Marx-Engels | Lenin | Stalin | Home Page
Review of the political state of the USSR
Review of the political state of the USSR in January 1925
An overview of the political state of the USSR for the month of January
1925 is being transmitted. The review was compiled on the basis of data from the state information of the OGPU Inform Department, supplemented by materials from the OGPU: Secret (anti‐Soviet parties and groups), Special (Red Army) and Counterintelligence (banditry).
This survey, in view of its top‐secret nature, should be kept on par with the code. Making copies and making extracts is not allowed in any case.
The heads of the OGPU and PP OGPU gubernial departments 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.
When reviewing 12 applications and 7 tables.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Prokofiev
WORKERS
In January, the number of strikes is less than in December (in January, according to incomplete information, it was 17 against 23 in December). However, there is still a significant number of cases of fermentation due to higher production rates and lower prices, mainly in the metallurgical and textile industries. One of the main reasons for this is insufficient informing of workers about the state of factories and the separation of the administration, and in some places the trade union organizers from the workers (this was especially manifested in the strikes at the Bryansk state plant ʺProfinternʺ and at the Kurlovsky glass plant in Ryazan province.).
Along with this, there were still many conflicts caused by the long delay in wages in the industries ‐ mining, sugar and timber.
Metallurgical industry. In the metallurgical industry, delayed wages are no longer the main cause of conflicts.
The delay in wages in Moscow was noted at the enterprises of Elektrostroy 1, covering more than 2,500 workers, and at some small enterprises in the provinces. A significant number of conflicts were caused by an increase in production rates and a decrease in prices, mainly due to the failure of the administration and trade union organizations to take the necessary campaigning measures. Discontent on this basis resulted in a series of strikes (Bryansk state‐owned plant ʺProfinternʺ, ʺRed shipbuilderʺ in Leningrad, ʺRed shipbuilderʺ in the Black Sea region, Kramatorsk plant in Donbass, Mariupol plants ʺAʺ and ʺBʺ Yugostal) 2... Particularly characteristic is the strike at the Bryansk state‐owned plant ʺProfinternʺ, caused by an increase in rates and a slight delay in wages, which lasted up to 5 days and covered 5 workshops with a total of 2000 workers. The administration, having reduced prices by 20%, did nothing to explain the reasons for this (shortage of the plant) to 3 workers. At the end of January, in connection with rumors about a new cut in February wages, there was another strike mood (see Appendix No. 1).
Textile industry. The most pressing issue in the textile industry is the 3‐sided campaign. On this basis, 3 strikes took place and many conflicts were noted. The sabotage of the transition to 3 machines by female workers and foremen is noted, and a number of cases of refusal to work on the new system are noted. The campaign was carried out without sufficient training of the workers and therefore caused a strong deterioration in their mood. At Likinskaya f‐ke (Orekhovo‐Zuevsky heats 4) a meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the death of Comrade Lenin, and there were calls to beat the speakers and the factory committee. There are speeches by workers indicating that the factory regime is currently worse than the capitalist one. In many factories, workers deliberately do not work out their quota. Some textile factories in the province still experience long wage arrears (see Appendix 2).
Mining. Most conflicts in the mining industry are caused by delayed wages. Particularly strong discontent on this basis in the Donbass (mines ʺParizhskaya Kommunaʺ, Schegolovskoye Ore Administration, etc.). At the Italia mine of the Makeyevka Combine, due to the delay in wages, an “Italian” strike 5 took place, and in the Iron Ore region of the Yekaterinoslavskaya province. for this reason, up to 40% of the workers at the Manganese mine do not go to work. A particularly long delay in wages is observed in the coal industry in Siberia (see Appendix No. 3).
Other industries. The sugar industry still has a long delay in wages (23 months or more). There are a number of acute conflicts with seasonal workers and peasants, whose debt at certain factories reaches a very impressive figure (180 thousand rubles and more for individual factories in Ukraine).
In the chemical industry, salaries have been delayed by up to two months at a number of glass factories. Two strikes took place in January on the basis of higher production rates and lower wages. Attention is drawn to the strike at the Kurlovsky glass factory named after Volodarsky Ryazan province., Caused exclusively by the inattention of the administration to the demands of the workers.
The administration was warned about the strike two weeks in advance when the workers were demanding higher wages. Neither the cell nor the factory 6 considered the application, and the administration refused the request, without even indicating the reasons. The Komsomol members also took part in the strike, which lasted 4 days.
There is still a long delay in wages (up to 2‐3 months) in the timber industry (see Appendix No. 4).
The political mood of the workers. The mood of the workers, in addition to the ongoing increase in production rates and lower prices, was significantly influenced by the separation from the workersʹ trade union organizations and the administration. On this basis, in a number of enterprises, antagonism is observed between the workers on the one hand and the factory committee and the administration on the other.
Particularly noteworthy is the penetration into the environment of a part of the workers associated with the countryside (textile workers, tanners, etc.), peasant sentiments.
Mismanagement and abuse in industry. The phenomena of mismanagement at industrial enterprises, noted in the last survey, continue to occupy a prominent place in the reporting period. The presence of bloated administration staff and employees leads to a significant increase, compared to normal, overhead costs (for example, at the Sevastopol Marine Plant up to 200%) 7. The existence of higher wages for employees, especially in various hidden forms (overtime, percentage allowances, unnecessary travel, etc.), is one of the most serious reasons for workersʹ dissatisfaction with the campaign to raise labor productivity. Advance payments to administration and employees are very common, which leads to the diversion of the necessary working capital from enterprises 8...
A lot of facts of mismanagement of enterprises continue to be noted, leading to the destruction of valuable equipment and prolonged downtime. All these facts are widespread and cause strong anger with the actions of the administration (see Appendix No. 2, where the most striking facts on this issue are given).
PEASANTRY
The past month has passed under the sign of the intensified growth of anti‐Soviet sentiments of the peasantry and the political activity of the kulaks. What has emerged in recent months in the form of rumors and vague tendencies finds its vivid expression in January in the form of a series of open speeches at peasant meetings and congresses. The immediate basis for this is the process of class differentiation of the countryside, which, as noted in recent reviews, has gone very far.
The class stratification of the village. Materials obtained in January indicate a further deepening of the process of class differentiation. They note the strongest growth in usury in the countryside, which is due to the lack of state lending for low‐power farming. The poor, who are forced to borrow money from the kulaks, pay, as a rule, 200300%. Quite often the kulak receives credits for a huge part of the peasant farms in the region (see, for example, a characteristic fact for Kostroma province in Appendix No. 3, item 2). The process of the ruin of the poor is manifested especially in the strong spread of the leasing of their land by the poor to the kulaks, due to the impossibility of cultivating it on their own. As a result of tax pressure, the poor people continue to sell livestock on a massive scale and buy it up by the kulaks (up to 30% of the livestock sold by the poor are bought in the last places).
In areas of crop failure, the process of economic stratification in the countryside is intensified by the aggravation of the food crisis noted in January in connection with the exhaustion of grain and fodder among the poor and partly among the middle peasants. At the Center in Voronezh province. low‐power farms sell outbuildings for bread (a new chopped barn is sold for 28 poods of rye, a hut with double windows and a pine floor for 45 poods of rye); in the same place the best cattle are exchanged for the worst with the addition of bread or money.
Begging is developing among the poorest part of the population. In the Volga region in the Tsaritsyn province. low‐powered middle peasants and poor peasants dismantle the thatched roofs of barns 9 and huts for livestock feed. In the Volga region and in the South‐East, in a number of provinces, 40% of the peasantry feed on surrogates (in the German Republic, in 10 places, 90%) and hunger is increasing.
Impact of the tax campaign. The tax campaign continues to exert a significant influence on the process of class differentiation in the countryside. In some districts, it is noted that the campaign by the reporting period has come to the point when the fulfillment of all 100% of the tax should ruin low‐capacity farms (Center, areas of crop failure). As a result, there is a massive sale of livestock, increasing the number of horseless, and middle peasant farms leave only one horse and one cow. The situation of small‐scale farms is especially aggravated by the shortening of the tax execution period; there are statements that the tax would have been easily fulfilled if some delay had been given, otherwise the last cattle would have to be sold. On the basis of the hopeless situation created by the pressure to collect the tax, there have been cases of suicide of the poor (see materials in Appendix No. 5, p. 3). An attempt to organize demonstrations by taxpayers of one village, who were going to leave for a neighboring city on carts with hay, cattle and bread and with posters from canvas of 30 yards: “We are going to sell our belongings for agricultural tax for the USSR, no matter what,” is extremely characteristic. The system of repression and high fines (up to 25 rubles and more) often completely ruins poor farms. At the same time, repressions are in the nature of sheer arbitrariness. So, in the Tambov province. by the decision of the visiting session of the provincial court, the debtors ʺwere fully and partially dismantled outbuildings (see Appendix No. 5, p. 7). The materials indicate the absence of a class line in the distribution of taxes (no benefits are provided to families of the Red Army soldiers, in some places benefits are given toʺ horseless ʺtraders and etc.).12, then insurance, then for spring seeds issued 3 years ago ʺ).
Struggle on the basis of land management. The lack of latrine trades and the presence of a large surplus of labor in the countryside enhances the desire of the poor to obtain land in the countryside. There is a growing desire of the poor to equalize land use, which is due to the presence in the kulak farms of significant allotments (for the reporting period, there are materials on the Nizhny Novgorod province. 80‐100 dessiatines of surplus were taken from the kulaks in land management). Among the poorest strata of the village, there is an increased desire for land management (especially in the Center and the North‐West), and the main goal of this should be considered the desire to expand their allotments at the expense of the wealthy peasantry, although formally there is a desire to switch to improved forms of land use. The high cost of land management works13 and the lack of land surveyors ‐ all this hinders the transition of the village to improved forms of land use. In addition, in many cases, due to the abuse and bribery of land workers, redistributions are sometimes carried out in favor of the kulaks (in the Leningrad province, the former whites are returned to their lands transferred to the poor; in the South‐East, the poor are allotted lands far from the villages, the kulaks are assigned to the kulaks, bought from the poor land, etc.). Refusing to participate in the expenditure on land management, the kulaks, in fact, disrupt land management work, thereby retarding the growth of agriculture. Characteristically, the kulaks spread rumors that the state will carry out land management at its own expense in order to delay land management. Partly under pressure kulaks still continues to cut out 14 (Vyatka and Leningrad provinces). The craving of the poor to expand their allotments, finally, determines the growth of dissatisfaction with state farms (it is especially strong in Kursk province, where attempts have been made to burn and destroy state farm fields) (see Appendix No. 6).
Grassroots Soviet apparatus. The increase in the salaries of the VIK employees did not affect the village councils, and the situation there continues to remain the same. In addition, there is a noticeable contamination of the lower apparatus by the kulak and anti‐Soviet elements, which managed to penetrate the Soviets after the autumn elections. Therefore, the connection of the grassroots co‐apparatus with the kulaks is a common phenomenon in all regions of the Union (the same is noted in relation to the KKOV 15). In a number of cases, there are former police officials in the lower ranks. n. items. The fugitive apparatus often protects the kulaks, providing them with various kinds of privileges, dragging out land affairs in their favor, preferential loans through the KKOV, etc. The most hideous manifestations of arbitrariness continue to be noted. In the Voronezh province. previllage council sl. Dmitrovka deprived of civil rights and brought to responsibility ʺfor insulting the Constitution of the RSFSRʺ one poor peasant, a member of the Audit Commission, who demanded an explanation from him about the embezzlement he had made. In Ostrogozhsky u. of the same province, the peasants filed a complaint with VIC 16 against the pre‐village council, which raped women and took bribes, and as a result, those who filed a complaint were sentenced to three months of forced labor for disobeying the authorities. Beatings of peasants, bribes and other abuses on the part of grassroots coworkers are quite often noted in all regions of the Union. In addition to cases of gross arbitrariness, the waste of public money by grassroots workers has become more frequent (see Appendix No. 7). Drunkenness among the grassroots Soviet apparatus is an everyday phenomenon and is often noted by all the workers of the volost, from the VIC and the head of the volmilitia to the agricultural contractor; no fight against moonshine is being conducted.
Kulak influence in cooperation. Numerous materials on the state of all types of grassroots cooperation indicate an exceptionally great contamination by kulak elements and a significant use of it by private capital. Mismanagement and abuse, constituting a mass phenomenon in grassroots cooperatives (Appendix No. 8 shows the most characteristic materials from a large number of them received in January), lead to the fact that the effect of the price reduction produced by industry is almost not reflected in the countryside. The influence of the kulaks is especially strong in agricultural credit cooperatives. Agricultural credit is actually used exclusively by the kulaks, since the conditions of agricultural credit and high share contributions make it impossible for the poor to use agricultural credit ‐ for example, to get 2 rubles. 50 kopecks. for the purchase of seeds, you must give a receipt for 15 rubles. (see materials in Appendix No. 8).
The mood of the broad strata of the peasantry. Against the background of the ongoing stratification of the countryside, accompanied by the rapid ruin of low‐power farms that are becoming economically dependent on the kulak, and the very significant shortcomings of the Soviet apparatus noted above, anti‐Soviet sentiments are rapidly growing among broad strata of the poor and the part of the middle peasantry adjacent to them.
These sentiments find expression in a number of performances at nonparty conferences of peasants 17, electoral meetings, district, volost and county congresses of Soviets, etc. The main tone of these speeches boils down to the fact that the government “has become bureaucratic,” “it costs the peasantry too much,” “the government has given too little useful to the peasant” (factory products are expensive, bridges are not being repaired, schools are expensive, medical care is paid, etc.), ʺTaxes are too high, much higher than the tsaristʺ (see Appendix No. 9 ʺThe thought of a non‐party peasantʺ), ʺthe government treats the peasants atrociouslyʺ (the speech of a demobilized Red Army soldier in Belarus, see Appendix No. 9), ʺwhich has forgotten the peasants and Leninʹs precepts. the government has been condemned by us” (resolution on the report “A Year Without Ilyich”, adopted by the general meeting of peasants in the village of Dubinskaya, Orekhovo‐Zuevsky district, Moscow province), etc. On the basis of tax pressure, there are a number of statements that if there is a war, then “letʹs go beat our stewards”, “you again force us to pick up the pitchfork and defend our cause”, “climbed into power, forgot our slogans and did not pay attention to the peasants; before the October Revolution, the first slogan was ʺAll Power to the Sovietsʺ18, and now the party has taken power and is doing what it wants. ʺ A letter to the Red Army is extremely characteristic, in which the father of a Red Army soldier writes to his son: ʺIf you are expelled to pacify the peasants or to take property, do not raise your hands against your fathers and brothers.ʺ
Such speeches are accompanied by appeals: ʺIf the Communist Party does not change its policy towards the peasant, then the younger generation will point out all the shortcomings and, possibly, replace the Communist Party with cheaper, non‐party workersʺ (see Appendix No. 4, p. 1). In the resolution adopted at the electoral meeting of peasants with. Krasnoe Kolyadino of Chernigov Gubernia, noting the severity of taxes, abuse of local power, abnormalities in land management and other peasant needs, states: “The peasantry will not allow such a phenomenon that some people go hungry, while others collect taxes and live on a grand scale. He will not allow the misfortune of the peasants, the ruin of farms, to build their personal happiness and prosperity ‐ this is a crime before the Revolution” (see Appendix No. 10).
Creation of a united front by the kulaks in the countryside. It is quite natural that the kulaks strive to use these sentiments in order to create a united front with the middle peasants and the poor against Soviet power. It indicates to the poor peasants that the Soviet government did not give her anything (“your power was in 1918, when we were pulled from the barns; now the power is ours”; “your government is pulling the last skin off you”; cutlets, commissars have moved far from the peasants ‐ new communists are needed ʺ). In Vladimir Gubernia, speaking at a gathering, the kulak calls on: ʺYouth, stay farther from the party, consolidate around the peasantry, defending its interests.ʺ The kulaks are especially striving to exacerbate the antagonism of the peasants towards the workers (“the peasants live as slaves to the workers who work 8 hours a day, and 16 hours a day”; “the worker raised labor productivity by 40%, and the peasant by 100%, and as a result 100%, but the peasant has nothing to eat, and besides, they take tax”). A typical case took place in Ulyanovsk province, where the peasants, under the influence of kulak agitation, refused to help the Leningrad workers who suffered from the floods, on the grounds that ʺthe workers give the peasants nothingʺ (see Appendix No. 4, p. 2).
Cassation of re‐elections to the Soviets. The holding of new elections by way of cassation arouses particular revival on the part of the kulaks. The materials received from some provinces indicate the desire of the kulaks and elements in solidarity with them to interpret the elections as a political concession to Soviet power. They strive to actively use the re‐elections, understanding them as granting them the rights of a broad democracy, and express thoughts that boil down to the slogan ʺSoviets without Communistsʺ 19 (Moscow Gubernia). In Ryazan lips. the re‐election of the Soviets is interpreted as the establishment of a special non‐party government for the village, which supposedly will exist in parallel with the co‐government (see Appendix No. 4, p. 3).
Peasant unions. The trend towards the organization of cross‐unions continues in January in a number of districts. In the Central region, it manifested itself in five provinces (Moscow, Tula, Tver, Vladimir, Orel). In the Moscow province. the call for the organization of cross unions on the part of the kulaks was supported by the secretary of the Komsomol cell. In the Tver province. During the re‐election, the son of a merchant issued a ʺmandateʺ to the delegates of the Congress of Soviets demanding a tax cut, the organization of a cross‐union and a reduction in prices for manufactured goods and an increase in prices for agricultural products. In the Vladimir province. kulak group with. Dubniki (29 people) arranges illegal meetings at which he discusses the plan in case of a coup and the question of organizing the cross unions and the peasant congress. In the Northwest Territory, this trend was noted in the North Dvinskaya Bay. and Karelia, moreover, the question of organizing the cross unions was put forward by the fists at the parish congress. In the Western Territory, the desire to organize a cross union is noted in the Gomel province. and Belarus, in the first of them this issue was raised at the parish congress of the pre‐village council. In the Volga region, this tendency manifested itself especially clearly, resulting in an attempt in two cases to organize a peasant union. In the Samara province. in Pugachevsky u. at the end of December, a meeting of peasants from five villages, on the report of one peasant who allegedly received instructions from the provincial department of land, decided to elect a technical commission to develop the issue of organizing a cross union, and the minutes of the meeting were sent to the VIC. In the same place in Pugachev, the peasantsTatars organized a cross‐union, a bureau was created and 25 people were registered as members of the union. In the North Caucasian region, in the Donskoy and Armavir districts, rumors about the organization of a union of ʺgrain growersʺ and a ʺunion of changemenʺ were noted among the Terarmyans. In the Terek district, at a non‐party peasant conference, delegates raised the question of organizing a “nonparty peasantry”. In Siberia, the desire to organize a cross‐union was noted in the Tomsk province. (see Appendix No. 4, item 4, table No. 4).
