and etching of defects, due to which they all turned out to be spoiled, which gave about 5,000 rubles. loss.

At the telephone factory ʺKrasnaya Zaryaʺ of the Low Current Trust (Leningrad Gubernia), for improvement, a cupola for smelting cast iron was bought, which cost 25.00 rubles, and at this time it is lying in the yard and rusting.

At the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant of the Gornozavodsky District (Ural), 1500 poods. metal released from the open‐hearth furnace was poured throughout the workshop, as the boiler was damaged.

On the basis of mismanagement and drunkenness of the administration, discontent was noted among the workers of the Glass Factory in Biysk u. Altai province, which, thanks to the latter circumstance, launched the repair of the plant, as a result of which the bathtub burned out, up to 1500 poods were lost. glass. The losses are significant.

There are several hundred similar cases across all industries.

Unemployment

Due to the reduction of 350 workers at the Arzhenskaya Cloth Factory, Tambov Province. one of the abbreviated was posted a notice with a threat after the reduction of all to kill and rob. Another proclamation was found, which called on workers to join the fight against layoffs and the sending of responsible workers.

April 21 this year unemployed section of laborers at the Minsk Labor Exchange (Belarus), numbering about 200 people after they were asked to vacate the section and remain only demobilized Red Army soldiers to send the latter to public works in the amount of 50 people, all those present raised a cry, asking why they were being sent only demobilized, then broke the partition behind which the employees of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Labor and tables worked, crushed one of the employees and a policeman who was at the post. For a long time, the summoned alongside the militia was unable to free the premises from the unemployed, who, while remaining in the premises, continued to make noise and push the arriving militiamen and workers on duty, as a result of which [the unemployed] were pushed out of the yard and went to the building of the Central Executive Committee of Belarus,

On the morning of April 23, the unemployed sections of unskilled workers at the Minsk Labor Exchange were breaking the partition again. At 11 oʹclock. 45 minutes the same day in the yard of the labor exchange there was a large crowd of unemployed, among whom was the head. the labor market department who spoke with them. The conversation revolved around the topic of reducing unemployment. The unemployed, as measures to reduce unemployment, proposed: 1) a reduction in salaries and the organization of all kinds of public works at this expense, 2) the reduction from service of persons who have several people in the family, 3) dismissal from service of a non‐proletarian element and sending unemployed to their place, and etc. etc.

On the morning of April 24, the unemployed were sent to public works. The rest of the working day passed quietly, and only at 4 oʹclock in the afternoon some unemployed people came from public works demanding money from the allowance due to them for the first half of April and were looking for the manager. exchange Zarapkin, all the time threatening him with beating.

In the newly opened spring work in Saratov, the unemployed receive a lower rate for earthwork than last year.

The mood of the demobilized was also unsettled, one of them suggested on May 1 all the demobilized to go to a demonstration with a poster ʺLetʹs work.ʺ

In the hostel of the unemployed, handwritten appeals on small sheets of paper were found with the following content: “Comrades, did we really want this to be deceived around us. Down with violence, down with party power, long live the working people. ʺ

“Comrades, there is strength in unity, down with unemployment, down with the new bourgeoisie. Long live equal pay. ʺ Two unemployed people hung out the appeal.

On the eve of May 1, an organization of demobilized Red Army soldiers (in the Far East) called the ʺCommittee of Influenceʺ was liquidated, which had been posting appeals around the city with an appeal to demonstrate on May 1 against the communists who had attached themselves, demanding ʺbread and work for the defenders of Soviet power.ʺ

Secretary of the Information Department of the OGPU Soloviev APPENDIX # 2

THE POLITICAL MOOD OF THE VILLAGE

1. Attitude towards the slogan ʺfacing the villageʺ

Centre. Vyatka lips. In the house of a peasant in the town of Slobodskoy, the peasants of Ilyinsky parish. said: ʺThis isʺ facing the village ʺ, only they are fighting with us: pay tax, pay back, give insurance, give it everywhere, and even take their sons into military service, so they still feed them, they serve during the day, and in the evening they go home with go to alms. Previously, they fed the soldiers to the dump, like a hog would be fattened, and they served in all the government, but now in all theirs. ʺ

Tambov province. Lipetsk u. At N. Studenetsky volsezd in the debate on the report of the VIC delegate s. Rogozhina said: “Finally we got freedom and having gathered here, we can choose whoever we want, otherwise our party over the years has erased our entire neck and tortured us at congresses with its candidates and lists. Once the revival of the Soviets, then you need to think and choose someone who stands for the peasants, and not for the workers. ʺ

Ukraine. Kiev province. In the Uman district in the village. In Kaekanovka, the peasants declare that “the Soviet government can never provide substantial assistance to the countryside, paying the specialists a high monthly wage, and that the slogan “facing the countryside” is an empty phrase.

Odessa lips. In the Pervomaisky district, in connection with the partyʹs course towards the middle peasant, the confusion of the advanced part of the non‐cheaters is noticeable, and they grinningly declare that the priests will probably soon get the right to vote. The same confusion is observed among a part of the workers both in the village and in the region, statements are heard: “Well, now there is revolutionary legality in the countryside, with the work of an amba ‐ and donʹt bother anyone else, donʹt tell anyone anything, so it turned out that ʺfacing the village.ʺ A similar sentiment is observed among some secretaries of district party committees and the party elite of the village.

Kharkiv province. In the Akhtyrka district, part of the peasants of the Krasnokutsk district declares that “Soviet power is beginning to surrender, this is evident from everything around, its affairs are shaky, and it is making concessions (NEP, hard currency, trade, democratic elections), and therefore the power of the Left SRs will soon be and will gradually come to property, but limited. ʺ

At a conference in the Savinsky district, the delegates who spoke said: “Life was better under the monarchy, now the poor have been killed. There is no truth, there has not been and will not be. Our evil enemy is NEP, which we do not need, because under it we are exploited. ʺ

Volyn province. At the conference of the Radomysl region, delegates made the following statements: “We are dying of hunger, no improvement in the village councils will change the situation of the peasants. There are large cadres of unemployed in the countryside, to whom the Soviet government does not pay attention. The improvement of the state budget is due to the impoverishment of the villagers. The Soviet government is guilty of oppressing the middle peasant for a long time, now it has caught on, and this is good, because the middle peasant must help the poor. Comrade Lenin knew the villagers and cared about them, now without him they just talk and write a lot. There is famine everywhere, the authorities do not listen to the voice of non‐party villagers. ʺ One middle peasant, complaining about the difficult situation, ended his speech with the words: ʺThere is no hope for Soviet power.ʺ

North Caucasus. Stavropol District. In with. Round‐legged kulaks declare: ʺNow our power has come, we will soon elect volost elders, there will be not these chairmen, we will all have the right to vote.ʺ

Kuban District. In the Popovichesky, Krasnodar, Korenovsky and Umansky districts the slogan “facing the village” is interpreted by the Cossacks as weakening and undermining the power of the communists. Threats are heard addressed to nonresidents ʺto deal with all the Bolsheviks in a coup.ʺ In the Uman region there are rumors that a ʺSt. Bartholomewʹs nightʺ will soon be arranged, in which ʺall sympathizers of the Soviet power will be destroyed.ʺ

Siberia. Omsk lips. In the village Malinino, Spassky District, Tatarsky District the former Presidential Council said in a conversation: “The Soviet government is giving freedom to parasites, we cannot expect anything good from the elected kulak; Hearing the performance of the kulaks at the regional congress, I would not have shaken my hand to throw a bomb into this pack and die myself. ʺ

2. Cross unions

Centre. Moscow province. In the village. Verkhne‐Slyadnevo Mamoshinskaya Vol. Voskresensky u. appeared on April 5 of this year. Mr. a certain citizen posing as a beggar from the Tambov province. After spending the night with Citizen Zaitsev, in the morning, leaving, he left a letter written in pencil on ordinary paper, calling for the organization of a cross‐union and for armed resistance to Soviet power. This letter was read at a gathering of peasants who treated it indifferently, although some individuals wanted to rewrite the letter. The day after the incident, the letter was confiscated from a local peasant (for the contents of the leaflet letter, see section 6 ʺAntiSoviet leaflets and appealsʺ).

In Dedenevskaya parish. Dmitrovsky u. pre‐conscripts at political conversations ask questions about the peasant trade union.

In Protopopovskaya parish. Kolomensky u. the question of a peasant union was raised several times at meetings by a peasant from the village. Sychevo, who said that ʺwe have no union and there is no one to defend us, and therefore it is necessary to create our peasant union, like the workersʹ union.ʺ In Boyarkinskaya Vol. Kolomensky u. the question of the cross union has been raised more than once. In Tumensk this question was put forward by an employee, in the village. Bogorodsky ‐ a former worker. Peasants Myachkovskaya Vol. Kolomensky u. spoke at the 18th volost congress of Soviets demanding the organization of a cross trade union.

In Mozhaiskiy u. a leaflet appeared indicating the severity of the tax and the need to organize peasant trade unions. The slogan ʺFreedom of speech and pressʺ is put forward and an appeal is made to rebel against Soviet power, hoping for help from foreign states. Anyone who has read the leaflet is encouraged to distribute it.

In Petrovskaya parish. Zvenigorodsky u. in a number of villages there is an agitation for the organization of cross unions. In the village. Alabine, a member of the Petrovsky VIK Morozov, a middle peasant, spoke at the last parish congress with a proposal to amend the Constitution.

