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Review of the political state of the USSR
Review of the political state of the USSR in February 1925
A source: ʺTop Secretʺ: Lubyanka to Stalin on the situation in the country (1922‐1934), v. 3 1925, Moscow, 2002 Top secret the USSR
United State Political Administration Information Department April 7,
1925 Moscow
Ex. No.
Top secret
Store as cipher
Comrade ....
At the same time, an overview of the political state of the USSR for the month of February 1925 is transmitted. The review is compiled on the basis of data from the state information of the OGPU Inform Department, supplemented by materials from the OGPU departments: Secret (anti‐Soviet parties and groups), Special (Red Army), 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 heads of the OGPU and PP OGPU departments 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 and the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP, as well as the chairmen of the executive committees and CECs of the autonomous republics.
Note: Attachments to the survey of government departments are not sent.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Prokofiev
CONTENT
1. Workers
2. Peasantry
3. Red Army
4. Anti‐Soviet parties and groups
5. Orthodox clergy
6. Banditry Applications on 15 sheets
Note: In Appendix No. 7 to the December survey, the section ʺRepressionʺ, Kuban District, is mistakenly written: ʺSold at auction
1753 farmsʺ, it should read: ʺSold at auction 175 farmsʺ
WORKERS
In February, there were almost no major economic conflicts. Of the 14 strikes that took place, most were insignificant in terms of the number of participants (from 20 to 100 people) and duration (up to one day).
Metallurgical industry. Most conflicts are primarily due to higher production rates and lower prices. On this basis, there were six partial strikes (ʺRed Shipbuilderʺ in Leningrad, Duminichesky iron foundry ʺRevolutionaryʺ, Pipe plant in Penza, Izhevsk plants, etc.). After the January strike at the Bryansk plant ʺProfinternʺ the mood of the workers there remains not entirely calm, and there is a tendency among some skilled workers to leave the plant. A similar phenomenon takes place at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant (27 skilled workers left) and at the plant named after V. Martha in the Odessa province. Noteworthy are the facts of participation in some strikes and bagpipes of communists and Komsomol members (at the Rykov plant in the Oryol province and at the ʺKrasny Sormovoʺ).
In the provinces, there are cases of a rather long delay in the issuance of earnings (Belokholunitskiy plant of Vyatka province, Sevastopol marine plant, etc.).
Textile industry. Dissatisfaction with the transition of work on three sides did not lose its acuteness in February.
A case of some communists speaking out against the new method of work at the former factory Tsindel in Moscow was noted. Often the cause of conflicts is the tactless approach to workers on the part of individual administrators. At the factory of the Vysokovskaya Manufactory (Tver Cotton Trust), the communists were not allowed to speak at a production conference, and the meeting ended with the demonstrative departure of the workers. Dissatisfaction with low prices is noted at a number of textile enterprises in IvanovoVoznesensk, Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Tver and Leningrad provinces, while there is a decline in labor productivity on this basis. At the Rolma factory in Yaroslavl, workers use empty cars, and when they are asked why they are doing this, the answer is: ʺWe are raising productivity.ʺ Particularly strong dissatisfaction with the increase in the norm and the reduction outlined on this basis was noted at the Arzhen cloth factory; at the plenum of the factory committee, more than 100 workers spoke on this issue and there were threats to stop all the machines; it should be noted that there was a great deal of dissatisfaction in this factory with the bloated administrative staff (workers indicated that the factory had 25 accountants and 17 engineers).
Mining. The reason for the massive discontent among the miners is still the delay in salaries and the issuance of orders for it to the workersʹ cooperatives, most of them working unsatisfactorily. On this basis, many workers are starving (Dolzhanskoe mining administration and Pervomaisky mine in Donbass).
Another cause of conflict is higher rates and low prices. Due to low prices at the Anzhero‐Sudzhensk mines, one artel did not go to work for 3 days and two artels did not go out for one shift; at the Lenin mines (Siberia), a worker, a member of the RCP (b), supported the workersʹ demand and pointedly declared his refusal to work for 50 kopecks. in a day. At the Yegoryevsk mines (Ural), due to a 50% decrease in earnings, 30‐40 people did not go to work every day. Dissatisfaction over the rise in norms and low rates is observed at many mines in Donbass.
Other industries. In the timber and sugar industries, the issues of timely payment of wages are still not settled (in some factories the wages are delayed up to 3‐4 months), the same is noted in the glass industry.
PEASANTRY
The class stratification of the village
Factors of economic stratification of the village. The materials received in February make it possible to more clearly identify some characteristic features of the relationship between individual economic groups in the village. Inventory plays a significant role in the growth of the kulak economy. The availability of equipment enables the kulak to exploit significant masses of low‐power farms in the Altai province. such ʺinventoryʺ farms often have small plots, and their income from leasing machines significantly exceeds income from cultivating the land. This is confirmed by facts in other regions. In Kuban, up to 2one‐third of the harvest, and of the remaining third, the poor must still pay tax. The poor, unable to cultivate the land themselves, largely lease their land. In the Nizhny Novgorod province. in Lukoyanovskiy u. up to 25% of the poor have surrendered their land to the kulaks for a piece of bread, the poor even sell their ʺlabor ration of firewood,ʺ not being able to pay for it themselves. Most often, land is leased to use.
In‐kind lending is also an important factor in the stratification of the village. In Vyatka lips. kulak, the tenant of the mill, the owner of 50 head of cattle, keeps the poor of all the surrounding villages dependent on him, which are his debtors, mainly under the condition of working in the summer.
The materials reveal a very characteristic moment of the presence among the kulaks and prosperous peasants of a stratum of natives of low‐power groups of the village. The growth of the economy of this group (in Siberia, as well as in Kursk province, it received the characteristic designation of ʺsovkulaksʺ) occurs as a result of ʺfeedingʺ at work in the grassroots Soviet and cooperative apparatus. This also applies to the village communists. This group, being Soviet‐minded, however, is completely cut off from the poor. It is interesting that this group, like the entire mass of the middle peasants and the well‐to‐do, is dissatisfied with the benefits provided to the poor, and often pursues a policy of isolating the poor together with the wealthy strata of the countryside.
Impact of the consequences of a crop failure. Compared to previous months, the consequences of crop failure in February are much more acute. Eating bread with an admixture of surrogates has become widespread in the leanest areas. The number of those who eat surrogates reaches individual volosts of Donetsk province. up to 75%, in Samara ‐ 85%, in Saratov ‐ 50%, etc. Across the Donetsk lips. half of the population of the Staro‐Belsk District feeds on surrogates. The number of hungry people is growing in the full sense of the word. The percentage of hungry people in individual volosts of Donetsk province. reaches 30%, Kharkov province ‐ up to 50%, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans in some cases even up to 60%, etc. On the basis of hunger strikes and eating surrogates, there is an increase in diseases and swelling. In the Republic of Volga Germans, up to 600 swollen ones have been counted recently (information is far from complete).
Crop failure with all its weight falls mainly on the poor peasants. Hunger and lack of forage forces them to sell cheap live and dead implements to their fists in order to buy bread for food. In Lipetsk u. Tambov lips. peasants sell plows costing 30‐40 rubles for 10‐8 rubles, and reapers costing 100 or more for 30‐28 rubles. In the Voronezh province. sell houses and outbuildings to kulaks for a pittance. The poor, who previously sold bread at a low price under the limits for paying the tax, now pays 2 rubles in the conditions of a breakthrough in the limit policy. 50 kopecks and more for a pood. On this basis, especially strong dissatisfaction was noted. The ruined poor rents out land on a large scale, and they themselves go to the city in search of earnings.
Tax campaign
The influence of the tax campaign on the stratification of the village. In the reporting period, the fulfillment of the last tax deadline affects very low‐capacity farms, which make up 80‐90% of debtors. These are often completely ruined poor people who do not even have bread. In some cases, this category of defaulters does not have any property that could be described for sale at auction. In the Yaroslavl province. in each village there are about two dozen farms that do not have bread and seeds and are under‐borrowers for 10‐12 rubles. The payment of the last tax term is made on such farms mainly through the sale of draft animals. The following characteristic figures allow us to judge the size of the loss of livestock during the tax campaign. In the Oryol province. 800,000 head of cattle have been thrown onto the market, of which 40% are large. In the IvanovoVoznesensk province. the loss of livestock reaches 40%. In Donetsk province. on the hut. Annunciation sold 80 horses out of 96, on the hut. Petrovsky ‐ 88 horses out of 200 and 29 horses out of 43. In the Ulyanovsk province. many farms that had recovered from the past hunger years were again ruined. Under the influence of the severity of the tax, there is a tendency to abandon land (Orel, Vologda provinces).
Irrational use of discounts. The provided tax rebates for the poor were late and in a number of cases did not reach the localities. In IvanovoVoznesensk province, for example, some VICs provided discounts to the right and to the left for timely implementation of discounts. In the Vyatka lips. Khalturinsky UFO ordered to spend funds of discounts ʺeconomicallyʺ and use the rest for the local budget. This gave the VICs a reason to refuse to provide discounts.
Repression. The use of repressions against non‐payers, accompanied by sheer arbitrariness, continued to be massive (in Tambov Gubernia, the demolition of barns continued to be sold at auction); in a number of provinces, “tax‐pumping squads” are organized under the VIKs, the last belongings are confiscated from the poor, and so on. Auctions where confiscated items are sold are very often organizedly boycotted by peasants. Cases were noted when the buyers were employees of VICs. The confiscated livestock in many cases fell due to lack of proper care.
Shortcomings of the current tax campaign. A number of materials make it possible to identify the negative aspects of the ending campaign. Some of the data below point to a significant increase in the current tax compared to last year, especially the pre‐war one. In the Smolensk province. tax on a number of volosts is twice as much as last year. In Belarus in the Bobruisk district, the peasants believe that the tax is 4‐5 times higher than the pre‐war; in the Mozyr District, the tax is 68% higher than last year. In a number of provinces with developed logging, this year, a strong reduction in logging and other side incomes of the village was not taken into account due to the weather, which made it very difficult to tax the tax. Finally, the taxation of livestock also increased the tax. So, a cow is taxed at 8 rubles. while it costs 20‐25 rubles. Besides, in small‐scale farms, the horse is not used all year round and still has to be fed. As a result of taxation of livestock, there is a widespread increase in its reduction.
In a number of provinces, it is noted that the objects of taxation (land and livestock) do not at all characterize the economic strength of the economy. Quite characteristic in this respect are the data for Altai Gubernia, where the kulak receives 500‐600 poods for the thresher for the autumn season. bread, i.e., approximately harvest from 12 dess.; meanwhile, those with complex agricultural machinery were taxed as middle peasants or poor peasants on the basis of taxation. Characteristically, in Siberia, well‐to‐do peasants and kulaks are in favor of a capitation or land taxation, while the underpowered are in favor of the desirability of an income tax. There are many complaints from peasants that tax relief for pedigree livestock and grass‐sowing is a tax relief for the kulak.
Many abnormalities were noted in the work of the lower financial apparatus, partly as a result of the reorganization of the lower tax apparatus and the ongoing zoning carried out on the eve of the campaign. In Belarus, for example, the accounting carried out at the beginning yielded a significantly smaller number of objects of taxation, and in some places the finalagents added 1 dess. arable land and 1 dess. haymaking. Finally, a lot of discontent is caused by the fact [that] the tax and its due date are not known in advance.
The peasantry is greatly dissatisfied with the supplement to the local budget, mainly because the procedure for spending these funds is completely unknown to the peasantry. At the same time, the peasants are especially outraged by the presence of numerous fees for all sorts of needs. So, almost everywhere, there is a collection for the maintenance of village councils, schools, traveling wage workers, repairing bridges, heating schools and many others.
Rural cooperation
The facts on cooperation in February reveal two serious moments in the state of grassroots agricultural cooperatives: “feeding” workers and massive waste. Not only a non‐party poor man or a fist who has crawled into it is ʺfedʺ through cooperation, but often a communist. In the Altai lips. the chairman of the Chapshinskaya consumer cooperation, a communist, turned from a poor peasant into a strong middle peasant; the chairman of the Barda consumer cooperation and members of the board also turned into tough men. In Kadnikovsky u. North‐Dvinskaya province. members of the board of some cooperatives‐built houses for themselves worth up to 5,000 rubles. ʺFeedingʺ occurs by assigning high rates to cooperative workers. Wages often devour not only all profits, but also the capital of the cooperation. In the Altai lips. The unions in the townships are pursuing a policy of high wages for cooperative workers, in addition to demanding overtime payments, etc. The salary in the surveyed cooperatives is at least 40‐50% of the total expenditure. In one cooperative at 3500 rubles. monthly turnover there are 22 employees and the maintenance of the staff costs 40% of the total expense. If earlier the production of one pound of oil at private factories cost 80‐90 kopecks. minus the cost of purchasing milk, then at present its production at the factories of cooperatives costs 4 rubles. (one salary per pood is 2 rubles); the consequence of this is the low payment to the peasants for milk (43‐47 kopecks. pood), which greatly outrages the village. This pattern is typical for most rural cooperatives.
Another significant evil is waste, which has recently become a mass phenomenon, as well as the large indebtedness of cooperative workers. A clear illustration of this is provided by the state of cooperation in the Moscow province — the accounted waste in rural cooperatives of the Moscow province. per year exceed 360,000. in agricultural credit cooperatives, the personal debt of employees exceeds 15,000 rubles, in consumer cooperatives of Voskresensky district. ‐ 13,000 rubles. etc. Individual workers owe 2‐3 thousand rubles each. The co‐operatives and the grassroots government are heavily indebted. The same is observed in other provinces (see Appendix No. 4).
Production cooperation
In areas with the development of handicraft industries, there is a significant development in the exploitation of a mass of handicraftsmen by entrepreneurs‐kulaks and a struggle against fishing associations. In Moscow province. one such entrepreneur employs up to 200 artisans, even supplying them with machines. These entrepreneurs are fighting the trade unions of handicraftsmen, seeking to degrade them. In a number of cases, these entrepreneurs are themselves agents of government agencies that distribute orders; sometimes, giving work to unorganized artisans, they destroy the emerging associations of artisans. The severity of taxes for artisans is noted, as a result of which their earnings are negligible (in Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province it is equal to 30‐35% of the pre‐war level) (see Appendix No. 2).
The political mood of the village
Secondary re‐elections of the Soviets. The mood of the village in the reporting period was most clearly revealed in the unfolding campaign for the second re‐elections to the Soviets. Wherever they were held, there was a favorable attitude towards cassation of re‐elections on the part of all strata of the peasantry, especially due to the dispatch of invitations and the absence of appointing. (In Voronezh Gubernia, peasants expressed strong satisfaction with the delivery of the summons, recalling the elections to the Constituent Assembly.) The campaign raised a new layer of peasantry to the Soviet public. On average, up to 60‐70% of voters attended the elections everywhere, and up to 90% in certain regions. Women took a significant part in the current re‐elections, and men almost everywhere expressed their dissatisfaction about this. Participation in the elections of women in the Moscow province. averages up to 40%. Another characteristic feature of the past re‐elections is the persistent desire of the kulaks and the antiSoviet stratum of the countryside to use the re‐elections in order to isolate the communists, Komsomol members and the poor in the countryside and use the activity of the peasantry against Soviet power. The cassation of re‐elections is interpreted by this part of the village as a symptom of the weakening of Soviet power and a political concession (ʺThe RCP has weakened, the peasants need to organize their partyʺ ‐ Gomel province; ʺThe power has weakened, the communists are resigningʺ ‐ Tomsk province). In the Moscow province. at a number of meetings demands are put forward for a universal secret ballot, for the granting of the same representation to the peasants as to the workers; the idea is held that ʺthe party has led to the point that it is not trusted.ʺ In the Tambov province. there were a number of protests against the communists, who ʺspent the whole revolution in lukewarm townships and now do not want to leave,ʺ ʺit is necessary to elect people who will go to church and hang icons in the Sovietsʺ; in Kharkov province. at meetings, kulaks shout at the communists ʺdown withʺ, ʺyou are disgusted with usʺ, in the Nizhny Novgorod province. agitation was conducted for the need to ʺknock out all the commissars up to the county.ʺ At the same time, for the first time in the revolution, figures of the past (former policemen, gendarmes, officers) appeared in a significant number of elections in the elections; when they were nominated, they, fearing rejection, thanked the meeting for their confidence and withdrew their candidacies (Voronezh province). Similar facts were noted in other areas.
There are a number of political actions on the part of these strata of the countryside. In the Moscow province. all sorts of SocialistRevolutionary‐minded elements pay great attention to re‐elections. In Volokolamsk u. The Social Revolutionary who spoke at the re‐election meeting proposed a resolution demanding ʺdirect and secret voting, free Soviets, freedom of speech, press, assembly, isolation of the Communist Party and the release of all political prisoners.ʺ Refusals to accept summons to turn up for elections by a number of voters by imposing resolutions on non‐recognition of ʺviolent powerʺ, etc., are typical. After one of the meetings, it was proposed to sing ʺShow me such a monastery where no Russian peasant moansʺ; elsewhere it was suggested ʺto recall the Pugachev revolt.ʺ In the Gomel province. a peasant who spoke at a village meeting ended his speech with the slogan ʺLong live the peopleʹs republic and free heapsʺ; in another village, a former gendarme spoke up calling for ʺturning the weapon the other way.ʺ Performance in one of the volosts of the Tambov province is highly characteristic. a former official who came from Kamchatka, against the local authorities, ʺperverting the line of the centerʺ (ʺwe are not against Soviet power, but against these gangsʺ, ʺwe will replace them with honest positive citizens, and not those hooligans who need 1919, when we were mercilessly robbed ʺ); peasants, he was nominated for the chairman of the VIC, as he ʺis not afraid of any devilsʺ (see Appendix No. 6). In the Oryol province. during the reelection of the Domnikovsky VIK there were speeches of kulaks and Socialist‐Revolutionary elements against the district workers, who do not care about the peasants and receive 100‐150 rubles. a month, they come to the village on trotters. ʺ Similar performances were noted in other regions.