Terror of the kulaks. The number of cases of kulak terror in the reporting month continues to grow steadily. In January 1925, the number of terror cases reached 127 (of which 37 were murders); the number of terror cases in January of the current year was over 25% of all terror cases for the whole of 1924. The largest number of cases occurred in the Western Territory (30 cases), Ukraine (27 cases), in the Center (24 cases) and Siberia (21 cases). In the rest of the Republic, the number of cases of terror does not exceed five in each. In the first 4 regions, and especially in the West, terror is becoming more systematic and organized and is directed against the lower apparatus, communists and other Soviet elements in the countryside. It is quite characteristic that over the past month there have been several cases of mass organized attacks by kulaks,
The ideological influence of the kulaks on the youth. The mood of antagonism towards the workers and sharp anti‐Soviet tendencies are also noted among rural youth. These sentiments are especially strong among pre‐conscripts and soldiers of the army (as noted above, the tendency to organize a ʺunion of changemenʺ and ʺunion of grain growersʺ was noted among the soldiers in the Don and Armavir districts). In the Tula province. at a ceremonial meeting of the Komsomol with the pre‐conscripts of the Odoyevsky district, a note was submitted to the presidium, which said that the Soviet government ʺfights in three skins, saturating its wombʺ; the note ended with a threat that in the event of war, the pre‐conscripts ʺwill speak to the authorities differently.ʺ In the Kostroma province. among the pre‐conscripts there is talk that in case of war they will not go to war, but will scatter. In the Kiev province. a Petliura youth group was created, recruiting its supporters from neighboring villages, collecting information about people who have weapons in order to purchase rifles. In a number of cases, kulak youth disrupt cultural work in the countryside (see Appendix No. 4, p. 6).
Fight of kulaks against cultural organizations. Along with the ideological influence on the youth, the kulaks are striving in other ways to undermine all cultural and political work in the countryside. Together with the clergy, it wages a systematic struggle against the Komsomol and pioneer organizations, against reading rooms, clubs and, finally, against Soviet schools due to the lack of teaching the law of God in them (see Appendix No. 4, p. 7).
A bloc of the kulaks with anti‐Soviet elements in the countryside. Very often in the actions of the kulaks, the leadership belonged to anti‐Soviet elements. In a number of cases, non‐party factions, led by former officers, officials and other anti‐Soviet elements, were created at re‐election meetings, district and regional congresses. There were cases when they themselves sharply criticized Soviet power. A typical case took place in the Slutsk district of Belarus, where a former officer spoke at a womenʹs meeting in the Pesochnoe borough, pointing out that the policy of the Communist Party only worsens the situation of the peasants and that the party systematically deceives the peasants. Along with the leadership of the actions of the kulaks, anti‐Soviet elements are conducting hidden agitation, spreading provocative rumors about a split in the party, about the imminent death of Soviet power, about a workersʹ uprising, etc.20 (see, for example, the appeal of the peasants in the Tambov province. In Appendix No. 4, item 8). Thus, on the part of the anti‐Soviet element, there are attempts to formalize the anti‐Soviet sentiments of the countryside, using the difficult material situation of wide circles of the peasantry.
RED ARMY
Economic condition
Nutrition. This reporting period with regard to food parts is characterized almost everywhere by poor quality food, bad bread.
The reasons for this are mainly the poor work of the economic apparatus of the army, which is filled with inadequate personnel.
The unsatisfactory power supply is also increased by the scantiness of the welding salary 21, for example, in OKA the welding salary was reduced to 1.68 kopecks. on the Red Army.
Mismanagement. Mismanagement is massive in parts of OKA, SVO, JIBO, ZVO. It is expressed in the chaotic state of property, lack of proper care and savings, and generally in its unsatisfactory condition, neglect of reporting, theft, shortages, etc.
Political condition. The political state of the Red Army for this period is characterized by the reflection of pressure on the Red Army soldiers to collect taxes in the countryside. The main conductor of peasant sentiments, stirring up discontent and anti‐Soviet activation of the Red Army masses, are letters from the countryside.
Kulak groups. Anti‐Soviet sentiments are kindled due to the presence of the kulaks, the intelligentsia and other unreliable elements in the units. In some cases, these elements try to wake up the Red Army soldiers. A typical case took place in the 9th Terdivision of the North Caucasus Military District, when a Red Army soldier said to the military commander: “Look, you’ll finish it, read in the newspapers how worker correspondents and village correspondents are spanked”. In the 20th Terdivision of the LBO, a group of Red Army men sought to create their own ʺcommitteeʺ. The latter in an organized manner prevented the removal of the Red Army soldier to be demobilized. In the 26th division of the SVO, a group of 7 Red Army men was formed, led by a kulak, trying to introduce indiscipline into the Red Army mass. So, on January 26, on the order given to go to political classes without short fur coats, this group began to incite the Red Army soldiers to disobey the order, which was achieved. In the OKA, in all units, there are from 2 to 8% of the kulak element. This part is demagogic, anti‐Soviet, using every opportunity to incite the rest of the Red Army mass against the political composition and the existing system in general. In the 5th corps of the Western Military District, a group of Red Army men was noted, which assumed the formation of a detachment with the aim of joining with the Polish fascists to fight against Soviet power.
In the communication units of the SVO, the intelligentsia (university students), who arrived in the fall, are trying to undermine the authority of the compolitist staff.
Peasant sentiments. In connection with the above‐mentioned tax sentiments, there is also talk of a better position for the workers in comparison with the peasantry. At political hours and meetings, the Red Army men point to the oppression of the peasants by the working class, to the lesser participation of the peasantry in government bodies, etc. Compare the 8‐hour working day of the worker with the unlimited working day of the peasant. “It was the factory’s who thought of controlling peasant incomes,” say the 18th Terdivision of the Moscow Military District. ʺThe workers live better than the peasants,ʺ complain the Red Army men of the 19 heavy artillery battalion of the North Caucasus Military District. “Workers come to our village not to bow, but to talk and leave,” declare the Red Army men of the 8th communications regiment of the North Caucasus Military District. In the 18th Territorial Division of the Moscow Military District, the Red Army men say: “The workers lived on a hunger strike in the countryside, and then, when everything was over, they left, they did not want to work in the countryside, but where it’s easier.
Fall of discipline. During the reporting period, there is a decline in discipline, an increase in cases of sole violation of discipline, laxity, sleeping on posts, inattention, unauthorized absences, drunkenness. Moreover, it is characteristic that violations of discipline are ... a fuss was raised and curses were rained down at the command staff: “You feel good, parasites, give orders, I can also dispose of no worse than you, you are dressed, well fed, sleep softly ‐ we are hungry and sleep on the naked boards, only promise us, and devour yourself, we pay 200 rubles. tax, and you, idlers, eat it up, rub in the army, you have to drive you. ʺ
Collective performances. There are also some other individual examples of collective actions by the Red Army. This suggests that in the army, among the Red Army men, a sense of cohesion is manifested in the presentation of various kinds of demands, rebuffs, and support for their comrade (when arrested, or imposed a penalty, or a boss who treats them well). So, in the 12th heavy artillery battalion of the OKA, the foreman was arrested. The entire team followed him to the guardhouse and demanded his release. At the 6th railway regiment, the Red Army men filed a group application for granting them leave for the holidays, hoping that ʺall of them will not be put in the guardhouse and will not be taken to the tribunal.ʺ
The mood of the command staff. The issue of one‐man command in the army is viewed by 22 part of the non‐partisan commanders as getting rid of political supervision and control of the commissars. ʺThis party is losing ground.ʺ The introduction of one‐man command by this category of commanders is approved. One can observe open statements by some commanders about the uselessness of political workers (in the 1st Cavalry Division of the UVO ‐ friction on this basis between the commander and the military commissar of the division; in the 2nd cavalry division there is no unity in the work of the command personnel and political personnel. Such cases occur in the North Caucasus Military District, OKA, ZVO, SVO).
Combat training. Combat training of this period is hampered by a significant shortage of direct supervisors of such junior command personnel. This shortage is observed in almost all parts of the districts. In addition, the junior command staff is generally not sufficiently trained.
ANTI‐SOVIET PARTIES AND GROUPS
Anarchists 23
The revival among the anarchists continues, especially in Moscow and the Center, the North‐West region, Ukraine and the Volga region. Some of them work in the countryside (Novgorod, Ulyanovsk, Nizhny Novgorod provinces). Work is underway among the workers in the Vladimir province. (funds are collected for the publishing] fund), Yaroslavskaya (among transport workers) and in Kharkov (an underground circle of workers is organized). Work among students is celebrated in Poltava and Severo‐Dvinskaya province. Attempts to organize exs among the Vladimir and Tambov anarchists are noted. In the Ulyanovsk province. the anarchists took 1800 rubles under the ex. In the Nizhny Novgorod province. leaflets were distributed. An illegal magazine is published in Saratov.
Mensheviks 24
As before, the Mensheviks show no activity. Only the Odessa organization is conducting intensive internal organizational work. The withdrawal of individual Mensheviks from the RSDLP through the press continues. Right SR 25
In the Altai province. the Socialist‐Revolutionary‐kulak organization was liquidated, which set itself the goal of: 1) seizing grass‐roots cooperatives and inhibiting their struggle against private traders, 2) conducting anti‐tax agitation, 3) helping the kulaks in the struggle against the measures of Soviet power. Participation in the organization took the old Social Revolutionary opinion, a former member of the Constituent Assembly in Samara 26. The exit from the AKP of the former
Deputy Minister of Labor under Kolchak ‐ Tretyak.
Foreign delegation
In November, a meeting of 27 representatives of the AKP and the State Border Service was held in Czechoslovakia, which issued a resolution on the organization of a united socialist front against the USSR and the RCP. PSS 28 pledged through the Polish government to provide financial support to the Social Revolutionaries.
The Polish government agreed to the formation of a ʺcenterʺ on Polish territory, apparently, the issue of financial support has been resolved. Days 29 moves to Warsaw. Consent to join the ʺcenterʺ 30 was given by the Mensheviks, UPSR 31, USDRP 32 and USF 33.
Left SR 34
The Information Bureau maintains no work and contacts with foreign countries, fearing arrest, failure 35. The Moscow student organization maintains regular correspondence with Steinberg (Foreign delegation) and provincial groups (Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel and Kaluga provinces).
Monarchists 36
The sending of monarchist literature and leaflets from abroad by mail increased. In January, 9299 newspapers and magazines and 369 leaflets were detained at the Moscow post office.
In the Voronezh province. intensified agitation of a monarchical character is noted on the basis of crop failure. In the Tula province. monarchist agitation is being conducted in connection with the struggle for Tikhonovism 37. In Akmola province. the monarchical mood of the kulaks is noted (singing ʺGod Save the Tsarʺ, etc.). [SPIRITUALITY, INTELLIGENCE AND BANDITISM]
Orthodox clergy
Tikhonites. The organizational strengthening of the Tikhonites is noted, having actually restored their hierarchical organization. The Tikhonov current is finally crystallizing as an anti‐Soviet group. Former officers and other anti‐Soviet elements are appointed as bishops. Parish councils of Tikhonov churches are almost everywhere strongholds for monarchists. The group that was preparing materials on the persecution of the Orthodox Church to the Ecumenical Council, organized at the initiative of the foreign Black Hundred clergy in Palestine in May 1924, was liquidated.
Renovators 38. The transition of a number of church communities in the Kursk, Novoiikolaevskaya, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Tver provinces (67 communities in total) to the Gikhonovschina, as well as the increasing influence of the Tikhonov movement along the Kuban and Don, forced the Renovationists to pay more attention to the fight against Tikhonovism. A number of provincial and district congresses and an all‐Russian conference were convened (see Appendix No. 12).
Intelligentsia
City intelligentsia. There is an increase in the social and political activity of the intelligentsia, striving to join the Soviets, trade unions and other public organizations. In connection with the international position of the Union, the awakening of political activity is intensified by the expectation of political NEP 39 and is taking the form of various public associations and circles, which are essentially closed caste associations. Outwardly loyal, such societies are an attempt to selforganize in order to put pressure on the Soviet apparatus and trade unions (the Pirogov Society 40 set itself the task of fighting Vsemedikosantrud, the Agricultural Society 41 ‐ the fight against Vserabotzemles, the Russian Theater Society 42 ‐ with Vserabis, etc.).
Rural intelligentsia. The process of class stratification also affected the rural intelligentsia. On the one hand, this leads to Sovietization of wide circles of the intelligentsia, in particular, teachers; on the other hand, the growth of the economic power of the kulaks, given the extremely difficult material situation of the intelligentsia, sometimes leads the latter to economic dependence and ideological subordination to the kulaks.
The youth. The growth of political activity is also noted among students. They were especially excited by the last academic purge 43, which was not successful everywhere (Ukraine). Along with political groupings among the student community, there are illegal unions of theosophists and Christians 44 infected with fascist ideology and setting the task of combating the ideological influence of the Komsomol on youth.
Recently liquidated youth organizations (the Russian Organization of Peopleʹs Socialists 45 and a number of illegal scout organizations 46) testify to the growing political activity of petty‐bourgeois youth who are trying to create their own organizations to counterbalance the Komsomol (see Appendix 11).
Banditry
In most of the interior regions of the USSR (Center, Ukraine, NorthWest, Volga region, Ural), banditry is of an exclusively small‐scale nature, showing an upward trend. The successful fight against criminal banditry in Ukraine was noted (over 20 gangs were liquidated in January). In the West, there is a transfer from abroad of individual gangs (Slutsk and Mozyr districts of Belarus), which have committed a number of murders and robberies. In the areas where poly‐banditry is developing (South‐East, Far East Military District), there is a sharp drop‐in gang activity. In the South‐East, after the operations of the last months, the gangs hardly show themselves. In the Far Eastern Military District, the voluntary appearance of gang leaders and groups of ordinary bandits is noted, mainly due to the difficulty of hiding in the taiga in winter. In Siberia, gangs, along with criminal activities, terrorize local co‐workers and carry‐on anti‐Soviet agitation.
There is also a significant development of national and everyday banditry in the eastern autonomous republics. In some areas of the North Caucasus and in Kyrgyzstan, the transfer of 47 livestock has increased. In Transcaucasia there is a sharp decrease in the activity of banditry in connection with the transition to Turkish territory of the most active gangs: Yunus Shirin‐oglu and Umud Sarvansky. Both gangs were arrested for robbery and murder by the Turkish authorities. There is a lull in political banditry and an increase in criminality in Armenia. Earlier, the activity of the Atajanov gang, connected with the Tavriz Dashnak organization, was noted 48. In Turkestan, a gang of Mustafa Kum bek defeated our detachment of the 10th cavalry regiment, on our side there were killed; weapons and machine gun are captured by the gang. In Central Bukhara, along with the decomposition of Basmachism 49 and the surrender of individual kurbashs 50 and groups of ordinary bandits, the Basmachi grouping in the Talimarjan region is noted. Ibrahim‐bek conducts organizational work among the kurbashs, he convened a wide meeting, at which it was decided to intensify work among the population.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Yagoda
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Prokofiev
With genuine true: INFO Secretary Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 1
ECONOMIC SITUATION AND POLITICAL MOOD OF WORKERS
1. Metallurgical industry
Bryansk lips. At the Bryansk state‐owned plant ʺProfinternʺ, due to delayed wages and lower prices, 2,000 workers went on strike from January 8 to 13. The strike covered 5 workshops and brought in up to 5000 rubles. loss. The reduction in prices was carried out without taking the necessary campaigning measures. Recently, workers have been satisfied with January products and received an advance payment of 80% against January wages.
The main reason for the strike was the failure of the administration to inform the workers about the reduction in prices by 20% (the reduction in prices is a measure taken to cover the estimated deficit of 6,000,000 rubles in the coming operational year). When the reason for the decline was subsequently explained to some of the workers, they fully agreed. In addition, a few days before the strike, the workers were outraged by the absurd order to arm the watchman at the gate; on this basis there were even attempts to beat him up with a crowd of workers who finished their work and wanted to leave a few minutes before the beep. The workers say: ʺTo what they have lived, they began to arm the watchmen against the workers.ʺ
In early February, workersʹ discontent was again aggravated by rumors that 40% of the February salary would be withheld. The possibility of a secondary strike is not excluded.
Raising production rates and lowering wages. Leningrad province. At the Krasny Sudostroitel plant, upon the announcement of new prices introduced from February 1 (rates reduced by 20%), 150 workers in the foundry “Italian” 1 ʹ/ year. Dissatisfaction with low prices is noted at the Northern Shipyard and at the Nevsky Shipyard. Lenin.
At the Krasny Putilovets plant, in the forging and crucible workshop, in connection with the increase in production rates and a decrease in prices, there were calls for a strike. At the meeting of the workers of the hot shop, there were even threats of deliberate damage to tools and equipment, for some unknown reason, the steam and electric hammers stopped working.
Donetsk province. In the open‐hearth shop at the Mariupol factories ʺAʺ and ʺBʺ, in connection with the increase in norms, signatures were collected under a statement in which the administration was warned of the possibility of a strike.
At the Kramatorsk Metallurgical Plant in Donbass, in connection with the lowering rates and the decrease in extra earnings, there is fermentation among the workers. On January 23 and 26, the workers of the rolling shop sent their representatives to the RKK with a request to raise the rates, but from there they were sent to the manager of the plant ‐ the workers did not go to him. On January 27, about 100 workers in coke ovens quit their jobs and went to the plant management to demand a raise. The plant manager told the workersʹ representatives that “if they don’t like the new rates, then they can go outside the gate” and get paid, and today he will recruit twice as many workers. The bagpipe has been liquidated. The mood remains tense.