At a meeting of peasants with. Khatun of the same volost of Serpukhov u. Mr. Krasavin proposed a resolution stating that ʺit is not necessary to establish a workersʹ and peasantsʹ union, but a peasant and workersʹ union,ʺ and that the peasants must organize themselves into peasant unions.

Mr. Khodinov, middle peasant of the Ramenskaya Volost. Egoryevsky u., Visiting a teahouse, leads agitation for peasant unions, emphasizing that the workers live off the peasants and that the peasants need to create an exclusively peasant power. At the volost conference of peasants Ramensky parish. a peasant from village Afanasyevo, who pointed out that the workers have their own trade‐union organizations that care about improving their lives, ended with the words: ʺWhy shouldnʹt we, the peasants, create our own peasant union, since the workers have their own unions, that the peasants also need to create a union.ʺ

Kostroma lips. In the village. Karjakovo of the same volost of Kostroma u. one peasant spoke of the need to create a cross union, since this union would protect the peasants from ʺexcessive exploitation.ʺ

West. Smolensk lips. At the Roslavl Plenum of the PEC, a note was submitted, signed by an ʺanarchistʺ, which requires the organization of peasant unions and points out the lack of freedom of speech in Russia. Note submitted by two students. In the village. Avduevshchino Khmelitsky parish. Vyazemsky at the village meeting, a peasant spoke on the issue of organizing the KKOV, who declared the need, like the workers in the cities, to organize their own trade union, and not the KKOV.

Gomel province. At the Volost Congress of Soviets, Khoiniki Vol. Rechitsky u. The delegates who spoke noted the enormous, in their opinion, difference in the material situation of the workers and peasants and pointed out that, along with the workersʹ unions, it was necessary to organize peasant unions, which at general congresses would inform about the situation of the workers and peasants and jointly find a way to improve the situation, avoiding inflection towards workers.

Ukraine. Donetsk province. At a conference in Pervomaisky district, the peasant delegates pointed out that ʺwe have power not of peasants and workers, but only of workers alone.ʺ The workers use spas, hospitals, etc., but the peasants do not use anything, they do not have their union, which is necessary for them. ʺ

North Caucasus. Don district. During the re‐election of the StaroShcherbinovsky village council, the Cossacks asked questions about the possibility of organizing a union of grain growers.

Stavropol District. In with. Serafimovka, at a non‐party conference, one peasant raised the question of organizing a union of grain growers. The same was the case for willows. Mirian.

In with. The poor people demanded the organization of the cross union in Aleksandrovsk. Similar facts took place in other regions.

Donetsk district. In the Mankovo‐Kalitvensky district, among the wellto‐do and middle peasantry, there is a tendency to organize their own cross‐union. In the Malchevsky and Tarasovsky districts, the poor and middle peasants talk about the need to organize to protect their interests in a trade union, the kulaks are critical of the word “trade union” and declare the need to organize a cross union. Similar trends are observed throughout the district.

Volga region. Penza lips. At the Gorodishche uyezd congress of Soviets, in the debate on the report on the international and domestic situation, the question of organizing peasant unions arose, and the chairman of the Pichiley village council spoke as follows: could have an influence on Soviet legislation and work in an organized way to protect the enslaved peasantry. ʺ Another delegate, approving the idea of organizing a peasant union, added: ʺWe should not walk the same road with the communists, since they are only capable of trotting around and making orders, and they do not give real help to the peasants, considering them theʺ cash cow ʺof the Soviet government.ʺ ... Both delegates drew applause from the congress delegates. The congress was stormy. On the part of some delegates, anger towards the authorities was noticeable. Some said: ʺIf in the future the communists are given privileges in election campaigns, they will not survive for long.ʺ

Ural. Tyumen district. In with. Elansky at a meeting of the Predictors of the KKKOV said that only working peasants could be members of the committee, to which one of the kulaks said: “We are neither accepted there, nor here, which means that we must also unite in our union. Workers and office employees are united, the poor and the middle peasants too, and we are not people unless ʺ.

Perm district. In the Asentsovsky village council, the peasants, arguing with the chairman of the village council, said: ʺIn the event of war, the workers are sent to the front, and we are to create peasant unions.ʺ

Tobolsk District. Kulak der. Vesnina agitates for the communist peasants to be discharged from the RCP and join ʺour party.ʺ

Siberia. Tomsk lips. At the re‐elections in the village. Filimonovsky expressed dissatisfaction with the privileged position of workers and employees, stating that the government was workers, not peasants, and one of them pointed out the need to organize a peasant trade union.

Yenisei province. At the regional congress of Soviets in the village of Voznesensky, Krasnoyarsk region, the Presidium received an anonymous note with the question: ʺTell me why there is no peasant union and can it be in the near future.ʺ

In with. Tolstikhino, Uyarsk district, Krasnoyarsk u. at a meeting of peasants, one peasant proposed to organize a peasant trade union and declared: ʺBy doing this we can send the Communist Party to the devil from running the apparatus.ʺ

DVO. Amur lips. In Blagoveshchensky u. in V. Velskaya parish. the peasantry says: ʺWe need to organize in our unions, since the government takes into account the organized mass, for example, with the workers.ʺ Wealthy peasants are the initiators of this idea.

3. Kulak groups

Western edge. Belarus. In the village. Aronova Sloboda, Zaslavl District, Minsk District, an organized group of kulaks led by a certain Znachenka, having agreed in advance, disrupted a meeting held by a local teacher and Komsomol member on the occasion of the Paris Commune Day ¹⁵⁶. During the lecture, shouts were heard: ʺWe do not need Soviet holidays, we will celebrate church holidays.ʺ At the address of the speakers, the kulaks shouted: ʺDonʹt come to us anymore, we will chase you in the neck and pour slop over you.ʺ

A similar grouping of 10 people is available in the village. Zhivoglodovichi of the Slutsk District, which spreads provocative rumors, instilling in the population that the Soviet government protects only the workers, and crushes the peasants.

Ukraine. Kiev province. In with. Bagwa of the Uman District, kulaks and part of the middle peasants gather at night at the Redunko kulak, where they discuss various rumors and their position in the event of an attack by the Poles and Petliura.

Odessa lips. In the Yasinovo borough of the Pervomaisky District there is an organized group of kulaks in the amount of up to 20 people. One of the group calls himself a former colonel.

Volyn province. In the colony of Mlynok, Volodarsky district, night gatherings of kulaks take place, at which they discuss how to alleviate their situation, conducting agitation among the peasants that soon they will hang komtesams, Jews and communists.

Crimea. Yalta district. In the village. Demerdzhi after 12 noon at night, a meeting of kulaks took place, at which the following issues were discussed: 1) on taking measures to destroy members of the RCP (b) local cell, 2) on agitation against intra‐village land management, and 3) on preparing several peasants to speak at a general meeting on the issue of providing rights to fists deprived of voice.

Volga region. Tartary. In with. Burdy of the Chelny canton, there is a group of kulaks numbering 9 people who are trying to prevent local Komsomol members from attending village meetings, undermining the latterʹs authority by false accusations. A similar grouping was noted in the village. Bureau‐Saray, where the kulaks, through threats and beatings, try to subordinate local workers to their influence.

Samara lips. In with. Nizhnyaya Orlyanka of Samara district an organized group of kulaks opposes the newly elected village council, demanding its re‐election. The group openly declares that they are not subordinate to either the VIC or the PEC, and even more so to the village council, saying that “the resolutions are fictions and we consider them incorrect”. The group is led by a former guard.

Ural. Sarapul district. The groupings of the kulaks are taking on a mass character, they include former White Guards who returned in 19231924. from Siberia. The groups aim to obstruct land management by openly intimidating the poor and middle peasants.

North Caucasus. Armavir district. In stts. Labinskaya on the night of April 15, the group pasted 5 appeals on page 5 of the following content: “Appeal. Brothers, you are waiting for Easter, but this is a holiday of mourning for the desecrated shrine. Down with unnecessary red arbitrariness, long live the great sacred Italian‐Russian war against the red barbarians. ʺ Signature ʺWhite Hurricaneʺ. Some of the appeals ended with the phrase ʺDeath to the red tyrants.ʺ

The leaders of the kulak groupings of the villages of ProchnoOkopskaya, Novo‐Kubanskaya and others are preparing, after the first meeting of the village council, to endure mistrust of the presidiums of the village councils where they remained in the previous composition, and to elect new presidiums from their composition.

Kuban District. In stts. Staro‐Titarovskaya has a group of anti‐Soviet people who say that it is necessary to expel from the village “all the trash that came during the revolution” (meaning the communists and nonresidents).

Siberia. Irkutsk lips. At the Kimilteysky volsezd of Ziminsky u. a group of prosperous peasants was formed, criticizing the communists and the measures of the Soviet government. The head of the group Titarenko said in his speeches that the Soviet government gives the workers high rates, hospitals, training, and meanwhile this prosperity is built on the misfortune of the peasantry, and, addressing the former chairman of the village council, he said: “Your song is sung, now the officers will face you beatʺ.

Yenisei province. In with. Novoselovo in the same area, a group of kulaks, headed by a former white officer, a former inspector of public schools and a postal official, is campaigning among the population to prevent communists from entering the EPO and the village council.