The elections were a kind of ʺpurgeʺ of the grassroots co‐apparatus and cells of the party and the Komsomol. The protests against local communists, who have compromised themselves at work by arbitrariness, drunkenness, fussing with their fists, etc., are everywhere supported by the peasant masses. Komsomol members are especially discontent everywhere due to the tactless behavior of many cells. In the Moscow province. the attitude towards the Komsomol in the elections was negative, in some places Komsomol members were removed from meetings, and they held parallel pre‐election meetings; in a significant number of cases, their candidacies failed. Many spoke out against the communists, who, ʺstealing, are reprimanded and immediately assigned to another place.ʺ At the meetings, they often resisted taking the communists to the congresses of the Soviets (Moscow province). In the Tambov province. the peasants tell the local communist to the chairman of the VIC: ʺClean up in Lebedyan in advance,ʺ to his remark that he is not an ʺimpostorʺ, he is answered: ʺWe did not send for you to Lebedyan.ʺ In the Voronezh province. about the communist candidates being nominated, they say: ʺLet it be with us for two years, then weʹll see.ʺ Along with this, the wiping out of the poor peasants, ʺidlersʺ was carried out, and the economic peasants were mainly elected. This pressure on the rural communists and the poor created a depressive mood among these groups. In Ukraine, there is a report that the non‐cheaters were afraid to speak out against the kulaks and the middle peasants and therefore did not come to the re‐election. In a number of provinces, it is noted that the poor consider the latest measures in relation to the countryside as a turn from the poor towards the kulaks. The communists (Moscow, Penza provinces) are also infected with these sentiments. Need to mark,
The tendency towards the organization of cross‐unions. The trend towards the organization of peasant unions is becoming more widespread in the reporting period, especially in connection with the re‐elections of the Soviets. In February, it manifested itself in six districts and especially brightly in the Center, in the West and in Siberia (24 cases out of 32 recorded in the Union refer to these very regions)
(see Appendix No. 7).
Formation of ideas of cross‐unions. An analysis of the formulation of the ideas of the peasant union shows that different strata of the peasantry do not give quite the same content to this idea. The goals and idea of the union take on a more concrete form. At the same time, the kulaks and anti‐Soviet intelligentsia are trying to smooth out those moments that may show a contradiction in the interests of various strata of the countryside and, conversely, focus the attention of the middle peasantry and the poor on those issues that affect the interests of the entire peasantry as a whole (ʺscissorsʺ) 106.
Form of organization. The kulaks, in their agitation for the cross union, put forward it as an organization of the entire peasantry, as opposed to the class organizations of the KNS, KKOV, Vserabzemles, etc. In the Ukraine, in the Volyn province. kulaks are campaigning against the non‐cheaters for leaving the KNS, so that ʺall villagersʺ unite into one organization ʺKhleborobʺ. In Siberia in the Irkutsk province. at a regional non‐party conference in the city of Cheremkhov, the delegates who raised the question of organizing a cross‐union, when asked by the presidium about the composition of this union, said that it should consist of the ʺpoorʺ, middle peasants and wealthy. The desire to create a cross union on the part of the middle peasants and the poor is due to the weakness of public organizations in the countryside. In the Tula province. in Aleksinsky district the peasants say: ʺWe see no protection either from the communists or from the Soviets, and therefore we must organize a cross union.ʺ In Siberia, Irkutsk province. in with. Dalnye Zakhora peasants‐middle peasants, who demanded at one of the meetings in the presence of the chief executive officer of the Ukom to organize a cross‐union, in response to the reporterʹs answer that they have their own organizations ‐ village councils and KKOV, said: “The village councils and KKOV are foreign organizations for us, and besides, they do not work well.ʺ However, in some places the peasants declare that they need an alliance as “a union of the poor and middle peasants” (North Caucasus, Kuban District). In some cases (apparently, where the organizations of the poor are stronger) the kulaks put forward the idea of the cross‐union as a purely kulak organization. In the Western Territory in Belarus, there was an attempt to organize a kulak ʺsociety of farmersʺ.
Cross‐union program. The idea of a cross union arose as the idea of a kind of professional organization, which was supposed to protect the interests of the entire peasantry. In the Moscow province. the peasants call it ʺpeasant trade unionʺ, i.e., an organization that protects the economic interests of the peasantry in the same way that workersʹ trade unions protect the interests of workers. In the Voronezh province. there is an agitation for the creation of a cross union in order to ʺdictate prices for agricultural products.ʺ In Siberia, Irkutsk province. in the above case in p. The peasants from Dalny Zakhor said that they needed a cross union ʺto dictate their conditions to the workers, especially in matters of wages.ʺ There the peasants demanded that they be given the right to organize a cross‐union on an all‐Russian scale. At the same time, the cross union is often thought of as an organization with the goal of influencing the general policy of the Soviet government in relation to the peasantry. ʺThe Soviet government will only then reckon with the peasantry if it unites in cross unions,ʺ said the kulak‐agent of the State Insurance at a meeting with. Spassky, Omsk province; ʺThe Soviet government is doing the wrong thing, helping the poor and farm laborers; these peasants need to fight and organize themselves into cross unionsʺ (speech of one peasant at a memorial meeting in Leninʹs days in Novonikolaevsk province); ʺAgricultural partnerships and KKOV are economic associations, the union of grain growers will be a proletarian unionʺ, meaning ʺpoliticalʺ (speech of a non‐party peasant at an open party meeting of the Primorsko‐Akhtar organization of the Kuban Okrug, North Caucasus, proposing to organize a cross union as a union of the poor and middle peasants).
Crestparty. In some places, the tendency to give the cross union a political character is even more pronounced. In the Novonikolaevskaya province. in the village. Gusiny Bor, the chairman of the agricultural partnership, insisted on the need to organize into a cross‐union ʺin order to nominate their representatives to the highest
authorities.ʺ There is also a desire, especially on the part of the kulaks, to organize a cross‐party. At the same time, the importance attached to the organization of the cross‐party shows that the difference in the name ‐ ʺpartyʺ and not ʺunionʺ ‐ is not accidental. In Siberia, in the Omsk province. at a meeting of peasants der. Andreevka, one peasant, expressing his dissatisfaction with the fact that ʺthe Communist Party bustles its members everywhere,ʺ said: ʺCanʹt we organize our own labor party.ʺ In the West, in the Gomel province. at a meeting on the upcoming re‐election, a kulak spoke out, that “the RCP has weakened and the peasants need to organize their party, since the peasants are in the majority, and when they are united, then a handful of communists will not take such taxes, and for this it is necessary to elect to the village council not a poor man who does not know how to protect a peasant, but wealthy people who having gone to the village council, VICs, PECs, will not obey the RCP. ʺ In the Volga region in the Samara province. the kulak in a quarrel with the communist declared: ʺWe will prepare our party against the communists and soon we will destroy you.ʺ
Attempts to start organizing cross unions. The spread of the idea of the ʺcross unionʺ as a political organization of the peasantry does not occur without the influence of the socialist and monarchist strata of the countryside. The latter not only ʺhelpʺ to form the idea of the crossunion, but often act as organizers in the emergence of the cells of the cross‐union. Attempts to start organizing a cross‐union were registered in February 4. In the Moscow province. in Volokolamsk u. an antiSoviet group was formed, aiming to organize a cross union. In the West, in Belarus, an attempt was noted to organize a ʺsociety of farmersʺ, the initiator of which was the monarchist. In the Armavir district, the reorganization of the KKOV in two districts was understood as the formation of a ʺunion of grain growersʺ; many new members joined, membership fees were diligently paid, and a large work program was outlined.
Antagonism to the city. The materials for February continue to note the growth of the mood of discontent with the Soviet regime and antagonism towards the city. These sentiments very strongly cover a part of the poor, more ruined and enslaved by the kulaks. The economic poor and the middle peasants adjoining them are in general Sovietminded, while the part of the middle peasants, adjoining the kulaks, follows the latter.
The mood of antagonism towards the city manifests itself in a number of speeches at peasant meetings (especially during re‐elections). At the Center in Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. regarding the inventory of the property of the debtors, the peasants say that ʺnow there are no landlords, instead of them, the landowners, there is a state that also exploits the peasantry by way of tax, and for non‐payment of it sells the property of the peasants.ʺ The mood of antagonism towards the city was very clearly manifested in a poem written by a pre‐conscript student of the Likhoslavl district of Novotorzhsky u. Tver province, in which he calls on the peasant: “Let the peasant rise and come out of oppression, he will chain the workers then. If the worker does not get out of this oppression, he will stay there forever” (see Appendix # 7). In the North‐West along the North‐Dvinskaya province. the ruined poor are waiting for a ʺsecond revolutionʺ or the fall of power, because ʺthe poor at this time are more offended than ever, hearing the slogan of freedom and still sitting in chains, not having the strength and will to throw them off” (typical conversations). In Siberia, in the Omsk province. at the village meeting, the middle peasant said: ʺIn Nicholas, the tricolor flag meant the nobility, the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry, and now the red one means the domination of parasites at the expense of the peasant.ʺ In the Altai lips. in the week of mourning, the peasants who spoke said: “The speakers covered everything superficially, in fact, the peasants who expected liberation from the Soviet government were enslaved by it; they took the winepress from the neck, and hung the millstone; Soviet power is one deception. ʺ In the Irkutsk province. at a non‐party peasant conference, the middle peasant pointed out that ʺthe communists always and everywhere deceive the peasants and that if the peasants were in power, it would be completely different.ʺ
The activity of the kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements. The activity of the kulaks is growing noticeably, manifesting itself in terror, in open speeches, in the distribution of anti‐Soviet leaflets and appeals, in the organization of anti‐Soviet groups and in a persistent struggle against political educational organizations in the countryside ‐ the Komsomol, pioneer detachments, reading rooms, Soviet schools, etc.
Terror. In February (according to incomplete information), 93 cases of terror were registered in the Union. Its slight decrease in comparison with January (about 160 cases) can be explained, on the one hand, by the distraction of the peasantryʹs attention by the new agricultural season and, on the other hand, by the cassation of elections, which was met with goodwill by all strata of the peasantry. The development of terror in the regions of the Union is approximately the same as in January. The largest number of cases of terror took place in the Center
(17), in the West (21), in Ukraine (22), in the Volga region (10), in Siberia (9). There are cases of massive, organized attacks and beatings, especially of active Soviet and party workers in the village. Particularly noteworthy is the case of dispersal in Novonikolaevskaya lips. delegatesʹ meeting of women by the kulak youth, and the delegates were raped, beaten, tied to a cross.
Speech by the kulaks. A number of facts were noted that testify to the growing activity of the kulaks. In the Tula province. a group of kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements discussed the question of how to ʺpursue their own line in order to incite the population against Soviet power.ʺ There, one of those present was instructed to necessarily become a member of the RCP in order to ʺcarry on their work there.ʺ In the Tver province. one anti‐Soviet peasant organized a group of young people under the slogan ʺagainst the Komsomolʺ, trying to pull the Komsomol members over to him and in every possible way to fight the Komsomol cells. In the Yaroslavl province. anti‐Soviet elements used the wall newspaper of the reading room for propaganda against the government, which contained an article criticizing the government and proving that the peasantry in tsarist times ʺlived happily ever after, needing nothing.ʺ Bullying youth pioneers by the elderly and clergy and religious propaganda became commonplace everywhere. At the same time, in order to attract the poor to their side, the kulaks lend them loans (in Ulyanovsk gubernia, for this purpose, traders distributed up to 800 rubles to the poor).
Distribution of provocative rumors and leaflets. The spread of all kinds of provocative rumors was noted throughout the Union. Here are some of the most characteristic facts. In the Kaluga province. an officer of the old army in a conversation with the peasants declares that the old officers ʺwill still show themselves in the arena of struggle, we are not sleeping, but working, in April we will try (to raise an uprising) in the presence of an alliance with the Balkans, Poland and in the presence of our forces.ʺ In Ryazan lips. The sergeant told the peasants that ʺthe power of the communists is going into the realm of tradition.ʺ In the Novonikolaevskaya province. In a conversation with the peasants, the priest said that ʺSoviet power will soon change and a constituent assembly headed by the president will be convened in its place.ʺ Similar cases are common in a large number of provinces.
The reporting month marked the spread of anti‐Soviet appeals and leaflets in various regions of the Union, calling for a fight against the Soviet government and the communists. In the Nizhny Novgorod province. in Sormovsky u. an appeal to ʺAll the peasantsʺ was spread, calling for the ʺoverthrow of Soviet powerʺ, a call for the rule of the country by the former Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, signed ʺAn advanced group of front‐line soldiersʺ In the Tula province. in Efremovsky u. leaflets were found calling for unification against the RCP and Soviet power under the leadership of the Cadets. In the Voronezh province. in Bogucharsky u. in the village community was sent ʺAppeal to the citizens with. Gobies and Komsomol members and communists ʺ, which says that Lenin isʺ the enemy of Russia ʺwho brought the country to ruin, thatʺ the time will come and we will destroy all our oppressors. ʺ The appeal ends with the slogan: ʺLong live free Russia, long live the Constituent Assembly and the right of the people, and not you, the oppressors.ʺ In the Tambov province. in Lipetsk u. up to 10 anti‐Soviet slogans threatening ʺretributionʺ to the communists were pasted up, signed ʺIskraʺ. In the Urals, in the city of Sverdlovsk, two proclamations were pasted up calling for the overthrow of the Soviet regime and the RCP, signed by the ʺUnderground Committeeʺ. In the North Caucasus, in the Tersk district in the stts. Chernoyarskaya, an anonymous appeal appeared with an appeal to remove all non‐local workers from power. In Ukraine, in the Poltava province. was found Petliura proclamation, written, apparently, back in 1919 in the Kiev province. in with. Markushah in the hut‐reading room were found three leaflets, timed to mourning days, urging the poor to leave komezem, and young people ‐ to leave the Komsomol. One of the leaflets says: ʺWe must create the 4th International, more just than the 3rd, now our slogan is down with the Jews, down with the oppressors, the land for the peasants, the bullet for the communist Jew.ʺ In Siberia, Tomsk province. on the Kaibinsky hut. a proclamation was found on the tree, which says: ʺWe have pressed, we are pressing and will continue to crush the communists until we destroy them.ʺ
RED ARMY
The nutritional status of the parts remains the same as compared to January, and the improvement is very slow and slow. Monotony, low nutritional value and poor quality of food are still noted. These phenomena are similar for all districts.
Both individual examples and cases, as well as the investigation of such, say that the main reason for all the above abnormalities and shortcomings is due to the inoperability of the economic apparatus of the units. This incapacity is expressed, firstly, in the inability and, secondly, and perhaps in most cases, in the negligence and even criminality of the personnel of the households.
Bad storage of food, chaotic accounting, slovenliness, the conclusion of unfavorable contracts, combinations with sums of money ‐ all this with sufficient clarity confirms the above provision on the personnel of household workers.
A more or less gratifying situation is observed in the uniforms of units. Most of the units are 100% equipped with the main types of uniforms, but in some parts the shoes have become unusable, which is aggravated by the lack of repair materials (16 and 4 divisions of the JIBO and 36 divisions of the SVO).
Parts still complain about the large lack of bedding. These material and household shortcomings are aggravated by a number of the following abnormalities: unequipped barracks, insufficient amounts of money for bath and laundry allowance, inadequacy of the supplied fuel rate with the need for parts and, finally, as a consequence of all the above reasons and circumstances, an increase in lice and morbidity.
The political state of the Red Army mass can be largely determined by the same tax sentiments that were observed in the past period. To this can be added a very widespread dissatisfaction on the basis of material and domestic shortcomings. The latter form of discontent, at any rate, has not diminished.
Specifically, peasant sentiments associated with the collection of taxes, although quantitatively to an insignificant extent, have decreased, but in essence and the way of reaction by the Red Army (SVO, SKVO, ZVO), such have acquired a more acute form. The threats of the Red Army soldiers to the rural apparatus and communist cells in the reporting month stand out sharply in their form and force to take appropriate measures from the political agencies, the command, and especially the local authorities (SVO).
Along with this, vacation moods grow and increase. The craving for home is the cherished dream of most of the Red Army men, as evidenced by letters to relatives and conversations among themselves in units. The desire to get home sometimes so captures the Red Army soldier that the idea of self‐harm as the only way out of a ʺhard lifeʺ arises in him.
Naturally, in the reporting month, indiscipline did not diminish in comparison with the previous period. Cases of unauthorized absences and desertions have increased. In the Western Military District, the first are taking on an organized character.
In the 2nd division, the Red Army men collected money from their comrades for travel so that upon the return of some it would be possible to go to others (those who were absent without permission).
Both unauthorized absences and desertions deserve special attention in the Force of the approaching warm weather.
Unauthorized absences
Desertion
December
63 cases
126
(in all districts)
January
187 ‐ ʺ‐
96
(excluding CCA, TF and UVO)
Command staff. The gap between the senior and middle command personnel noted in previous reviews from the Red Army mass and the junior command personnel is now noticeably increasing. This abnormal situation with junior command personnel is one of the main reasons for the decline in discipline among the Red Army soldiers.
Along with this, drunkenness and the rudeness of the command personnel further aggravate the abnormal relations between him and the Red Army mass. Drunkenness in terms of the number of cases exceeds the previous period, but in this case, the increase in cases can be explained by holidays: drunkenness in December was recorded more than 600 cases, in January ‐ over 700 cases.
In general, the mood of the non‐party commanders is determined by the lack of confidence in the future: ʺno matter how you work, they will be thrown out anyway.ʺ This view is quite common. Given their position, the commanding staff strives to get into the party.
All this cannot but be connected with the question of the forthcoming introduction of one‐man management. Abnormalities in relations with political personnel are now becoming more and more frequent.
Aggravation of relations with political instructors is also noticed on the part of the Red Army masses. This phenomenon is increasing more and more. In many units, the Red Army men compare the political instructor with the former priest, the only difference is that “there was only one priest in the regiment, and now the political instructors in each company receive a large salary” (see Appendix No. 8).