At the Toretsk plant of Yuzhmashtrest (Artyomovsk district), workersʹ discontent over the reduction in wages results in scandals and conflicts with RKK. In particular, the workers are unhappy with the actions of the plant manager in this area.
In the middle of January, fermentation took place at the Mariupol stateowned plants ʺAʺ and ʺBʺ of Yugo‐steel. The dissatisfaction of the workers of the muftoreznaya department, the pipe shop with the increase in production rates and the reduction in prices resulted in an ʺItalianʺ strike.
Kharkiv province. At the plant ʺElectrosilaʺ No. 1 in Kharkov, in connection with a decrease in prices, an attempt was noted to beat one of the appraisers.
Black Sea District. At the Krasny Sudostal plant, due to a decrease in prices from 30 to 80%, the foundry workers “Italian” for two days, the conflict was settled by the union.
Kuban. Among the workers of the Kubanol plant (Yugkraymetalltrest), there is discontent with the reduction in payment for piecework by 15%. 96 machine shop workers submitted a collective application to RKK.
Due to low wages, 5 highly skilled workers left the plant in November. There are 267 people at the plant.
Delayed wages. Moscow province. At the factories: Radioapparatny, Ruskabel No. 2, Ruskabel No. 3 and the Electrolampa factory (all Electrosila factories employing 2,544 workers) there was dissatisfaction with the delay in January salaries.
Kaluga lips. At the Petrovsky Mechanical Plant in Kaluga, the salary for 2.5 months has not been issued. At the Selmash plant, on account of the December salary, advances of 3‐6 rubles were issued.
Murmansk province. Workers of the Murmansk city power plant on December 31 went on strike over non‐payment of wages for the month of November.
2. Textile industry
Raising production rates and lowering wages. Moscow province. The dyeing and finishing factory ʺOktyabrʺ of the Worsted Trust, due to an increase in production rates and a decrease in prices for work, warehouses (3 people) and pressmen (7 people) deliberately do not work out the rate, demanding an increase in prices for work, for which the trust and the union disagrees. Decrease in labor productivity of warehouses and balers affects the work of the entire factory.
At the Moskvoretskaya Weaving and Finishing Plant (formerly Butikova) there is a strong murmur from workers about a secondary increase in output by 25% after a recent increase of 100%. This is reflected in labor productivity.
In the spinning department of Trekhgornaya m‐ry (150 workers), on the basis of the transition to three machines, the workers raised a noise, not wanting to allow the workers who wanted to work on three sides, and, leaving work, attacked the pom. director of the factory and prezavkom, almost beating pom. director. It was not possible to introduce work on three sides. The workers are in agitated mood. The total number of workers is 7400 people.
The meetings at the Paper Spinning Mills No. 1 and 2, Weaving No. 2 and Likinskaya Factories on the basis of the introduction of work for weavers on three looms and for drivers at four looms were excited. There were attempts to disrupt the meetings. At the Likinskaya factory there were calls to beat the speakers and the factory. In view of the introduction of the work of weavers on three looms, a strike is possible (Orekhovo‐Zuevsky Trust).
At the Narofominsk spinning and weaving factory (Zvenigorodsky district), in connection with the transfer of work to three machines, the apprentices sabotage the three‐machine work system (so that the workers abandon this system, the apprentices do not correct the machines). This greatly affects production. (There are 8,000 workers.)
Yaroslavl lips. At the Krasny Perekop textile factory, the newly introduced increased production rates irritate the workers and give rise to rumors that the new forms will enslave them more than it was under tsarism. Workers filed group applications for mis‐setting of piecework rates and rate cuts. Up to 200 workers signed such statements. In private conversations, the workers say that in such a situation a strike is necessary.
Kostroma lips. At the 2nd and 3rd Republican factories (textile) in Kostroma, water‐women and weavers refuse to work on two looms and three sides; dissatisfaction is exacerbated by wage cuts. Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. At the factories of the IvanovoVoznesensk Textile Trust, workersʹ dissatisfaction is caused by the transition to 3 machines, to 6 and collectively to 42 machines. Particularly strong discontent of the workers is observed in the Bolshoi Kokhomskaya field, where workers at meetings say that at present the factory regime is no different from the capitalist one.
Leningrad province. At the Krasny Mayak factory in Leningrad, workers are dissatisfied with low wages and a high production rate (the average wages of a female worker in 2 weeks are 18‐23 rubles, auxiliary workers from 12 to 15 rubles). In this regard, in the weaving department, a group of apprentices in the amount of 30 people left work an hour earlier than the set time, demanding an increase in the percentage of output, reduced in October, and the issuance of the difference during this time.
Delayed wages. Moscow province. At the Wool Spinning Factory, the former Bakhrushin, ʺRenewed Fiberʺ, there is an unsatisfactory mood with a delay in salaries for the second half of December. There are 356 workers.
Vladimirskaya lips. At the Vyaznikovsky textile factories, there is a strong fermentation of workers due to delayed wages. A complication is possible. For the same reason, groupings are being created among the workers at factory # 2 ʺFree Proletarianʺ.
Oryol lips. At the Shpagatnaya plant in Orel, no additional earnings have been paid for October last year.
Podolsk lips. At the Dunaevetsky textile factories in the Podolsk province. salary is delayed for more than 2 months.
3. Mining industry
Delayed wages. Donetsk province. At the Italia mine of the Makeevka Combine, an ʺItalianʺ strike took place on the basis of delayed wages.
On January 17, at the Shcheglovsky mining administration in the Stalin district, only the debt for November was paid off and an advance payment of 50% of earnings for December was issued, after which the mood of the workers subsided somewhat.
Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. In the Iron Ore region in the
Yekaterinoslavskaya province. 40% of the workers at the Manganese mine do not go to work due to salary delays.
Tomsk lips. Anzhero‐Sudzhensky district. Late payment of wages is widespread dissatisfaction among workers who indicated that specialists 52 the money is, and they, to avoid paying penalties for not paying taxes for late days, you have to sell the last thing. In addition, the workers believe that if they speak out about their plight, they will be classified as an unreliable element and will be laid off.
In December, salaries were issued for October and 70% for November.
Yenisei province. Among the workers of the Montenegrin mines, there is dissatisfaction with the untimely payment of wages for October and November, the salary has not been paid, and the debt of the management of the mines to the workers is expressed in the amount of 17,500 rubles. 96 kopecks
Payment of wages in groceries. Donetsk province. In the mining department ʺParis Communeʺ of Donugol, the salary for November was issued only in the amount of 50%, and at the expense of this money, 53 orders were partially issued to the work cooperative, in which there are no essential products, and if there are any, they are sold only for cash (flour and manufactory). The same is observed at the Bryansk mining administration (Lugansk district).
Transbaikal lips. At the Nikolaev mines (Novo‐Meisky), no money was paid to workers for the month of November. The administration motivates the refusal by the lack of small money. Mine workers are forced to take food on credit in the entrepreneurʹs barn, where prices are higher than cooperative ones.
Increase in production rates. Donetsk province. Among the workers of the Bryansk mining department of Donugol, there is dissatisfaction with the increase in production rates and lower prices. The workers accuse the trade union of not protecting their interests for low wages (25‐30 rubles per month).
Downsizing. Donetsk province. At Wonderful Century and the Budenovskoye mining administrations of the Stalinʹs Donugol district, there is strong dissatisfaction with the staff cuts. Most of those who were laid off were left without any means of subsistence.
4. Other industries
a) Chemical industry
Higher production rates and lower prices. Moscow province. On Goszavode ʺSteolʺ (Zhirkost) in the pressing unit (80) after lowering rates observed intentional systematic underproduction rules in view of the administration will pay a work according to the collective agreement, 2 / 3 of the basic rate. The workers were very indignant at this and refused to receive salaries and turned to the trade union for an explanation. There are 700 workers in total.
At the Misheron Glass Factory (Steklofarfortrest), Orekhovo‐Zuevsky u. there is a strong murmur of workers on the basis of the transition to 4 shifts, which results in under‐production of 3000 bottles per day. On this basis, on January 8, a handwritten proclamation was discovered on the fence of the plant, which speaks of the burden of the workers, which will bring the workers to the grave. A strike is possible.
Ryazan lips. At the Kurlovsky Glass Factory in Ryazan Province. canning workers went on strike on the grounds of lower wages; Two weeks before the strike, the workers submitted an application to the RKK for a wage increase, the application was sent to the factory, which did not consider it in a timely manner, the RCP cell, which received a copy of the statement, did not take any measures to resolve the issue, in conclusion, the can‐cansʹ request was refused without indicating motives. The strike lasted 4 days, 53 workers took part in it, and it was supported by the Komsomol members.
Bryansk lips. January 14 p. 30 selectors of freebies of the Bytosh glass factory in Bryansk province went on strike. on the basis of higher production rates and lower wages. The strikers were replaced by Komsomol members and Communists.
Delayed wages. Kaluga lips. At the Berezichesky Glass Factory in Kaluga Province. the salary has not been issued for 2 months.
Vladimirskaya lips. At the Glass Factory. Comrade Vorovsky has a debt of 15,000 rubles to the workers for the October and November months. Nizhny Novgorod province. To the workers of the Glass Factory. Stenki Razin in the Nizhny Novgorod province. not paid salary for 2 ʹ/ 2 months.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. The Glass Factory has not issued a salary for 2 months.
Belarus. At the Novka glass factory in the Vitebsk district, salaries are paid inaccurately. The total wage arrears reach two months.
b) Food industry
Delayed wages. Kursk lips. Workers of the Burynsk sand state plant in Kursk province. on the basis of late payment of wages, they staged a strike, categorically demanding payment.
Poltava province. At Poltava sugar factories, salaries are delayed up to 2‐3 months. At the Suurovsky sugar plant, in view of the large debt, a group of 60 workers filed an application for immediate payment, threatening to strike.
Kiev province. At the Ilyinets sugar plant of the Berdichev district, the debt to workers reaches 184,000 rubles. At the Luchansky sugar plant of the Shevchenko district, strong discontent of the workers was caused by the delay in wages for 2 months. At this plant there are 13 workers of the gas furnace, due to the rough treatment of the pom. directors went on strike.
At the Luchansky sugar plant of the Shevchenkovsky district, workers express sharp dissatisfaction with the delay in wages (the total debt to workers and peasants reaches 100,000 rubles). A particular sharpness of discontent is manifested in connection with the fact that the administration of the plant buys carts, English harness, etc. for some money.
Astrakhan lips. Workers of the 7th district of the Gosrybtrest in the Astrakhan province. salaries have not been received since September 1. Workers of the 6th district ‐ from October 1.
Chernihiv province. There is strong discontent with low wages in sugar factories. At the Mikhailovsky State Refinery, the average wage of a worker is 13 rubles. 50 kopecks, as a result of which desertion of workers is observed.
c) Timber industry
Delayed wages. Tverskaya lips. At sawmills in the Tver province. the salary is delayed by 2 months. Due to the colossal debt of EPO 54, foodstuffs are not available on credit, and most workers with their families are forced to look for bread in the countryside by collecting alms.
Novgorod province. Absenteeism increased due to late payment of wages at Staro‐Russky plywood mill No. 2 of Novgorod province; Thus, in November, 750 workers dropped to 880 days of absenteeism, and in December, up to 112 people did not go to work.
Maykop district. For forestry workers, wages are delayed up to 2 months. They work in this area: SKONS, Sevkraisoyuz, Yugovostles, Stroyput, Drevospichprom, etc.
Ulyanovsk province. Debts of Sawmills No. 47 and 48 of Ulyanovsk province. before the workers is expressed in the amount of 6,000 rubles. The workers of the Altyshevsky sawmill No. 54 are very unhappy with the delay in the payment of wages, which has not been received for three months.
d) Construction work
Delayed wages. Tverskaya lips. 158 workers working in the 55 State Construction Office in Tver Province. on the repair of the buildings of the ʺProletarian Manufactoryʺ, in view of the delay in wages, they demanded immediate payment of such wages, some of the workers came to the construction office, threatening to commit lynching 56 against the head of the office. The workers retired, issuing an ultimatum demand to liquidate the debt no later than January 6th.
Omsk lips. Among the workers of the State Construction Office of the Omsk province. there is dissatisfaction with the late payment of wages. One painter said: ʺYou need to disperse the whole office, throw your whole head out the window, otherwise they are completely bureaucratic and do not want to think about us.ʺ
e) Workersʹ dissatisfaction with trade unions
Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. At the mine. Karl Liebknecht does not pay attention to the needs of the workers, and many of the legal requirements of the latter are not met. The working part of the RKK does not consider the interests of the workers at all. This causes not only dissatisfaction, but also hostility towards the miner. It got to the point that the workers of this mine sent representatives with a complaint about non‐payment of wages personally to Comrade Petrovsky and Ugarov, and only when the center pressed, the salary was issued, but the remuneration for absenteeism pending the calculation was not paid, despite the fact that there was an order from the center about it.
At the ʺOktyabrskyʺ mine of the Iron Ore District, the secretary of the party collective has become detached from the mass of the workers, and the workers look at him as if he were a stranger. Tearing himself away from the workers, the secretary of the party collective has made a close friendship with the administration of the mines, which makes the workers unhappy. The secretary of the KSM cell at the same mine, when admitted to the Union, gives preference to the kulak element, in every possible way wiping honest workers into the background.
Chernihiv province. The workers of the Nosovskiy sugar plant continue to express their dissatisfaction with the cell and the factory due to the separation of the latter from the working mass. The lump, breaking away from the workers, is not popular. The same is observed at the Parafievsky, Novo‐Bykovsky and Dobrovitsky sugar factories.
Saratov province. In tobacco factories, workers often note various shortcomings in production, but they are often afraid to talk about them, as they noticed that those who talk a lot and argue with the factory committee are cut in the first place.
Ural region At the Bilimbaevsky plant of the Sverdlovsk district of the pre‐zavkom Bezsonov was promoted to the mentioned position against the wishes of the workers. The workers say: ʺWe do not need appointees, and we will not listen to them.ʺ
f) Peasant sentiments among workers
Moscow province. At the leather factory ʺTruzhenikʺ in Moscow, in connection with the performance of a worker from the wealthy peasants, some workers at a general meeting asked questions about why peasant unions were not organized.
At the factory of the Vysokovskaya congregation, following a report on the work of the gubernial congress of textile workers, the stoker of the mechanical department indicated that the peasants were not able to defend their interests, since they were not allowed to organize peasant trade unions.
Penza lips. At the meetings of the workers of the railway junction st. Ruzaevo, which was attended by 600 people, after a report by the representative of the Central Committee of the MOPR 57 on the international situation and the tasks of the MOPR, one worker spoke and said: “Why should we clouder our heads when a peasant brother walks naked under our noses. All these campaigns boil down to deductions; what to take from us when we ourselves get pennies; add your salary, then we will expel”. This speech was supported by a small part of the meeting.
Komi‐Zyryansk region Some employees of Rusgollavdles 58 agitate among the workers against their joining the Woodworkersʹ
Union. Anisimov, an employee of the Kerch section of the ʺHollandlesʺ, called on the workers not to obey people who were calling to organize artels, but to organize a better peasant party and separate completely from the workers, since without them it would be better.
g) Religiosity
Moscow province. On January 2, the workers of the Novotkatskaya factory of the Serpukhov cotton trust (4,100 people) did not go to work, and on January 3, the workers of the factory. Nogin of the same trust (2,100 people) from 11 oʹclock. mornings stopped working because they were not allowed to celebrate Christmas in the old style.
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX # 2
INDUSTRIAL LOSS AND ABUSE IN THE INDUSTRY
1. Bloated staffs of administration and employees
Centre. Moscow province. At the Goznak factory # 2, each department for about 30 people has about 4‐6 different specialists and craftsmen who receive high rates and loads of 50%. There are 1450 workers in total.
At the factory ʺKrasny obuvshchikʺ the staff of the top administrative personnel is great. The factory has a director, his assistant and a technologist. There are 229 workers.
Kaluga lips. At the Petrovsky Mechanical Plant, during the reduction, the workers pointed to the bloated staff of employees. One clerk from the merchants, together with the travel workers, received 450 rubles in December, there are 28 clerks for 170 workers.
Northwest Territory. North‐Dvinskaya province. In water transport, there is discontent among workers with bloated administration staff. In the backwater of 60 Tulubyevo there is one boss for every 9 workers. In the same backwater there is a managerial office, head. exploitation, the head of the backwater, his assistant, two caravans, a barge master, a mechanic, and even there is a chief over the watchmen and many timekeepers. Such huge states are noted in other backwaters. Most of the administration gets big bids.
Crimea. At the Sevastopol Marine Plant, overhead costs reach 200%. Employees are bloated. Many workers wander around the office during breakfast hours. The reduction is reduced only to a transfer from one department to another. Several cases of recruitment of specialists who had previously been purged as an anti‐Soviet element were registered.
Transcaucasia. Azerbaijan. Azmedprom. The bloatedness of the staff is noted: a large number of machine tools work at each plant, meanwhile each of them has its own manager, mechanic, accountant, etc. The salary to the aforementioned persons reaches 43,862 rubles. plus 30% social insurance vacation.
Volga region. Samara lips. The yeast plant in Samara, despite the prewar yeast production, is operating with a 4% deficit. According to the factory committee and workers, the staff can be painlessly reduced by
2 foremen, 5 people from the office, 2 clerks and one timekeeper.
Ural. Tagil district. In the N. Tagil plant, he is in the service of the Tombas, an aged specialist who brings little benefit to the plant. The workers believe that they are paying him money in vain.
Perm district. Despite the fact that an 8‐hour day has been set for the employees of Artpriemnaya (Perm Gun Plant), they actually work no more than 4‐5 hours. The administration asked for an increase in the staff at the expense of the plant by 2 people. The question of increasing the staff was put to the plant management as an ultimatum, and therefore this demand was satisfied.
V. Kamsky district. At the Aleksandrovsky brick factory, overhead costs reach up to 30%. There are 4 employees for 20 workers. The rate is 3040 rubles, while the average wage of a worker does not exceed 14 rubles. 2. High stakes and overtime
Centre. Kostroma lips. Kostroma textile workers continue to express their dissatisfaction with the decline in wages. They say: ʺWe are getting rid of everything, but the salaries of responsible workers, who receive 150‐200 rubles each, are not reduced.ʺ
Yaroslavl lips. In TMYa, TMU, TCHZ, a number of responsible employees receive 300 rubles. per month, which causes complaints from the workers.