DVO. Transbaikal lips. In with. Elizabethan Chita district a group of kulaks in the number of 10 people are agitating that this is not the government, but one misunderstanding, it will soon rob all the peasants, and therefore ʺwe need to take up arms and free our brothers who are in prison.ʺ The group has weapons and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the whites.

In with. Bichure Petrovo‐Zavodsky u. there is a similar group, claiming that they have everything prepared for the uprising, only there is no leading center, and spreading rumors that it is in Kabansky. an uprising was prepared against the communists.

In with. Pakulovo, Chita u. a grouping of 17 kulaks is noted, which has set itself the goal of undermining the trust of the peasants in Soviet power.

Similar groupings were noted at [Petrovo] ‐Zavodsky u. (v. MashkovoMenzinskoe), Sretensky u. (village Kulan) and Chita (village S. Tolocha).

Buryat‐Mongolian Republic. In with. Kuytun V. Udinsky u. an organization called ʺEyeʺ was formed, which includes the secretary of the village council and six local citizens. Some members of the organization are carrying on anti‐Soviet agitation, saying: ʺSoviet power is not power, but robbers.ʺ In the same village, unofficial meetings are held by kulaks.

4. Terror

Centre. Ryazan lips. Moonshiners with. Zhelchino Ryazan for denouncing them, they set fire to the house of the peasant Tarasov at night, after having locked it around. Tarasov and his family barely jumped out of the window. The cattle and property could not be saved.

Vyatka lips. In with. Sinegorye Slobodskoy u. demobilized wealthy Red Army soldiers severely beat the chairman of the district council for his past energetic work on catching deserters.

Ukraine. Chernihiv province. In with. Empty gor ode Nov [gorod] ‐ Seversky district kulaks sent a letter to the chairman of the village council with the following content: “Moonshiners fists of all countries, unite. Warning to the village of Kustogorod. If someone goes to bustle in Novoseversk to share the land heart to heart, we will still kill from around the corner. Maxim Ivanovich Roditelev, be so kind, do not go, otherwise you will pay with the skin like a dog, and if you go, Zagorodny, we will still drag you into a hole at night. We will show you how to bother dividing the land per capita, and if you want to divide the land, then divide according to passports, otherwise there will be many victims, we will kill everyone by our secret organization. And we warn you, comrade chairman, to gather the gathering and read our letter at the gathering. If you don’t read it, we’ll use you up too.” The letter is signed as follows: “The headman of White‐Kulak fascism, Gromova,

Kiev province. In with. The hijna of the Kiev district, the relationship between individual groups of peasants is extremely aggravated. In the village, systematic raids on the reading room and clubs of the RLKSM and young Leninists were noted. So, in March, a reading room in the former priestʹs house was set on fire, and when the club was transferred to another building, they raided it, stealing literature, theatrical costumes, etc.

When an attempt was made to take away the priestʹs cune ¹⁵⁷ for the construction of the theater, the latter was burned. After some time, a raid was again made on the hut‐reading room, and, finally, in the third raid, the hut‐reading room and the clubs of the RLKSM and young Leninists were completely destroyed.

Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. An anonymous letter has been planted in the Petrikovsky district cell of the KP (b) near the Yekaterinoslavsky district, which says that all communists from. The Petrikovkas surrendered their weapons without any resistance in an amicable way, and if they do not surrender their weapons, then everyone will be hanged on telegraph poles.

Poltava province. In with. Perevolochnoye of the Kremenchug district, after the re‐election to the village council, the hut of a member of the electoral committee was set on fire; during the extinguishing of the fire, an anonymous letter with the following content was found: Oto do not prove it to Bilshe who buv from the police, who is from the gang and who belongs to the yak. I think that the evil‐doers will no longer have a mist in the celery, in the dovuku (swearing), and we know, and we can, but you repent, now we will take over the ownership. ʺ

In with. A woman was killed and a man was wounded in Petrivtsi of the Lubensky district, active participants in land management. At the same time, a member of the Petrovetsky village council, Pelipenko, openly declared on behalf of all opponents of land management: ʺWe will kill the one who will carry out land management.ʺ

In with. Ivanice of the Priluksky district, the chairman of the Regional Executive Committee and a member of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee was given an anonymous letter with a threat to set fire to the farms if they insist on land management.

North Caucasus. Kuban District. In the area of the stts. Planinskaya, two versts from the village, about 300 Cossack kulaks and part of the middle peasants, armed with pitchforks, sticks, hunting rifles and rifles, in order to disrupt the solemn meeting of the Council, decided to attack the car in which the chiefs were supposed to go. The car with the head of the administrative department of the Medvedovsky Regional Electoral Commission and his clerk was mistakenly detained, who were killed by the crowd, shouting ʺBeat them, they are communists and Komsomol membersʺ. Fearing reprisals, some of the participants in the murder dispersed to other villages, campaigning for support [them] in the event of the use of punitive measures.

Kirkrai. Orenburg province. Poor peasants hut. Countryside Abramovskaya Vol. Korsun and Likhachev on their way to the city were met with four fists of the Novo‐Nikolsky settlement, who, having pounced, began to beat them and cut them with knives. The next day, the beaten poor people, taking a certificate from the paramedic, went to the senior policeman, who instructed his assistant to sort out the case; The latter, after questioning the participants in the beating, dismissed the case, while those who beat them, laughing, declare: “You will not do anything to us, since we have bullied the policeman, go complain higher, we’ll ask you there too, you don’t have to compete with our pocket. Here it is (pointing to his pocket), power. ʺ Korsunov and Likhachev were beaten for always opposing the kulaks.

Ural. Sarapul district. In the village. Kapkane Bolshe‐Usinsk district three prosperous peasants attacked a member of the RCP Pyatkin and began to beat him, shouting: ʺWe will bring out all the communists in the village.ʺ

In the village. Sadnovka, Krasnoyarsk district, two Komsomol members ‐ the village correspondents of the wall newspaper ‐ were beaten. In with. Pechkino, Botkinsky district, a group of kulaks threatens to kill the secretary of the cell, to whom an anonymous letter has been sent. In the village. The decrepit Fokinsky district group of kulaks intends to kill the pre‐village council, a member of the RCP.

Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Zagainovo Bolshe‐Rechensky district, Biysk u. within several days (from 19 to 25 April) the same group of kulaks killed the former deputy. chairman of the Zagainovsky VIK Dudin, the former chairman of the village council s. Zagainovo ‐ Oreshkin, a member of the RCP Gurkin was beaten, his head was broken and his hand was broken, and an attempt was made to murder the chairman of the village council Polikanin (candidate of the RCP), who enjoys enormous prestige among the population and has been elected to the post of chairman of the village council for the fourth time. At the same time, one of the participants declared: ʺWe will kill the former partisans and all the communists.ʺ In the opinion of the population, all these attempts were made on the basis of a tax. An attempt was also made on the life of the Komsomol member Kotov, a stencor; the one who attempted this shouted ʺI will interrupt all the communists.ʺ

Tomsk lips. In the village of Voskresensky, Mariinsky district the family of the poor man was beaten with fists, allegedly because the latter opposed the kulaks. In the same village a worker was killed by fists. Iverka for scolding God in a drunken state.

The chairman of the Sarapkinsky agricultural credit (member of the RCP) Kupriyanov was attacked by the middle peasant Lukoyanov and the wealthy Avdeev, who tried to bring Kupriyanov under the mill and, beating him, declared: ʺWe, the villainous communists, will kill everyone one by one.ʺ The documents belonging to the agricultural loan for 800 rubles were stolen from the beaten by them. and money 147 rubles.

5. The growth of anti‐Soviet sentiments a) The activity of the kulaks and anti‐Soviet element in the re‐elections

Ukraine. Poltava province. In the Tsarichanka borough of the Poltava District, re‐election meetings were divided into sections, but due to the actions of the kulaks, they were disrupted. For the second time, the reelection took place more calmly, but before the vote, each candidate was asked whether he was a communist or an employee, and if he was a communist, then his hands were raised “against”. As a result, only small traders, persons without specific occupations and others entered the village council. Before the re‐elections, a meeting of the initiative group of kulaks took place.

North Caucasus. Adygo‐Circassian region in the village No. 1 of Edepsukai, a part of the voters, led by a kulak element, organized their general meeting and then suggested that the voters, assembled by the commission, disperse or accept their list. The question reached a fight, and as a result, part of the well‐to‐do element entered the Council.

Kuban District. In stts. Popovicheskaya, the anti‐Soviet group formed during the re‐election ‐ a former Wrangelite, a former white bandit, a former white officer, a regional statistician and a veterinary assistant ‐ campaigned for the choice of ʺourʺ Cossack grain growers, not the communists. This agitation was carried out even in the church. On the list proposed by the pre‐election committee, shouts were heard: ʺAnd among us there will be people for the post of secretary of the district committee and head of the administrative department.ʺ As a result, more than half of the Wrangel and former Whites ended up in the village council, and only three communists were candidates for members of the council, including the chairman of the VIK; the candidacies of the secretary of the district party committee, the chairman of the trade secretariat and other party workers were failed. On the day after the re‐election, there was a meeting of the newly elected Council, and on a telegraphic appeal to the Council to dissolve itself, having renounced his parliamentary powers, the latter refused to do so, and most of its members defiantly left the assembly hall shouting, ʺhow many years have we lived without the Soviets and now we will get along?ʺ During the debate at the first meeting, when it was announced that the composition of the Council would not be approved by the district election committee, because it includes a large percentage of Wrangelites, the former executioner, currently a member of the Council, was noticed incitement to pogrom, expressed in the words: “Council now ours, letʹs beat Gnedin (chairman of the VIC)”.