ANTI‐SOVIET PARTIES AND GROUPS
Anarchists
The activity of anarchists throughout the Union increased significantly during the reporting period. In the WFA secretariat in Moscow, there is a desire to reorganize the work, deepening it underground. Eminent Anarcho‐Syndicalist Group 107decided to organize a systematic meeting. In Leningrad, the operation carried out discovered a large number of leaflets, underground literature, printing equipment and a laboratory for the manufacture of narcotic drugs; a number of anarchists who fled from exile and hiding were detained; 80 people were arrested. The work of the anarchist underground in the provinces of Bryansk, Samara, Saratov, Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Vyatka, in the Urals and others in the Samara province has significantly increased. the magazine of the anarch‐underground ʺVozrozhdenieʺ No. 2 was published. In Vyatka province. appeals printed on a chapirograph were distributed in the Orenburg province. The admiralty 10 ʺanarchists set up an underground printing house.
Mensheviks
In the organizations of the RSDLP and Bund 109, internal organizational work was noted to establish communication with the western provinces of the USSR. As a result of the undertaken operation, a number of Mensheviks were seized in Moscow (two of them were illegal immigrants who fled from Turkestan) and Zapkraye. Along with this, in a number of provinces, statements by individual Mensheviks about leaving the party continue to be published.
Right SRs
In February, large operations were carried out in Moscow and the province, as a result of which a number of active Social Revolutionaries were removed (among them candidates for membership in the Central and Moscow Bureau). Party documents and organizational theses were confiscated from one of those arrested. Also liquidated ʺPeasant Initiative Group under the MB AKPʺ, associated with the Dmitrov district. Moscow province.
Association of LSR and Maximalists 110
The Bureau of Legal Association in Moscow still has no activity. Contact is maintained with the underground group of the Left SRs. In the artel ʺAnthillʺ a split is planned.
Published in a small number of copies on hectograph No. 5‐6 ʺRevolutionary avant‐gardeʺ ‐ the organ of the student socialist union ʺOur tasksʺ.
In the underground, preparatory work is underway for the convocation of a congress of underground groups of the Left Social Revolutionaries, which is expected by the spring. Invitations were sent to the localities. For the search for funds, it is planned to make expropriations. The group has a connection with Steinberg (Berlin). There is a separate group of maximalist SocialistRevolutionaries 111 Wolfson, associated with Steinberg and receiving money and literature from the latter, Steinberg is associated with groups of Left SRs in Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, and others.
Monarchists
During the period under review, monarchists abroad continued to send appeals and newspapers to the USSR by mail. Up to 7000 newspapers and 164 appeals were detained at the Moscow post office. In the Murmansk province. the spread of Cyrilʹs proclamations was noted.
National parties
Ukapists. In connection with the decree of the Comintern on the liquidation of the UKP and its merger with the CP (b) U, there is a tendency in some circles of the UKP to oppose this decree. In some places of the Yekaterinoslavskaya province. individual groups of the UKP began to go underground. The Poltava organization continues to draw new members into its ranks after the decision to liquidate. Attempts by individual members of the UCP to organize cells at factories are noted, but to no avail. In the Yekaterinoslavsky district, the ukapists continue to agitate among the Komsomol against the KP (b) U, which protects the interests of the ʺkatsapsʺ, and are calling to join the UkrYUSV. In some villages of the Yekaterinoslavsky district, individual ukapists are conducting anti‐Soviet work among the peasants. In the city of Verkhne‐Dneprovsk, an anti‐Soviet element is grouping around the ukapists Basia, which disrupts all measures of the Soviet government. During the tax campaign, members of this group campaigned that the tax was taken only to improve the life of the RSFSR, citing some figures that the same amount was released for Leningrad alone as for the maintenance of the whole of Ukraine. The group seeks to bring its people to the KNS and Soviet bodies. The ukapists are spreading the opinion that the GPU has created an ʺemergencyʺ for the liquidation of the UCP. In Zolochev, two ukapists turned out to be bandits who carried out armed raids and set fire to peasant farms. In the working environment, the ukapists have lost all authority. Among the workers from the peasants at the plant. Lenin in Yekaterinoslav, there was talk that the RCP was afraid of the seizure of power in Ukraine by the ukapists and therefore, they say, the UKP was dissolved, but these conversations were not successful. Most, however, ukapists everywhere are busy with political education in order to
Zionists. In February, after an operation carried out throughout Belarus against all Zionist organizations and groups, which significantly undermined their activities, the center of the Zionist movement was moved from Belarus to Ukraine, and partly to Leningrad. The lively activity of Zionist organizations is noted in almost all provinces of Ukraine. Appeals of the DSP to Jewish handicraftsmen and artisans and other party materials were found in Kharkov. In Yekaterinoslav, a representative of the CSP negotiated with the RSDLP on the allocation of a representative of the RSDLP to the Commission for Assistance to Political Prisoners, promising to give an article for the Socialist Bulletin. In addition to Ukraine, Zionist organizations launched work in Leningrad in February. The center around which all the Zionist illegal organizations are grouped (ʺCSPʺ, ʺYUTSSʺ, ʺESSMʺ, ʺDROIRʺ, ʺGDOIRAʺ, ʺEUROSMʺ, etc.), is the only legal organization
ʺGekholutsʺ. In the latter, there has recently been a strong concern for its further existence, and on this basis there are frictions between party and non‐party members of ʺGekholutsʺ. ʺVDOIRAʺ in Leningrad is a strictly closed organization that trains skilled workers for Palestine. An operation was carried out on all Zionist organizations in Leningrad, as a result of which 40 people were assigned to administrative expulsion. The activity of the Zionist organizations and ʺGekholutzʺ is noted in February also in Saratov.
ORTHODOX CHURCHENS
The reporting period is characterized by a certain halt in the Tikhonʹs offensive against the Renovationists. The Tikhonites drew back some of the unstable renovationists, but they could not cope with the significant solid core of this trend.
Tikhonites. The struggle of the Tikhonists against the Renovationists continued in the same forms as before. All their attention is directed to undermining the material situation of the Renovationists, for which they organize a boycott of the latter with the laity. Preaching is intensively developed, especially on the part of itinerant monks spreading anti‐Renovation proclamations in places (Arkhangelsk province). Attempts to forcibly seize churches (Stavropol and Kostanai provinces and the city of Kerch) have been noted. The Tikhonovites shift the center of gravity of their work to the laity, while focusing on the reactionary elements. It is characteristic that in the Kuban the Tikhonites are trying to inflame antagonism between the Cossacks and nonresidents, while nonresidents are supporters of the renovationists. The saturation of laity organizations with reactionary elements is very great; for example, in the Terek district, the parish councils include: former police officers ‐ 23, former volost elders ‐ 28, former members of monarchist parties ‐ 12, former tsarist officials, policemen and others ‐ 10, former bandits ‐ 4, former major businessmen ‐ 4. The Oryol group of laity and priests includes many former members of the ORN and at its meetings discusses political issues (for example, the consequences for the RCP of Comrade Trotskyʹs speech, etc.). In Omsk, attention is drawn to the ʺsisterhoodʺ, consisting of the wives of former officers, and led by the former vice‐ governor. There are similar groups of ʺbrotherhoodʺ in the so‐called ... organizations in a number of other provinces, and their activities are very diverse: from organizing a secret warehouse of weapons (Bryansk province) to sending out appeals.
Renovators. The resistance of the Renovationists has increased so much that the pressure of the Tikhonists can be considered suspended. Thus, in the reporting period, the transition of Renovationist churches to the Tikhonists was noted only in the Tatrespublika. Renovationists have a preponderance even in reactionary regions (for example, in the Tersk district the renovationists have 177 churches, and the Tikhonovites have 87; in the Armavir district, out of 350 churches, 300 have the renovationists). The Moscow conference of the Synod in January stopped vacillating among some of the prominent renovationists. In a number of provinces, the renovationists even went over to the offensive. Particularly interesting is the movement of the Renovationists in Tsaritsyn province, where they rely on the Illiodorites 113, with the help of which they successfully mobilize the laity against the Tikhonites. The renovationists are greatly helped by their periodicals.
Sects
The economic activity of the sects is very low, with the exception of the Mennonite and Dukhobor sects 114who put good agriculture. The former are supported by American Mennonite aid. Evangelical Christians pay great attention to the creation of communes and artels (24 production associations have been created). The activity of other sects is to deploy consumer cooperation, which in the majority gives a deficit. The Siberian Adventist Kochetkov turned to the Central Executive Committee with a project to build cooperation on a new basis, with the elimination of all taxes on cooperation and giving it purely distributional functions. In general, the economic activity of the sects has no significant effect on the growth of the sects. Growth was noted only in the Caucasus, where evangelicals and Baptists, who propagandize in national languages, enjoy success. In part, sects of a mystical character are also growing (ʺNew Israelʺ, shakers 115, runners 116, Jehovahʹs Witnesses 117, ʺPower of Zionʺ, etc.). In other regions, despite the most intense propaganda (in Siberia, for example, there are entire preaching groups), the growth of sects is great. In the sects of late, not only fundamental disagreements have been noted (as, for example, on the issue of service in the Red Army, the division of Turkestan Mennonites into progressive and reactionary), but also the existence of a class struggle. Examples of this are: the resolution of the Akmola Congress of Baptists to wage a decisive struggle against the well‐to‐do element covering the cultivated area, the exclusion of the large merchant Nikitin from the Nakhichevan Baptist community, the split of the Tsaritsyn Baptist community into “proletarian” and prosperous. At the 4th southern regional congress of the ʺNew Israelʺ sect, there was a struggle between two currents: loyal to Soviet power and reactionary, frustrated resolutions favorable to Soviet power. On the part of this group, there were monarchist actions. An attempt to unite the largest sects of the Evangelicals and Baptists failed. The sects pay a lot of attention to young people in view of their attraction to cultural work. For this purpose, a number of sectarian youth circles have been created.
BANDITRY
The rise in petty banditry, noted in the last survey in most of the interior regions, has intensified over the past month in areas affected by crop failure. The ruin of the poor farms creates a tense mood there, which under favorable conditions (untimely aid and non‐exemption of the poor from tax) can be used by anti‐Soviet elements. Their presence in the region is evidenced by the more frequent cases of terror in recent years. In the Central District, it is also necessary to note the elimination of 5 gangs by the OGPU. In the areas of political banditry, there is a lull, explained in the North Caucasus by the successful work of the GPU and in Siberia ‐ by wintertime, which is especially unfavorable for banditry. In Yakutia, it is necessary to note the movement of the Artemyev‐Galibarov‐Sleptsov bands towards Okhotsk. The gangs occupied Novoe Ustye, where 10,000 poods were captured.
In the areas of Western foreign banditry, we have a grouping and revitalization of the activities of foreign gangs in the border regions of Poland and Romania, in the presence of intensive work by Polish intelligence agencies to form new sabotage gangs. At the same time, a transition is noted in some districts of Belarus and the Gomel province. on our territory of foreign gangs for the purpose of espionage. In some regions of Ukraine, there is also an increase in the number and activity of banditry, partly explained by the appearance of foreign gangs; As a result of the work carried out on b / b work, a number of bandit groups were liquidated and several leaders were detained.
The banditry of a national and everyday character has significantly subsided recently. In the North Caucasus, the attendance of delegations of bandits (abreks) of the Vedeno district is noted for negotiations on surrender and the lull of mountain banditry. In Transcaucasia, thanks to the transfer of the majority of organized gangs to the territory of Turkey, banditry does not manifest itself in any way. In Central Asia, the lull of banditry in the Surkhan region. is explained by the onset of frost and the dissolution of horsemen by Ibrahim‐bek. Among the Basmachi of the right and left banks of the Vakhsh, the mood is demobilization, due to the cold and insecurity. In the rest of the districts, the usual robberies and extortions from farmers are still common.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Prokofiev
With genuine true: Secretary of INFO OGPU
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 1
WORKERS
1. Metallurgical industry
High rates and low rates. Oryol lips. At the plant them. Rykov, in connection with a decrease in the grades, the workers of the foundry, including 50 people, went on strike. Communists and Komsomol members took part in the strike, the strike was liquidated by the dismissal of 38 foundry workers.
Nizhny Novgorod province. At the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, due to the reduction in prices, there is a departure of highly qualified workers (so far 27 people have left). In the wagon‐locksmith shop, on the basis of a 40% cut in prices, some of the party members pushed non‐party workers to strike.
Leningrad province. At the Krasny Sudostroitel plant, due to the reduction in prices, the foundry workers, including 100 people,
“Italian” 1 ʹ/ 2 hours.
Bryansk lips. At the Duminichesky iron foundry ʺRevolutionaryʺ, laborers went on strike for 3 days, demanding an increase in prices, instead of three sheaths, 6 kopecks from each refined pound of cast iron. The request was not granted. 50 strikers were dismissed.
Kharkiv province. At the plant ʺElectrosilaʺ No. 10, on the basis of lower prices, there were attempts to beat the appraiser. On this basis, highly skilled workers are leaving the Svet Shakhtyora plant.
Votskaya obl. Workers of the night shift of the Izhevsk factoriesʹ rolling workshop, including 13 people, quit their jobs on the night of February 10, demanding an increase in wages. With the arrival of the workers, the manager called the guards, asking them to withdraw the striking workers from the plant, which the guards did, which made the workers even more angry. On February 12, workers in the same workshop quit their jobs again, still demanding higher rates and lower rates. In the mechanicʹs department, 60 workers, dissatisfied with their pay, are also talking about organizing a strike. There is also growing dissatisfaction in the refractory and thermal workshops.
Penza lips. February 7 at 9 oʹclock 40 minutes in the morning, workers of the assembly shop of the Trubzavod went on strike, demanding a wage increase. The strike lasted 10‐15 minutes, after which the workers of the assembly shop wrote a collective statement to the manager of the plant through the factory with a request to raise wages, but the question has not been clarified to this day.
2. Textile industry
High rates and low rates. Moscow province. Klinsky u. Factory of the Vysokovskaya m‐ry of the Tver Cotton Trust. February 10 this year a production meeting was held on the transition to 3 machines. The atmosphere thickened especially when the chairman of the district branch of the Union of Textile Workers Sorokin (a member of the RCP (b)), who was present at the meeting, said to the workers: “Well, you crows have shouted. You ask how the transition to 3 machines will be made. We do not translate fools, but translate those who can work. ʺ A loud noise and exclamations arose among the workers: ʺAh, we are fools, they would have told us so long ago,ʺ and so on. One worker who spoke after this spoke of ʺwearing a work collar around the neck.ʺ An attempt by members of the RCP to speak out was not successful since the workers did not allow them to speak. The meeting ended with the demonstrative departure of the workers from the premises. Before the start of the meeting, at the apartment of the director of the factory, Akhalin, the administration of the factory was drinking together with a representative of the trade union. There are 3,500 workers.
Kostroma lips. On February 16, 450 workers at the weaving department of the Kostroma United Textile Factory, numbering 450 people, “hobbled” for about 20 minutes, putting forward a demand regarding technical shortcomings in connection with the campaign to raise productivity.
Ryazan lips. At the factory ʺKrasny Vostokʺ workers refused to switch to work on three machines. The secretary of the factory committee told the workers that ʺI will shut your mouths to all of you.ʺ
Moscow province. At the factory of the former Tsindel (Moscow Cotton Trust) ‐ the discontent of the workers of the warehouse department with the increase in production rates, supported by the communists, some of them even spoke actively.
At the knitwear factory them. Bauman (Mostrikotazh), there is a strike trend in connection with the underdevelopment of the tariff rate for
January.
At the Glukhovskoy field (Bogorodsko‐Shchelkovsky trust), there is strong fermentation in connection with the low wages received in January. The possibility of a strike is not excluded. Instead of 6,000 pieces, only 1,500 were produced. There are 12,000 workers. Such a drastic reduction was caused by [over] fighting in the delivery of raw materials.
Yaroslavl province. At the Rolma textile mill, in connection with the campaign to raise productivity, workers deliberately skimp on work. A worker stands at an empty car, and when asked, ʺwhy did he start the car in vain,ʺ he replies, ʺwe are raising productivity.ʺ This is due to the reduction in prices.
3. Mining industry
High rates and low rates. Donetsk province. At the Kadnevsky mining administration of Donugol (Luhansk district), there is discontent on the basis of increasing production rates and lowering rates.
At mine No. 30 of the Rudchenkovsky Mining Administration (Stalin District), workers submitted an application to revise the production rates, since they consider the new standards unbearable. Decreased productivity is noted.
Tomsk lips. At the Lenin mines, a worker (candidate of the RCP), with the support of other workers, pointedly declared his refusal to work for 50 kopecks. in a day.
Delay of salary and its issuance by bonuses. Donetsk province. At the Pervomaisky mining administration of Donuglya (Lugansk district), the issue with the payment of wages is acute since the payment is made with a half‐month delay. For the month of November there is a debt on the accounts of the mining administration for 107,055 rubles. On this basis, as well as on the basis of the issuance of coupons for the cooperative on account of the salary, there is discontent mainly with the address of the workersʹ cooperative, which sells flour only in cash.
Among the workers of the Zolotonosha mining administration (Artyomovsky district), there is discontent with the untimely payment of wages and the issuance of bonds to the workersʹ cooperative in large denominations, which cannot be used for trifles.
At the Dolzhansky mine administration of Donugol (Luhansk district), the salary for November was issued in the amount of 30%, when giving out wages, the workers received 20% of that by orders to the workersʹ cooperative. There is dissatisfaction on the basis of the untimely payment of wages and the issuance of wages against its orders, since many workers are starving; in general, the salary does not correspond to the subsistence level, and especially for family workers.
Tomsk lips. At the Anzhero‐Sudzhensky mines, workersʹ discontent is caused by the delay in wages. In February, it is planned to issue 50% in cash for October and November. Specialists from the funds allocated for utilities received salaries for November and December. With the coupons issued, the workers cannot buy what they need in the cooperative due to the poor assortment of goods. The workers say that their power is only on paper, but in reality they are enslaved.
4. Dissatisfaction with trade unions
Yaroslavl province. Among the workers of the Konstantinovsky oil refinery, it was possible to understand from conversations that the communist leadership did not satisfy the masses, for it was on the side of the administration, not the workers, both the cell and the factory committee made many concessions to the plant manager.
Chernihiv province. The workers of the Nosovskiy sugar factory continue to express dissatisfaction with the lump and the factory due to the separation of the latter from the working mass. The same is observed at the Parafievsky, Novo‐Bykovsky and Dobrovitsky sugar factories.