Ukraine. Poltava province. At the Chudorovsky sugar factory, employees receive high rates and all kinds of percentage allowances.
North Caucasus. Don district. At the 8th State Oil Plant, workers are dissatisfied with the large overtime given to employees.
Ural. Ural region Workers of the Industrial Plant (Tobolsk) are dissatisfied with the head. Combine, living in a state apartment, receiving up to 200 rubles. salaries and using state firewood.
Siberia. Yenisei province. At the Troitsk Salt Plant (Kansky District), workers are unhappy with the high rates of the administration and technical staff: head. Denisov plant receives 120 rubles. per month, in addition, 60 for unused vacation and 86 rubles. received loads, similarly receives and pom. head. The workers say: ʺThe government is scattering money.ʺ
3. Business trips, invoices and advances
Centre. Moscow province. At the Wagon Plant No. 2, there are strong complaints from workers against the administration of the factory that in December the administration gave office workers a bonus 61 in the amount of a monthly salary, allegedly for intensive work on drawing up an annual report.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. The director of the Zaryadye factory of the textile trust treats the workers rudely. The director almost kicked out the employee who asked for an advance payment from his office, while the administration receives advances in any amount.
Nizhny Novgorod province. “Among the workers of the Prioksky Mining District, there is strong dissatisfaction with the fact that the engineer was given a reward of 500 rubles for the reduction on the factory railway, while the machinist, who showed dedication in saving from a train crash and was injured on the same railway, was given everything RUB 50
At the Vakhtan plant, a lot of money is wasted on travel expenses. It is inexpedient to receive business trips for the foremen, the chief accountant, who received about 500 rubles for a business trip to Moscow.
Kaluga lips. At the Petrovsky Mechanical Plant, it is expensive to maintain a sales agent who receives a salary of 120 rubles. plus 8 rubles. per diem. During the month of December, the sales agent received, together with the travel allowances, 450 rubles, while he sold only 30 straw cutters for 300 rubles.
Siberia. Novonikolaevskaya lips. Kuzbastrest entered into an agreement from November 5 to April 1, 1925 with a rate of 200 rubles. per month with c. Gryndler, who until that time was supernumerary, is now on the staff. According to the contract, he must be given a business trip to the city of Prokopyevsk, at the end of the service he must be given severance pay in the amount of two monthsʹ salary with a trip to Kharkov for 3 persons in a soft carriage and with luggage of 60 poods. Similarly, an agreement was concluded with gr. Filimonov and Sokolovsky.
4. Mismanagement
Centre. Moscow province. At the Red Rocket Troitsko‐Equipment Plant, there is great mismanagement on the part of the plantʹs administration. In the open‐air grenade section, there is a large number of various kinds of grenades, and due to the influence of the atmosphere, the shells of the grenades burst and the explosioncomposition of many grenades spilled out. Work is being carried out near the grenades, which threatens an explosion and fire. Measures to this mismanagement both on the part of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs, as well as the management of the plant, have not yet been taken. Among the workers, these phenomena cause many different rumors and criticism. There are 850 workers.
At the Novo‐Weaving Factory (Serpukhov District) there is a strong complaint from the workers against the director of the factory, Comrade Semenov, who in 1924 purchased weaving races in the amount of 15 poods. 480 rubles each per pood, of which 50% were unsuitable for production. Currently, these races are lying around in basements without any attention. There are 3800 workers.
At the State Optical Plant (Podolsky District), in the main warehouse of the plant, parts for military devices worth about 400,000 rubles have been stored since pre‐revolutionary times. These parts were previously inspected and lubricated annually, but now for more than 6 years they have not been visible or smeared, due to which the devices in the warehouse are covered with rust. The warehouse manager states that he has repeatedly stated this to engineer Orlov, but to no avail. This causes a lot of criticism among the workers.
At the Mastiazhart plant there is a strong complaint from the workers about the observed mismanagement at the plant. So, for example: exhaust pipes for ventilation were made for the blacksmith, woodworking and mechanical departments, for which 30 poods were spent. roofing iron, but the plant mechanic Kulikov ordered to send these pipes to plant No. 3, where they are currently thrown into the yard and rust.
Northwest Territory. Leningrad province. At the closed plant. K. Liebknecht boxes with cars are in the yard uncleaned and rust.
Karelia. On the part of the administration of Sawmill No. 46 of Severoles, there is a mismanagement in the storage of the produced timber, which is untimely stacked, sawn boards lie in the rain and deteriorate.
North Caucasus. Maykop district. In the oil fields, drilling rigs stand near idle wells for months without any cover. The buildings on the abandoned development are not guarded and are plundered by the population, despite the fact that they are of great value.
Shakhty district. In the Vlasov Mining Administration, under the dumps near the mechanical sorting, there are 20 new serviceable mine cars. The latter, having been there for a long time, began to rust.
Black Sea District. In the machine shop of the Proletary cement [cement] plant, materials are taken in surplus and the rest is lying on the floor. Ready‐made products are not cleaned in a timely manner, they lie underfoot and deteriorate.
Transcaucasia. Azerbaijan. In the fields of the Sabunchu region, 150 steam engines are lying around unattended, only 4 out of 28 oil engines are working.
Volga region. Astrakhan lips. Condition of the building of the plant. Trotsky (Kasport) is threatening. Buildings have fallen into disrepair and may collapse.
Siberia. Omsk lips. In the Slavgorod iron foundry, there is a mismanagement of the administration, which allowed the locomobile to collapse completely, as a result of which the plant was suspended.
5. Downtime due to machine breakdown
Centre. Moscow province. At the Panteleevsky Wire and Nail Plant, there are frequent breakdowns of the tongs at the drums due to a general malfunction of the machines, which causes interruptions in work that affect the entire production. There are 50 workers in total.
At the factory of the 3rd Congress of the Profintern of the Worsted Trust, due to the poor quality of the ropes sent by the trust for spinning machines, which often break off, machine downtime occurs, which affects the entire production. There are 650 workers.
North Caucasus. Armavir district. During the rest days at the ʺArmalitʺ plant, due to an oversight in the steam boiler, the water froze, having ripped off the valve. The result was an outage.
Ural. Sverdlovsk District. Due to the negligence of the head. In the large‐section shop of the former Isetsk plant of Chemyshev, the machines and bolts loosened, as a result of which the shafts break.
Nizhniy Tagil district. On the sheet‐rolling machines of the Alapaevsk plant, up to 5 shafts were broken, as a result of which there were large downtime in work.
APPENDIX No. 3
VILLAGE CLASS BREAKING
1. Lack of latrine trades
Centre. Kaluga lips. Decreased dramatically, and in some places there are no out‐of‐pocket industries. In Silkovo parish Demensky u. in previous years, up to 3,500 passports were issued, now only a small number are used. In Zherelevskoy parish. saddlers, having gone to work in the Smolensk and Tula provinces, returned back, spending the last pennies and not getting a job. Other handicrafts (sledging and matting) have no sales markets.
Nizhny Novgorod province. According to Arzamas u. In the pre‐war period, a large place was occupied by latrine trades (bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers, stove‐makers, etc.); now the percentage of reclaim trades ranges from 5 to 10 in relation to the pre‐war level.
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. Along the Krapivnovskaya Vol. Teikovsky u. in the pre‐war period, 12% of the population went to side earnings, which in the spring and autumn gave earnings of 70‐90 rubles. Currently, 4% is leaving and earnings have decreased threefold.
Yaroslavl lips. In a number of volosts, latrine trades account for only 20‐
30% of the pre‐war period.
2. The ruin of the poor
Centre. Ryazan lips. The poor are running out of bread and feed for livestock too. As a result, the poor are selling livestock, the loss of which reaches 50%. In the village. Bakhmetye Sarajevo parish kulaks are buying up the estates of the poor.
Voronezh province. In the Mikhailovsky district, the poor sold 30% of their livestock, of which 18% passed into the hands of local kulaks. According to Valuisky. the poor sold 27% of livestock.
Tambov province. In the Sampur and Koptev volosts of the Tambov u. there have been cases of the poor selling the last workhorses to pay taxes and to pay off debts taken from the kulaks during the work of shock groups. The livestock and other agricultural items sold are bought for a pittance by fists, who do not pay money immediately, but in parts.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. In Alatyr‐Ardatovskiy, Syzran and Karsunskiy districts, the poorest population sells out living and dead implements and credits for future work with their fists.
Ukraine. Kiev province. In the Belotserkovsky district, low‐power farms, having no bread and feed for livestock, sell livestock.
North Caucasus. Taganrog District. In the M.‐Kurgan region, out of 6400 farms, 2800 farms have working livestock, of which 1900 farms, having no livestock at all, work for the wealthy.
Kuban. Due to the ruin of small peasant farms, from which inventory is sold at auction, the kulaks, who are almost monopoly buyers at the auction, are enriched.
3. Leasing of land by the poor
Centre. Nizhny Novgorod province. The lease of land to the kulaks is observed, which is done under extreme secrecy and most often under the guise of share rent 62. Lease transactions are rarely accompanied by the conclusion of contracts, and the payment of the agricultural tax is the brunt of the poor.
Ryazan lips. The impoverished poor are leasing plots of land to the kulaks.
Oryol lips. Due to the lack of seeds and implements, the poor in a number of villages of Malo‐Arkhangelsk and Yeletsky u. offers land for rent to kulaks. The kulaks are now negotiating a lease, with the idea of sowing the land of the poor in the spring on more favorable terms.
Vyatka lips. In Ukhtym and Seleznevskaya volosts, poor farms, especially horseless ones, cultivate only 50% of their land.
Penza lips. In the Saransk and Chembarsk districts, the kulaks, giving bread to the poor in exchange, return until the next harvest, take part of their land in interest. The kulaks take from the poor only the land that is located near the village, and take distant lands and hayfields for free use. Land lease transactions are not registered anywhere.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. Along the Panshin vol. Syzransky u. kulaks conclude onerous deals for the exploitation of land and meadows of the poor, no contracts are concluded.
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. In stts. Anapa horseless poor, having received distant lands during land management, lease them to kulaks for 9‐10 rubles. tithe.
Kuban District. The poor peasants of the Trubnikovsky farm, who received land far from the farm, without horses, are trying to lease the land to the kulaks for one ‐third of the harvest.
4. Bonded deals and usury
Centre. Nizhny Novgorod province. For cultivating the land, the horseman takes 6‐10 rubles. off the eater. For the processing of a land plot in R / gdes. 30‐35 poods are taken. bread, while the yield from this site rarely exceeds 70‐80 poods.
Ryazan lips. For cultivating the poor manʹs land with implements, the kulak takes 10 poods. bread from the eater. Usury arises among the kulaks. Fists of the village of Mukhiny Polyany, Ozeevskaya vol. they give money and bread on loan with a 100% premium. The peasants are silent about the percentage.
Tverskaya lips. The wealthiest handicraft shoemakers take large orders and give them to the poor for half the price.
Kostroma lips. In the absence of sufficient lending to the population by agricultural credit partnerships in Andreevskaya par. Kostroma
u. 55.6% of all farms (848) are forced to borrow from the local kulak Komissarov, who controls 3 districts. 34% of volsbor 63 was contributed by the local population to them. A cheese loan brings him 300% of his income.
Northwest. Leningrad province. In the volosts of the shores of the Peipsi and Pskov lakes, poor fishermen, in the absence of fishing gear, are forced to use the nets and boats of wealthy peasants, giving them most of the catch for this.
Pskov province. In Toropetsky u. the kulaks, lending to the poor, take 200‐250% per annum.
Volga region. Tsaritsyn province. In the Khopersky district, there are cases when the poor and even the middle peasants donate their livestock to feed the kulaks, who take half the livestock for themselves.
North Caucasus. Morozovsky district. There are a number of cases when the poor, in the absence of draft animals and agricultural implements, turn to the kulak for help. As a result, 5 / 6 harvest is in favor of a fist. These deals are hidden so that the kulak does not have to pay land tax to the poor. In stts. Bystryanskaya, there are cases when a kulak, having plowed a tithe of land for a poor man, forced him to work
1‐1 ʹ/ g of a month during the period of intensive peasant work.
5. Brotherhood
Centre. Ryazan lips. Cases of exploitation of the poor by the kulaks are becoming more frequent. In the village. The Troekurovo kulak has not paid the peasant who works for him for a year, the other kulak has been exploiting the worker and pays him absolutely nothing.
North Caucasus. Taganrog District. Due to unemployment, the situation of agricultural laborers in the Malo‐Kurgan region is very difficult. Employers completely disregard the Labor Code 64. The regional secretariat of Vserabot‐zemlesa is unable to protect the farm laborers. 708 laborers are registered.
M Orozovsky district. In stts. Bystryanskaya, the poor are exploited by the kulaks and middle peasants as farm laborers only for grub.
In the Oblivsky district, farming often works for a piece of bread. The kulaks respond to the protests of Vserabo gzemles: ʺIf you want to help the farm laborers, take them and feed them.ʺ
Armavir district. In the Prokhladny and Arabian districts, there is an increase in the exploitation of the poor and laborers by fists. Fists almost always use their labor for grubs.
Transcaucasia. Armenia. There is strong exploitation of farm laborers by kulaks, especially in the town of Megrah, where there are up to 250 people. In Etchmiadzin district. the beating and firing of farm laborers making economic demands is noted.
Siberia. Omsk lips. In the Evgashchinsky district of the Tarsky district. farm laborers receive very insignificant wages, and daily workers with a 12‐16‐hour working day only 25‐30 kopecks. Since there are no contracts between farm laborers and employers, farm laborers are exploited with might and main.
Altai lips. In with. Eresnom of the Shadripsky district of the Barnaul district the kulak does not let his Komsomol farmhand go to general meetings.
6. Impact of crop failure
Centre. Oryol lips. The poor people of the Pesochinskaya and Ryabinskaya volosts do not have a stock of bread and they sell property for its purchase, such as: homemade cloth, canvas, sheepskins, etc. The cooperatives do not give a loan for the purchase of grain, the peasants take out a loan for the purchase of livestock, spend it for other purposes, buying grain and fodder. Mixing surrogates into bread is a common thing among poor households. Due to the lack of forage, there are cases of sale of the last horses. In Kromskoy parish. begging begins to develop.
Tambov province. Throughout N.‐Studenetskaya parish. the poor begin to experience hunger. There are villages where the poor send their children to beg. In a number of villages of Kirsanovsky u. there is absolutely no bread and feed for livestock, in connection with which the theft of grain from barns is observed.
Voronezh province. In Ostrogozhsky u. due to the lack of forage, the peasantsʹ desire to destroy livestock is noted; in some villages of the Lutsenkovsky district, there is a threat of the total destruction of livestock. The poor and part of the middle peasants of the V. Katogonsk region, anticipating the spring hunger strike, are beginning to sell farm buildings for a pittance. A new chopped barn 6 for 7 arshins is sold for 28 poods. rye, hut 7 for 6V2 arshins with pine floor and double windows ‐ 45 poods. rye. In Usmanskiy u. the best cattle are exchanged for the worst with the addition of bread or money.
Kursk lips. The situation of the poorest peasantry in Bobryshovsky parish. Kurskiy everything gets worse. Up to 30% of the population feeds on surrogates.
Volga region. Samara lips. Along the Pestravskaya parish 45% of the population eats bread mixed with surrogates. Along Korneevskaya Vol. Pugachevsky u. 10% of the population uses surrogates. In with. Pokrovka Tomylovskaya parish. there are 50 families without bread.
Tsaritsyn province. In the Ilovlinskaya, Ksyushinskaya, Aleksandrovskaya, Balykleiskaya and Dubovskaya volosts, due to the lack of fodder, the poor, and partly the middle peasants, open the roofs of barns and residential buildings for livestock feed.
Non‐republic. In the Roznosensky District, 90% of the population feeds on surrogates. In the Krasno‐Kutsk District, 40% of the population is undernourished.
Kalmyk region In Kalm‐Bazarinsky ulus 65, there are 1,500 refugees from the former Kharakhusovsky ulus, devastated during the Civil War. Refugees roam around the villages, feeding on the corpses of dead animals.
Ukraine. Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. The economic situation of the poor is difficult. There are bread reserves for no more than 2‐3 months. In the Belolutsk region, the poor buy bread.
Donetsk province. In the Luhansk District, kulaks and rural speculators purchase bread in small batches in the Don and Kuban and sell it locally at three times the price.
Volyn province. In with. M.‐Kozorki, Mikhalpolsky district, the widow of an unescapable person complained that since October 1 she had not eaten bread, eating potatoes.
Kharkiv province. In the Kupyansky District in the Sinkovsky, Kupyansky, Svatovsky and 2nd Oktyabrsky Districts, a significant part of the middle peasants and almost all non‐chewed people eat surrogates, and there is also a strong need for livestock feed.
North Caucasus. Taganrog District. In the Golodaevsky district, among the strata of the poor, there were cases of hunger strikes.
Stavropol province. There are 9161 hungry people in the
Aleksandrovsky district alone, of which 1500 are children. In the rest of the districts, the poor are living from hand to mouth.
Shakhty district. In the Glubokinsky District, in a number of farmsteads, the poor do not have bread. The latter exclusively feed on surrogates, and the poor of the Kamensky and Leninsky districts are in the same condition.
Transcaucasia. Azerbaijan. In with. 52 families in the amount of 414 people left for Novo‐Ivanovka of the Edobsky area. Lands were sold to kulaks for next to nothing (worth 2000 rubles ‐ for 400 rubles).