Siberia. Altai lips. S. Kytmanovo of the Verkhne‐Chumysh region was divided into 5 polling stations; the local kulaks, seeing the scattering of their forces, vigorously campaigned to disrupt these meetings and demanded that they be held in one place. The kulak said: ʺSince the Soviet government says that there is strength in unity, why should we separate us.ʺ At the same time, the second precinct meeting, held by the chairman of the RIK, was disrupted, at which kulaks rushed with fists, shouting: ʺNow your song is sung, the power is ours.ʺ The RIK chairman was not beaten only because he managed to hide under the protection of the women around him.

Novonikolaevskaya lips. In with. Krutikhinsky district, Kamensky u. the population demanded to elect their chairman, not recognizing the chairman of the election commission. They were supported by an anarchist, saying: ʺThey are doing it wrong, since the power of the people, then you need to do as the people want.ʺ Then he offered to vote in secret. Before the vote, the well‐to‐do part insisted on the obligatory publicity of party or non‐party people, adding that ʺthere is no need to vote for a communist.ʺ The proposal was accepted. Before the vote, one shouted: ʺthe communist is votingʺ ‐ and no hands were raised for him. “The churchman is voting” ‐ and everyone raised their hands. Thus, not a single communist was elected to the Council; the wealthy and middle peasants entered the Council.

b) Anti‐Soviet speeches

Centre. Voronezh province. In with. Manino Bogucharsky u. At a nonparty conference, the chairman of the conference, a former merchant, said: ʺWe waited until our party members felt weak and ask us to help them, but we will show them when we clear all the dirt in the party.ʺ Then he said, ʺthat it is necessary to elect non‐party people, and give the party rest.ʺ Then the merchant s. Manino, who called the party members thieves, said that the communists are only able to wear breeches, sit in soft armchairs and walk, but the peasantry does not benefit from them, and therefore we, non‐party people, need to get down to business. Then the peasant proposed a resolution: “We, the conference, offer all communists to engage in arable farming, and to strip off a tax equal to us and from them on harvesting, otherwise they soon forgot about the peasantry and compromised, but we need to do more work. ʺ They pointed out that the cells are not needed and only expenses are for them.

Northwest. Pskov province. At the meeting der. Mijugi reports were made on the significance of the KKOV and MOPR. When the speaker proposed a resolution on the consent of the peasants der. Mizhugi to join the KKOV, the resolution was not adopted, but the following was proposed: “We, the peasants of der. Mijugi, having heard the report on the KKOV, do not recognize the need to become a member of the KKOV until he really helps us. ʺ According to the report on the MOPR, they said: “We do not want to help any foreign revolutionaries and fighters for the workers ʹand peasantsʹ cause; once they were put in jail, it means they deserve it: whoever achieves what will get it. We have already been tortured with various taxes, and now they are thinking of stuffing their pockets thicker. Foreign revolutionaries will not get this money, but only commissars and various collectors. ʺ

West. Gomel province. In Zlynkovskaya parish. Novozybkovsky u. at the volost congress of Soviets on the report of the peasant s. Dobrodelovka pointed out that the congress was gathering only for the sake of form and was being held under pressure, that all communists carried only briefcases and were acting like old gendarmes. The peasant s. Sennoy said that the government is removing the last sandals from the peasantry, while the workers and communists wear wide triangles that need to be cut. The workers get 1 ruble for 8 hours, and the peasant for 16 ‐ 8 kopecks. The workers live on a grand scale, and the peasants are dying of hunger and go to the city to look for work only because they have driven all the grain to pay the tax. Communists live easily and well at someone elseʹs expense. He pointed to a communist who was poor and now wears gold teeth, while the peasant drove his last bast shoes.

Volga region. Saratov province. In with. Art. Zakharkino Petrovsky

u. at a non‐party conference, two peasants said: ʺThe Soviet power has given us, peasants, nothing, that now the workers are using violence against the peasants,ʺ and ended their speech with the words: ʺDown with the workers, long live the peasant revolution against the workers.ʺ Those present, agitated by their fists, shouted excitedly: ʺRight.ʺ In this village, the poor are under the influence of the kulaks, who intimidate them, saying that the end of Soviet power will soon be over and the poor peasants will be bad if they do not obey the kulaks. We agreed to the point that they want to organize an independent republic.

Samara lips. In the village. Davydovka Spasskaya Vol. Samara district before the re‐election of the village council, a representative of the RLKSM Ukom made a report on the work of the RCP (b) to strengthen the alliance of workers and peasants. Several former White Guards spoke out on the report, arguing that ʺthe Communist Party did not give anything good for the peasants,ʺ and proposed the following resolution, adopted by the meeting: ʺAfter hearing the report on the work of the RCP (b) to strengthen the alliance of workers and peasants, The RCP (b) in this area is unsatisfactory for the following reasons: 1) there is no equality between workers and peasants, 2) the work of the peasant is not appreciated, 3) little attention is paid to the education of the peasants, there are not enough schools, 4) during the harvest years the RCP does not care about raising the peasant economy, i.e. the peasants are not given out payments and foodstuffs. Peasant farms are taxed with agricultural tax in a larger amount than they should, somehow: a yield of 15 poods. from tithes, and take as from a yield of 30 poods. When voting, the poor refused to vote on the resolution and left the meeting.

Siberia. Irkutsk lips. At the volost congress of Soviets in the village. Winter determined the activity of the well‐to‐do part of the peasantry, headed by Bobrov and Lytkin. According to the report on the budget, Bobrov introduced the following resolution: ʺTo reduce the budget of the USSR to 2 million rubles, motivating this resolution by the fact that the peasants were strangled with taxes, and if the budget is reduced, taxes on peasants will also be reduced.ʺ In his speech, Bobrov attacked the higher authorities, saying: ʺThe VIC is not to blame because it is an executive body, but the higher authorities are to blame here ‐ the Central Executive Committee, the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars, which are only extorting tax from the peasants.ʺ At the county congress of Soviets, Bobrov said: “Power should belong to the peasantry, since the peasantry is predominant in quantitative terms. We must give freedom of speech and press. ʺ Lytkin at this congress insisted on expanding private trade initiative and separating cooperation from the state. The Bobrovs added to the resolution on the international situation: “1) antagonism among the socialist parties must be eliminated, because this plays into the hands of capital, 2) it is necessary to introduce an offensive against capitalism coordinated with other socialist parties, parties and to provide such parties with freedom of speech and press”. The resolution did not pass. 3) within the country it is necessary to allow freedom of party groupings of socialist parties and to provide such parties with freedom of speech and press. The resolution did not pass.

Yenisei province. At the Tashtyp District Congress of Soviets, the peasants ‐ delegates to the district congress developed an order of the following content: “In the field of party organizations, the 3rd Tashtyp Congress of Soviets, in contact with local party cells, makes its wish that the work of the party members is expressed not only in twisting and whipping up, for this has ground our backs even in the days of the kings. We ourselves are striving for better forms of life, we ourselves are striving to raise our labor production, to raise agriculture and industry, to throw off the tsarʹs cursed yoke. Now we do not need ʺordersʺ as much as ʺshowsʺ, and if the party cells are the advanced vanguard, they should not have the name ʺtough‐tailʺ and ʺrhetoricʺ, we are tired of priests and gendarmes. Let the party cells show us their deeds, let them give us practical advice, and we will accept them with gratitude. Let them show us even the smallest thing, but with their own hands, and we will willingly follow their example. If they seem to us to be a swan in heaven, then it remains there, if they read a book to us, it will remain a book, if we do not translate its instructions into action. Our ideals are in no way at variance with the ideals of communism. But we do not need ʺswagger,ʺ as the real communist comrade Lenin, in whose name the congress decides to fight such arrogance. Long live Leninist communism. ʺ The mandate named by the congress was rejected.

c) Anti‐Soviet agitation

Centre. Vyatka lips. In the town of Slobodskoy, the monk Polycarp, in order to be inconspicuous, dressed in peasant clothes and walking around the market among the peasants, agitated: “Fools, since itʹs hard to pay taxes, so why pay. Donʹt pay the whole village ‐ and they wonʹt do anything to you. You yourself, you fools, have won your freedom, and now you rush with it. ʺ

Kaluga lips. Gr‐n der. Korevanka of Kaluga u. Andrianov is conducting anti‐Soviet agitation among the peasants, declaring: “Is it possible for the peasants to join the party and be a whisk in it, blindly obeying the leaders. It turns out as before ‐ the landlords gave orders, and we did, and now the communists give orders, but we, the peasants, do everything. That is why few of the peasants join the Party. Soviet power is the power of prisoners who used to be in prisons, thatʹs why it helps the same prisoners, and they tear the last skin off the peasants, but nevertheless, soon the communists will have to give up power, and then life will go better than now. ʺ

d) Provocative rumors

Centre. Yaroslavl province. Throughout the Yaroslavl province. rumors of war and famine circulate. In the Mologa, Uglich and Yaroslavl [districts], there is a desire to buy as much rye as possible in view of the upcoming hunger strike. These rumors, for example, in Mologsky u. (Prozorovskaya and Ilovinskaya [volosts]), spread by peasants who come from bazaars, city buyers, a mendicant element. It is said that in Leningrad, residents have already been transferred to rations and are saving bread for the upcoming war (Nazherovskaya vol. Rostov u.).