At the Davydovsky mining administration of Donugol (Stalin district), representatives of the MOVSG pay little attention to the needs of the workers, and for the most part defend the interests of the administration, which causes discontent among the workers.
In addition, the workers are outraged by the deep drunkenness of individual members of the CP (b) U, in particular, and the chairman of the board of the rabkoop.
Novonikolaevskaya lips. At the Sibkraisoyuz Soap Factory, a conflict occurred between the administration and the cartelsʹ artel over the nonpayment of compensation for unused vacation. The Fabzavkom did not take part in the elimination of the conflict. The workers say, ʺNobody wants to defend our interests.ʺ
5. Agitation of the anti‐Soviet element
Moscow province. At the Mytishchi Freight Car Building Plant (Moscow District), on the territory of the plant, a leaflet was found signed by the ʺWorkersʹ Committeeʺ, which says about the alleged upcoming general strikes demanding higher wages. Further, the leaflet, which is allegedly a communist, says that he must open the eyes of non‐party people, that ʺwe are not in a position to keep factories and plantsʺ and that ʺit is necessary to surrender them to capital on concessions.ʺ At the end of the leaflet there is an appeal: “Long live Comrade Trotsky and those who sympathize with him. ʺ There are 1,700 workers.
In the Krasnozvezdinsky Raf [other] plant, among the workers who are housed in the factory barracks, there are Menshevik‐minded persons who have a great desire to get into the factory committee during the forthcoming re‐elections, for which they agitate among the workers by arranging volatile meetings in the barracks. There are individuals among the workers who are cautiously anti‐Soviet agitation.
6. Peasant sentiments
Leningrad province. In the printing house of Transpechat im. Vorovsky, a worker who returned from a trip to Luga district, told that the peasants‐poor peasants made inventories and sold property at auction for non‐payment of tax, regardless of the lack of side earnings.
In the foundry them. III International (printing industry) at a general meeting on February 11, workers asked why they are taking a lot of tax from the peasants.
At the Vozrozhdenie factory (Bumprom), some workers talk about the plight of the peasants, talk about the possibility of peasant uprisings.
7. Bloated administration staff and employees
Centre. Moscow province. Orekhovo‐Zuevsky u. Likinskaya spinning and weaving factory of the Orekhovo‐Zuevsky trust. There is a strong murmur among the workers about the too large staff of specialists in comparison with the pre‐war period. So, for example, earlier in the prewar time the factory had: 1 mechanic, 1 assistant, 1 draftsman for two factories. Now there are 1 mechanic, 4 assistants, 2 technicians and 3 draftsmen. The weaving department used to have 1 manager, and now there are 5 (one on each floor). There are about 2,500 workers.
Moscow. Plant ʺMetallampaʺ (Deputy [Oskvoretsky] district) Gospromtsvetmet. There is a murmur of workers against the director of the plant Zharikov that the latter, despite the full staff, without the knowledge of the RCP cell and the factory committee, recruits employees from his former colleagues, for example: he took a personal secretary‐agent and a journalist and other completely unnecessary [employees] ... There are 1,000 workers.
Kostroma lips. Textile workers continue to complain about a large number of technical and, especially, administrative and office personnel, some of whom are idle. In the main office of the factories, for example, 80 people work, of which 18 with statistics alone (before the war, only three worked here). In 1924, 1647 workers and 33 office workers worked in the weaving department of the former 1st Republican factory, in 1925 the number of workers decreased by 37, and the number of employees increased by 10 people. Before the war, 6 people worked in the subsidiary workshops of the same factory, and 5 workshops were managed by 1 mechanic, and now these workshops are divided into 3 departments, and each of them has zavas, pomzavs and pompomzavs, and in total there will be up to 25 people.
West. Leningrad province. At the copper foundry of the Russian Diesel plant, workers indicate that there are 3 technical personnel in their workshop for 10 workers.
Some departments of the Textile Trust were extremely swollen with employees; in one accounting department there are 90 employees, while the recruitment of new ones continues, but the apparatus is still not adjusted and the balance is not completed by January 1.
At the f‐ke them. Nogin in the construction department there is an architect, two assistants, one engineer and three assistants, 5 technicians, before the war there were only 2 people ‐ the head. department and his assistant; no construction work is being carried out at this time, and it is not known why such a large number of specialists. At the step‐down substation of Volkhovstroy, there is also a large staff of technicians and engineers receiving high salaries and 100% load. There have been cases of transferring ordinary clerks to the technique ‐ henchmen of the head. office building, many engineers do not live up to their purpose. At the 1st State Spiritual Plant there are up to 7 inspectors who receive 15th grade and do nothing. Each of the departments has a head, and an assistant, and an assistant to an assistant.
Ukraine. Podolsk lips. At the Sugar Factory in the Proskurovsky District, a reduction in the number of workers is carried out, allegedly to reduce overhead costs, while the office has instead of 2 accountants ‐ 2 accountants who receive high rates.
Odessa lips. February 14 at the State Forestry Plant head. the plant opened a stable and increased its staff from 7 to 20 people, which gives a strong increase in overhead costs.
Transcaucasia. Armenia. At the Textile Factory. ... there are 89 workers, while the factory has 36 employees.
APPENDIX # 2
ECONOMIC VILLAGE DIFFERENCE
Reducing waste and handicrafts
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. Most of the middle peasants of the Sokolsk parish. Yuryevetsky U., engaged in handicrafts, complain about numerous taxes (patents, income tax, etc.), which reduce their earnings in comparison with the pre‐war level by 30‐35%.
Tambov province. In five volosts of the Tambov district. (Lysogorskaya, Gorelskaya, Bondarskaya, Putilovskaya and Sayukinskaya) 10% of peasants are currently engaged in handicrafts. Offshore fishing and contracts, haulage trades account for only 25% of the pre‐war period.
Tverskaya lips. The kulaks in some districts are trying to fundamentally undermine the production artels for sewing footwear at the cross committees, inciting them against the Soviet regime. In Kimrsky u. in Ilyinsky parish. kulak ‐ the head of the artel received goods from Kozhtrest for sewing footwear and handed it out, in fact, not to the artel, but to speculators trading in the market.
The head of the Ivanovo sewing artel is also a kulak, who enslaves the craftsmen by giving out products against the payment of wages from his shop. To the handicraftsmen intending to make sewing through the KKOV organization, Kozhtrest refused to issue the goods under the pretext of lack of such; bribery with fists at the warehouse is suspected.
Gomel province. The economic situation of the poor and middle peasants of Novozybkovskaya and Churovichskaya vol. extremely poor, before the population of these volosts worked in the mines, now many have returned from the mines in connection with the reduction. In Voronkovskaya parish. Starodubsky u. peasants in previous years were engaged in collecting bristles, this year the percentage of those engaged in this is extremely low, due to the need to take a patent for the right to collect.
Enslavement of the poor
Vyatka lips. Fist of the Yumskaya ox. Nekrasov Karp ‐ the tenant of a water mill has 50 heads of cattle, for feeding which he buys hay from the poor for a pittance or for grinding grain and a loan in money, as well as in the summer, the poor peasants of neighboring villages, who owe Nekrasov in winter, work out to him in the hottest time leaving your work in the background.
Tverskaya lips. In Zalazin parish. Tverskoy one fist distributed 15 cows to the poor, from which he takes 6‐8 poods. of bread.
Nizhny Novgorod province. In Lukoyanovskiy u. the poor sell to the kulaks their “labor rate of firewood,” since they lacked a few rubles to buy it back.
Kostroma lips. Horseless farms hire horses, for processing 1.8 dess. a horseless person pays an average of 25 poods of land. rye and works out for the horse owner 30 working days.
Tambov province. Taking advantage of the poor material situation of the peasantry, the plant management of the Trubetchin sugar plant of the Lipetsk u. buys agricultural implements from peasants (plows, seeders, winnowing machines, etc.), lowering prices for plows on the market from 40‐30 rubles. up to 8‐10 rubles, and reapers from 70‐80 rubles. up to 28‐30 rubles. So, the peasant der. Ivanovka brought a reaper to the factory to buy grain, the mechanic recognized the reaper as satisfactory, estimating it at 40‐45 rubles, but the plant manager offered the peasant only 28 rubles for the reaper. The peasant, in need of money, was forced to give the reaper 28 rubles. The policy of such buying arouses sharp discontent among the peasantries.
Kuban District. In Tyumryukskom area of tax is particularly heavy for poor households because many of them are in bondage to the kulaks, who took over the processing of fields 2 / 3 crop. Thus, the poor have to pay tax from the remaining 1/ 3.
Leasing land to kulaks
Nizhny Novgorod province. In Lukoyanovskiy u. up to 25% of the poor gave their land plots to the kulaks for an insignificant price; here the kulaks organize the purchase of livestock from the poor.
Oryol lips. In the Malo‐Arkhangelsk parish. In the same district, the poor offer their land to the kulaks for rent, but the kulaks have not yet taken it, waiting for a better moment to rent land as cheaply as possible.
Black Sea District. All L. Georgievsky 6 poor households, unable to cultivate the land, lease it to the kulaks.
Azerbaijan. Cuban y. The poor, being unable to use their land, forced to rent them from the kulaksʹ / 3 crop.
Armenia. Zangezur u. There are cases when the poor people lease their land plots to kulaks for ʹ/ 4 orʹ / 5 of the harvest.
Ulyanovsk province. In Annenkovskaya parish. Kars [unskogo] u. there are many cases of the poor giving their land to the executive kulak population.
The consequence of crop failure
Voronezh province. (Novokhopersky district). The peasants lose hope for the winter harvest due to the instability of the weather, then there is a frost of 20 degrees ‐ for two days, after which everything immediately melts, it rains ‐ the field is bare and everyone is taking care of the spring season. Many peasants of the V.‐Karachan region ‐ the poor and part of the middle peasants, anticipating the spring hunger strike, begin to sell outbuildings and huts for a pittance, for example, in N.‐Karachan a new chopped barn 6 by 7 arshins ‐ 28 poods. rye, 7 by 6.5 hut with pine floor and double windows ‐ 45 poods. rye, living hut 8 by 7 arshins with all accessories ‐ 42 poods. rye. They eat oak bark. In with. Kirsanovka 10 families live exclusively on charity.
Kalmyk region On January 15, in the Kalm‐Bazarinsky ulus, there are 1,500 refugees from the former Kharakhusovsky ulus, devastated during the civil wars. Out of 400 starving children and 80 completely homeless children, refugees, wandering around the villages, feed on the corpses of dead animals. The number of deaths due to hunger among refugees was registered in November ‐ 1, in December ‐ 3. The appearance of typhus was noted.
Oryol lips. Due to the lack of bread in Volkonskaya and Dolbenkinskaya vol. (Dmitrovsky u.), There are more and more cases of mixing a surrogate, flour, spring seeds into bread, and there are cases of mixing chaff. There is an acute shortage of forage. In connection with these shortcomings in these volosts, there were many cases of land leasing by poor peasants and their departure to work in Ukraine. Several families from the Stolbishchensky district left for Siberia altogether, and from Volkovskaya vol. walkers were sent to find a convenient place and to move there.
Non‐republic. According to TsKKOV, in January, due to hunger, citizens were registered as sick and swollen throughout the republic in the following numbers: in the Volsky canton, swollen ‐ 28 people, in Kamensky ‐ 47, in Krasno‐Kutsky ‐ 218 swollen, 43 patients, in Tonkoshurovsky ‐ 121 swollen, in Fedorovsky ‐ 75 swollen, 7 sick and having a stock of bread for 7 days 5000 people.
According to the data of the Krasno‐Kutsk canton, up to 60% of the population are undernourished, and 15% of the population is sick from malnutrition. There was such a case that a citizenʹs camel died, the hungry, hearing about this, immediately grabbed it for consumption.
Volyn province. In the colony Aleksandrovka (Germans) of N.‐Volynsky district, some of the non‐chewers have not had bread for a month, while the well‐to‐do part of the peasants, laughing at them, declares: “This is what you need, your government did it to you, you really wanted it, so now play with your power without bread. ʺ
Kharkiv province. In the Maltevsky village council, poor and middle peasant farms are quickly destroyed due to crop failure.
In all districts of the Izyum District, due to crop failure, there is a development of a criminal offense, anti‐Soviet agitation and, at the same time, an increase in kulak farms at the expense of the ruining poor and, partially, middle peasants.
In Nikopol district, villagers eat a surrogate, and the development of begging is noticed. Poor farms are being ruined by a severe food crisis; the population goes to work; at the same time the kulak farms are becoming stronger.
APPENDIX No. 3
TAX CAMPAIGN
1. Difficulty of fulfilling tax balances for the poor
Centre. Yaroslavl province. February 2. There are farms that have not a pound of grain left in stock at all, but they still have to pay 10‐12 rubles in tax. There are up to 10‐13 such farms in some villages.
Payment of agricultural tax in Mtsenskoyvol. goes very weakly due to the fact that the remaining defaulters are very poor and they have nothing to describe, since the cattle were sold earlier when the first terms of the tax were paid, and now there is nothing to sell.
Voronezh province. February 16. (Letter from the village to the Red Army): “I havenʹt paid the tax in kind, but if you pay the tax in kind, you have to sell the last horse and deprive yourself of the farm. I currently have nothing ‐ neither bread, nor horse feed. ʺ
Ukraine. Volyn province. February 20th. In with. Kolodievka of the Chernyakhovsky district has absolutely nothing to take from many peasants when the tax is pumped out.
In with. In the Pilipo‐Koshary district of the Miropolsky district, peasants can hear complaints about the severity of the tax and statements: ʺI will give up the land, because there is nothing to pay.ʺ Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. February 21. Peasants of the Astradamovskaya Vol. Alatyrsky district they are very unhappy with the fact that they were imposed a heavy tax despite the fact that there was a poor harvest in the parish. To pay the tax, it was necessary to sell the surplus grain and livestock, which the peasants began to start after the time of hunger. The poor are unhappy with the drastic measures applied to non‐payers, most of whom are poor.
2. Untimely use of discounts
Centre. Vyatka lips. February 20th. The Khalturinsky UFO sent an order to the VICs, which states that they can save the funds provided by the VIC for discounts and, if the tax is fully fulfilled, the remaining fund can be credited to the rural municipality budget, which gave the VICs a reason to demand the tax in full of the farms that have the right to receive a discount. There were cases when a member of the Khalturinsky VIK called for a peasant, whose son serves in the Red Army, who should have a 50% discount, and demanded that he pay the tax in full.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. The Kineshma UFOs were given 36% to provide discounts to low‐power farms, but the UFO used only 14% of this amount, and when they received an order to immediately use all 36%, the UFO sent this order to VICs. As a result, the following picture turned out: the poor in most cases paid the tax by selling the last property, while the VICs, wanting to use the discount allowed to them in full, distribute it to the right and to the left.
Ukraine. Volyn province. February 20th. In with. Maidan‐Labunsk, Polonnyany district, the discount provided to peasants was not extended to non‐chewers due to the fact that they paid the tax on time, and the middle peasants and kulaks took advantage of the discount.
3. The ruin of agriculture on the basis of tax
Centre. Oryol lips. February 21. During the implementation of 85% of the agricultural tax by the peasants of the Oryol province. sale of 800,000 heads of various livestock, of which 60% are small livestock and
40% are cows and horses.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. January 31st. In some counties, in connection with the payment of tax, the loss of livestock reaches large sizes, in Shuisky district. ‐ 40%.
Tambov province. February 10. The peasantry pays agricultural tax primarily on the basis of the livestock sold. So, on the Kamenskaya parish. Tambov u. as of July 1, 1924, the volost had: 3789 horses, 6032 cows, 15839 sheep, 1511 pigs, by January 1, 1925, there were 764 horses, 987 cows, 5466 sheep, and pigs 958 pieces.
Ukraine. Donetsk province. January 30. In the Petropavlovsk district of the Luhansk district, as a result of crop failure and the payment of tax, there is a massive sale of livestock, the prices of which have dropped significantly: a cow or a bull weighing 12‐15 poods. sold for 15‐25 rubles. Since October 1320 cattle have been sold in the region.
In Petrovsky hut. 88 bulls out of 200 available, 29 horses out of 43 and 127 cows out of 264 were sold for tax.
In the hut. Blagoveshchensk in the same district sold 80 horses out of 96 available and 26 cows to pay tax.
Volga region. Tartary. The 25th of January. Poverty, under pressure from agricultural tax collection agents, sells the last livestock in the village. Gulyukovo. Some poor people are left without livestock at all, living in dirty shacks and baths.
Siberia. Omsk lips. On the issue of a single agricultural tax, the peasant s. Barvensky Poltava district, Omsk u. Dmitry Mamot, a poor man, during a conversation in the village council on February 5, where up to 50 people were present, said: “This is how the poor are helped to free themselves from tax, in our village there were 5 horseless households, in 1922 ‐ 10, in 1923. ‐ 15, in 1924 ‐ 30. Here the Soviet government helped the poor. ʺ Of those present, Dmitry Tolstonyuk, a proletarian, supported him and added: ʺThey got in there, put on breeches, skins.ʺ The rest of the audience laughed approvingly.
4. Excessive tax of the current year
Centre. Vyatka lips. 28th of February. Peasants der. Stepanovtsy Sochnevskaya Vol. Slobodsky u. say: “Previously, we lived much easier, the filing was small ‐ 6‐8 rubles. into the yard, and they collected it for a whole year. We sold our stocks of products only in order to acquire agricultural implements and manufactures, but now taxation ‐ from 10 to 20 rubles, and such is required as soon as we removed the grain from the fields.
When there is a shortage of grain to pay the tax, you have to sell grain.”
West. Belarus. February 19. In the Bobruisk Okrug, peasants say that this yearʹs agricultural tax is 4‐5 times higher than the pre‐war tax.
Smolensk lips. January 29. Along Krasninskaya and Bokhotskaya vol. Smolensky peasants are dissatisfied with the agricultural tax, stating that the tax should be distributed according to the amount of land and that the tax is twice as heavy as in the pre‐war period.
Volga region. Tartary. January 27. In the Tetyushsky canton, the collection of the agricultural tax belongs to the second term. Center assignment failed. The population is waiting for a discount. Peasants with. Belorovka are dissatisfied with the large amount of taxation ‐ from 4 ʹ/ 2 to 6 rubles. to the consumer, saying that during the reign of airhole 93 was not.