Correct: [Secretary] of the Information Department Soloviev
APPENDIX 4
THE POLITICAL MOOD OF THE VILLAGE
1. The mood of the middle and poor
Centre. Kursk lips. At the Staro‐Oskol district congress, some delegates made a speech, in which they stated: “A man works without straightening his back, a man pays a tax and a man chokes on cabbage, and the commissars eat cutlets. It is difficult for the commissars to understand the peasants, for they are far removed from them. ʺ It was pointed out that ʺthe communists are not the defenders of the peasantry and that new communists are needed.ʺ
Nizhny Novgorod province. Among some peasants of the Tonshaevskaya parish. I have heard the following: ʺIf there is a war, then we will receive weapons and go to beat our rulers.ʺ
Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. At the congress Soltanovskaya par. Makarievsky u. after a report on the work of the PEC by one peasant, a delegate to the congress, it was stated that ʺthe power belongs to the workers and peasants, in fact the poor peasants only own prisons, in which they are imprisoned for tax evasion, not power.ʺ
Voronezh province. The editors of the Voronezh Commune received a letter from the former Red Army soldier Borisov (a peasant from the village of Demyanovka). In this letter, Borisov reports that in 1918 he and his brother voluntarily entered the Red Army, leaving the old people ‐ father and mother ‐ to the mercy of fate. In 1921, despite a letter received from his parents that they were dying of hunger, Borisov and his brother gathered at the front, allowing their father to sell the hut. The mother died of starvation. The father survived. In 1923, the demobilized Borisov village met with ridicule, the peasants told him: ʺWe live in our houses and eat bread to our heartʹs content, and you sleep under the fence.ʺ Borisov left for Shakhty, together with the communists he fought against the unfit element; was mutilated by moonshiners for fighting them, after which he lost his ability to work and left for Voronezh, where he intended to enter a bakery. There was no work. Everywhere they drove to the neck. It was not possible to tell the pre‐executive committee personally about their difficult situation: they were not allowed; the gubernia trade council refused Borisovʹs appeal for support; head the labor exchange ‐ too; the city council gave him three rubles, saying that there were 14,000 people like him. The regional executive committee ordered the district committee to provide assistance, the latter said: “I didnʹt give a damn about you”; village council, where Borisov was sent by the gubernatorial computer, having treated him to a glass of moonshine, said: ʺRoll, light, sausage.ʺ And after all these ordeals, Borisov writes in a letter, he realized that the government was not the people, but a handful of communists, which did what they wanted; that the Soviet power for the blood shed by the Red Army looked at them indifferently, saying: ʺNow it is impossible to use you, you can freely die under the fence of my palace.ʺ In conclusion, Borisov says,
Vladimirskaya lips. In connection with the report on Dobrokhim and Vozdukhoflot, the peasants from. Dubenki of Aleksandrovskaya parish expect a brutal war and declare: “We have now not seen the light as under tsarism, and we will go out on our free peasant path, equalize the worker with the peasant, destroy the responsible workers who receive huge salaries and who do not bring any benefit to the peasantry, we will return the ownership of the land, forests ʺ, And some dream of a king, to plant only from their own.
Oryol lips. In a number of volosts Orlovsky u. the peasants, not only kulaks, but also the middle peasants, say that under tsarism they did not pay taxes for 3 years, and they did not describe their property, but now whoever does not pay on time, they immediately describe the property and sell it. In this regard, the middle peasants and the poor say: “They have climbed into power, forgot their slogans and do not pay attention to the peasants; before the October Revolution, the first slogan was: ʺAll power to the Soviets,ʺ and now the party has taken power and is doing what it wants. ʺ
West. Bryansk lips. (Letter from the village to the Red Army): ʺThe tax is very heavy, they donʹt pay much, maybe the peasants donʹt pay there either, and if you are driven out to pacify the peasants or to take property, do not raise your hands against your fathers and brothers.ʺ ...
Belarus. At the Vysochansky District Congress of Soviets of the Vitebsk District, one of the secretaries of the village council (a demobilized Red Army soldier) demanded that the issue of peasantsʹ earnings be included in the agenda. Most of this issue was included in the agenda. The speaker was the same secretary. In terms of the figures for the income and expenditure of the peasant economy, the speaker argued that the power treats the peasants atrociously, destroying their economy, that on average, 4 rubles profit per one laboring soul on the farm. per month, while even the unemployed in cities receive significantly more benefits. The speaker also argued that the remuneration of the members of the district executive committees and okrug executive committees is wrong, that the authorities should live the way the peasantry lives, and the representatives of the authorities want to live the way the officials used to live. The Red Army soldier proposed to elect a regional executive committee, since most of the old ones turned into officials. In conclusion, the speaker proposed to the congress a resolution with the following content: “Having heard the report on the remuneration of the peasant, the 1st Vysochansky District Congress declares that the high salary rates for the state employees of the higher institutions of power and commercial enterprises in comparison with the remuneration of the poor peasant cannot be tolerated in the future. Taking into account that these funds are derived from the earnings of workers and peasants and most of them go to support industry, trade, luxury goods, which hinders the development of industry, the Congress instructs its deputies and appeals to the CPB that the high salary rates for state employees of higher institutions of power, commercial enterprises in comparison with the remuneration of a poor peasant cannot be tolerated in the future. Taking into account that these funds are derived from the earnings of workers and peasants and most of them go to support industry, trade, luxury goods, which hinders the development of industry, the Congress instructs its deputies and addresses the CPB66 and the workers to eliminate this highly abnormal phenomenon, to revise the salary rates and establish them in proportion to the resources of our Republic, which is still not strong economically, and not to allow such a difference in comparison with the remuneration of the peasant. The congress hopes that the CPB and the workers will understand the peasant and will strive to ensure that the remuneration of the peasant is equated to the workers and employees. ʺ The proposed resolution was rejected by a small majority. In contrast to the candidates [in the district executive committee] nominated by the faction by a group of non‐party people headed by the aforementioned secretary, they nominated their own, which included former officers.
North Caucasus. Don region (Letter from the village to the Red Army): “We see only one thing, that all around the poor population suffers from the tax, there is no condescension for anyone. What the masses have achieved is not even 95%, but only 5% reigns and they have been given broad power. ʺ
Siberia. Yenisei province. After the report at the re‐election meeting of the Maklakovsky village council ʺOn the work of the old Sovietʺ, the peasants passed a resolution: ʺThe work of the village council should be recognized as correct for the state, and incorrect for the population.ʺ In the village. Kargino Krasnoyarsk u. after a report by one of the RIK members on the need to pay the agricultural tax on time, the former poor red partisan in his speech said that the Soviet government was removing the last underpants from the peasants, that now it was not life, but hard labor, that 15 rubles were imposed on the beggars, and bread is accepted for 30 kopecks. When a member of the RIK threatened the poor man with drawing up a protocol, the entire assembly, as one person, stood up and began to shout: “Through the lips of a red partisan, we all say that we also fought against Kolchak and thought to win equality for ourselves, but now it turns out that some are getting fat, and we are barefoot and naked. ʺ
2. Speech by the kulaks
Centre. Moscow province. Bogorodsky u. In Karpov parish. at the volost congress of Soviets, during the re‐elections, exclamations were heard: ʺWe do not need proteges of the communists.ʺ A non‐party faction was organized at the congress.
Moscow u. At the secondary meeting of the shareholders of the credit partnership, the Socialist Revolutionaries, given that everyone had not yet been sufficiently prepared for the first meeting, secretly, an hour before the meeting, allegedly gathered in another village as a non‐party faction, where they discussed their lists and what tactics to follow. Only thanks to the presence of a member of the Ukom bureau Comrade Atakov managed to get one party member into the presidium. Also, the resolution was not passed, the meaning of which was: ʺSoviets without communists.ʺ
Kursk lips. At the gathering with. Melekhino Shchigrovsky u. When discussing the issue of agricultural tax, the local kulak declared: “The power of the kulak deprives him of his vote, since he is a rural bourgeois, if it were not for the kulak, then the Soviet government would not have received a damn thing from its holotep (poor peasants). You, hicks, do not give any help to your Council, you get land, but you do not pay tax. If we do not take your soil to sow in the spring, then you ... will die of hunger; and you are all yelling that the power is ours. What she gave you ‐ nothing. No, your power was in 1918, when they pulled from our barns, and now the power is ours, you slept through yours. ʺ The poor said: ʺIf the state gave the opportunity to work in factories or mines, then to hell with the earth, let the kulaks choke on it.ʺ
West. Smolensk lips. January 18 among the peasants of the VlostoPyatnitskaya parish. citizen Volkov, originating from the village. Glukhovo of the former Znamenskaya Vol., Who, calling himself a central worker, spread rumors about an uprising of workers in Moscow with the aim of overthrowing Soviet power, about the conscription of 4 years into the army. In conclusion, Volkov said: ʺIn a week they will recruit 12,000 people, and now I will go to Yukhnovo, where I will conduct preparations for the constituent assembly.ʺ
A similar fact was revealed in Prigorodnaya Vol. in the village. Zemkino on the border of Sychevsky u., In which an unknown person recommended himself as a representative of Comrade Trotsky and his underground worker, pointing out to the peasants that under Nicholas the interests of the peasantry had to be fought underground, also under Soviet rule. When asked about weapons, the agitator answered: ʺWe have a lot of weapons.ʺ
Belarus. In the Orsha District, at the Kokhanovsky District Congress of Soviets, along with the CPB faction, a faction of kulaks was formed under the leadership of a former officer who was deprived of the right to vote and was put forward by his kulaks as chairman. According to the RIKʹs report, the kulaks harshly criticized the former chairman of the RIK with slanderous attacks.
In the Polotsk district, at the Driessen district congress of Soviets, the kulaks attended the congress under the leadership of a former military official and a former member of the Polotsk council. The latter declared in their speeches that the co‐government enslaved the peasants, and that only communists enjoy all the privileges, and that non‐party people are not given any rights, that under the auspices of the government, the workers, whom the government fears, live better, and the peasants are squeezed out of the last juice.
Gomel province. In with. Krapivny, after the report ʺA Year Without Leninʺ, the peasant pointed out that during the 7 years of the existence of Soviet power, the peasants saw nothing from it, except for taxes, the peasants live as slaves to the workers. They work 8 hours. a day, and 16 go for a walk, from their labor they give nothing to the state, eat white bread, drink tea. The workers occupy all positions of responsibility, and the peasants are on the sidelines. The peasants would also learn to run the state no worse than the workers, but they are not allowed anywhere. The Soviet government divides the peasant land and, in the division, rob the peasants. Wealthy peasants began to often go to the reading room, as there are often anti‐Soviet statements that the peasants are [unprotected] because they are not organized, they are robbed because they cannot defend their interests. In general, there are many examples of such agitation.
Volga region. Penza lips. January 20 p. in Orgaevskaya volizbareading room of Ruzaevsky u. the speaker who came from the city, Comrade The butler made a report on the theme ʺA Year without Ilyichʺ. A lot of questions were asked on the part of the peasants, and in the debate, supported by the majority of the meeting, a certain citizen Kulikov criticized: “The worker raised labor productivity by 40%, and the peasant by 100%, the worker is provided with 100% there is nothing, and besides, the tax is torn, it turns out that the power is really class, because the state apparatus has workers, but they do whatever they want. ʺ
3. Cassation of elections and re‐election of the Soviets
Centre. Moscow province. Cassation of re‐elections in Moscow province. caused a revival among anti‐Soviet elements (mainly among the Social Revolutionaries, who campaigned against the elections of communists to the Soviets, putting forward the slogan ʺSoviets without communistsʺ). The mood of the peasants is also exacerbated by the abnormalities, abuses and drunkenness of the grassroots co‐apparatus, and there is a fear that throughout the Moscow district. the peasants will vote against the communists in re‐elections. Dissatisfaction with the communists in Pushkinskaya, Leninskaya and Kozlovskaya parishes was especially aggravated.
In Yegoryevsky u. Socialist‐Revolutionary Gerasimov (agronomist) is campaigning against the communist elections. In Dmitrievskaya parish. In the same district, under the influence of his agitation, all the peasants are opposed to the members of the RCP.
Tula lips. The ongoing campaign for the re‐election of the Soviets is understood by the peasants as a desire by the authorities to replace all grassroots communist workers with non‐party workers.
Ryazan lips. In Sasovskiy u. among the peasants Konobeevskaya parish. rumors are spreading, in connection with the upcoming reelections of the Soviets, that another government will be elected with a president at the head for the non‐partisans, which will exist along with the government for the communists. In Zatishievskaya Vol. Ryazan members of the RCP are viewed not as defenders of peasants and workers, but as persons who have taken power into their own hands with the aim of putting pressure on them. Citizens of the village They say that in the upcoming re‐elections the peasants should nominate their own people, whom they want, but not those who are forcibly nominated and try to deceive from the communists and Komsomol members, they saw nothing but chatter.
Voronezh province. Ostrogozhsky u. In connection with the past AllRussian meeting on improving the work of the Soviet apparatus on the issue of involving a larger number of non‐party people in the Soviets, among the wealthy and commercial element of the Alekseevsky district one can hear: “The communists in the 8th year of their existence realized that they would not be government, and decided to invite nonpartisans; the former traders hope that they will soon be invited to do Soviet work. ʺ
Ukraine. Kharkiv province. In the Volossko‐Balakleysky village council of the Kupyansk district, during the new re‐elections, only 12% of the non‐cheaters, a few middle peasants, were included in the Council, and the main mass of the elect were kulaks. Here, intensified agitation was observed on the part of two kulaks, one of whom served with the whites.
In many villages, re‐elections were disrupted by the kulaks. In with. During the elections, Merefa could not be removed from the assembly of persons deprived of the right to vote; shouts of ʺDown with the Communistsʺ were heard. In this village, in addition to the kulaks, there was also the influence of the UKP 68. In with. Dergachi elections were disrupted. There were shouts against the ʺstrangersʺ. In with. Zolochevo elections were thwarted due to the fact that those deprived of the right to vote and ukapists got into the elections. In with. The elections were well disrupted, the banner was torn and a fight broke out.
Volyn province. In the reporting period, cassation re‐elections of village councils were held in a number of villages. In some areas, an unwanted item has passed. In with. Antonina, two former thieves entered the village council. In with. Sevruks were infiltrated by persons previously involved in banditry, as well as proteges of kulaks and others.
4. Peasant unions
Centre. Moscow province. At the Dmitrovsky volsezd of the Sysoevsky and Gorshkovsky districts, a proposal was made to instruct the newly elected executive committee to organize a peasant union so that the peasants could set a price for their products themselves. The question of organizing a peasant union was raised so sharply that the congress decided to discuss it in current affairs.
In Voskresensky, in the village. Telepneve Luchinsky par. December 30 p.y. a meeting was held on the question of the committee of mutual assistance (attended by more than 100 people). The secretary of the RLKSM cell, Titov, in his speech supported the opinion of the peasants who spoke about the uselessness of a mutual assistance committee and the need to organize a peasant union. With great difficulty, a resolution was adopted on the need for a mutual assistance committee.
In Orekhovo‐Zuevsky u. in the village. Gubinskaya Kudykinskaya vol. on the basis of the report “A Year Without Lenin”, the general meeting of peasants adopted the following resolution: “Population, citizens of the village. Gubinskaya, remembering the behests of Ilyich in his unforgettable words ‐ more attention to the peasantry, which has forgotten the peasants and his behests, the current government is condemned by us. And therefore, until there are peasant unions, there is no bond between workers and peasants. ʺ In this village live the former owners of four small, now not working, textile factories, which secretly awaken the peasant masses against the Soviet regime.
Vladimirskaya lips. In with. Dubenki Aleksandrovskaya
Vol. Sudogodsky u. a grouping of 29 peasants is noted; plans are made in case of a coup; they say that a ʺpeasant unionʺ and a ʺpeasant congressʺ are necessary.
Tverskaya lips. In the village. Seryozhok Novotorzhskaya parish the peasant, the son of a merchant, issued an ʺorderʺ to delegates to the village council, which spoke of the need to organize a peasant union.
Tula lips. Peasants of some villages in the Serpukhov district of Aleksinsky u. they say: ʺThe revolution is done, but not for the peasantry.ʺ In with. Serawi peasants talk about the need to create peasant unions. Here the peasants say that the worker lives well, receives a decent salary, receives free medical treatment and a number of other benefits. All this is due to the fact that workers have their own unions that protect their interests. The unions are fighting to raise workersʹ wages, regardless of the fact that factory goods are expensive for the peasants. The peasants hope that the union will give them the opportunity to get rid of heavy taxes. The idea of organizing a union belongs to the peasants working in Moscow.
Oryol lips. At meetings in Lomovskaya parish. (Orlovsky u.) On the reelection of the KVP, there were such statements by the kulaks: why the government will not allow peasant unions, in general, the power is not workersʹ and peasants, but only workers, that the peasants have no advantages. The same was noted for Ryabinskaya Vol. Orlovsky u.
Northwest. Karelia. In Karlovskaya parish. on the part of an organized group of kulaks at the Congress there were calls for the creation of a peasant union. At the same time, it was pointed out that the existing ʺUnion of Land and Forestʺ is not for the peasants.
West. Belarus. Chairman of the CCWS with. Crackers of the Mogilev district are campaigning for the creation of peasant unions. He proves to the peasants that the tax is heavy and ruins them and that the task of the peasant unions should be to improve the peasant farms. Among the poor, this agitation, like the chairman himself, does not enjoy success, since, as chairman of the KKOV, he does not meet the poor, encouraging the kulaks (in particular, issuing them certificates for obtaining timber).
North Caucasus. Armavir district. In the Kurgan and Grigoriopolis districts, in terraces among the change‐overs, in whose ranks there are many kulak sons, there are rumors about the organization of a ʺunion of grain growersʺ and a ʺunion of change‐oversʺ.
Tersk district. At a peasant non‐party conference in the Georgievsky district, delegates asked the following questions: 1) is it possible to organize a non‐party peasant cell; 2) why there are more workers than peasants in leading positions in central government institutions; 3) whether the stamp duty will be canceled and what it is spent on; When discussing the issue of the Georgian events, one of the delegates noted that the uprising in Georgia 69 is a consequence of the separation of the communists from the peasantry, which is why it is necessary, in order to prevent similar to the Georgian uprising, to show maximum solicitude towards the peasants.
Don district. In the 69th cavalry regiment, among the well‐to‐do terarmey, there is a tendency to organize a ʺunion of changemenʺ 70 with a membership fee of 2 rubles. 50 kopecks.
Volga region. Samara lips. In Pugachevsky u. a meeting of peasants from five villages after a peasant declared that in Samara the provincial land administration had allegedly given him verbal instructions on how to switch to the correct crop rotation and how to start organizing peasant unions on the ground, a ʺtechnical commission to work out this issueʺ was elected.