Ryazan lips. In Putyatinskaya parish. in with. Karaulove Sasovsky u. A citizen who came from Moscow spreads rumors that Poland and Russia will fight in the spring, and the workers in Moscow say: ʺWe will first kill all the Jews and then we will fight.ʺ

West. Gomel province. In the Surazh parish. Klintsovsky u. the well‐todo peasantry is agitating that there will be a split in the party, a war will soon begin, that it is already going on in some places and that the Soviet power will soon completely fall, and therefore, feeling its imminent death, it makes various concessions.

Leaving Soviet workers should not be trusted, because in their information they conceal the real state of affairs from the population. The spread of provocative rumors in the volost is massive, and spread [they] are not only a wealthy element, but also the poor.

North Caucasus. Kuban District. The re‐elections were preceded by rumors spread by the White Guards about the imminent arrival of Wrangel from abroad and help from England and France (rumors were registered in Popovichesky, Umansky, Ust‐Labinsky, Novo‐Pokrovsky and Slavyansky districts). In the Umansky, Ust‐Labinsky and Slavyansky districts, rumors circulated that Wrangelʹs troops had already landed on the Black Sea coast and that the Cossacks therefore needed to organize.

6. Anti‐Soviet leaflets and appeals

Centre. Moscow province. In Voskresensky, in the village. Verkhnee Slyadnevo Mamoshinskaya Vol. An unknown person posing as a beggar from the Tambov province, having spent the night with a peasant, left in the latterʹs house a letter‐leaflet written in pencil, which was read at a meeting of peasants, but was met with indifference. Below is the letter.

ʺSlogan.

Power of workers and peasants. Freedom of speech. Freedom of the press.

Dear comrades, peasants, grain growers.

We all have one sore point, and we all suffer from one overwhelming tax.

Dear comrades, the power of our workers and peasants, but who takes the tax from us, who is ruining our farms, through whom are we stripped and undressed, do we rob ourselves and ruin our own farms.

No, comrades, the power of our workers and peasants, and we are strong, we are many, but so that our forces are not wasted, let us organize among ourselves a peasant alliance, rally into strong ranks of the working peasantry and stand for each other, as for ourselves; let us, peasants, not pay an unbearable tax, let us not ruin ourselves.

Of course, our authorities will not like this, but we must defend each other. Maybe they will put us in prisons, they will forcibly take away our fortune from us: livestock, clothing and equipment, then we must not give it away, we need to arm ourselves with something and stand up for each other, village for village.

In the event of an overwhelming attack, we will have to sound the alarm and call for help from all neighboring villages, and if someone is imprisoned and arrested, we must also defend, and we will smash and smash the prison with our peasant mass when they put our brother in prison.

But this will not happen, if we stand together, no one will touch us, because our government is afraid of foreign states that are waiting for the moment. Comrades, if we recognize the Soviet power of the Soviets, then why are we paying the tax, the Soviet government has a program ‐ land to the peasants without ransom, and we pay them, we recoup our land, we pay according to the Menshevik program. Down with taxes, long live the rule of workers and peasants.

Comrades spread this letter as much as possible, from village to village and throughout the Republic, but beware of the party. Everyone who reads this letter should write two or three and use it. ʺ The letter came from Ukraine.

Northwest. Pskov province. Within the Uritskaya parish. A typographical leaflet was found, received by mail from Leningrad addressed to the deceased several months ago, village. Rastrubovo, under the heading ʺCountrymen‐Peasantsʺ. Here are excerpts from this leaflet: “Wherever you can, harm the Jewish government and destroy its servants, let them oppress the people in disguise. First of all, beat your brother, a peasant, who looks after you and informs them about you, we are talking about village correspondents. And the name is not Russian, but the Jews themselves are such that they are ready to sell Christ himself for silver pieces. They don’t live for the peasant, no matter what he says, what he does, he informs the commissars about everything, and they, of course, are not trying to do anything about the peasant’s benefit. First of all, the villages must be cleared of them. It is difficult for a peasant to rebel against the government, but, for example, in Siberia, in many places, peasants of village correspondents, commissars, the communists were secretly shot one by one ‐ it made life easier for the people. Try it. You will see for yourself. And if you sit back, you will see something else, the Jews will become insolvent and the people are completely bent into a ramʹs horn”.

West. Smolensk lips. In Gzhatsky u. in Uvarovskaya parish. in the forest between the two villages, a notice was posted: “From 1 April this year. the productivity of the green army under the command of the troops of Commander Petlyaev will begin Get ready for an hour of retaliation against the Bolsheviks; it is enough to endure their oppression and prejudices. War, citizens, is inevitable, get ready. ʺ No signature.

Gomel province. In with. Istopki Klimovskaya parish. Novozybkovsky u. the following note was posted on the doors of the village council: “Long live the monarchy at the discretion of democracy. Down with the bastard gang of Bolsheviks, quackery, bloodthirsty. Citizens, I exclaim to you as your savior. I want to save you even though itʹs too late. All the same, comrades have disappeared, it is a pity that many innocent people will die. Long live the Entente, Belgium, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Germany, Turkey, Norway, Japan, China, Estonia. Long live monarchy Germany and Russia. Residents, you disappeared like flies in Petrovka ¹⁵⁸, because you adopted the charter of Soviet power. ʺ

Ukraine. Donetsk province. In the Luhansk district, in the apartment of a former white officer who was dismissed for cleaning up by the coapparatus, proclamations were found, excerpts from which are given below:

“... The power of the workers and peasants has been overthrown. The power of the bourgeois and capitalist system has been removed, but while we were fighting at the front with an open enemy, in our rear a new organized enemy sat on our necks ‐ bandits, Jews, communists, etc. Adventurers who spat mud at all our gains of freedom and put on us a new yoke, even heavier than the previous one ... Down with the bandits singing to us about the well‐being of the country, at the same time extorting the last pennies under various pretexts, ruining our industry, factories, factories and mines to the ground, selling us into the hands of the capitalists , concluding unprofitable deals with them, up to the recognition of the debts of the old government in order to prolong its existence ... Look back and see what the power of bandits and adventurers, hiding behind a mask, gave us ‐ the proletarians of all countries unite: 1) instead of freedom,

All proclamations are in the nature of different versions of the same leaflet.

Volga region. Stalingrad province. At the Market Square in Uryupino, the Khopersky District, the following proclamation was discovered, which attracted a crowd of residents: “Citizens are workers, peasants and peasant women. The Soviet government, together with its spongy Communist Party in the era of the Civil War and at the present moment, is throwing out various slogans to improve your economic situation, but as a result ‐ zero. The Soviet power and the communists, you are the first destroyers of the worker and peasant, you strangle all humanity, you live at the expense of others, filling your pockets. Why donʹt you help the poor, why donʹt you pay attention to yourself and donʹt live in a communist way. Citizens, canʹt you see how you are being oppressed.

Didnʹt you open your dark eyes. Down with the communists, down with the robbers, long live anarchism. ʺ

In the villages of Uryupinskaya and Lukovskaya, proclamations were found, pasted in several copies under the heading: ʺQuiet Don to you.ʺ Here are excerpts: “These impudent, unbridled boors keep repeating about the poor sufferer people, and at the same time they rob him to the last thread. Stanichniki, the Socialist‐Revolutionary Party calls on you to be ready to fight this insatiable shark and the entire Soviet oprich [n] other. Soon there will be a moment when you will raise your Cossack banner high and you will live in the old way ‐ in the Cossack way. We know that it’s hard for you, but you strengthen yourself, calm down, like before a storm, lull these satraps with compulsory obedience, and let the enemy not hear the Cossack groan until the required hour”.

Instead of a signature, the appeal ends with initials of seven letters, which, apparently, should denote the initial letters of some anti‐Soviet organization.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Soloviev

APPENDIX No. 3

LOW SOVIET APPARATUS

1. The littering of the grassroots co‐apparatus after the secondary reelections

North Caucasus. Don district. April 1, 1925. In with. Bolshe‐Orlovsky, despite the peasant composition of the population, went to the village council: a member of the church council, a former volost foreman and three people under investigation.

In sl. Semikarakorskaya, despite active participation in the voting of party and trade‐union organizations, an element alien to Soviet power penetrated into the Council: the former chairman of the village council (former member of the Cossack military district ¹⁵⁹) again got to this position. Also elected was the son of the village ataman, two former officers and a major winemaker, a former Socialist‐Revolutionary, the latter, before the re‐election, led an underground campaign among his henchmen with the aim of bringing “his people” to the village council. In the Khryashchevsky village council, a secretary and a local priest campaigned against the entry of communists into the council. The elected were: 1) the former cornet of the White army, the commander of the detachment of General Mamontov, the former chieftain, kulak; 2) the chairman of the village council, a former official, has close ties with the kulaks and clergy; 3) the former khutor chieftain, who served in the White Army, at general meetings always opposes the measures of the Soviet government, during a hunger strike he shot 12 families of the poor, for which he was under investigation; 4) a reemigrant, served in the punitive detachment of General Mamontov as a sergeant, a member of the church council, at general meetings opposes the measures of the Soviet government; 5) a former farm chieftain; 6) former village chieftain, fist; 7) [...] served in a punitive detachment under the Whites, participated in the execution of the Red Army at st. Konstantinovskaya. The rest were former white officers and middle peasants, only one poor man passed, not a single communist.