Siberia. Altai lips. February 19. Srednyak s. Krasilovka Barnaulsky u. said: ʺUnder the tsar I paid 7‐10 rubles, and now 128 rubles.ʺ
Peasants with. Taraba say: ʺPreviously, they paid 5‐6 rubles, but now 40 rubles.ʺ
Omsk lips. February 15. Srednyak s. Konnevsky Tyukalinsky u. in connection with the tax he said: ʺThey are ruining us, before he paid 40 rubles for 4 souls, but now it is 140ʺ.
Peasant der. Yarkul Tatarsky u. says: “Under the tsar, our village paid
7,000 taxes a year, and now 12,000 rubles. Where does it all go. ʺ
5. Shortcomings of the current campaign
Centre. Kaluga lips. A cow is taxed on a par with a tithe of land, which is why the tax on it is about 8 rubles, but in total it costs only 25 rubles. Many peasants began to slaughter cattle, leaving only young animals that were not subject to taxation.
West. Belarus. (From the report on the tax campaign): The counting of objects of taxation in the district was done hastily and mechanically, no attention was paid at all whether the counting of objects corresponded to the actual figure imposed on the unit. In with. Bogulichsky, Petrikovsky district, the financier, seeing that the results of the list he had drawn up on counting objects are less than the control figure, he threw on each farm one tenth of arable land and one tenth of haymaking. Most of the financiers took the figures from 1923‐1924 as the basis for accounting, which caused a lot of complaints.
In the Mogilev Okrug, entire villages were left out of the main count, but a plot of 16238 dess. found 19610 dess. haymaking and about 5 thousand head of livestock. Breeding cattle are taxed on a par with nonbreeding stock. The population learned about the mistakes only after receiving the salary sheets only during the first months of the campaign. The population is over 7000 inhabitants in this district.
Siberia. Altai lips. The amount of arable land and livestock does not at all characterize the economic power of the kulak of the Altai village. The kulak does not seek to increase the sown area to pay the tax, for this he uses a roundabout way: he acquires a reaper, a mower, a thresher and the latter is rented out. A peasant earns an average of 500‐600 poods from a thresher in autumn. bread, and from renting a mower and reaper ‐ up to 300 poods. Since an average tithe accounts for 50 poods, it turns out that by renting out a thresher, a peasant acquires 12 dessiatins necessary for tax. land, reaper ‐ 6 dess. plus, to those that he has shown as objects of taxation. Taxed with. Voevodsky of the same county!
APPENDIX 4
COOPERATION
Altai lips. At the present time, when the peasant economy is being restored through the investment of cheap labor, its strong discontent is caused by the high rates that cooperative workers receive. The peasant works on his farm from morning to evening, and here next to him are cooperative shops, where there is nothing to do alone, there are 3 paid members of the board, clerks, clerks, etc. The rate of the first category for cooperative workers is in some places 10‐12 rubles.
Such an incorrect deviation of the trade union in the countryside is explained by the fact that it is being pushed to do so by the workers, the board of cooperatives, and the managers of enterprises. Worker, employee and manager are the same local peasants. They have their own economy. They look at work in the cooperative shops of the creamery and mills as a means of earning money. Hence ‐ the disinterest of workers and employees in the production and position of the cooperative, mill, creamery and their pressure on the trade unions so that they achieve high rates at the enterprise. On the other hand, members of the board of cooperatives, also local peasants, look at cooperatives as a means to feed themselves and improve their economy, hence the board members are also interested in high rates. There was not a single case (in 4 villages and one district village),
In three villages, the board members are poor communists. All of them were poor before being elected to the board. At present, they are very well fed on cooperative breads and have already acquired a strong economy. It is necessary to correct the line of the trade union, otherwise they will begin to turn into a party of petty‐bourgeois elements against the cooperatives.
[Content] of employees in almost all cooperatives is equal to up to 40% of the total [amount] of expenses. The number of employees in all cooperatives is excessively large. So, for example, in a cooperative shop [c] 3500 rubles. monthly turnover is ... employees.
[Performance] in factories is unsatisfactory. In the pre‐war period [production] of a pound of butter, minus the cost of purchasing milk, [was] [80‐90] kopecks. At present, the production of a pood of milk [costs] 2 rubles. for pood. The high cost of production has as its consequence that the peasant is paid 43‐47 kopecks for milk. Such a low payment for milk outrages the peasants.
In general, through cooperation, as well as through the Soviet apparatus, the so‐called ʺSoviet kulakʺ is growing in the countryside. Thus, the former chairman of the agricultural cooperation stts. The barda is a kulak, members of the board ‐ one of the middle peasants, the other of the poor ‐ have become wealthy: the chairman of the stts. Barda consumer cooperatives and members of the board also turned into strong men. The chairman of the Chapshinskaya consumer cooperation (communist) turned from a poor peasant into a strong middle peasant.
Voronezh province. Rossoshansky district at the meetings for the reelection of the boards of cooperatives, dissatisfaction was revealed that the boards of credit partnerships and employees of the latter are not paid by the general meeting, but by the trade unions.
North‐Dvinskaya province. Before the re‐election of the board of cooperatives, the old members of the board built themselves houses for 5,000 rubles. They were not included in the new composition, because the poor, part of the middle peasants and the Ustyan workers did not support them. Primary cooperatives are in very small numbers under the influence of the RCP. The peasants follow those who honestly conduct business, saying: ʺGive us honest cooperators who would not be drunkards and would not have a few fur coats, changing every day.ʺ
Tersk district. The chairman of the Solomenskiy EPO arbitrarily increased his salary to 90 rubles, his accountant systematically drunk and rowdy.
Samara lips. EPO s. Obsharovka has 3 clerks, who are not kept on salary, but on interest ‐ 3% from the circulating ruble. The monthly turnover of EPO is 25‐30 thousand rubles. and the maintenance of 3 clerks costs, thus, up to 900 rubles. per month. At the end of December 1924, the chairman of the EPO Volkov received 3,500 rubles from the Samara Provincial Union, of which 800 rubles. spent on drink, for which he was removed from office and expelled from the RCP.
Waste in cooperation
Ryazan lips. In the Ptahinta EPO of the Popadye Vol. Ryazan found waste of money in the amount of 2036 rubles. 46 kopecks, the culprits of this waste are the chairman of the cooperative and the clerk.
Tula lips. Re‐elections in EPO Zalegoshchinsky district Novosilsky u. went completely unsuccessful. From the report of the board, it became clear that the chairman Brylev was embezzling state money in the amount of 4900 rubles.
Tula lips. The chairman of the Laptev cooperative wasted 4,000 rubles. Oryol lips. Recently, in the Netbezhsky consumer society (M.Arkhangelsk district]), a waste of 1200 rubles was discovered, in this connection there were shouts at the meeting: ʺHere we elect the communists, and they only stealʺ, give an example of a board member (member of the RCP) Kazarkin, for whom there is a defect of 400 rubles. In view of the selection of bad candidates to the board, 40 applications from shareholders to quit the membership were submitted in one day, the withdrawal was motivated by distrust of the board.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. In the Kokhomsky EPO of IvanovoVoznesensky district. one member of the board was drunk in Moscow, where he was sent for goods, 2000 rubles. Not so long ago, in the same EPO, the audit found a shortage of 6,000 rubles.
Armenia. Leninakansky district Communication with the center is weak. Supply is irregular. In with. Kartarly discovered that the clerks had misappropriated 1,090 rubles, which were transferred to the court.
Moscow province. In the province for the year we [recorded] waste of over 345,000 rubles, unprofitableness ‐ 500,000 rubles, debts ‐ 1,625,000 rubles, personal lending ‐ 48,000 rubles. The total amount for the year exceeds 2,528,000 rubles. Below are the figures characterizing the state of some cooperatives in Moscow province.
County
Type of cooperation
Rast‐
rata
Lost parity
Zado‐
false‐
ness
Personally, the givers
Moscow
Consumer
Telskaya
43500
6732
435300
2750
Agricultural land childish
66416
7092
52817
15139
Bronnitsky
Consumer
Telskaya
31000
21000
‐
6690
Voskresensky
‐
‐
16000
13099
Mozhaisky
12573
6000
‐
‐
Orekhovo‐Zuevsky
‐ ʺ‐
1790
78889
14000
3100
Debts of cooperation workers
Vladimirskaya lips. Ulybyshevsky EPO Vladimirsky district Far from meeting its purpose, it does not enjoy authority on the part of the population, since bad faith is noticed on the part of the board members, especially the old composition, the latter all had a large debt of up to 2,000 rubles.
Tambov province. Board of the Mordovian EPO Tambov district distributed goods on credit: to the executive secretary of the wolf committee of the RCP (b) for 305 rubles. 20 kopecks, clerk of EPO Andreev V.A. for 1,042 rubles, chairman of the EPO board for 172 rubles, board member Karasev ‐ 110 rubles.
Leningrad province. Debts of board members for Luga district and EPO staff reaches a large size, especially in this is the Luga regional union, which does not know the limit in issuing goods on credit to employees, of whom many have to pay for the collected goods for years.
Kharkiv province. In the Staro‐Merchik EPO, a deficiency of 1800 rubles was discovered, which was made up of the debt of employees and board members: the chairman of the board owes 533 rubles, the treasurer ‐ 511 rubles, a member of the board ‐ 280 rubles, accountant ‐ 80 rubles, cashier ‐ 70 rub. and others. Bills of exchange were taken from the listed persons and an installment plan was given to cover the debt in 4 months.
Donetsk province. Starobelsk District Consumer Union lent 17 employees, the debt of which is 2418 rubles, and some of the employees do not cover their debt for a year or more, while others have left the district altogether.
Tomsk lips. In the village. Mizilovka Tomsk u. members of the board owed 850 rubles in the shop.
APPENDIX 5
SECONDARY ELECTION OF COUNCILS
1. Attitude of the population to new elections
Centre. Voronezh province. In all counties, the number of voters reaches 50%, in some districts of Voronezh, Novokhopersky and Usmansky u. available from 60 to 100%,
In the Alekseevsky district of the Ostrogozhsky u. on the day of the reelection, they quit their jobs to take part in the re‐election. The peasants, having received the summons, expressed great satisfaction, saying that the Soviet government reckons with them, seeking their well‐being: there were also rumors that the delivery of the summons was reminiscent of elections to the Constituent Assembly (Bogucharsky district).
Oryol lips. March 1. In Terbunskaya parish. Eletsky u. re‐elections were held with great enthusiasm and with the attentive attitude of the citizens themselves, there were from 65 to 85% of voters. 20 women passed to the district council and one was held by a candidate for the VIC.
Tverskaya lips. The 14th of February. During the re‐election of the village council, the population of Prudovskaya and Mikhailovskaya vol. 30 to 55% were involved. Not a single fist made it to the Soviets.
In the Rzhevskaya parish. the re‐election of the Soviets ended in which 90% of the population participated. The district councils included mostly non‐party peasants.
2. Attitude towards communists
Due to the fact that the re‐elections were held without any pressure, the peasants showed special attention to the candidates ‐ members of the RCP. Those communists who were newcomers to the village were told: ʺLet us plow the land with us for two years, and then we will see what kind of boss you are, and say whether you can or cannot be elected to the Soviet.ʺ Some communists were told that they were good organizers of reading rooms and Komsomol cells, but that they were not suitable as business executives.
Centre. Voronezh province. Communists who managed to gain prestige in the countryside were unanimously promoted to the Soviet by the middle peasants and the poor. In with. Morozovka Rossoshanskiy u., After the election as chairman of the village council of a member of the RCP, the peasants said: ʺIf we have him removed from work, we will go to the center to complain and defend.ʺ
Tula lips. February 21. In Aleksinsky district the peasantry was very interested in the re‐election and showed a readiness to elect both communists and non‐party people alike.
3. Campaigning against elections to the Soviets of Communists
Centre. Moscow province. In the Vasilievsky district of Yegoryevsky u. At the re‐elections that took place, a group of people spoke out, who campaigned for the fact that the Soviets should be without communists, exclusively peasant. As a result, all the speakers were elected to the village council, and 7 of them were also taken to the volcano.
In Pushkin parish. The Socialist‐Revolutionary group is conducting an intensified electoral campaign, which definitely sets itself the goal of achieving ʺSoviets without Communistsʺ. This group everywhere and everywhere very skillfully works the peasants in their favor and nominates their candidates.
Ryazan lips. Mr. Cossack Sloboda Bogoslovskaya Vol. Ranenburgsky u. Dmitry Ivanovich (chorister in the church) said at the general meeting that now we will not get the Communists into the Soviets and we will not give them work, then they will be ours, they will put on crosses and will go to church. They are now saying that the government is good, etc., but when they are unemployed, they will speak in a completely different way.
Voronezh province. The attitude of the population towards the Komsomol during the re‐election was negative, in a number of villages in the Bogucharsky and Nizhnedevitsky regions, the Komsomol candidates nominated did not receive a single vote.
Tambov province. In one of the villages of Dobrinskoy parish. the peasants spread rumors, these are: “what, they pressed you, my dears, i.e., Soviet workers, letʹs see how you jump now, because we will not choose the communists, but we will choose our own, who will give us bread, and they will go to church, and we will hang icons in the Soviets, otherwise the communists will make everything go bad.
February 16 this year during the report of the Gruzinsky VIC chairman Podkopaev on the importance of re‐elections, there were many cries from citizens, one of them, Mr. E. Pastukhov, and others shouted: “Choose, we will choose and know whom to choose, we love and respect the communists, only those who are honest and treat us properly”, and Podkopaev was told: “You must go to Lebedyan in advance” (for he comes from there). After that [Podkopaev] came forward and said that he was not an impostor, but he was drowned out by shouts with a statement that they had not sent him to Lebedyan.
Ukraine. Kharkiv province. March 1. In the town of Zmiev, at a preelection meeting for the nomination of candidates to the village council from the KNS, thanks to the speeches of Mr. P. Mayboroda and Mr. Turtle, the Communists and Komsomol members were struck out of the lists of candidates. These persons especially agitated against the candidacies of the chairman of the RIK and the secretary of the district committee and achieved that almost the entire assembly declared: ʺWe need to drive such communists out of Zmiev.ʺ
Siberia. Tomsk lips. In with. Voronov and a number of other villages of Tomsk u. The peasantry, having learned that the election commissions will not nominate their candidates for this campaign, say that the power has weakened, there will be no communists in the village councils, that they will resign and power will pass to the peasants, who will abolish the tax.
4. Speeches of the anti‐Soviet element and the kulaks
Centre. Moscow province. In the village. Belyaevo Leninskaya Vol. Moscow u. at a meeting for re‐election, kulak Belkin made a demand for ʺsecret ballotʺ in the elections. His proposal was supported by a group of people (personally known). On the explanation of the authorized election commission that we, where there is the power of workers and peasants, secret ballot is unnecessary, the group began to shout: ʺDown with our power, then we do not need yours, but give ours.ʺ There was a loud uproar, swearing was heard, and as a result, fists entered the Council.
In Ramenskaya parish. Egoryevsky u. there is a strong influence on the peasants on the part of the Socialist‐Revolutionary element leading counter‐revolutionary agitation. This group speaks in a very organized manner at all meetings. So, for example, on the eve of the pre‐election meeting, they convened a gathering without the knowledge of the volost election commission, at which the lists of candidates for the village council and the volost congress were discussed. Then this group, having come to the re‐election meeting, managed to hold its own [list of candidates], religiously‐minded and unconscious people blindly follow the active element.
In Volokolamsk u. in the village. Kozlovo Bukholovskaya parish During the re‐election, a Socialist‐Revolutionary (personally) known [en] spoke out with sharp criticism of Soviet power, who spoke of the need to isolate the influence of the Communist Party. He introduced a resolution that spoke about the granting of universal suffrage, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and personal immunity. During the voting, the resolution to take note of the report was rejected by a majority, and out of 60 people present, 12 voted for the said resolution of the Socialist Revolutionary, 10 against, the rest abstained. There was a lot of noise during the reading of the order, only 9 people voted for its adoption, the rest abstained. Two members of the RLKSM were nominated to the village council, who withdrew their candidacies, saying that they would not work for such a low salary. A group of SRs took advantage of this, which raised a whole storm against the communists. As a result, non‐party peasants loyal to Soviet power (mostly middle peasants) entered the village council.
Ryazan lips. The 14th of February. In the area of Bakhmacheevskaya vol. Ryazan in with. The Social Revolutionary Ivan Titovich Vinogradov was elected to the electoral commission of this village, the latter drove through a number of villages, such as the villages of Kotogashche, Popadyino, where he campaigned among citizens so that communists would not be elected to village councils and district councils.
Oryol lips. During the re‐election of the Domnikovsky VIK Dmitrovsky u. the kulaks, together with the former Socialist‐Revolutionaries, opposed the candidates nominated by the faction for the post of chairman of the VIC. The candidacies were disrupted. It was pointed out at the meeting that they did not care about the peasants, that the district authorities received from 100 to 150 rubles. per month, purchase luxury goods. It was noted that Comrade Lenin threw down the slogan ʺfacing the village,ʺ and local authorities come to the village on trotters.
West. Gomel province. In one of the villages of the Gomel province. the former gendarme who spoke at the re‐election meeting called to turn the weapon in the other direction; in another village, the peasants at a re‐election meeting pointed out the need to create a peasant party and ended with the slogan: ʺLong live the peopleʹs republic and free labor.ʺ
Ukraine. Kharkiv province. In with. Pechenegs of the Kharkov district, the list proposed by the electoral committee was not accepted thanks to the agitation of the kulaks under the leadership of the kulak of Belous Abraham, who only had to say: “no need”, as the entire assembly supported him. Belous achieved such results by campaigning against the Communist Party and the KNS, for which he specially traveled around the villages before the elections. As a result, the specified Belous got to the village council.