A similar case took place in the town of Pugachev, where, after a lecture by one of the UZU agronomists, the local Tatars present at the lecture decided to organize a peasant union, in which 25 people immediately signed up and a bureau was elected.
Siberia. Tomsk lips. At the Tomsk regional congress, the peasants pointed out that the authorities reckon with the workers more than with the peasants, and raised the question of organizing a peasant union, similar to the social insurance fund, which would provide assistance to the peasants. At the same congress, a member of the RCP, in a personal conversation with an authorized representative of the electoral commission, proposed the latter to organize a peasant union.
5. Typical cases of terror
West. Gomel province. In the village. Shumilovka Churovichy parish Novozybkovsky u. while carrying out land management, the land management commissioner was shot through a window, another commissioner was wounded by a shot through the window. An unsuccessful attempt was made on the third plenipotentiary, a note was thrown at the fourth plenipotentiary, which stated: ʺWe do not want land management, and if you carry out, you will be killed or completely burned.ʺ In with. Larishchevo on the basis of land management burned down the barn of the pre‐village council.
Smolensk lips. In the Nardom village. Novo‐Derebush Roslavl parish at the play, a local Komsomol member was wounded by a dagger by a former gendarme, and currently the tenant of the former landownerʹs estate.
Volga region. Votskaya obl. A member of the Tylovaisky Volost Executive Committee (communist) was killed on the basis of a fight against moonshiners. The murder was committed by an organized group of 40 peasants armed with sticks; the deceased was trampled underfoot, beaten with the butts of a rifle taken from him and his ear was torn off; the member of the executive committee accompanying the murdered man fled during the search of the moonshiner‐policeman; a shot was fired at him, and posts were posted on all the roads to catch him.
Kirkrai. Orenburg province. In the Orenburg u. During the re‐election of the village council, a group of kulaks called the chairman of the village council into a shinok, beat him, offering him either to refuse the post of the pre‐village council, or to work together with the kulaks against the poor peasants, otherwise threatening with murder.
Siberia. Altai lips. On the night of January 9, a group of kulaks with. Voevodsky Biysk district an armed ambush was set up with the aim of killing the pre‐village council, the secretary of the cell and the policeman during a detour of the village to restore order in connection with the debauchery and drunkenness at Christmas. After returning from a detour, rifle fire was opened at them from an ambush, which lasted 20 minutes. Of the shooters, a poor peasant was captured, bribed by his kulaks; the kulaks, who were in ambush, disappeared (for the terror movement in January 1925, see Table 6).
6. The struggle of the kulaks and clergy against the cultural organizations of the village
Centre. Kursk lips. In with. Small Settlement S. Oskolsky u. the priest, dissatisfied with the confiscation of his apartment for the hut‐reading room, during the divine service in the church asked the citizens to relocate the village council to the old place, and close the hut‐reading room, since they do not educate, but corrupt, and no one else will come out of there, but bandits who will kill believers. On the same day, the church tutor gathered a crowd of peasants and declared that ʺin 1918 we dispersed the committees of mutual assistance, and now letʹs disperse the village council, throw its property out of the priestʹs hut, and close the reading room.ʺ
Kostroma lips. In Sidorovskaya Vol. kulaks told the pioneer detachment organized here that there would soon be a war and the pioneers would be hanged along with the communists. The growth of the detachment stopped because of this.
Kaluga lips. Priest Vinogradov Borovsk parish Malo‐Yaroslavetsky u. told the peasants that their children were corrupted by participating in anti‐religious performances. Further, he threatened to take measures and even exclude peasants from the composition of believers, whose sons are Komsomol members. For the same purpose, the priest went from door to door. Priest s. Zahazhya of the same county said that the collection of donations to the MOPR goes to the manufacture of trousers for youth leaders. When he met a schoolteacher, the priest called him the destroyer of the younger generation.
Kirkrai. Aktobe province. In Martuk parish. the priest discouraged nonpartisan youth from going to a performance staged by a cell of the RLKSM. He rewrote those who went to the play and in the morning, calling their parents, pointed out to the latter the depravity of their children.
Volga region. Tartary. In the Buinsky canton, the agitation of one Tikhonov priest against the Soviet school was revealed, indicating that since they do not teach religion in schools, there is nothing to teach children. Some parents stopped letting their children go to school, the same priest, when meeting with children, checks whether they have crosses on their necks.
Bashkiria. In the village. Alexandrova (Russian) Vanysh‐Alkautovskoy vol. In the Birsk canton, the kulaks took over the hut‐reading room, putting the son of the kulak there, who keeps all literature in a closed chest and positively does not do any work. The kulaks are carrying on anti‐Soviet agitation in the volost.
Siberia. Yenisei province. According to the agitation of the local priest Gordeev, 20 people were discharged from the organized pioneer detachment at AchRIK of 30 people. Pop said that ʺin a coup, all the pioneers will be shot.ʺ
Kansky u. In with. Antsyr, under the influence of priestʹs agitation, the peasants beat their children for joining the pioneer groups.
7. Anti‐Soviet sentiments of rural youth
Centre. Tula lips. At the ceremonial meeting of the Komsomol with the pre‐conscripts of the Odoyevsky district, a note was submitted to the presidium with the following content: “You are only capable of promises, but you will have to get it someday — itʹs all sweet. You look at everything ‐ if only you feel good, you fight the tax in kind into 3 skins, saturating your womb. This is arbitrariness over us, and you also want protection from us. If only there was a war, then we will talk differently”. This is observed among the peasants of the entire region.
Kostroma lips. The pre‐conscripts of the Sudislavovskaya and Belorechenskaya volosts say: ʺSince they took us to study, we will not pay the agricultural tax, there is no one to work at home, since only old people are left.ʺ Among pre‐conscripts, there is discontent that they were forced to take food from home; they say: ʺBy the spring we will be trained ‐ letʹs go defend Trotsky, fight along with him.ʺ Among the preconscripts Koryakovskaya Vol. there is talk that there will probably be a war in the spring, but we will not go to war ‐ we will scatter. If there is a war, Soviet power will fly off. Sheʹs weak, as you can see from the fact that we celebrate Christmas in the old style. ʺ
Ryazan lips. Returned from treatment [from] Moscow, a member of the
RLKSM of the Tolstoy cell of Ryazhsky u. Evstigneev Pavel Martinovich spreads rumors among the population that “the Soviet power became bureaucratic and broke away not only from the peasants, but even from the workers. It crushes peasants and merchants with unbearable taxes, and all the income that comes to the Republic is spent not on the needs of the people, but on the construction of various power plants, etc. The Soviet government earlier promised not to wage any war, but itself, by the way, is arming itself and does not take into account the people at all, involving them in the war, moreover, Soviet newspapers report only one lie. ʺ
Northwest. Leningrad province. In some volosts of Luga u. a noticeable Socialist‐Revolutionary mood (Kologorodskaya Vol.). In with. Smerda peasant youth have a desire to create their own unions, not wanting to merge with the neighboring Komsomol organization, motivating their refusal by the low cultural level of the Komsomol organization. In Gdovskiy u. in Lositskaya par. in the Estonian Beshkovo region, which has a White Guard past behind it in 1919, an organization of 15 Estonian youth was formed from the children of wealthy local farmers. The organization pursues the goal of national isolation with a cultural bias under the banner of non‐partisanship. The created choir serves both the circle and the church with which this organization is closely connected. Attempts by the wolf to improve this organization were not crowned with success.
Ukraine. Kiev province. In with. Kobrinovo‐Gubyayki Ryzhanovsky district, Uman district, a grouping of young people under the leadership of the former head. a hut‐reading room of Taraday. Among these young people there are former ukapists, under whose influence the said youth are inclined to Petliura and are recruiting supporters from among the youth of the neighboring villages into their group. Some of this group is collecting information about people with weapons, wishing to buy several rifles from them.
Siberia. A former Komsomol member separated from the RLKSM at a meeting of the village. Ksenovki of Omsk u., Kukley said: “The Soviet government drove the peasantry into a dead end, there is no way out, he considers it like cattle to be both dark and irresponsible, from which one can collect, but give nothing. The peasantry is driven into a corral and there is nowhere to go further. ʺ At the same time, he definitely expresses the idea that the peasantry will rise and sweep away everything that is unclean.
In with. Antites Biyskiy u. kulak youth burst into the red corner of the club and school, destroyed the portraits of the leaders, all school textbooks, all available literature and, tearing up the banner of the Komsomol cell, threw it into the apartment of a demobilized Red Army soldier.
8. Anti‐Soviet agitation
Centre. Tambov province. In Borisoglebsk u. in Peskovskaya parish. discovered by a member of the RCP Letunovskiy an appeal to the peasants. The proclamation says: “For seven years the Bolsheviks have taken away your livestock, bread, and have ruined your farm, which was acquired by sweat and blood. The Russian people, entangled in the cunning words of the Bolshevik leaders, could not figure out where the truth was. But this time has passed, and the people realized that the Bolsheviks were the oppressors of the peasant people. But even now they continue to entangle the Russian people through their newspapers and communist cells.
Citizens, now each of you knows that the Bolsheviks are the invaders of power. After the overthrow of the Bolsheviks, elections to the Constituent Assembly will begin immediately. The land will be taken from state farms and communes and transferred to the peasants. The peasant forests will again be returned to the peasants.
Peasants. Enough to suffer from the yoke of the Bolsheviks. Enough for you to bend your necks in front of every villain.
Citizens get ready to engage in open battle with the Bolshevik communist bastard.
Wake up, Russian people.
Cast aside the shameful yoke of the Jews. ʺ
Moscow province. Egoryevsky u. In Krasnovskaya vol., Especially in the villages of Belino‐Bikeyskoe, Krasnoe, Spas‐Preobrazhenie, Balavino and Khalturino, there is a dominance of kulaks, who everywhere try to disrupt all meetings and events of the Soviet government. The fist is especially prominent. Belino Lebedev (former manufacturer), who everywhere agitates that Soviet power will soon be overthrown.
Oryol lips. In the Gatishchensky parish. Livensky u. among the peasants, two citizens are agitating that the Soviet government collects tax from peasants not on state expenditures, but on propaganda abroad.
Tula lips. Among the peasants who come to the town of Odoev to see the merchant Osipovʹs kruporushka, the last rumor spreads that Soviet power is in the balance. The communist mood is alarming. In Tula, 1,500 workers were fired and replaced by Chinese. In the center, complete disintegration, soon the Socialist‐Revolutionaries will be in power.
Ekaterinoslavskaya lips. In the Aleksandrovsky district, the kulaks say that the tax is taken not by the workers ʹand peasantsʹ government, but by the landowners who have settled in the central institutions.
KASSR. Citizen of the city of Lakhta, Tulomozero parish. Olonetsky at a general meeting of citizens, Vlasov openly campaigned against the tax, saying: “Here you have both Soviet power and your conquests. At every step, the executive committee threatens with an inventory of property for non‐payment of tax. The Communist Party is good. All the juices are squeezed out of you. Worse than the old regime. ʺ Most of the meeting was on the side of Vlasov.
Siberia. Irkutsk lips. (Zim [insky] u.). In with. The middle peasant Kobenyuk declares: “We all need to organize and not surrender the tax. What the communists can do to us. Nothing. The time will come, we will not beat like in 1918, but we will kill in such a way that we will destroy everyone by the roots. ʺ
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX 5
TAX CAMPAIGN
1. The severity of the tax
Centre. Ryazan lips. In many volosts of Ranenburgsky u. a number of peasant farms, which in the summer had 2 horses, 2 cows, 10‐15 sheep, almost all livestock, both large and small, were sold, and at the moment they have one horse and one cow left, some are turning into horseless.
Along the Boretskaya and Saraevskaya volosts of Ryazhsky u. the tax is fulfilled by 45%. The tax has a strong impact on poor
households. Livestock is destroyed for lack of feed. It is assumed that in this area the tax will be fulfilled by 70%, and by the poor by 30%, and then with certain efforts.
Oryol lips. Due to the lack of livestock and bread among the poor of the Malo Arkhangelsk and Oryol districts, they pay tax by selling small livestock and clothing.
Tambov province. In with. Krasno‐Gorodskaya Kriushe Kozlovsky u. 176 applications for tax addition were submitted, 90% of them were not satisfied. There have been cases of the sale of the last workhorses and cows to pay the agricultural tax.
Kaluga lips. (Letter from the village to the Red Army): “The peasants have a lot of resentment against the authorities. This year the harvest is bad, and the peasants cannot afford taxes, if they do not pay ‐ they describe livestock and property; it is necessary that they take the last cattle. If you want to deal with the law on tax collection, then first you need to ʺtreatʺ or ʺpayʺ the clerk for the application. ʺ
Western edge. Belarus. In the Yezerishchinsky and Mezhansky districts of the Vitebsk district, peasants are talking about the need to sell all their livestock next year in order to pay less tax.
Donetsk province. In the Krasno‐Talovsky hut. In the same district, before the tax was paid, there were 250 bulls, 75 horses, 150 bulls were sold to pay the tax, and 50 horses.
Kiev province. Due to the severity of the tax, criminality is developing among the peasants of the Koshevatsky district.
North Caucasus. Kuban District. The following conclusion was made at the meeting of the Korenovsky district fintroyka: ʺThe collection of the unified agricultural tax 71 entered the period when this work turns into a factor of undermining the peasant economy, since the entire burden of compulsory collection now falls on the poor and part of the middle peasants who are underpaid.ʺ The fintroyka informed the okrfintroika about its decision.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. Along Atyashevskaya
Vol. Ardatovsky u. the peasantry sells its last cattle to pay the tax, which is used by the kulak element, who buys it up.
Penza lips. The poorest part of the population in lean areas sells livestock on a massive scale to pay taxes. 50% of the population of these areas by the beginning of 1925 will be left without bread.
Siberia. Tomsk lips. (From a letter to the Red Army): “Our tax is too heavy and from the very first time it is very painful for the peasants to have no money and a poor harvest of grain. Some peasants come to the village council in advance and declare that they will not pay, since only
5‐6 sacks of grain have been threshed, and the tax is 20‐30 rubles. ʺ
2. Changing the timing of payment of taxes
Centre. Tula lips. In connection with the change in the timing of the tax, the peasants of the Krasnoluysky district of the Bogoroditsky district. they say that serfdom became almost worse for them, they were completely robbed; the supreme power sets long terms, and the county authorities cancel it.
Kaluga lips. In Tarusa u. in the village. Teterskoe Vysokinichi parish at the end of December, at a village meeting, citizens decided to go to Tarusa to the market on Sunday on 15 carts with hay, cattle and bread, take long poles on the front and rear carts, stretch 30 yards of canvas across all carts and write on it: “No matter how much we are going to sell our belongings for agricultural tax for the USSR, without waiting for January 1,” but the demonstration did not take place by timely measures. With this demonstration, the peasantry mainly wanted to emphasize their dissatisfaction with the change in the timing of the payment of the second installment.
Ryazan lips. In Zaraiskiy u. the troika for the implementation of the unified agricultural tax issued an order that 90% of the annual target be fulfilled by November, which caused the entire population to panic. Tambov province. The Gryazinsky Volost Executive Committee announced the introduction of the tax on the third and fourth terms by January 10. In this regard, the peasants declare: “Why did they give us payroll sheets. They indicate certain deadlines, meanwhile now every day every day is reducing these terms, forcing to sell all the cattle. ʺ
Northwest Territory. Novgorod province. Due to the change in the tax payment deadline and the transfer of it instead of January 1 to December 1 in Demyansk district. they say: “They deceive us and do not give us the opportunity to recover; the authorities probably needed to urgently pay an indemnity abroad, or they celebrated a lot. ʺ
Volga region. Bashkiria. In the Birsk and Ufa cantons, there are massive complaints from the peasantry about changing the timing of payment of the agricultural tax. The peasantry is forced to sell grain and livestock at very low prices, since the markets are overflowing with agricultural products.
Ural. Ural region the peasants are unhappy with the timing of the payment of the agricultural tax. In the Ishim district, the peasants say: “We cannot pay such large amounts of tax for the whole year for 34 months. Under the tsar, taxes were paid no less, but it was easier since they were collected gradually”.
3. Suicide motivated by repression
Centre. Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. Cattle, sewing machines, samovars, beds, etc. household items are taken away from tax evaders. One of the defaulters, a middle peasant, tried to commit suicide as a result of the confiscation of his last livestock.
Western edge. Belarus. In the village. Zadorozhnoe of the Nikolaev village council of the Lokhvitsky district, a peasant hanged himself due to the inadequacy of the agricultural tax, calculated in the amount of 60 rubles. Of the livestock, this peasant had only one cow, the family consisted of five souls. Shortly before his death, he applied to the Khrapovicheskoe Agricultural Partnership 72 with a request for a cash loan, but this was refused. In connection with the indicated suicide, the
mood of the peasants changed for the worse.
North Caucasus. Kuban District. The severity of the tax has recently been falling mainly on the poor and a small part of the middle peasants who have remained among the non‐payers. In the Staro‐
Nizhnesteblievskaya stc. Popovichesky district, there was a case when a peasant, whose property was described in payment of tax, hanged himself because of this.
Ukraine. Podolsk lips. In with. Krasnoselka, Proskurovsky District, several taxpaying peasants were sentenced by the court to 6 months of forced labor. While following the arrested in the DOPR, one of them rushed into the river and drowned.
Siberia. Yenisei province. In the Uyarsk district, a judge of the 5th plot sentenced a middle peasant village to 6 monthsʹ imprisonment with full payment of tax. Novonikolaevka. This middle peasant committed suicide.
4. Tax waivers
Centre. Tambov province. In the Rasskazovsky district of the Tambov district there are cases of refusal to pay tax; Those who refuse definitely declare: ʺWe will not pay tax, because we have nothing.ʺ
Northwest Territory. Komi‐Zyryansk region In the Ib parish. UstVymsky u. at a meeting of peasants on a report on the agricultural tax, the poor refused to pay the tax due to the fact that the executive committee distributed preferential sums to wealthy peasants who sheltered livestock and land. The same happened in Ust‐Vymskaya vol., Where the granted privilege in the amount of 280 rubles. distributed among the wealthy.