Don district. April 15, 1925 In hut. Albashi recruited 14 kulaks and 6 poor people, two of them are members of the RCP, the rest are nonpartisan. The chairman of the village council was elected a non‐partisan middle‐class Cossack, a former clerk of the Denikin headquarters, a participant in the white uprising in 1918 in the city of Yeisk, noticed in the theft of goods when he was chairman of the EPO board in 1924. His first deputy is a non‐partisan Cossack, an enemy of Soviet power, always agitates against its activities, the former secretary of the military field court under the Whites in 1918, a participant in the White uprising in the city of Yeisk in 1920‐1921, was involved in banditry. The Konelovsky village council elected: 78 people of kulaks, middle peasants and former bandits and 20 people of poor people, including the teacher Rzhevskaya, a former baroness, a landowner, the wife of a former member of the State Duma, now a member of the Labor Pros union, 3 former Red Army soldiers and 4 members of the RLKSM, not a single communist. Elected to the presidium of the village council: 1) a former wartime official, a kulak, a former clerk of the headquarters of the Kuban Cossack army, an enemy of Soviet power, 2) a middle Cossack, brother of the former chieftain, a member of a military court under the Whites, 3) a former member of the Kuban Regional Rada, in 1918 he killed a teacher for speaking in defense of Soviet power, a former chieftain and a member of the military court under the Whites, 4) Cossack‐kulak, participant in the execution of the Reds in 1918 and 5) middle peasant, loyal to Soviet power. After the by‐elections, the kulaks gloated, saying: ʺNow the land will be ours.ʺ 2) a middle Cossack, brother of the former chieftain, a member of the military‐field court with whites, 3) a former member of the Kuban regional council, in 1918 he killed a teacher for speaking out in defense of Soviet power, a former chieftain and a member of the military‐field court with whites, 4 ) a Cossack kulak, a participant in the execution of the Reds in 1918; and 5) a middle peasant, loyal to Soviet power. After the by‐elections, the kulaks gloated, saying: ʺNow the land will be ours.ʺ

The Shkurinsky village council included: 1) a middle Cossack, a teacher, with a Social Revolutionary bias, 2) a middle Cossack, a teacher, with the same bias, 3) a Cossack kulak, a teacher, closely associated with former atamans and members of the Rada, 4) wartime official, Cossack‐kulak, served in the commissariat of Denikinʹs army, 5) Cossack‐kulak, former village chieftain, 6) Cossack‐kulak, former chieftain and member of the Kuban Rada.

In the Starocherkassk village council, the pre‐election meeting was disrupted by a group of kulak and anti‐Soviet elements, who demanded re‐elections, not by‐elections, and the leader of the group, Merkulov, shouted: ʺThe boors of the Bataysky shop came to make us by‐elections.ʺ The fists said: ʺTheir number will not work, and we will elect our own.ʺ After the disruption of the meeting, Merkulov organized an illegal meeting at his apartment, which was attended by 25 people from this group. The purpose of the meeting is to prevent the Council of Communists from joining the Council and to achieve reelections by all means. One of the group ‐ the Cossack Vasiliev S.A. (sergeant of the White Army ¹⁶⁰), emphasizing his hostile attitude towards the Soviet regime, demonstratively appeared at church mass in galloons, with the sergeantʹs shoulder straps, with two medals; Citizens present in the church greeted Vasiliev, shouting joyfully: ʺWell, glory to you, Lord, that our old has returned to us.ʺ No action was taken by the police.

Kuban District. April 1, 1925. In stts. Vasyurinskaya, out of 102 members of the Council, about 40 people were elected: six active White Guards, ranging from the ataman to the Wrangelites, white officers, a member of the regional council and persons who oppressed sympathizers of Soviet power during the Whites in the Kuban.

Kuban District. April 15, 1925. The newly elected Council in stc. Pashkovskaya, a former assistant to the chieftain got to the post of head of the tax desk. The Council now also includes kulaks, former white officers, one executioner over the adherents of Soviet power during the whitesʹ stay in the Kuban. Seeing this situation, nonresidents declare that we fought for freedom, through the White Guards we lost our property, our fathers, brothers and wives were hammered to death and hanged, now these same individuals will rule us.

In the Council stts. Nekrasovskaya most of the places behind the kulaks. A former White Cossack officer who lost his leg in a battle with the Red Army was elected chairman. After the elections, the Cossacks say: ʺNow we will show how to take the land of the Cossacks.ʺ These threats are not only in words: on March 22, a member of the presidium of the newly elected Council, together with other three ʺpublic workersʺ, driving through the steppe during the day, met a nonresident, caught him, beat him, stuffing earth into his mouth, saying: ʺHere is your land and freedom., hereʹs the Cossack land for you. ʺ The chairman of the village council did not take any measures against these individuals, as a result of which 38 people from other cities came to us the next day and demanded the immediate arrest of the participants in the beating and humiliation, which was then executed.

Volga region. Samara lips. April 7. In with. Shakhmatovka Sukhorechenskaya parish Buzuluk u. As a result of the re‐election, Trofim Fedorovich Nevzorov, a member of the local church council, and FI Nevzorov, the church regent, were elected to the new village council.

In with. Kamyshly Buguruslaneky u. 30 people were elected to the village council, of which 8 are churchmen and merchants: 1) a merchant and a member of the church council, 2) a former myrrh‐eater‐kulak, 3) a former merchant, a member of the church council, was deprived of his vote in the last elections, 4) a member of the church council, 5) also a merchant, 6) illegal merchant, 7) a member of a church council, 8) a member of a church council.

In with. Ermakovo Buguruslansky district 30 members of the village council were elected, including 15 illiterate people, 1 Komsomol member, 5 members of the church council, namely: Saifiulin Valliula, Shagiev Abry, Akhletukhov Badrettin, Sharafutdinov Shagoli and Kalymov Mingaley, and plus two merchants, Mukhamdyanov Mubin and Vagizov Abdul ‐Galim.

In with. Perelyub in the village council went: 1) a deserter of the Red Army, a former chief of staff of the green army, who actively participated [in the struggle] against Soviet power, after the defeat of the green army ¹⁶¹ hid, but, being caught, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, released early , 2) who was in the camp of White Cossacks, who took an active part against Soviet power, for which he received 5 years of forced labor from the Samara Revolutionary Tribunal, 3) the son of a priest, who was also in the camp of White Cossacks for three years. The poor peasantry, seeing such an abnormal phenomenon, remained very dissatisfied with the elections.

2. Kulak bias

Centre. Tambov province. Morshansky. The treasurer of the Morshansk VIC makes illegal advance payments of public money; so, they were issued for trade to one merchant 200 rubles.

Northwest. Vologda province. In the Zaborsk parish. Totemsky u. VIK member Tyukachev shelters kulaks from taxing them and draws up lists of pre‐conscripts that have been incorrectly settled, adding years to their relatives, thanks to which pre‐conscripts from kulak families are exempt from pre‐conscription training. A member of the same VIK Burtsev issued a certificate for obtaining timber to kulaks and former traders, to kulak Shabanov he issued a certificate as needy, and when Shabanov received timber, he immediately sold it for 300 rubles; having received such a sum, Shabanov arranged a feast where the above two members of the VIC were treated. The same members of the VIC themselves are engaged in forcing moonshine both for themselves and for sale. The property and cattle described by the poor for non‐payment of tax were sold to kulaks for a pittance.

West. Smolensk lips. Chairman of the Zarubinsky District Council of Kasplyanskaya Vol. Demidovsky u. in 1919 he was a member of a gang and participated in the Lelekvin uprising, he took off the last fur coat of a poor woman to pay tax, and encouraged the wealthy. The chairman of the district council is engaged in systematic drunkenness. At the plenum of the VIC, he said that we should not have divisions into classes and that traders and kulaks are good people and we should not offend them.

Bryansk lips. The chairman of the Dubrovsky Volost Executive Committee appointed the son of the former manufacturer Kurakin, who is from his family, to serve in the Volispolkom as a clerk of the tax desk. Kurakinʹs father currently owns a cotton factory, the latter does not work, but is listed as their property. During the audit of the Dyatkovo regional executive committee on the tax part, a defect was discovered.

Crimea. In the Chorgush village council of the Sevastopol region, there is a strong bond between former landowners, officers and kulaks, headed by the chairman of the village council. In the last days of February, anti‐Soviet elements in the countryside collected signatures from peasants, kulaks and landlords to remove from the region members of the RCP, the most active and prominent workers. With this verdict, one of them was sent to the Crimean Central Executive Committee. The chairman of the village council knows about all this, but does not say anything to anyone, he himself is non‐partisan and has caused antagonism in his work between himself and the organization of the RCP.

3. Arbitrariness

North Caucasus. Stavropol District. S. Krugolesskoe. The chairman of the village council (member of the RCP), together with the chairman of the Sadovsky village council, raped the cleaner of the village council (member of the village council) and another citizen. The chairman threatens to take revenge on the village correspondent for an article in the local wall newspaper about the unsanitary state of the village.

Blagodarensky district, with. Serafimovskoe. The chairman of the Council (a member of the RCP) systematically drunken, beat citizens, threatened with weapons, etc., and not only outside the service, but also during office hours. The populationʹs complaints to the regional center are still unsuccessful.