Volga region. Penza lips. In Krasnoslobodsky u. at a meeting of peasants with. Guli [...] in January, Bogdanov, the pre‐executive committee (member of the RCP), made a report on the new state of reelection of the Soviets on the issue of the new situation. In his report, Bogdanov said: “The village councils were elected incorrectly, our district authorities suggested electing members of the RCP and RLKSM at all costs, why, when I came to you for re‐elections, I imposed on you those that you probably did not need. In the current re‐elections, the peasants themselves will elect without any delegates. You are now allowed to say whatever you want. The central government knows nothing about the peasants; they live there in their offices and know nothing. Earlier, the congresses elected commissars who knew nothing about peasant life. I had to go to the military commander Karamyshev,
APPENDIX No. 6
Tambov province. At the pre‐election meeting of the Council in the village. Panino Lipetsk u., Held on February 17, on the report of the authorized vol‐election committee Comrade Knyazeva, Mr. Epifantsev, a former postal and telegraph official, made the following speech: “Comrades, toilers‐peasants. From the report of Comrade Knyazev shows that the main reason for the re‐election is the small number of voters, which is expressed in 23% of the total number of citizens, especially women. In my opinion, this reason is only secondary, but the main reason lies in something completely different, namely: not a dozen times we had to read speeches of representatives of the center in the newspapers, Comrade Stalin, Kalinin and others, who call on us peasants to take an active part in state building, pointed out dozens of times to local party members about their respective attitude towards the peasants, definitely demanded from the local Soviets wider admission of non‐party peasants to the elections to the Soviets. But, in spite of these tenfold demands of the center, the past elections to the Soviets again gave the worst results ‐ just as there were communists in the Soviets from the first day of the revolution, they have remained. They settled in warm places and did not want to part with them. This very circumstance was taken into account by the central government, and in order to once and for all show the local rulers the incorrectness of such a formulation in the Soviet system, it did not approve those elections, but demands re‐elections on more legal grounds. There should be no more impositions on us, and we will not accept. Before us again ʺtheyʺ (ie, the communists) begin to bow, to suck up from the first step; this meeting is a decisive step, and if we choose again those
The resolution passed on the report reads: “In view of the insistent statement of Comrade Knyazev on the illegality of electing more than one representative from the general meeting to the electoral committee, contrary to the wishes of the general meeting and a certain nonapproval of this resolution by the VIC, in order to get out of this situation, it was decided to elect at the request of Comrade Knyazeva instead of the desired 3 one representative from the general meeting so that the member of the village council was from another village in relation to the elected representative, and reserve the right to check the work of the agricultural election committee at the general meeting, and if there are any irregularities in the work, then eliminate them by the general meeting ʺ. When they move on to the election of a representative in the village electoral commission, they nominate Epifantsev and from the public a member of the RCP
Androsov. Epifantsev, being the chairman of the meeting, votes: ʺI vote for Androsov, you know what kind of person he was, he worked for you.ʺ Only 10 people raise their hand, after which, turning to Knyazev, he ironically says: ʺCount.ʺ After that, he votes himself unanimously, with 10 people against and 10 abstentions, and 230 people were present at the meeting.
February 18 p. g. a group of poor peasants with. Panino of 53 people was filed with the voluntary election committee, in which they, challenging Epifantsev as a former official, asked for the appointment of a re‐election of a representative from the public in the electoral committee.
February 19 p. Mr. Epifantsev convenes a new meeting, at which he delivers the following speech: “Citizens, it has come to my attention that a denunciation has been made against me by some malicious persons, the essence of which is as follows: I am accused that at the previous meeting I spoke out in my speech against the Soviet regime, he allegedly put it this way: ʺAll communists cannot pour cabbage soup for two pigs.ʺ In addition, in their denunciation, they point to the illegality of my choice to the election commission, since I am an old official. We see how right I was in defending my public right to elect from society [not] one, but three representatives to the election commission. For me, the picture of the work of one representative from the peasants against two interested representatives from the VIK and the village council was clearly presented. Like that, both are selfishly interested in re‐elections, because everyone is reluctant to break away from a soft piece. Then Epifantsev tells about his service as a postal and telegraph official, or rather, about the conditions of this service, and ends: “Citizens, do you really allow these gangs to be so impudent (he calls those who filed an application for his withdrawal as bandits). Do you really not want to shake off shameful slavery, shameful violence, covered with the hands of laws, deliberately misinterpreted until your death? Citizens, respond to the call of the center, proclaim the slogan: ʺNot against the Soviets, but against individual gangs, down with the rubbish that has crammed into our Soviets, we will replace it with honest positive citizens from our peasant environment, and those hooligans who need 1919, when they you were mercilessly robbed, left without a piece of bread to the mercy of fate, kicked you out of your own homes with small children in the cold, who need whips to flog you again, who need other peopleʹs carriages covered with carpets, which they married and divorced, who need to stuff their pockets again with other peopleʹs goods, who make slanderous denunciations achieving the listed goals. All of these actors need to be prosecuted for manifest defamation with disqualification. Long live the peopleʹs power, letʹs cleanse the Soviets of hooligans. ʺ
APPENDIX No. 7
POLITICAL MOOD OF THE VILLAGE
The trend towards organizing cross‐unions
Centre. Moscow province. February 18. In Lotoshinskaya parish. Volokolamsky u. a group of anti‐Soviet elements (personally known) is organized, which aims to organize a cross union. This group is agitating against the committee for mutual assistance, pointing out that the peasantry does not need such. The leaders of this group enjoy great prestige among the peasants.
Tula lips. February 2. Peasants der. Ivanovka Aleksinsky u. They say: ʺWe see no protection either from the Communists or from the Soviet, therefore we must organize a peasant union.ʺ The tendency to organize a cross‐union is among individuals of vil. Shcheglovo of the Nenashevsky District Executive Committee, where during the reelection of the parliament members this issue was raised by the head of the villageʹs ʺred cornerʺ, who called on the peasants to organize peasant unions, saying that ʺthe representatives of the peasants now have no meaning.ʺ
In the village. Bulychevo Belevsky u. some peasants at re‐election meetings spoke in favor of organizing a cross union. The speakers noted that the life of the peasant has become unbearable, that in 7 years the peasants are only deceived and taxed, that all the benefits are provided to the city, which lives at the expense of the village. They feast in the cities, and the peasants are in filth, hunger and want. The tendency to organize a union of grain growers was noted earlier in the Aleksinsky and Tula counties. The speakers at the meetings were middle peasants.
Ryazan lips. February 26. Member of the Sanskiy agricultural credit partnership of Spasskiy u. Trifonov M.A. at a general meeting, persuading citizens to become members of this partnership, argued that the working class in our country has 10% in relation to the peasantry and it rains, and only because the working class is organized, but if we, the peasants, if we manage to organize ourselves by 90%, then the worker wonʹt have enough porridge, in other words, the worker will die of hunger. ʺ
Kostroma lips. February 13. In the village. Pestovo Shungenskaya par. Kostroma u. at a village meeting, one peasant said that ʺwe, peasants, need to unite ‐ look, others are following each other, thatʹs why they live well.ʺ
West. Smolensk lips. February 5th. At a meeting in the village. Sofyino Prigorodnoy Vol. During the Leninist week, the peasants adopted a resolution ʺto follow the Leninist pathʺ based on the report. After the adoption of the resolution, the peasant der. Kuvshinovo Gabriel Cherepkov makes a proposal on the need to organize a peasant union. The meeting is split into two parts, the proposal is supported by the wealthy who take part in the debate, while the poor are passive.
After the explanation of the party members, the proposal was withdrawn from discussion.
Belarus. February 13. In the Cherikovsky District of the Kalininsky District, the mood of the peasants is not entirely satisfactory, since there are a significant number of former police officers, gendarmes and other anti‐Soviet elements influencing the peasants. Some ideological leadership over the peasantry was seized by Mr. Kostinevich Alexander, in political views ‐ a monarchist. The designated Kostinevich is often absent, allegedly at the request of farmers in the town of Cherikov, the latter collecting money for his travel. Among the farmers in the town of Cherikov, there is some attempt, under the influence of Kostinevich, to organize a ʺsociety of farmersʺ in the hope of having a kulak leadership in this society.
Gomel province. The 14th of February. In with. German women Svetilovichi parish rumors spread about the organization of peasant unions to defend the interests of the peasants.
In with. Larievka Starodubsky parish and the county, after the report on the upcoming re‐elections of the village council, a kulak spoke out, saying that the RCP noticed its mistakes, that it had weakened, and the peasants needed to organize their party, since the peasants were in the majority, and when they were united, then the gathered handful (of the communists) would not take such taxes as now, and for this it is necessary to elect to the village council not a poor man who does not know how to protect a peasant, but his own (well‐to‐do), and those who go to the village council, the VIK and PEC will not obey the RCP. Further, he said that it was necessary to reward peasants who have farm laborers. He ended his speech with the exclamation: ʺLong live the peopleʹs republic and free labor.ʺ
At the pre‐election meeting in the New and Old Merchant Dobrush parish. Gomel district prosperous peasants asked why the Soviet government did not allow the peasants to organize themselves into peasant unions that would protect their interests.
North Caucasus. Armavir district. February 15. Local KKOV are currently in a period of reorganization, and in the Nevinnomyssk and Petropavlovsk districts the kulaks are trying to use this organization. So, in the Kamenno‐Brodsky and Grigoriopolis districts, the organization of mutual aid committees was understood as a ʺunion of grain growersʺ, a lot of new members joined, membership fees were paid and a large work program was outlined. In the Kurgan region, the kulaks at a meeting declared: ʺWhy are we not allowed to organize aʺ union of grain growers ʺfollowing the example of the organization of aʺ union of workers ʺ, but we do not need KKOV.ʺ In other regions, during the re‐election of the KKOV, the kulaks refused to join this organization, and the peasantry was reluctant to join it, being dissuaded by the lack of funds.
Kuban region (From a letter to the Red Army): ʺWe have a new organization of demobilized Red Army soldiers in our village, they often have meetings, and they want to cleanse the EPO partnership, the executive committee, in general, all state institutions, and all the demobilized Red Army men want to be in power.ʺ ...
Ukraine. Volyn province. March 8. In with. Dertki of the Miropolsky district, the kulaks are conducting intensified agitation among the noncheaters, so that they leave the KNS and that all the peasants unite into one organization called ʺKhleborobʺ to protect the interests of the peasantry. Some non‐cheaters support this idea, including one candidate of the Drobotun party.
Volga region. Samara lips. February 22. A member of the PerekopnoLuki cell of the RCP Okulov went to a citizen of the same village, Shikin, who at that time was having a conversation about religion among the peasants present there. Asked by Okulov, Shikin asked whether the communists recognize God, he kicked him out of the house, shouting: ʺWe will prepare our party against the communists and soon they will destroy you.ʺ Shikin is a former kulak, in 1918 he took part in the uprising against Soviet power.
Saratov province. February 20th. At a non‐party (peasant) conference, former peasant Social Revolutionaries and rural intellectuals pointed out the need to organize peasant unions.
At one of the conferences in Balashovsky district. the former SR came out with the defense of Kerensky, who was allegedly not allowed to develop his activities.
In Balandinskaya Vol. Atkarsky at a non‐party conference, some peasants asked if it was possible to create a peasant party.
All L. Golitsyno, at the non‐party conference, the peasants pointed out the high rates of office workers, workers and specialists, that the workers command the peasants, that they are organized into unions, that the peasants also need to organize into a union.
Siberia. Novonikolaevskaya lips. February 15. In the village. N.‐Scythe of Novonikolaevsky u. During a morning meeting in Narzem, one of the peasants who spoke said: ʺThe Soviet government is doing the wrong thing, helping the poor and farm laborers, with this we, the peasants, need to fight and organize ourselves into peasant unions, which must be demanded.ʺ Exclamations of ʺtrueʺ were heard.
In the village. Gusiny Bor, Kamensky District, a peasant ‐ chairman of agricultural cooperatives, in a conversation with other peasants, insisted on the need to organize into unions in order to be able to nominate their representatives to higher authorities.
Irkutsk lips. 1st of February. Middle peasants with. Dalnye Zakhori Zhigalovsky district, Verkholensky u. from the speaker who held the meeting, the head of agitprop 118 Ukoma, persistently demanded permission for the right to organize a peasant union on an all‐Russian scale, pointing out that the workers have their own organization that protects them ‐ the trade union. Further, the peasants pointed out that they also needed a peasant union in order to dictate their conditions to the workers, especially in matters of wages, since the workers receive high wages, live off the peasants and this entails the collection of large taxes from them. When the speaker explained that they did not need a peasant union, that the peasants also have their own organizations ‐ ʺvillage councilsʺ and ʺkrestkomsʺ ‐ the peasants replied that ʺthe village soviets and cross committees are alien organizations to them, and besides, they do not work well.ʺ
Before the closure of the district non‐party peasant conference in the city of Cheremkhov, the peasant delegate s. Iretsky asked ʺwhy the peasants cannot organize their peasant union.ʺ A similar issue was repeatedly raised by the delegates of the conference at previous sessions by means of notes without signatures. When the peasant asked whom, in their opinion, this union would consist of, they said: ʺThe union will consist of the poor, middle peasants and wealthy.ʺ After explaining that no one would organize kulak unions, that for the poor and agricultural laborers there is an alliance called ʺLand and Forestʺ, committees for mutual assistance, the conference as a whole agreed with this opinion.
Serednyak at a non‐party conference of peasants in the village. Usolye Irkutsk u. said: ʺThe peasants live badly only because they are unorganized, the workers, in view of the fact that they are organized, achieve for themselves everything they need, their interests are protected by their elected representatives.ʺ
Omsk lips. February 15. At a meeting of the village of Spassky Tatarsky district an agent of Gosstrakh, who has a farm laborer, 15 cows, 6 horses, agricultural machinery, said: “The Soviet government will only reckon with the peasantry if it unites in peasant unions; until such unions exist, the peasants will be taxed and strangled by taxes. ʺ The peasants present supported the insurance agent.
At the general meeting of the peasants of the village. Andreevka, Lyubinsky district, Omsk u. the peasant expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that ʺthe party fusses its members everywhereʺ, while he said: ʺCanʹt we organize our own peasant labor party.ʺ This was supported by the majority.
Tomsk lips. January 31st. In the village. Vaskova, Ust‐Sosnovsky district, among the grinders, one peasant was campaigning for the need to organize peasant unions.
Altai lips. 28th of February. In the village. Kusina of Barnaulsky u. the chairman of the agricultural cooperatives, in a conversation with the peasants, said: ʺWe need to organize ourselves into unions in order to elect our representatives to higher bodies.ʺ
Exacerbation of the anti‐Soviet sentiments of the poor by fists
Centre. Yaroslavl province. February 9th. In Vyatka parish. anti‐Soviet elements use a wall newspaper in reading rooms for propaganda against Soviet power. In the wall newspaper of the Trofimovskaya hutreading room, an anti‐Soviet person published an article criticizing the Soviet government and its administrative bodies; in this article the peasantry is proved that in tsarist times they lived happily ever after and did not need anything, etc.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. Along Usolskaya parish. Syzransky u. a group of kulaks and merchants, in order to attract the poor to their side, is conducting anti‐Soviet agitation among them and lending them loans. So, merchants distributed up to 800 rubles to the poor.
Siberia. Irkutsk lips. In with. Osokino Preobrazhenskaya Vol. a group of wealthy peasants at a general meeting pointed out that the Soviet government wanted to crush the peasants with taxes, that there were so many parasites among the state employees that there was one person for each peasant. These same kulaks, trying to win over the poor, said: ʺThe poor have been completely ruined, we will probably make our way, they will completely disappear.ʺ The agitation of the kulaks was a success among the poor. The poor said: ʺThatʹs right, the authorities have completely ruined us.ʺ
Yenisei province. February 15. In with. Shitkino Kamensky u. a group of kulaks agitates among the poor against the Soviet regime, saying: ʺWith the taxes they impose on us, the communists will make everyone proletariansʺ; the same agitation is carried on by them among the middle peasants.
Antagonism to the city
Centre. Tambov province. February 13. The peasantry of the village of Pokrovsky (population 2274) of Saburo‐Pokrovskaya Vol., Going to the reading room for the work carried out in such a work, in conversation with each other, very often compare the situation of the worker and the peasant. The peasant s. Pokrovsky Bashmakov M.V., who is trying to prove that the workers live, and the peasants vegetate and that the revolution was only for the workers, and not for the peasants, compares the salaries of workers with the income of the peasantry, pointing out the cheapness of rural products and the high cost of products of workersʹ production. In with. The Krachavki asked questions in the hut‐reading room: “Why is Lenin not a saint, but they have arranged a crypt for him; workers live like landowners, and we, theirs slaves, ʺand so on.
Oryol lips. During the re‐election of the Ryabinsk VIC, one of the peasants said in his speech that life is very hard for the peasants, 7 years are promised good things to the peasants, but in fact they are sitting almost without bread, meat costs 2 kopecks. pound, and urban products are expensive. The speaker ended with the words: ʺWe feed ourselves with great difficulty, and not that we feed the workers who give us expensive and inaccessible factories.ʺ
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. The 14th of February. The peasants of V. Lenenetskaya Vol., When faced with property inventories, say that “the Bolsheviks used to shout, “the landowners own the land and sell the property of the poor peasants for arrears,” that now there are no landowners, instead of them, landowners, there is a state that also exploits the peasantry through a tax, for the arrears of which they sell the property of the peasants. ʺ
Tverskaya lips. The pre‐conscript of the Likhoslavl Uchpenta, a peasant boy of the Novo‐Torzhsky district, wrote a poem called ʺThe Peasant and the Workerʺ, which clearly outlines the mood of the village. The poem is quoted in its entirety:
ʺPeasant and Workerʺ
The peasant helped the workers out of slave oppression. The worker of the peasant has forgotten to know forever, He has forgotten that the need has overtaken the peasant. Let the peasant rise and come out of oppression, He will force the workers then, the worker will not get out of this oppression: It will remain there forever. The steel columns of the workers are strong, But the peasant hands are also strong, the peasants will push the columns of the workers, they will build their own columns. Worker, worker, peasants you forgot, forgot how you went to the village with a bag, you took out your last possession, you asked a peasant for a piece of bread. The worker has forgotten that the need is heavy, which now fell on the peasantry. So that the need does not overtake the peasants, the peasant help the worker forever. It is difficult for a peasant to live without workers; a worker cannot live without peasants. The peasant plows his land with the roots, the worker stops breathing without bread. Remember, worker,
Oryol lips. In Livensky u. Oryol lips. the peasants sing a song:
‐ And he stands, poor man, at a crossroads, but nowhere to see anything, and he is still alone, only hearing ‐ you must give. For a whole century, my dear, he has been busy, and not only is he glad to give the tax, He wants to give his soul, but they do not want to understand him. How great he is in his native fields, when hay and rye are harvested, how much strength, intelligence is in his red eyes, and with a smile he helps everyone. And now he stands, his head bowed ‐ neither to himself, nor to cattle, nor to Narfin, And, great, he has become not great now and he looks so sadly at the chaff.