North Caucasus. Chechnya. Shatoevsky district. In with. The dull population refused to pay agricultural tax. Mulla, leaving the mosque with abuse, drew a dagger and attacked the arriving financial inspector. This mullah is agitating for the fact that the villagers will support the government with taxes, which will destroy the Muslim religion, and that the Soviet government will soon be overthrown. Under the influence of the mullahʹs agitation, many villages refuse to pay the tax.
Volga region. Penza lips. In with. Salma Eremeevskaya parish Saransky u. the peasantry categorically refused to pay agricultural tax. Property confiscation was applied to ʹ/ 3 of the population. The peasants say: ʺIt is better to take away the property, and we will not die of hunger.ʺ
In with. Akhmatovka Liplyanovskaya par. Penza u. The financial inspector and the VIK member who came to confiscate the property were greeted by a crowd of 200 peasants who had gathered with shouts: “Robbers, skinsmen, rapists”. Only after inviting the volmilitia did the financial inspector manage to fulfill his task.
Turkestan. Syr‐Darya region in the village of Mulla‐Chertak Mirzachulsky u. At the general meeting of dehkans on the issue of tax collection, the bai declared: “We are poor and we will not pay any tax,” after which those present left the meeting. Until December 3, no taxes were received in the village.
Siberia. Novonikolaevskaya lips. (Kainsk). Wealthy peasant s. Mikhailovsky Verkhne‐Ichinsky District, on the report of the previllage council on the implementation of the tax and taking measures with persistent defaulters, rudely declared: “I don’t want to pay tax, and whoever comes to me to describe the property, I’ll cut off his head with an ax.”
Far East. Primorskaya lips. In the Kalinin parish. Spassky u. there was a collective refusal to accept salary sheets from the Mongugai labor artel of fishermen, headed by the former white officer Pronin. In with. Shkotovo (taxed according to the 8th grade) and with. Novitsky Vladivostok u. there were attempts of collective refusal on the part of
20 people to pay tax and receive salary slips.
5. Absence of a class line in tax collection
Centre. Moscow province. Orekhovo‐Zuevsky u. Among the peasants Pokrovo‐Slobodskoy parish. there are complaints about the abnormalities in the taxation of agricultural taxes, which is due to the fact that cattle are also taxed. Some wealthy peasants are therefore exempt from tax. For example, a peasant from the village. The settlement of Pevtsov, which has 4 houses and one family member, and another peasant from the same village of Sorokin, who works at the factory as a 12th grade foreman, whose son also works at the factory, his daughter is a teacher, are exempted from paying agricultural tax as having no horses. Poor people with the same amount of land and eaters, but having a horse, are not exempt from tax.
Tambov province. In Orzhevskaya parish. Kirsanovsky u. the peasants grumble about the addition of 25% of the tax to the volost correspondents, among whom there is a psalm‐reader, landowner, statistician living with his son‐in‐law, a former merchant. The peasants declare: ʺThe priests and landowners are taxed, but we are not.ʺ
Kaluga lips. The discontent of the peasants is caused by, in their opinion, the incorrect distribution of tax benefits as a bonus for the rational organization of agriculture; these privileges are received by individual farmers and former landowners who have the opportunity to sow their plots with grass seeds. In Meshchovsky. Novosilsky parish near the village. Slovukhino, the former landowner, is currently assigned 45 dess. land, 24 dess. he sowed grass seeds and thereby exempted the land from tax. He pays the total agricultural tax 100 rubles.
Voronezh province. In with. Keys of Nizhne‐Devitsky u. tax exemptions were given to 4 kulaks, and privileges were not provided to one widow with children.
Northwest Territory. Pskov province. In Nevelskoy, the poor point to an uneven layout, stating that last year they paid an average of 10 rubles, they pay the same this year, while the well‐to‐do, who paid 8090 rubles last year, now pay 50 ‐60 RUB
Volga region. Tartary. On the part of the Sarmanovsky VIK of the Chelninsky canton, a gross error was revealed in relation to the calculation of tax on individual farms. In the villages of Bulgars and Rangazar, the poor are taxed more than the wealthy, in the village. Chukmarlakh Red Army men were included as eaters one for two, and thus the families of the Red Army instead of benefits received re‐taxation. As a result, the population, instead of paying the tax, goes to the VIC with complaints about such improper taxation.
Bashkiria. In the Ufa canton in the Udelno‐Duvanei vol. (Russian) December 10 p. the chairman of the VIC instructed all the secretaries of the village councils to draw up acts for non‐payers, in which it is obligatory to mark ‐ ʺthe economy is powerfulʺ, regardless of reality. The results of this order soon showed up, as, for example, in the village. Rozhdestvensky drew up an act as a non‐payer with a general note in the act as ʺpowerful economy.ʺ When they began to make an inventory, the defaulter turned out to be a farm laborer. Such phenomena in the parish began to be observed quite often.
6. Failure to provide benefits to families of Red Army soldiers
Centre. Ryazan lips. In with. Sasovskiyʹs care describes the last cow of the mother of the Red Army. In Ryazhsky district the last horse was taken from the father of the Red Army soldier. From Skopin parish. Ryazhsky a citizen writes to his son, a Red Army soldier: ʺThe tax is collected from the families of the Red Army in full and with severity, if he does not pay on time, then they describe all the property.ʺ
Kursk lips. There is discontent of the families of the Red Army men towards the local authorities for the fact that they do not take measures to add part of the tax as from the families of the Red Army soldiers. Peasant s. Salskoe Lgovskiy u. writes to his son: “I showed the certificate about the pre‐village council tax, but he did not pay attention, I don’t know where to go next.” Such letters are frequent.
Western edge. Gomel province. In with. Krapivny Novozybkovsky u. dissatisfaction with the failure to provide tax benefits to the families of the Red Army soldiers born in 1902 is noted.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. From s. Sobakino of the Ulyanovsk province. one writes to the Red Army the following: ʺI paid 30 rubles in kind, they demand it strongly, take away property, and no one has any incentives, the certificate you sent for exemption from tax was recently returned back, they do not pay any attention.ʺ
Samara lips. From the village. The peasant writes to his son Zubovka in the Red Army: ʺThe society does not help the Red Army families very well; the certificates you sent for various benefits are not paid attention, our chairman is rich.ʺ
Penza lips. In Pyatinskaya parish. Saransky u. On the part of the VIC chairman, there is a tendency towards the general confiscation of property from non‐payers, regardless of the families of the Red Army soldiers and who filed applications for a tax cut. The local authorities attribute all such unauthorized actions to the higher authorities.
Siberia. Altai lips. (From a letter to the Red Army): “The tax is unbearable today, there is nowhere to take, cheap bread ‐ 50‐60 kopecks. pood, but the authorities do not look at our shortcomings, they say ‐ give it up, otherwise we will describe the property, and it is not considered that the family is a Red Army soldier, and do not give any benefits. ʺ
Irkutsk lips. “Life is very bad. They took a cow from us for last yearʹs tax. Grishka the tailor and some policeman came and asked: ʺYou will pay the tax,ʺ and my father says that I will not, since I have no bread, then they said that they would take a cow from us. The father tells them that they have no right, my son serves in the Red Army, and they are again theirs. We went into the yard and only asked which one to take. I told them: ʺYour will, whatever you want.ʺ
7. Arbitrariness in the collection of taxes
Centre. Tambov province. In the Alexandrovskaya parish. A visiting session of the provincial court decided to demolish the buildings of some poor people and demobilized Red Army soldiers for nonpayment of tax. The buildings were broken under the direction of the session commandant under the supervision of policemen; the logs were immediately put‐on carts and taken to the parish, where they were used to heat the VIK. A lot of materials are piled up and rotting. In other volosts, similar phenomena are noted; in total in Morshansky district broken up to 36 buildings; demolition of buildings for nonpayment of tax is currently suspended by the PEC.
In with. Tatarshchino, after the court session, went out into the street and sang: ʺWe will boldly go into battle for the power of agents, we will take off 100 percent of the agricultural tax.ʺ
The chairman of the Korshevsky district council of the Lipetsk district, collecting agricultural tax, was drunk. Going into the house of a widow and, when the latter declared that she had nothing to pay, he climbed into the stove, took out the cast iron with cabbage soup, and, having poured out the last, took the last cast iron in tax. He also took the last ax from one poor man for non‐payment of tax.
Western edge. Belarus. In the Mozyr District, a tax collector in the Simonovichi Village Council sent to the Lelchitsa District Electoral Commission placed taxpayers in cold cellars, where he kept them for days on end.
Ukraine. Volyn province. In the metro station Koteln, Andrushevsky district, the financial inspector gathered 53 performers and ordered them to raid non‐payers; all captured citizens were locked in a separate room, while the financial inspector shouted: ʺGet out on the road, and give me the money.ʺ
Poltava province. In the Krasnograd Okrug, many complaints from peasants come to the OFO, which indicate that the gatherings are convened at 12 oʹclock. nights, that the authorities demand a 100% tax payment in 24 hours and that the arrested non‐payers are kept without food for several days.
North Caucasus. Kuban District. In stts. A free‐standing farmer from a low‐power farm had to take 20 poods to pay off the tax. barley and 2 sheep. The militiaman who came to collect what was described decided to take the peasantʹs horse. At the latterʹs protests, the policeman punched him in the face. The neighbors who screamed, said that even the gendarmes under the tsar did not treat the peasants like that.
Volga region. Ulyanovsk province. Tax campaign for Kuvakinskaya vol. Alatyrsky district takes place under heavy pressure from tax collectors, making arrests, taking cattle even from those peasants who have already paid 80% of the tax.
Penza lips. When conducting a drummer to collect tax in the village. Diveevka Baldovskaya par. Ruzaevsky u. drunken representatives of the village council and the representative of the village came to the house of a poor Red Army man, and the Red Army manʹs pregnant wife, who was lying in bed, began to demand payment of tax. In response to the womanʹs statement that her husband had applied for a tax discount, the chairman, with abuse, snatched the fur coat from under her head and said: ʺNow in the calculation.ʺ In response to the womanʹs protest that this was her last dress, the drunk chairman began to beat her.
8. Penalties
Centre. Ryazan lips. Sharp dissatisfaction of the peasants is caused by the collection of fines for not paying the tax in full. In with. Tolstovsky Ostafievsky parish. a middle peasant who did not pay 2 rubles in addition was fined 20 rubles, another peasant for non‐payment of 60 kopecks. was fined 5 rubles.
Tula lips. Peasants of Uzdovskiy district of Bogoroditskiy u. express dissatisfaction with fines of up to 25 rubles, and it is mainly the poor who are fined.
Northwest Territory. Cherepovets lip. Tikhvin head. UFO Sosnovsky, being in Kapshinskaya, Krasnoborskaya,
Peldushskaya and Lukinskaya volosts of Tikhvin u. on the implementation of the agricultural tax, he treated the population rudely and told the defaulters that they should be shot, and even instructed the peasants with a rifle and a revolver. For non‐payment of the tax on time, he was fined 20‐25 rubles on middle peasants, which caused discontent among the peasants.
Vologda province. In some volosts of the Vologda district. many peasants were fined for not paying the tax on time, starting from 3 rubles. and up to 25 rubles. Most of the poor were fined, and various household items, such as samovars, sewing machines, etc., were sold at auction for a fine. All this was sold for a pittance (a sewing machine for 10 rubles). The kulaks were buyers at the auctions and ridiculed such actions of the Soviet government.
Volga region. Bashkiria. In the volosts of the Ufa canton 74, a fine of 1 ruble was imposed. up to 15 rubles. In Mesyagutovskoy parish. the same canton a fine was imposed from 20 to 25 rubles.
Ural. Ural region In the Ishim district, there are cases when a peasant for non‐payment of 5 rubles. tax, a fine of 10 rubles is imposed, and in the Berdyuzhsky and Vikulovsky districts of the same district, for underpayment of 5 kopecks. a fine of 5 rubles is imposed. A haphazard imposition of fines on taxpayers in the Turinsky region of the Irbit district, the number of which reaches 1,354 rubles. on 214 farms, causes dissatisfaction among the poor, because in all districts of the okrug, non‐payers are mostly the poorest farms.
9. Fees in the village
Centre. Oryol lips. In Soskovskoy parish. Orlovsky u. The VIC introduced a tax of 4 kopecks. from the heart to the office of regional councils and to the hiring of carts. The chairman of the Mtsensk village council introduced a tax ʺon electrificationʺ
5 kopecks from the heart (10,000 people in the village). Rykovskiy regional council of Mtsensk parish. Orlovsky u. collected 1 kopeck each. from a soul to buy a flag for the village council, and since there are 3000 souls in the region, 30 rubles were collected, and the flag costs only 5 rubles. The same district council held a collection in kind for the salary of the chairman and the secretary of the village council for 3 pounds, from the heart. Collected 75 poods. despite the fact that both of them receive a salary from the VIC. It is planned to carry out another collection for the seal and stamp.
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. The peasants are dissatisfied with the large number of different fees and taxes. Particular discontent is caused by the mandatory distribution of the state flag at a price of 4 rubles. 60 kopecks thing.
In Uch‐Dera, in addition to the agricultural tax and state insurance, the peasants have to pay: to heat the school fathoms from the heart, to light the school for 2 kopecks. from the soul, to the first‐aid post 20 kopecks. from labor, for heating the executive committee 10 kopecks. from labor, repair of local roads ‐ 6 days to work, for the maintenance of the authorized Council ‐ 3 rubles. from each village. In addition, a one‐time fee for the repair of schools, KKOV, for the maintenance of a teacher, etc.
Siberia. Omsk lips. The chairman of the Pavlograd Regional Executive Committee Omuezd suggested keeping the Yamshchyna at his own expense, saying: ʺFind the means as you wish.ʺ For this, the peasants carried out self‐taxation by levying the head of cattle in
6 pounds, wheat, and they say: ʺThis is how they treat us, not by washing, so by rolling, but man, come on.ʺ
10. Taxes on handicraftsmen and on waste trades
Northwest Territory. Cherepovets lip. In the Uritsk region, Perkum parish. peasants openly express dissatisfaction with the imposition of a trade tax on 75 artisans ‐ blacksmiths and millers, since, according to them, this tax is indirectly borne by the peasants by increasing the wages for the work of these artisans. The latter raise the price of this or that work and dump all the blame on the Soviet government, which makes them supposedly do it by collecting industrial tax.
Far East. Transbaikal lips. Along Tataurovskaya Vol. Chita u. 700 applications were received, mainly referring to the severity of taxation of side earnings.
11. Fees in the city
Centre. Kursk lips. In Cheremesinovskaya Vol. Shchigrovsky u. from the peasants who arrived at the bazaar, the collectors immediately demand a payment for idle time at the bazaar in the amount of 50 kopecks, and often those who arrived, for lack of money, are forced to leave. The peasants say, ʺthat even under the tsarist regime they did not demand money until the moment the goods were sold.ʺ ʺHere the soul parted with the body, and the collector tugs at the sleeve, really Rykov ordered him to tear us like chickens.ʺ
Northwest Territory. Leningrad province. With. Uritskaya farmers ox privozyaschih Leningrad firewood will be charged for places; for lack of money, the peasants take off their mittens and harnesses from the horses.
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. When a pig is sold at the city market to Hut peasants. Kolikha has to pay 15 kopecks. for the certificate, 50 kopecks. from a pood for veterinary inspection and, in addition, to the team of killers for slaughter.
Secretary of the Information Department Soloviev
APPENDIX 6
LAND QUESTION
1. Weakness of work on land management
Centre. Kaluga lips. Due to the lack of land surveyors between rural communities, there is a struggle to attract land surveyors to their side. Stronger societies as a result of this struggle are primarily responsible for land management.
Yaroslavl lips. In Borisoglebsk parish. Yaroslavsky u. almost 2 / 3 villages have applied for redistribution. The majority of the peasants say that if there were enough land surveyors, the whole region could have switched to multi‐field long ago, for the peasants understand the benefits of multi‐field. The same is observed in the Rybinsk district. The peasants of the villages of Gorokhovo and Podolskoe in Rybinsk u., Who filed an application for redistribution six months ago, have not yet received an answer from the UZU.
Vyatka lips. In Shubenskaya parish. Kotelnichesky the peasants are interested in the transition to new forms of land cultivation and they themselves, without the participation of agronomists, carry out the breakdown of land plots.
Western edge. Gomel province. In Bragin parish. Rechitsky u. peasants express dissatisfaction with the work of the RCD, which keeps plans for a long time and does not send land surveyors to work.
2. The high cost of land management work
Centre. Yaroslavl lips. Arrived in the village. Savinskoe Nekrasovsky parish the land surveyor demanded from the peasants a payment for the measurement of land equal to 1/3 of the previous value of the cultivated land. Most of the peasants, led by the kulaks, decided to stay on the three‐shelf, 12 farms (middle peasants and partially poor peasants) insisted on redistribution. In Yaroslavl u. there were cases when the poor refused to switch to new forms of land use due to the high payment for redistribution (1 ruble per tithe).
Northwest Territory. Vologda province. In Dolgovetsky district, Kokshinskaya vol. land surveyors carried out land measurements 76, for which the UZU presented the peasants with a bill for 507 dess. 45 kopecks each from tithes and for 333 dess. 35 kopecks each from tithing. The collection of the amount due from the peasants is carried out with the help of the police, which makes an inventory of the property of the defaulters up to their outerwear. UZU refuses to grant an extension.
Western edge. Gomel province. At the meetings of the peasants of Klintsovsky u. there are complaints about the high cost of land surveying work. The poor say that the payment in the amount of 1 rub. 90 kopecks. tithing is too much for them. The same complaints are noted in the Churovichi vol. Novozybkovsky u.
Southeast. Stavropol District. In with. Mitrofanovsky, Divensky district, the peasantry decided to make appropriation for settlements by the whole society. It turned out that this requires 5700 rubles. When it was required to pay 25% to register the redistribution, the society categorically refused any land management work. On one of the farms in the same region, land surveying work for 4200 dess. should have cost 1,100 rubles, as a result, land survey work is not moving.
Tersk district. In the Mozdok region, land management has been carried out since 1921 at the expense of the population, as a result, during all this time, only 7% of the area and 9% of the population have been landscaped ‐ exclusively kulaks and wealthy middle peasants. In the future, the poor will not be able to carry out land management without the government providing special funds.