Ukraine. Kiev province. Glyadetsky, chairman of the Zhashkovsky Regional Executive Committee of the Uman District, received 300 rubles. to repair bridges and roads, I bought a horse and a chaise for them, and from the money received from a one‐time fee, I bought myself a portfolio for 16 rubles.

4. Tax creation

North Caucasus. Stavropol District. In with. The Red Village Council invented a tax on dogs. The money was forcibly collected, only after the peasantsʹ petition to the district was the resolution canceled and the money was returned. We have similar phenomena in p. Kazinki of the Kursavsky district, but only there dogs were arrested for not paying tax, and when it was necessary to return the money taken there, the village council announced that they had all been spent on feeding the arrested dogs.

5. Narsud

Centre. Tula lips. Peasants der. Novoselok Serebryano‐Prudskiy RIK on April 18 through the whole society lynching against fellow villager Lobanov, who stole household items from a neighbor and, hiding from the peasants pursuing him into the forest, threatened to set fire to the village. On the same evening, there was indeed a fire, and, as it turned out the next day, it was an arson committed by Lobanov. Then the peasants of the village with the whole community caught him in the forest, brought him to the village and at a general meeting passed a written resolution: ʺIn general, to kill Lobanov for theft and arson of the village.ʺ Immediately after this Lobanov was killed by the peasants. It is characteristic that the decision on the murder of Lobanov was certified by the authorized representative of the district village council Bartenev and has about 50 signatures; we give the full text of this resolution.

that I found a criminal who burned down your village, letʹs go and we will catch him. And we really went in society and caught Lobanov in the forest and brought him to society, and in society everyone unanimously decided: to kill Lobanov as a whole in society for stealing and setting fire to the village. To this we will sign ʺ(about 50 signatures of peasants). I certify the validity of this decree. April 18, 1925. Representative of the district village council N. Bartenev.ʺ

In this case, the prosecutorʹs office arrested 6 people and is conducting an investigation. It should be noted that this lynching of the peasants over the arsonist was caused by the situation itself, since the population of the Serebryano‐Prudskiy region is terrorized by regular arson attacks that took place in March and early April, as we reported in report No. 1. To a large extent, by such actions of the peasants, to arrange lynching favored by the weak organization of the struggle of local authorities against the criminal element. For example, 11 people arrested in Serebryanye Prudy on suspicion of arson were soon released by the local inheritor, although, according to the general opinion of the districtʹs population, the arson came from this gang. As a result, the population loses hope for the fight against criminals from the local judiciary and takes on this mission.

Another typical case of lynching was also noted in the Korsakov district, where the main role was played by the chairman of the district council (member of the RCP (b)), who, suspecting one peasant of stealing a ham from another, tied this ham to a suspect in theft and took him with harmony throughout the village ...

Northwest. Novgorod province. In Troitskaya Vol. Novgorodsky u. two cases of incorrect sentencing by local peopleʹs court were noted, namely: the peopleʹs court sentenced to a fine of 3 rubles. from each householder der. N. Bohr, accusing them of arbitrariness, expressed in the unauthorized mowing of grass. It was established by the local community that only 12 people were cutting the grass, and the court awarded 66 householders, i.e., the whole village, guided by the general list when passing the verdict, without taking into account the protests of the representatives of the society, proving the innocence of 54 householders. These lists also included those citizens who no longer live in the village.

West. Gomel province. In Krasnobudskaya parish. Gomelsky u. the peasants are dissatisfied with the punitive policy; they say that if they catch a thief, they will hold him up for a week and release him, and he continues to steal again, and if he was punished well, he would order the third person not to steal, and then theft, robbery and hooliganism would be destroyed.

Ukraine. Chernihiv province. In many villages of the Okhromeevsky district of the Snovsky district, peasants express their dissatisfaction with the weak fight against banditry. The same discontent was noted in the villages of the Nizhyn Okrug, where the detained criminals are released on the next or third day and terrorize the population.

North Caucasus. Don district. In the village Bataiska, the peopleʹs judge of the 3rd precinct fell under the influence of his secretary, who himself makes decisions on cases, and the judge only signs them. When accepting applications or issuing papers, the secretary collects 1 ruble in excess of duties in favor of the disabled, sticking stamps of 15 kopecks, and sometimes he did not stick it at all. The defenders, knowing his influence, pay him 15‐20 rubles. per month for the notice of the time of the hearing and other services. With peasant visitors, the secretary is rude and often kicks them out of the office.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Soloviev

APPENDIX 4

LAND MANAGEMENT

The struggle of the peasantry for land and conflicts over land management

West. Gomel province. April 10th. In 1922 a group of peasants from the village. Uveritsa Rechna parish. and the uyezd, mostly poor and middle peasants, in the amount of 25‐30 people led the preparation for entering the village, but since not all society agreed to take the form of village land use, a land conflict arose between the population. Due to the disagreement between these groups, a court land case arose, which was considered by the county land authorities, and the project for entering the village was approved. The group, which did not want to land tenure, did not agree with the project approved by the UZS and GZO and filed a cassation appeal to the supreme land control in Moscow. While this case was being resolved, part of the townspeople, after the approval of the land management project of the UZO and GZO, with the onset of spring began to transport their residential and non‐residential buildings to the allotted village. ʺFighterʺ. A decent number of peasants moved to the village. At the beginning of March this year. A group that did not want to land tenure sent an authorized person to the supreme land control in Moscow in order to find out the result of their appeal, and [he] brought a certificate that all decisions of the land commission in their case were canceled and the case was transferred to the Rechitsa UZO for re‐drafting the project. The PEC issued an order to the village council of the village not to disturb, harass, and not interfere with further resettlement to the village. Village council village. Uvoritsa, headed by the chairman, the secretary and several members, did not obey the order of the PEC, the next day they appeared at the VIC and began to protest categorically. On the night of March 28‐29 this year. houses and gates of those overlooking the village were smeared with tar and large crosses and the letters ʺBʺ were written, which should have meant “death to the group of the village. Fighterʺ. On the next day, the VIC at its meeting once again confirmed its previous order, which was reported to the PEC. The latter, at a meeting of April 1, 1925, decided not to interfere with the transfer of land from the center to the village. The group of those who do not want to settle in land categorically stated that they would not obey the resolutions of the VIK and PEC, they would not recognize them and would act and do as they themselves know, as they act on the basis of the decision of the center. After the departure of the PEC representatives, a group of those unwilling to settle the land entirely left for the village land, began to plow the repulsed plans for the construction of the townspeople¹⁶², breaking and chopping fences, sheds. The crowd was armed with stakes and axes, in front of the crowd the prosperous peasant Daniel Severinov carried a white flag. Shouts were heard from the crowd: ʺDown with the communistsʺ, ʺDown with land management, down with the Red Army, down with the poor.ʺ To settle the conflict and prevent carnage, messengers were sent to the PEC. In the village. Levashakh of Rechitsa parish a group of people unwilling to settle in land categorically declared to the townspeople that they would not give the land allocated to them for the village to plow. To settle the issue, a commission from the VIC left, but there are no results yet.

Smolensk lips. April 18th. Kulak der. Dyakonovo Suburban Vol. Dorogobuzhsky u. Romanenkov, slowing down land management, dragged the poor to the courts, and as a result, the poor filed a complaint against him with a request to evict him from the province. A similar brake on the land management from the kulaks is noted in the village. Zaborovo Safonovskaya Vol.

Belarus. In the Orsha district, land management in the village. Tushkovo, Goretsky district, began in 1921. 57 households were subject to land management. Well‐to‐do peasants, including 40 households, were organized against land management, who, with all sorts of machinations, tried to achieve the termination of the case. In 1922 the kulaks, having bribed the secretary of the judicial‐land commission, the land surveyor and the clerk of the UZU, achieved that the land management business of the village. Tushkovo was stolen and burned. To achieve this, the kulaks collected 250 poods for bribes. of bread. Despite the failure, the poor people of the village in 1924 opened a new case in the Goretsky Regional Executive Committee. This case was sent from the RIK to the Orsha okrZO and from the latter to the Minsk Supreme Land Court, which approved the case and returned to the Orsha okrZO for execution. A land surveyor went to the land management site from Orsha, but this surveyor turned out to be the son‐in‐law of one kulak from the village. Tushkovo, which for a long time dragged out to the place. At that time, the kulaks filed a statement of their disagreement with the Orsha regional district administration, where, in spite of the fact that the Supreme Land Court, as well as the regional district law, had approved the case, they ensured that an attitude was sent to the Goretsky District Administration to review the case. By the decision of the land court at the RIK, it was finally forbidden to carry out land management in the village. Tushkovo. After this decision, the poor again turned to the Orsha okrZO with a petition for a new revision, where they accidentally met with the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Land of Belarus, Comrade Prishepov, who ordered to immediately investigate the case and personally report the results to him in Minsk. The kulaks, apparently, were not afraid of this either, and they only say that it cost them 100 rubles to bribe the Gorky authorities, and if they collect 300, they will bribe the Okrug ZAO.

Ukraine. Kharkiv province. In the Zmievsky village council of the same district in 1923, about 400 dessiatins were nationalized. land, which is distributed among the members of the KNS, but the kulaks, having organized, drove the poor from the land they previously owned and initiated a lawsuit. As a result, the land is still controversial.

In the Akhtyrka district in the Bogodukhovsky district, the well‐to‐do peasantry group together and hold meetings with the aim of disrupting land management. For this purpose, they have nominated three commissioners, who must campaign against land management.