Northwest. North‐Dvinskaya province. The poor have recently begun to divide into two camps: some, gradually, but getting out of the old bondage and rebuilding their economy, are very sympathetic to the Soviet regime, and others are poor people who cannot raise their economy and are still under the yoke of kulaks. who often cling to profitable places, exploiting the poor? These poor people are waiting for two moments: either the second revolution, or the fall of power, since they are now more offended than ever, hearing the slogan of freedom and still sitting in chains, not having the strength and will to throw off themselves.
Volga region. Votskaya obl. February 9th. In the village. Shchidrut Bolshe‐Uchinskaya Vol. Mozhginsky u. the peasants are hostile on the issue of agricultural tax and semssud and say that ʺthe government is not workersʹ and peasants, but purely workers, the workers walk around dressed in cloth clothes, and we are in rags, they eat bread and meat, and we are dry bread.ʺ
Tartary. February 8. Buinsky canton. In the village. Yentuganov and other places (Tataria), the kulaks declared: ʺThe workers ‐ city dwellers want to merge with the peasantry only in order to siphon more grain from the peasants by various fraudulent means.ʺ The kulaks, trying to exacerbate their antagonism towards the city, say: ʺOnly the communists won a good life, the peasant remained his farm laborer.ʺ ʺThe peasants were added to power by the edge, calling the governmentʺ workersʹ and peasants ʺʺ (the village of Gorka, Mamadysh canton).
Kirkrai. Orenburg province. (From a letter to the Red Army): “I ask you, as a husband, do not be a communist, even though it will be difficult for you, do not write, and if you do, then sign out. I hear there will be a strong war in the spring. The people are worried, they donʹt know why. Life is getting worse and worse. Taxes on the church, on the priest, on all the parishioners, will probably close the church, it is beyond the power to pay. Every day they bring money to the Council to pay, and then impose; whoever lives like a peasant is mocked and taxes are imposed on him.
Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Bobrovo Barnaulsky district on the mourning week of the anniversary of Leninʹs death, a peasant spoke: “The speaker covered everything superficially, but in reality the peasants who were expecting liberation from Soviet power were enslaved by it. The peasants were crushed by taxes, the winepress was removed from their necks, and the millstone was hung. Soviet power is one deception. ʺ
Irkutsk lips. 28th of February. In with. Krasnoyarovo Kirensky u. the kulak said: ʺWe have not received any improvements from the Soviet regime, we are worse than under the tsar, and the party members, what they do, is only in order to achieve high rates and receive a good salary, taking it from the peasantʹs neck, like the former bourgeoisʺ ...
The struggle of the kulaks and clergy against the cultural organizations of the countryside
Centre. Tverskaya lips. Mr. Dobrokhvalov organized a group of young people under the slogan “against the Komsomol,” trying to seduce the Komsomol members, pull them over to him; As a result, there were two expulsions from the Komsomol cell ‐ Komsomol members Solomonov and Tamilin, who went to his group, which included 4 young people with them, who, on the day of the PLCCM cell of the “youth week”, broke and tore off the decorations arranged in honor of the weeks (p. Tolkachi Tverskoy district).
Nizhny Novgorod province. In Nizhegorodskoe, the kulaks disrupted a meeting at which the issue of holding a ʺweek of mother and childʺ 119 was discussed.
Ukraine. Volyn province. In with. In Kozhukhovka, Korostensky District, the Church Council is taking all measures to undermine the development of the Komsomol cell. A local priest gives gifts to members of the church choir, and this has had an effect on several Komsomol members. 4 girls left the KSM cell and are currently taking part in the church choir. With the aim of disrupting Leninʹs week 120, the church council arranged a drinking bout, and the prejudices came to the school where the educational program 121 was being held, and began to row. When the police came and wanted to arrest him, he armed himself with a club and dispersed the Selkarauls, while he fled. After that, he watched the apartment of the pre‐village council all night in order to deal with him for the fact that the latter ordered his arrest.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. In one of the villages of Kozlovskoy parish. Ardatovsky u. there was a meeting of the PJIKCM cell, which the local kulaks and the psalmist were trying to disrupt with their exclamations. By Neklyudovskaya Vol. Ardatovsky u. in connection with rumors about the proximity of war, the old people insisted on the withdrawal of young people from the RLKSM members.
Siberia. Tomsk lips. February 15. In with. Voronovo, a local psalmreader walks through the apartments of the peasants, saying that he will forbid attending church if they do not dismiss the children from the pioneer squad.
In the Kolorovsky district of the Verkh‐Sechenskoye village, a peasant drove out of his two sons for joining the Komsomol. The girl chosen at the meeting as a delegate to the regional congress was beaten by her parents.
In the village. Quiet two unknown peasants, wanting to undermine the authority of the Komsomol cell, came to the peasantʹs apartment, called themselves Komsomol members and threatened with knives, demanding moonshine.
Omsk lips. January 31st. In the village. Berezovka, the organized Komsomol cell of six people on the very next day, under the influence of parentsʹ agitation, disintegrated (Omsk u.).
Novonikolaevskaya lips. January 31st. In with. Gilevka Kamensky u. one of the peasants said to the other: ʺWhy does your son climb into the Komsomol, tell him to leave, otherwise the bullet is ready for him.ʺ
The activity of the kulaks and the anti‐Soviet element
Centre. Tula lips. February 21. In with. Berezovo Dubenskiy RIK in the house of one of the kulaks a meeting of several citizens took place, at which the question of how to carry out their line in order to incite the population against Soviet power was discussed. One of those present was instructed to necessarily become a member of the RCP in order to conduct his work there.
Volga region. Tartary. Chelninsky canton. In with. Fedorov, the kulaks changed the entire composition of the village council to the poor. The kulaks drew up a fictitious statement about ʺunreliabilityʺ against the indicated composition of the village council.
In the village. Shilino, the secretary of the village council, as an enemy of the kulaks, the latter arbitrarily replaced him, putting their supporter from the wealthy in the efoʹs place.
In with. V. Chilni a handful of kulaks (10 people) arbitrarily replaced the elected secretary of the village council solely because the latter was going towards the poor.
North Caucasus. Don district. March 4th. In with. Kundryuchensky fists of 100 people disrupted a meeting on the creation of a mutual assistance committee, shouts were heard: ʺDown with the communists, the kingdom of theʺ prihodkin ʺandʺ Moiseevs ʺis over.ʺ In Irinovsky and Novopashkovsky villages, under the influence of the kulaks, 116 applications were filed about their unwillingness to join the committees of mutual assistance. In connection with the campaign, some of the applicants took them back.
Terror
Centre. Ryazan lips. 12th of February. Citizens of the village Rovnoe Zatishievskaya Vol. Ryazan loudly call all the members of the RLKSM fools and their organization is stupid. Once they raised a scandal at a play, and then beat the Komsomol members.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. February 21. The anti‐religious propaganda of the Aleksandrovskaya cell of the RLKSM embittered some peasants of the village. Kashinovo Kolshevsky parish Kineshemsky u. On February 7, in the evening, a crowd of peasants began to catch the Komsomol members, while they searched all the youth and, if anyone had badges (not only Komsomol cards), but they also ranked them among the Komsomol members and beaten them up. When they were beaten, they said: ʺPray, be baptized, bow down, do not be an atheist, read the Mother of Godʺ, etc.
Tula lips. February 19. The chairman of the Khazar RCC, Shchekino RIK, Evstigneev‐Lebedyantsev, candidate of the RCP (b), was beaten. The kulaks of the village were set up against Evstigneev. Bechigeevo ‐ the nearest station. Khazarovka. At all meetings, the kulaks constantly pointed out that Evstigneev did not want to procure tax rebates for the peasants. As established, the beating was carried out by kulaks, the brothers Kryukov Egor and Vasily. Together with Evstigneev, a member of the RLKSM, Isaev Ivan Fedorovich, who was trying to provide assistance to Evstigneev, was also beaten.
West. Belarus. February 15. At a wedding evening in the village. Bildziuki of the Maidan region, 4 Komsomol members of the 2nd Nareikov cell were beaten. The instigator was Ivan Budkevich, a citizen of the same village council, and since Budkevich broke the lamp before the attack so that the beaten did not know who would beat them, the Komsomol members managed to hide in the darkness. The reason for the beating was an article written by the Komsomol members in a wall newspaper, exposing the activities of Budkevich when he was his presidency.
Gomel province. In the Surazh parish. in the village. Dubrovka, there was a case that, at the instigation of kulaks, there were attempts to beat up a cadet of the district party school who had arrived to examine the activities of the village council (the perpetrators were arrested, the case was being investigated).
Smolensk lips. February 13. In the area of the village. Borek and der. Nikitino Izdeshkovskaya par. Vyazemsky killed by the PreRaiselle Council Efimov Prokofiy. The murder was committed in connection with the protection of the interests of the poor by Efimov.
Ukraine. Odessa lips. In with. Mikhailovka of the Zinovievsky district a group of kulaks tried to beat the village correspondent, but to no avail. The next day, the kulaks gathered to discuss the murder of the village correspondent. In the same village, there were attempts to beat the teacher.
North Caucasus. Don district. In sl. Bessergenevskaya the reading room was set on fire, the local clergy was suspected of arson, since the reading room was located in a former church gatehouse and at the time of the fire the rope from the bell was cut off in order to timely warn of an alarm; the population did not take part in putting out the fire, saying: ʺSatan was poured ... and God punished you.ʺ During the fire, some residents deliberately pushed Komsomol members and policemen into the fire.
Volga region. Chuvash region February 7 in the village. Mozharky Staro‐Taburdanivska par. Tsivilsky u. there was an attempt on the life of a gang of kulaks to beat the chairman of the Taburdanov VIC, a member of the RCP (b) Ivanov. Predvik Ivanov, who was driving on official business, in the village. Mozharkakh met a drunken crowd near the house of the Nikitin brothers (famous kulaks of this village). One of the Nikitin brothers, seeing Ivanov, shouted: ʺThere is a Soviet dog coming, we should have killed him long ago.ʺ Ivanov, hearing the insult thrown at him, stopped and wanted to detain the indignant drunken crowd. Summoned by Nikitin, his two brothers attacked Ivanov. The latter, seeing that he was in danger, with the help of Yakovlev, the secretary of the RCP (b) Volyachik, who was with him, somehow freed himself from the hands of the brutal Nikitin brothers and hastened to leave. After him, the Nikitins rushed with clubs and levers, but they failed to catch up with Ivanov.
Siberia. Novonikolaevskaya lips. February 15. In with. Kazantsev Kainsky u. a group of kulak youth was identified who terrorized the population, dispersed delegate meetings, beat and raped the delegates, tying the latter to the cross. 8 people were arrested.
Leaflets
Centre. Voronezh province. February 16. Bogucharsky u. On mourning days in the Bychkovskaya rural community of the Peter and Paul parish. an appeal was sent to ʺCitizens of the village of Bychkov, and Komsomol members, and communists.ʺ The appeal says that “Lenin brought the country to ruin, that curses are heard everywhere and everywhere at his address. Komsomol members and communists think that the peasants mourn the loss of Lenin, but in reality this is not true, the peasants think that the time will come ‐ and they will destroy all their oppressors who have taken the people under their yoke. ʺ The appeal goes on to say that ʺLenin is the biggest enemy of Russia and the communists are given advice ‐ to think carefully about what they are doing and where they are striving.ʺ The appeal ends with the slogan: ʺLong live free Russia, long live the Constituent Assembly and the right of the people, and not you, the oppressors.ʺ
Nizhny Novgorod province. In the Rastyapinsky district of the Sormovsky district. a proclamation was circulated, entitled ʺTo all the peasantsʺ on behalf of an advanced group of Frenchmen ... ʺ, in which it is proposed to overthrow the Soviet regime, calling on the former Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to rule the country.
Tambov province. In Borisoglebsk u. Peskovskaya Vol. an appeal of the peasants was discovered, which says that the Bolsheviks are the oppressors of the peasants, they have entangled them with cunning words, they are ruining the farms, taking away livestock, that the Bolsheviks are the invaders of power, and further it is said that after the overthrow of the Bolsheviks, elections to the Constituent Assembly will begin, the land will be taken from the state farms and transferred to the peasants; the appeal ends with the following slogans: ʺGet ready to engage in open battle with the Bolshevik‐communist bastardʺ, ʺEnough to suffer from the yoke of the Bolsheviksʺ, ʺWake up, Russian peopleʺ, ʺThrow away from yourself the shameful yoke of the Jews.ʺ
In Lipetsk u. 10 anti‐Soviet slogans were pasted up, threatening retribution for the communists, signed ʺIskraʺ.
North Caucasus. Tersk district. In stts. Chernoyarskaya posted an appeal to the population to remove all non‐local workers from power.
Ukraine. Poltava province. In with. Lyski (Priluksky district) on the doors of the reading room hut was found a proclamation in the spirit of Petliura 122, in which the peasantry was called upon to fight the communists for an autonomous Ukraine, etc. A meeting was convened by the village council on this matter, and the peasants were given an appropriate explanation. It was established that the proclamation was written back in 1919 and was hidden by one of the peasants, a Petliurite. Ural. Ural region in the city of Sverdlovsk, they were found pasted in two places with a proclamation calling for the overthrow of the Soviet regime and the RCP signed ʺUnderground Committeeʺ.
Siberia. Tomsk lips. 28th of February. An appeal was found on a tree in the Kaibo farm, which says: ʺWe have pressed, we will press and we will press the communists until we destroy them.ʺ
Agitation of the anti‐Soviet element and the kulaks
Centre. Kaluga lips. February 26. In Iznoskovskaya parish. Medynsky u. an officer of the old army, the son of a former merchant, in a conversation with the peasants said that ʺthe old officers will still show themselves in the arena of struggle,ʺ at the same time Kovalenko stressed that ʺwe are not sleeping, but working.ʺ He further indicated that he had connections in Dubna with the farmer Stepanov, a former lieutenant, priest Pogodin and a teacher with. Walnut Zakharovsky ‐ the son of a priest. In conclusion, Kovalenko said that he had connections with the five volosts through his old comrades, officers. ʺIn April,ʺ he said, ʺwe will try in the presence of an alliance with the
Balkans, Poland and in the presence of our forces to raise an uprising.ʺ
Tula lips. February 22. Fists der. Krasnovo Lugansk Regional Executive Committee of the same district Dmitry Chernikov, Nikolai Dudnikov, Ivan Dudnikov and others are campaigning that the authorities will bring taxes to the point that they will have to take a club and drive everyone who comes to the neck, that tax is the same corvee, even worse. They also point out that the Soviet government rips off the peasants worse than Nikolai. Under Nicholas, all these communists were in prisons, they belong there, and these jailers cannot rule the state.
Ryazan lips. February 26. The former sergeant Podlazov, having come to the premises of the Sansky village council of the Spassky district, which is in his house, began to laugh: ʺThe power of the communists is going into the realm of tradition, that the moment is not far away when not a single communist will be given a place.ʺ Podlazov said that communists should be dealt with differently, that everyone should be shot or killed.
Bryansk lips. 12th of February. In the village. Village of Dyatkovskaya parish. Artyukhov (Menshevik), chairman of the Bytoshevsky enlarged village council, conducted agitation at a general meeting against the Soviet government and the Communist Party, which boiled down to the fact that Leninʹs behests were directed against the peasantry and that, therefore, it was necessary to create a new revolution ‐ to drive the communists. During the anniversary of Leninʹs death, Artyukhov gathered a company at his place, where they staged a booze.
Siberia. Irkutsk lips. February 15. In with. Krasnoyarove Ustkutsk Vol. Kirensky u. the kulak said: “What we fought for — for Soviet power. In fact, it does not exist. Replaced with some kind of bourgeois system. We have arranged a hydraulic press, which puts pressure on all the peasantry, squeezing out the last juices from it. ʺ
In with. Osokino Preobrazhenskaya Vol. Kirensky u. at a meeting on the tax issue, a group of wealthy peasants is trying to win over the poor to their side, they said: “The poor have been completely ruined, we’ll probably break through, they will completely disappear”. The agitation of the kulaks was a success among the poor. The poor said: ʺThatʹs right, the authorities have completely ruined us.ʺ
Novonikolaevskaya lips. February 15. Pop with. V. Chumanki, in a conversation with the peasants, said: ʺSoon the Soviet government will change ‐ instead of it a Constituent Assembly headed by the president will be convened, the communists have reigned, and thatʹs enough.ʺ
APPENDIX No. 8
MATERIALS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE RED ARMY
Poor quality food. Air defense. In the mobile base, there were two cases of the Red Army men refusing to receive lunch. In the Kotlas company, the Red Army men refused to eat soup made from bad herring (old stock herring), and after replacing the herring with salted fish, the Red Army men were satisfied.
PrivO. In 32 divisions of the Privy Military District, due to the poor quality of food, the Red Army soldiers of the regimental school of the 96th regiment began to shout that they were ʺgoing to starve to deathʺ, and they poured the poured soup and broke spoons.
SKVO. In the 3rd cavalry brigade of the North Caucasus Military District, many cockroaches developed in the kitchen, as a result of which cockroaches often come across in the food. There was a case when a Red Army soldier received a pot of soup, in which there were 4 cockroaches.
MVO. In the 10th Cavalry Division and the 1st Special Cavalry Brigade, several cases of receiving substandard meat, lean and not quite fresh slaughter, and the issuance of bread mixed with sand, unusable and musty, were noted, and in the 57th regiment of the 10th division a baked mouse was found in bread.
Interruptions in getting food. MVO. In the 1st Special Cavalry Brigade, there was an interruption in the supply of meat from January 1 to January 5 due to a frivolous attitude towards the business of the farm and quartermaster 123. On this basis, among the Red Army men there was talk of a hunger strike (an inquiry is being made).
ZVO. In the 109th regiment of the 37th division of the Western Military District, there were interruptions in the supply of flour for 5 days. For 4‐5 days, units of the 5th building were not provided with soap and sugar due to their failure to enter the Bobruisk food store.
Household crimes. In the 77th and 78th regiments of the 26th division, a chaotic state of reporting on the inventory and clothing property was also found, its careless storage, the inability to rationally use the available material resources, the distribution of money according to debt documents (60 cases for 4691 rubles) to persons who even have nothing to do with shelf.
In the 6th Cavalry Division of the North Caucasus Military District, in the course of the investigation into the affairs of the manager and treasurer of the 25th regiment, more and more abuses are discovered, creating the impression of a whole ʺPanamaʺ, systematic theft, as a result of which the commanders, commissars and managers of the regiments are subject to trial: 26, 27, 28, 29th, 30th and saneskadron.
After the departure of the manager of the 25th regiment of the 9th division, a shortage of 900 poods was found. oats, illegal sale of planned hay, etc.
The manager of the heavy division of the 10th building of the Moscow Military District has drawn up 9 fictitious accounts for a total of 385 rubles. (transferred to the court).
In the 1st division of the SVO, due to inept storage, about 2,000 poods are subject to decay and damage. potatoes and 50 poods. cabbage. A significant amount of potatoes was frozen in the 4th regiment of the 2nd division. There were 8 similar cases, covering all parts of the NWO.
Unprofitable contracts. In the 2nd division of the SVO, contracts are concluded for the supply of meat with private contractors on conditions unfavorable for the military intelligence (meat 5 rubles 35 kopecks poods against the market price of 4 rubles 50 kopecks poods). In addition, there were cases of delivery and acceptance of substandard meat (at the insistence of the PA, the contract was terminated).
5 similar cases were registered in 21, 26, 35, 12 divisions and a cavalry brigade.
Unequipped barracks. In all parts of the Western Military District the lack of trestle beds ranges from 30 to 70%. In the 7th Cavalry Division, overcrowding is observed in the barracks, instead of the 3250 people who are supposed to be accommodated, 4100 people are accommodated.
In the barracks of the 5th Cavalry Division of the North Caucasus Military District, trestle beds are almost completely absent, due to which the Red Army men sleep 3 people on 2 trestle beds, and in some cases move them all together, making common bunks.
Lack of loans for bath and laundry allowance. In 11 JIBO divisions, 2% of the total personnel of the division were affected by lice, in 4 divisions ‐ 20%. The same picture is observed in parts of the NWO. The communications company has 4 corps
ZVO lice affected 75% of all personnel, in the 24th regiment of the 8th division ‐ 45%, and in one company of the regiment it reaches 94%. In the 70th regiment of the 4th cavalry brigade ‐ 90%, in the 72nd regiment ‐ 80%, in the 33rd and 34th regiments of the 6th division ‐ 15‐25%, in the
36th regiment ‐ 100%.
Morbidity. In the 2nd division of the SVO in the reporting period, 788 people fell ill with cutaneous diseases.
In the 6th Cavalry Division of the Western Military District, 361 people fell ill with boils and scabies, in the 7th division ‐ 28% of the total personnel.
Peasant sentiments. SKVO. The letter of the Red Army men of the 22nd division reads: ʺDonʹt give a damn tax, if you donʹt have extra bread, then there is no business, and they have no right to sell cattle, so you say that there is nothing to pay, what you want, then do it, and if anything, ʺTheyʹll confiscate it, then weʹll see, this issue wonʹt work.ʺ
A Red Army soldier of the 28th Mountain Division of the North Caucasus Military District writes: “The mood of the Red Army men is bad, we are told that our families enjoy benefits, they do not need anything, it turns out, on the contrary, an unbearable tax, for which we have to sell the last cow or horse. We quarrel with political instructors and commanders about this”.
SVO. The Red Army soldier of the 61st regiment of the 21st division writes: “Once again I ask you not to pay tax, indicate that your son is serving in the Red Army, let you (brother) be sent to prison, but don’t give tax, let me just come, I’ll interrupt all your party members for that which is tearing the skin off us. I will dare to do anything, let me die in prison, but happiness will not be enough for all the lumps who are now engaged in animal husbandry. ʺ
In the 1st division of the SVO, a Red Army soldier, having received a letter from home, shouted: ʺThe communists need the tax in kind, taxes are taken to pay the salaries of command personnel and political instructors.ʺ
In the 2nd division of the SVO, the Red Army soldier Kotlov, in a conversation about taxes, said: ʺWell, when there is a war, then there will be no mercy for the Jews, we will cut everyone.ʺ
ZVO. In the 2nd division, a Red Army soldier, who came from vacation, told his comrades that ʺthe peasants are being robbed with might and main and that during his time the last cow was taken from one widow.ʺ In conclusion, the Red Army soldier remarked: ʺWe live here as in a dacha, and what is happening to the peasants is one horror.ʺ
A Red Army soldier of the regimental school of the same division, to the exhortation of the military commissar, replied: “You tell me what is happening in France and England, I’m not interested, they took 30 rubles from my mother. tax, and she had to sell her last cow and pay. ʺ
They write to another Red Army soldier: ʺTo pay the tax, you have to sell livestock, the tax is high, but the livestock is cheap.ʺ
MVO. In the artillery regiment of the 17th division, one of the Red Army men, in a conversation with his comrades, said: “We, comrades, are silent, we are being robbed mercilessly at home, the tax in kind is being plundered, letʹs organize and take this tax from them while they have rifles in their hands; when I was in a gang, I felt sorry for the Red Army, but as soon as a communist gets in, his head is off, well, I drank the blood of the communists. ʺ
In the 6th division of the Moscow Military District, several Red Army men said that ʺin case of war, they will be the first to go over to the whites.ʺ
PrivO. In the 170th regiment of the 57th division, during one political hour on the tax issue, a Red Army soldier approached the political instructor [and] with tears declared, showing a letter from his family: ʺHere you flatter with benefits, but at home you brought the last cow.ʺ This greatly excited all the Red Army men present, and the political instructor, who did not find an answer, had to stop the political hour.
Vacation mood. ZVO. In all parts of the Western Military District, the issue of vacations is of great concern to the Red Army men. The headquarters of the 4th corps received an anonymous letter on behalf of the Red Army soldiers of the Western Military District. The letter says that if the Red Army men of the spring draft are not given leave, then they will take up arms, they are asked to give an answer in Krasnoarmeiskaya Pravda. In addition, in the district, the Red Army soldiers received certificates from their homes about their difficult marital status more often. A check through the prosecutorʹs office and perlustration revealed that 50% of the certificates do not correspond to reality.
SKVO. In units of the 3rd cavalry brigade of the North Caucasus Military District, the Red Army men are also attracted to leave. Applications for this are submitted in batches, and various certificates of local authorities are attached to these applications.
PrivO. In the 34th division, there is also a strong desire of the Red Army to escape home on vacation. To achieve this, the Red Army men do not stop at forgeries, recommending their relatives to come up with fictitious reasons requiring the Red Army soldier to come on vacation. Thanks to this, the unit receives many letters and telegrams with notification of the division of property, the death of his father.
In 32 divisions the Red Army soldier writes: “I will take some measures, since it is impossible to serve, I can no longer be in the ranks of the Red Army. If it were possible, I would have cut off my hand long ago, no cholera takes it, I was ill at home, and then you freeze, turn blue, and take nothing. Read more carefully, because for this we will be in prison. Grudin Volodka and I decided to cut off two fingers at a time. There is no other way out. ʺ
UVO. Vacation mood and the desire to escape home were noticeably manifested in the 9th Cavalry Division. During this period, many ear diseases have been reported. During the observation process, it was found out that the Red Army soldiers of the 15th cavalry regiment Lekar and Denin, in order to be exempted from military service, poured gasoline into their ears. During the interrogation of the NGO, the Doctor pleaded guilty to self‐harm for the purpose of dismissal from military service and said that he was taught this by a former Red Army soldier of the 13th Chernysh Cavalry Regiment, his fellow countryman, who, thanks to this, was released from military service. During the medical examination of Chernysh, it turned out that his ears were almost unharmed and he had to serve in the Red Army. In addition, there were several other cases of self‐mutilation with the aim of exemption from military service.
The rudeness of the command staff, separation from the Red Army and drunkenness. ZVO. In the 12th regiment of the 4th cavalry brigade, the platoon commander, while studying the materiel of the rifle, he brought the Red Army man to his knees for not knowing some issues. In the same brigade, rudeness was often expressed in the form of such shouts: ʺkeep your muzzleʺ, ʺramsʺ.
SKVO. In 3 separate] cavalry brigade of the North Caucasus Military District, the regimental school took over the cult in the village. Abundant. This acceptance was expressed in a drinking party arranged by the pre‐village council, 2 barrels of red wine were drunk, there were drunken toasts, tears and kissing. All this made the worst impression on both the surrounding Red Army soldiers and the local population.
PrivO. In the 169th regiment of the 57th division, drinking is observed quite often. It is characteristic to note one of these drinking bouts with the participation of Blinovʹs pomkomrot and a number of other middleranking officials. The first, in a drunken stupor, undressed himself and stripped the prostitute, with whom the Russian began to dance, the rest opened fire from revolvers, making a lot of noise. All those responsible for this binge have been brought to justice.
SVO. In the 5th separate cavalry brigade, the platoon commander, during training in the cold, ordered the Red Army men to take off their gloves. At the request of some of them to be allowed to put on gloves, the platoon commander shouted: ʺEven if I die, donʹt wear it.ʺ In the same brigade, the Red Army soldier, having frostbitten his ears, asked for permission to go out of order, the platoon commander (paint) did not allow him, and after training this platoon commander, together with others, began to chase the Red Army man running, mocking him and commanding ‐ one: to the right, the other: to the left.
In the 2nd division of the SVO, 4 cases of group drunkenness of command personnel were noted. This drunkenness was also accompanied by brawl, shooting and brawling.
MVO. In the 57th regiment, in the 10th Cavalry Division, there was a case when the platoon commander hit a Red Army soldier with a stick.
UVO. In the 27th division, the New Yearʹs meeting was accompanied by heavy drinking. In the 20th regiment, a bow evening was arranged, which was attended by the command staff and the Red Army men. 450 bottles of beer were drunk, the compolitist drank alcohol, which was taken from under the tables. After the party, the drunkenness continued and turned into a drunken orgy. In addition, drunkenness was observed on the part of the regiment commander Sablin and assistant Ushakov and others. This group of commanders spent 5 drinking bouts during the month of January. The drinking was in the nature of an orgy, where some wives danced almost naked. In the reporting month, there was a specially female drinking party, which was attended by all the wives of the above command staff. The binge continued with dancing, brawls, swearing, and it got to the point that the commander who accidentally fell to the floor, his trousers were lowered, and it cost him a lot of work to get out of there without being raped.
The relationship of the compolitist in connection with the unity of command. SKVO. The rumors about the one‐man command in the 3 separate cavalry brigade of the North Caucasus Military District caused strange relations between the command and the political staff. Partykompolitstaff begins to weigh on political instructors. In this brigade, commanders argue that political instructors are an extra ballast that hinders work and only burdens the Republic.
SKVO. In the 3rd division, the commanders speak out about political instructors in a negative sense. In companies, political instructors do nothing at all, they are unnecessary, because the work that political instructors are doing could be done by platoon commanders (106 regiment). ʺThe salaries are paid to political instructors in vain.ʺ The platoon commander explains to the Red Army that there will be no political instructors in the platoon commanders, he expressed his approval for this. To the questions of the Red Army men whether it would be good without political instructors, [answered]: ʺThe treasury will have less expenses, and the tax will be easier for the peasants.ʺ
UVO. In the 80th division, in connection with the preparation for the transition to one‐man command, and hence the involvement of the commanders in political work, the question of the rationality of existence in parts of political instructors is being discussed. This trend is especially noticeable in the 238th regiment, thanks to which the political instructors lost their authority.
In 69 divisions, on the basis of the forthcoming introduction of one‐man command, there is a lack of agreement between the regiment commanders Ignatiev (a member of the RCP) and the military commissar. Moreover, the orders given by the commander are canceled by the military commissar, and vice versa.
KKA. In the units of the KKA, clashes on official grounds between the command and political personnel, especially between the leading command personnel and the commissar, have become more frequent. During the reporting period, there were two incidents of violent clashes. The first case took place between the commander and the military commander of the 4th regiment of the 2nd K [Avkaz] SD. The relationship between them reached such an aggravation that both had to be removed from their posts.
In addition, in the units there are frequent statements from the commanders that the political staff is much less important for the study and life of the unit than the command staff.
The hostile attitude of the Red Army to political instructors 124. In the 2nd division of the Western Military District, several Red Army men addressed the political instructors in this way: “We are not interested in the tunes of political instructors, since their fathers live well because they receive a large salary, therefore, they don’t care about taxes in kind. The last property is described to the peasant for the tax.
SVO. “Is this the power, when it wants to teach, but they just hammer our heads, priests used to be, and now political instructors sing twice as much (1 division), under the tsar we were entangled with the law of God in schools, now they are entangled by political instructors who paint us pictures that everywhere is good, and when you come home there is nothing to eat. ʺ
In the 35th division, the Red Army soldier, comparing the political instructor with the priests, said that ʺin the old army there was one priest per regiment, but now each company has a political instructor, and they all receive a large salary.ʺ
MVO. In the 18th regiment of the 6th division, 4 Red Army kulaks were identified, who are grouped on the basis of various material shortcomings, while expressing dissatisfaction with the political instructors, stating that ʺthe law of God reminds them of the political hour, and the political instructors remind them of priests.ʺ
In the 10th Cavalry Division of the Moscow Military District, the Red Army soldier said in a lenguard that ʺpolitical instructors are the same priests, but they receive more salaries, and this money is taken from their fathers.ʺ He immediately declared that ʺhe is angry with all the political instructors and would have interrupted them all.ʺ
Indiscipline. SVO. In total, about 500 disciplinary punishments were imposed on the parts of the SVO for violation of discipline. There were 46 cases of non‐compliance with orders.
In the 62nd regiment of the division, by order of the department committee, the Red Army soldier to change his post, the Red Army soldier replied: ʺI will not go, because I am tired, as you want to force, but I will not go, I have such a character.ʺ Another Red Army soldier replied: ʺAnd why do we need discipline, it is completely unnecessary, we fought for freedom, but discipline is poked at us.ʺ
MVO. In the 51st regiment of the 17th division, finishing, being appointed carnach, left the carpenterʹs room for the club and did not appear before the divorce of the guard began. One of the divisional committees of the regimental school, being appointed to the guard by the chief, went to the barracks and went to bed, so he had to be replaced by another person. When the elementary school asked why he left, being a carnach, he answered with finishing: ʺSomeone needs to start, otherwise everyone says that they are often sent to the outfit, and no one opposes this.ʺ
PrivO. The decline in discipline has become particularly noticeable in recent times. In the 169th regiment of the 57th division, the Red Army soldier refused to go to work, citing the lack of an overcoat. In the artillery regiment and cavalry squadron 57, cases of leaving their posts became more frequent. Drunken attendance at the carpentry is noticed. In addition, unhindered access by unauthorized persons. In the Perm convoy team, there was [a case] of refusal of all Red Army soldiers to go to work. The refusal was motivated by severe frost.
ZVO. In the 2nd division, there were organized unauthorized absences. The Red Army soldiers collected money for their comrades for travel in order to return one to the other, also by unauthorized means.
APPENDIX No. 9
The monthly budget of the secretary of the village council of the Korostensky district of the Volyn province. (Ukraine) from October 16 to November 16, 1924 (materials were transferred to the OGPU, provided that he was not brought to justice)
Month
Coming
Month
Consumption
number
number
Rub.
Cop.
16.X
Dinner
‐
37
Cigarettes
‐
40
17.X
Apples
‐
fifteen
Candy
‐
40
18.X
Makhorka
‐
ten
Matches, paper
‐
five
19.X
Half a bottle of vodka
‐
40
Dinner for a
guest
‐
80
21.X
Shoe goods
eleven
00
22.X
Indulgence certificate for the right to purchase bread 1 rub. 65 kopecks
Makhorka
‐
ten
24.X
A bottle of vodka
1
00
Makhorka and
paper
‐
12
26.X
Barysh gave for lunch
1
ten
27.X
For issuing a certificate for felling ‐ 1 rub. 50 kopecks
Makhorka,
matches and
paper
‐
fifteen
For signing the correctness of the statement ‐ 1 rub. 00 kopecks
Apples
‐
five
29.X
For the signature of the certificate ‐ 1 rub. 65 kopecks
Apples, makhorka,
‐
35
paper and
matches
A haircut
‐
25
30.X
Accepted on account of the payment of a single agricultural tax ‐ 70 rubles, exchange royal silver for 25 kopecks. per ruble, and 38 kopecks were handed over to the cashier of the financial department, which brought in a profit of 4 rubles. 90 kopecks.
Candy
‐
60
Apples
‐
ten
2.XI
Recovered for the issuance of a certificate for burial, which should be issued free of charge
‐ 2 rubles. 65 kopecks
Cigarettes
‐
40
3.XI
Makhorka,
matches and
paper
‐
12
5.XI
4 rubles were collected for the expense record, but 2 rubles should be collected, which is a profit of 2 rubles.
7.XI
Indulgence for not identifying the moonshine still 8 rubles.
10.XI
Sealed for the content of the commissioner
(for re‐election)
2
40
12.XI
Received from the owner of the moonshine still one bottle of moonshine ‐ 80 kopecks.
13.XI
The same, 3 bottles ‐ 2
rubles. 40 kopecks.
Makhorka, matches, paper, papi dew and
apples
1
20
14.XI
The same, 3 bottles ‐ 2 rubles. 40 kopecks. Salaries per month 14 rubles.
16.XI
Apples
‐
fifteen
At the table, apartment,
i.e., for full
content
ten
00
Total 42 rubles. 95 kopecks
Total
32
76
The remainder
ten
19