In with. False Sumy District there is a group of up to 40 people who set themselves the goal of disrupting land management.

Kiev province. In the Shevchenko district, about 70 kulaks from the villages of Vesely Kut, Zatonskoye, Velikaya Volnianka, Dubovka, Kosyakovka, Antonovka of the Koshevatsky district and some villages of the Vinogradsky district organized a meeting on the farm of the Zhivotovsky kulak with the goal of organizing in the spring and not giving the selected surplus land that the poor are endowed with. At the meeting, they assigned a representative in each village, who should organize kulaks for a common struggle against the local authorities and the poor, as well as collect money to send delegates to Kharkov and other centers. At the same meeting, the Land Code and other orders concerning the selection of surpluses were sorted out with their fists.

Podolsk lips. In with. Belaovtsi of the Proskurovsky district, the kulaks oppose land management in every possible way, and there were cases when on this basis the kulaks knocked out windows in the houses of the poor.

In with. The kulaks from Krasnoselskaya Gaisinsky Okrug do not allow land management to be carried out and declare that ʺall the communists will be beaten, but they will not be allowed to conduct land management.ʺ

Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. In the Krivoy Rog district, the obstacle to land management is the opposition and stubborn resistance of the kulaks, who in 1918 and 1919. captured the best tracts of land. So, in the Mikhailovsky district, fists captured more than 3000 dess. land. The same was noted in the Adamovsky region, where, thanks to the weakness of the village councils, the land of state funds was sown with kulaks.

Donetsk province. In the village. Reznikovka of the Artyomovsk district, the opposition of the kulaks to the land management caused a sharp anger on the part of the non‐cheaters, who posted an anonymous announcement with the following content: “Reznikovʹs sex of the kulaks. For the last time I declare that if you interfere with land management, you will have a ʺSt. Bartholomewʹs nightʺ for 50 yards to the cradle. This is already there, the night is scheduled, and there are people who drew lots and whose hand will not tremble, and will give you eternal cuts, such cuts that the legs and heads will be chopped off. The last and final blow to you. Choose any ‐ either death to you, or land management for us, otherwise the ʺSt. Bartholomewʹs nightʺ is on the nose, and you, damned, will not have mercy. Here is a letter for you in conclusion of the words, I ask you not to disrupt the ad, if someone rips off, then a bullet will hit his forehead. ʺ

North Caucasus. Don district. In stts. Novo‐Minskaya at the meeting on land management was attended by up to 70% of the Cossacks. At the meeting, the question of not allotting land to nonresident was raised. One of the drunken Cossacks suggested applying the old tsarist laws in land management. At the suggestion of the presidium of the meeting to the policeman to take the drunk out, the enraged mass of Cossacks began to shout: “Who has the right to arrest, we don’t want land, we don’t need land management, these sons of bitches ‐ the townspeople immediately want to catch up with us, take all the land, we should have driven them out long ago from here, hang, beat the townspeople and communists. ʺ After that, they all went to the exit. It is characteristic to note that while the kulaks and the Cossacks are feverishly grouping themselves together to fight, the poor remain passive.

In the hut. Kukharevsky at the general meeting was the question of allotting land to nonresident and demobilized Red Army soldiers. A member of the village council, a Cossack who spoke, said: ʺGive them land near the sea, where there are telegraph poles for them, bastards.ʺ

Salsky district. Land Society with. Bogoroditsky was divided into two groups of ʺindigenousʺ and ʺnonresidentʺ. The indigenous population categorically denies newcomers in land, despite the fact that many of them have been living in the village for thirty years. All persuasions of local authorities do not lead to any result. The Cossacks say: “Let the state give from its reserve fund, and not take the last from us. It seized all the land of the landowners and transferred them to the state farms for which we have to work. ʺ

Stavropol District. In with. Kugult, at a meeting on the issue of land management, local kulaks shouted that they would not obey the circular of the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Land and such circulars can be bought as much as necessary for money, and they drove the speaker from the rostrum without letting him finish.

Kabardino‐Balkar region April 11 at stc. Aleksandrovskaya Urvan district, a handful of prosperous people with the support of the middle peasants and the poor, taking advantage of the absence of the executive committee, decided not to give land to all nonresident living in the village, arguing that there is such a statute. 75 families ‐ 243 souls ‐ were excluded from the general land use, which were given only 3 fathoms of land each. In view of this, the latter are doomed to starvation, having no crops. The land dispute in the regional Central Executive Committee and the regional land administration has not been resolved, and the sowing campaign has already begun.

Inactivity and red tape in zemorgan

Centre. Moscow province. In Sergievsky u. peasantsʹ complaints about red tape in the UZO for land management. There are cases that have been waiting for a land surveyor since 1920, but the peasants have already paid a deposit for the work.

Currently, the UZU has about 100 unused land management files, of which 75% in UZU have been idle for one to 2 years. The peasants, sending delegates, cannot achieve any results.

In the UZO, preparatory land plots lie for months or more unconsidered. Sessions of the county land council are not convened. Ready proposals and resolutions are signed without any meeting. Preparatory cases to be returned for additional preparation are not returned but lie motionless. Out of 84 cases, only 4‐5 cases were prepared and sent to the Ministry of Education and Science. The RCD commissioner is often absent, without leaving a deputy, due to which a lot of statements accumulate, which lie without any movement, since no issue is resolved without an authorized person; so, for example, the statement of the peasants der. Abramovo Sharapov parish not allowed for more than 6 months.

In Pushkin parish. Moscow u. the land redistribution process has been going on for two years.

Yaroslavl province. Peasant der. Shimanova Vyatka parish at the meeting, he pointed out that it has been two years since they submitted an application for redistribution, but there are still no results, part of the money was paid to the land surveyor, who still does nothing.

Northwest. Leningrad province. Peasants der. Bolshaya Volya Volkhovsky u. petitioned for land management back in 1919, having paid most of the payment for the work, but land management work has not yet been carried out in the village.

West. Smolensk lips. Peasants der. Alekseevka Ershichsky parish Roslavlsky two years ago they raised the question of land management. In 1923, a land surveyor came, examined the land and the case was sent to the UZU, but until now no answer has been received. Land use is confusing, with wealthy peasants taking over and owning large tracts of land. The same phenomenon is noted in the village. M. Kuzamovka Seshchenskaya Vol., Where the peasants have been waiting for the resolution of the land management issue for two years.

Gomel province. In the village. Sachkovichi Klimovsk parish Novozybkovsky u. land management began in 1921 and has not been completed to this day. Instead of a 4‐field, a two‐field is conducted. The UZO took the payment for land management work in full, and the villages were not broken up into the fields.

Belarus. In the Krasnopolsky district of the Kalininsky district, the peasants have filed a petition for land management for about two years, but there are still no results. Everywhere in this district it is noted that the petitions for land management have been unmet for a very long time.

At the Koydanovsky Minsk District District Congress of Soviets, on the report on the activities of the old RIK, many pointed to the red tape in the land department. It was stated that one peasant had to visit the land department 92 times.

Abnormalities and abuse

Centre. Kaluga lips. In Spas‐Demensky u. in 1921, land surveyor Meshcheryakov made a cut of land in the villages of Salovo and Zhitenki, Silkovichi parish. from the former land of the landowner Nadalyak, for which Meshcheryakov took a 3‐year‐old bull from the citizens, and up to 200 he was transported timber to the house and all property and furniture. But the slashed land is still controversial, since Meshcheryakov brought two villages together. He kept the case all the time. At the present time, all material on the disputed land has been collected and sent to the Municipal Administration.

Voronezh province. Pos. Potakin V. Arkhangelsk district of Novokhopersk u. collected 1000 poods. grain to pay for the landarrangement, which the village council spent on their own needs, and the peasants again have to collect funds to pay.

West. Smolensk lips. Former land surveyor of Demidov UZU Gubchevsky from citizens of the village. Osinovka Prigorodnaya Vol. received in 1923 62 rubles. 43 kopecks on account of land management by issuing a private receipt for receipt; in the same manner in 1924 the land surveyor Glukhov received from the citizens of the village. Semyonovo Kasplyanskaya Vol. 363 r 13 kopecks and from the village. V. Loginovo ‐ 196 rubles. 59 kopecks Surveyor Abramov from the citizens of the village. Pudenki Ponizovskaya parish similarly received 45 rubles. 20 kopecks the amount received has not been listed in the books of the local administration until now, and land management has not been started.

Belarus. In the Kalininsky Okrug, an abnormality in land management is unsystematic and illegitimate since all cases were limited to a simple withdrawal of settlements without further arrangement. The population grumbles about the high rates of payment and the slowness, as the queues have to wait for years.

In the Beshenkovichi district of the Vitebsk district, the poor complain about the incorrect establishment of land norms. So, for example, a farm with two labor units at 9.5 dess. convenient land, which is entirely preserved, and the economy with two labor units and 4.72 dess. convenient land is not subject to allotment (cutting).

Ukraine. Donetsk province. A group of peasants ‐ 19 farms arrived from Siberia to the Sergievskoe society of the Artyomovsk district and occupied a plot of 400 dessiatines, on which they settled down and used it until recently. The regional administration suggested that these farms remove buildings and move out, allegedly on the grounds that, according to the law, non‐Ukrainians cannot receive land in Ukraine without the permission of the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Land. The peasants in this group are predominantly poor.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Soloviev