Black Sea District. Due to the lack of funds, land management in the villages of Praskovyevka and Georgievskoye is hampered; in the latter, the peasants decided to apply for land management at the expense of the state.
Volga region. Tsaritsyn province. The majority of the peasantry lost all hope of carrying out land management due to lack of funds. In some villages (Dubovka, Kolobovka and Leninsk), temporary redistribution of land was partially carried out. In Vladimirovka and Novy Elton, the work is not completed, since there was not enough money, as a result, the peasants do not know where and how much they will have to sow. 3. Conducting land management in favor of the kulaks
Centre. Kaluga lips. The Kremensky VIK and a member of the land commission (Medynsky district) patronize the kulaks, in connection with which der. Fedorovka filed an application for redistribution four months ago, and has not received any answer to this day. The kulaks of this village in every possible way inhibit the redistribution, for the poor want to take the allotted kulak land and divide it according to the eaters. To all the peasantsʹ requests to speed up the redistribution, a member of the land commission replies: ʺYou have complained to the district, so ask in the district.ʺ
Kursk lips. In the village. Alekseevka Shchigrovsky u. society decided to give the estate of the deceased peasant to the poor; the brother of the deceased ‐ the kulak initiated a case in the volost, and as a result the poor man had to give in; the peasants say: ʺAs they used to reap us, they will reap us.ʺ
Northwest Territory. Leningrad province. The mood of the poor peasants in Kuyvozovskaya vol. depressed by the fact that the whitegreen bandits 77 returning from Finland manage to get back their farms, which were transferred to the use of the poor.
Vologda province. January 15 in the village. Ugryumovo Kurakinskaya vol. the poor passed a resolution on the equalization of the redistribution of land and the transition to a multi‐field. The volost zemkomiss, despite the protest of a handful of kulaks, approved the decree of the poor, but the local committee passed a decree in favor of the kulaks, canceling the decree of the poor.
North Caucasus. Don district. In sl. Nizhne‐Kundryuchskaya Konstantinovsky district land surveyor is trying to give the best land to the kulaks. The poor are extremely unhappy with this. To a member of the RIC, who wished to find out the reasons for this work of the land surveyor, the latter replied: ʺThis does not concern you.ʺ
Kuban District. In the hut. Cossack Staro‐Velichkovskaya Vol. the distribution of the land is done by the eaters. Divided as before: for example, the rich for 2 souls for 7 dess., For 3 souls ‐ 14 dess., And for the poor for a family of 10‐12 souls for 7 dess. give. There is no Soviet power on the farm to this day. (From a letter from the village correspondent of the Krestyanskaya] newspaper 78).
Black Sea District. In stts. Anapa, up to 20 low‐power farms received
land plots 10‐12 versts from the village.
4. Resistance of the kulaks to land management
Centre. Kaluga lips. In with. Lamb Feet Mosalsky the peasants, under the influence of the agitation of the pre‐village council — the demobilized Red Army soldier — decided to go over to the fourfields. Kulaks and merchants agitated against this, who intimidated the peasants with difficult conditions and high expenses during the transition to the multifield. In addition, they said that the old people lived in the threefields and were not poor. As a result, the peasants refused.
Yaroslavl lips. In Gavrilo‐Yamskaya parish. Yaroslavsky u. there were cases when kulaks and merchants who had a lot of land rebelled against land management, 10‐15 middle peasant farms joined them, campaigning against a group of landless and landless farms wishing to redistribute.
Northwest Territory. Vologda province. In Kurakinskaya vol. Totemsky u. on the basis of equalizing redistribution of land, the kulaks, dissatisfied with the redistribution, are grouped together and petition through the court to annul the resolution of the poor people on redistribution.
Leningrad province. In the area of Kuyvozovskaya parish. the kulaks and the former Greens who returned from Finland in every possible way slow down the planned redistribution of land, are campaigning for not paying money for land management under the pretext that in 2‐3 years the government itself will have to carry out land management work at the expense of public funds.
West. Gomel province. In with. Terenichah of Gomel u. the kulaks are trying to tighten land surveying work in order to sow in the spring according to the old plan.
Belarus. In the Borisov Okrug, kulaks, campaigning against land management, declare to the poor: “Your farms are ruined, and the Soviet government wants to ruin ours too, and anyway, if five dessiatines are cut off from any kulak, then this will not give all those in need. If the Soviet government wanted to alleviate your situation, it would have divided the state farms between you long ago, and it will hand them over to the parasites. ʺ
Southeast. Black Sea District. All L. Kabardinka kulaks and some of the middle peasants, who have the best land, do not contribute money to land management, thus disrupting the preparatory work.
Chernihiv province. In the Konotop district, due to the opposition of the kulaks, land management is practically not carried out.
5. Former landowners
Centre. Moscow province. In the Ulyanovsk parish. Moscow u. there is an agricultural collective ʺBrotherhood of industriousnessʺ, which consists exclusively of the Shuvalov and Parshin families (former landowners). In 1924, the aforementioned collective did not plow the sowing at all, which caused strong criticism among the peasants.
Tverskaya lips. In Ostashkovsky u. about 30 landowners live in their former estates, who use a large amount of land, resorting to hiring peasants from neighboring villages for its cultivation. Peasants suffering from a lack of land express strong discontent.
Kaluga lips. In Novosilskaya parish. village Slavukhino lives a landowner who is assigned 45 dess. land.
Tula lips. During the campaign of eviction of former landowners, 625 former landowners were counted, 410 were evicted, and dismissed from Soviet institutions 73. Their property status before the revolution: 202 landowners had 50‐100 dess., 142 [had] 100‐200 dess., 65 [landowners] ‐ 200 ‐300 dec. and 50 had more than 300 dess.
Oryol lips. In total, there are 131 former landowners in the province. 13 people are employed in state farms, pedigree farms and various bases. The rest are engaged in agriculture, and the majority (46 people) use hired labor in whole or in part. Most live in their former estates.
Northwest Territory. Pskov province. In total, there are 300 landowners and their families registered in the province, of which 250 families live in their former estates and use the land norm. 145 families are subject to eviction from estates and deprivation of land allotments, 24 families are to be evicted from the county and 19 families from the province. According to Novo‐Rzhevsky district as soon as they began to describe the property of some landowners, a whole series of telegrams poured in with a petition to suspend the eviction until further notice from the center from many party members and even entire cells.
Western edge. Belarus. In the Chernevets village council of the Mogilev district, peasants are unhappy with the lease to the former manager of the estate
ʺKarovchinoʺ. The latter leases the land to the surrounding peasants. The family of the former landowner also lives on the same estate.
North Caucasus. Taganrog District. In the village. Former landowners Zadorozhny and Marokova live in Alexandria‐Kolos of Nikolaevsky district, and in the former Neklinovsky ‐ Sharonov, Brodchenko and Grekov. They have lands of 25‐40 dess. and, besides, the manor. Some of them exploit workers, while others, like Grekov, even rent land from the state fund and, without cultivating it themselves, lease it to peasants. The landlords enjoy authority among the kulaks.
6. State farms
Centre. Moscow province. MOZO (Moscow district). There is mismanagement of business in the group of state farms Mosselplemkhoz, such as: Biryulevo, Ananyino, Yasenevo and Yakunchikovo, where irrational exploitation of country houses, unscrupulous cultivation of crops, untimely harvesting of crops, and negligent handling of livestock are noticed. At the Yakunchikovo state farm, all work has stopped and is currently being liquidated, allegedly because the Germans wanted to take the state farm on a concession, but for some reason did not take it, as a result of which the autumn plowing was not carried out. The workers are being fired, they are not given a job, and their situation is very difficult. On the Biryulyovo state farm, 58 pigs died from lack of fodder during the month.
Tambov province. Between the population of Gromovskaya parish. and the state farm ʺAtormaʺ there are aggravated relations, on this soil in the state farm three haystacks of spring feed were burned. The population declares that it is so necessary that there was nothing to feed the cattle ʺred landownersʺ.
Kursk lips. Peasants of Shchigrovsky u. they are outraged by the fact that the administration of the state farm is handing over land for cultivation to the use of peasants, mostly kulaks and former landowners for good bribes. In Cheremisinovskaya Vol. the state farm was given to a former landowner for the processing of beetroot plantations.
Ryazan lips. At der. Nomad of Ryazan u. there is a state farm, 100 dess. whose lands are still in an abandoned state, are not cultivated or fertilized. The peasants say that the state would benefit more if this land were transferred to them, the peasants.
Vyatka lips. Many state farms are on the eve of liquidation. All of them are heavily indebted to the Provincial Land Administration, Gubstrakhkassa, State Bank and other institutions.
Western edge. Gomel province. In the state farm, the former ʺVadovichiʺ of the Rechitsa district, the managers transferred 6 sheep to the peasants. Up to 500 poods have been worn down by the farmʹs cattle. state farm buckwheat straw, and livestock, due to poor maintenance, although in the presence of surplus feed, is in poor condition. Without the permission of Gubseltrest, the managers of the state farm sold up to 1500 poods to private traders in the Yurievichi borough. cabbage with the condition of receiving 50% of the cost upon delivery and 50% upon loading on a barge. The difference in price on sale must be divided between the state farm and the traders. The implementation of the cabbage was delayed for 1 ʹ/ 2 weeks, and the last rotted, allowing the farm suffered a loss of about 700 rubles.
In the state farm ʺProkopyevkaʺ Gomel u. the manager plunders the property of the state farm; so, he repaired and sent 2 state farm carts to his family and regularly sent food; the peasants who know this are unhappy.
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. An audit is underway at the Abrau‐Dyurso state farm; it is not finished yet, but a shortage of 2,240 bottles of champagne has already been discovered. In addition, there is still a shortage of other wines and materials.
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 7
LOWER APPARATUS
1. Connection with fists
Centre. Voronezh province. Chairman of the Pervopshenovsky village council of Ostrogozhsky district patronizes local kulaks and the priest, giving the latter a place as an accountant in the EPO, and intimidates with the arrest of those who try to point out these irregularities.
Kostroma lips. In the Sarajevo VIK of the Nerekhtsky district a member of the VIC ‐ a communist supplies timber primarily to the kulaks.
Teterinsky VIK of Nerekhtsky district handed over the drink and the removal of firewood to the kulak. Kulak transferred the work to others, making a profit on it. The peasant artel of the same volost asked to hand over this contract to her, but the VIK refused, giving it to the kulak.
Northwest Territory. Vologda province. In the Kargopol region, the KKOV issued loans to the kulaks, but refused to the poor.
Volga region. Samara lips. In Vasilievskaya parish. Samara district fists stubbornly hide the land from taxation. The pre‐village council N. Starnikov is guilty of hiding the land, who together with the kulaks at the general meeting of the peasants of the village. NovoTroitsky said that if someone reports on the hidden land, then ʺwe will deal with them, as in some villages with the village correspondents.ʺ
Kirkrai. Ural lips. In the volosts of Dzhabeitinsky u. the poor come to the VIC every day to complain that they are starving. Buyers are unfriendly to taxation. In aul No. 3, the latter, led by the former chairman of the VIC, announced that they would not give bread to the KKOV fund.
Aktobe province. In the village. Grigorievsky Ashchelisay parish. Aktobe u. KKOV issued a loan of 50 poods. bread to the kulak, who had 50 dess. sowing. The latter does not return the loan.
Siberia. Buryat‐Mongolia. In the Alar aimag, the chairman of the Georgievsky village council, Kovalenko, patronizes the kulaks. Taking part in the commission for unloading the St. George school, he excluded only the children of poor families.
Yenisei province. In Achinsk u. in with. During the patronal feast, Little Imysh was brought 30 miles away by the priest, for which they collected more than 3 carts of bread and various food. The pre‐village council took an active part in this, assisting the priest in dressing carts for the sale of products.
Omsk lips. Chairman of the Popovtsevsky village committee of the Andreevsky district of the Tatarsky district gave out 3 pounds of bread for the prayer service, and the chairman of the Gopental village committee of the same district provided the priest with 75 pounds of assistance. of bread.
Altai lips. In with. Old Belokurikha Biysk the chairman of the KKOV sells the timber belonging to the committee at a reduced price to the kulaks, which causes discontent among the poor.
Far East. Primorskaya lips. The chairman of the Spassky VIK, when he reported about the concealment by his relatives‐kulaks of objects of taxation, betrayed to the kulaks the peasant who revealed the concealment.
2. Debris
Centre. Ryazan lips. Pressel Council with. Gretsky Trinity Vol. on Christmas Day, according to the old style, he played the role of a psalmist, went with the priests to their homes.
Secretary of the Theological VIC Ranenburgsky in tsarist times he was the secretary of the Dankovsky police department. Chairman of the Gryaznovsky village council Astapov vol. served before the revolution in Moscow as a policeman.
Tverskaya lips. Ilgoschinsky District Council. The son of a former kulak was elected chairman of the village council, and a priest as secretary.
Northwest Territory. Pskov province. During the re‐elections of the Melakhovsky village council, Krasnoprud vol. Pskov u. the organization of the dark elements was successful, and as a result, 4 members got into the village council: one former SocialistRevolutionary, one former kulak, deprived of part of his land in 1919, one woman, the wife of a bandit who is currently in Estonia, engaged in forcing moonshine, and one fist that took part in green gangs in 1919.
Ukraine. Poltava province. A former employee of the duke in the Karlovsk estate, who beat the peasants and now treats them extremely rudely, was elected a member of the Krasnograd Regional Executive Committee.
3. Arbitrariness and rudeness
Centre. Voronezh province. Pressel Council sl. Dmitrovka Ostrogozhsky u. a member of the Revolutionary Commission of a poor peasant who demanded an explanation regarding the discovery of embezzlement, deprived of his civil rights and filed a complaint with the police, accusing him of insulting the Constitution of the RSFSR. Witnesses, with the exception of one member of the RCP, did not confirm this, but he was sentenced to one year in prison.
On the pre‐village council sl. Digging Ostrogozhsky u., Who raped women and took bribes, the peasants filed a complaint with the VIC. As a result, those who filed a complaint for insubordination to the authorities were sentenced to 3 months of forced labor. The peasants went further with their complaint, but achieved nothing.
Tambov province. Pressel Council with. Veseloe Morshanskiy u., Having learned about the denunciation of one member of the RCP (b) about the incorrect addition of tax from some peasants, threatened him with a revolver. A relative of the Presidential Council who was present here added: ʺIf one is not enough, then here is the other.ʺ And he also took out a revolver.
Oryol lips. The head of the Theotokos volmilitia beat one peasant. Beaten to a pulp turned to a paramedic for an examination. He refused, fearing revenge from the police chief.
Volga region. Autonomous Mordovian Republic. In with. Pereyme of the Balta region committed suicide by the local pre‐village council, explaining in the letter he left the reason for the suicide by bureaucracy and unfair pressure on him from the Balta chairman of the VIC, who forced to deflate the tax due from the peasants at all costs, and on his instructions that there was Several real poor people who need to be freed, the chairman of the VIC allegedly replied: ʺIf you hang everyone, you will collect the tax.ʺ The audited affairs of the pre‐village council were found in order.
North Caucasus. Tersk district. Pressel Council with. Sablino is rude to the peasantry, swears at the marketplace, accusing everyone of counterrevolution. By arbitrary arrests, he led to the fact that many residents talk about Sablinskaya Dymovka 79 and are going to send a complaint to the district. The population is especially embittered by fines imposed in the most reckless manner and untimely payment for reclamation work. The chairman gives the funds received for this for circulation in the EPO, returning them very carelessly.
Of the Executive Committee stts. Novozavedenskaya from the apartment to the executive committee (200 yards) rides only on horses, yells at teachers for the fact that they allegedly do not teach children anything (the school sits without firewood, and it is impossible to work in it), the apartment of school workers liked the head, and he immediately offered free her for yourself.
Kirkrai. Ural lips. In Chizhinskaya Vol. Uralsky u. the chairman of the VIK, a member of the RCP, against the hostessʹs wishes, moved into her house, fed his cattle with hay, stoked her with wood, without paying anything. Taking advantage of his position, he also expelled one peasant from the house that had just been bought by the latter and is currently living in it himself.
Siberia. Yenisei province. (Achinsky u.). In the work of the militia, criminal phenomena and systematic drunkenness were noted. The head of militia of the Berezovsky district Budakov in the village. Sharypovo raped a woman. The latter submitted an application to the village council, but the pre‐village council, being a friend of Budakov, destroyed the application.
Oirot region the chairman of the Syurinsky village council of the Lyubets aimak, having appeared at the house of the peasant woman Kadatova, began to demand arrears unknown to her, and when Kadatova was about to go to her neighbor for money, the pre‐village council locked the door, grabbed her by the hair, began to whip her and raped her.
4. Abuse and waste
Centre. Kaluga lips. Head of the Mosur Volmilitia of the Mosalsky District spent 350 rubles. Constantly drinking, he launched a case to combat moonshine and collect fines for moonshine.
Nizhny Novgorod province. Chairman of the Elizarovsky village council of Pavlovsky u. spent 500 rubles. gold.
Oryol lips. Cashier of Stanovskaya Volkassy of Livenskiy u. spent 900 rubles.
North Caucasus. Maykop district. For the former pre‐village council stts. Vorontsovo‐Dashkovskaya is registered as theft of money received from tax, systematic concealment of objects of taxation, drafting forged acts on the death of livestock, thanks to which the population was given a discount of up to 50%.
Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Komarchino Chumyshsky district, Barnaul u. The Presidential Council gives the tax and money collected from the peasants to the local merchant for circulation.
In with. Kolyvansky, Aleisky district, Barnaul district, the pre‐village council squandered 80 sequestered forest and issued a decree on cutting down 200 dess. local forests.
Yenisei province. Waste of 200 rubles was found at the Tabatsky Presidential Council. state money, and the chairman of the KKOV ‐ a waste of 200 poods. of bread.
Omsk lips. Chairman of the Evgashchinsky RIK Tarsky I spent 200 rubles to repair my apartment. state money.
5. Waste in KKOV
Centre. Moscow province. Among the peasants of the Communist Vol. Moscow u. there is a complaint about the mutual aid committee. During the time of Chairman Sedoy, 8 houses were broken. The money received does not appear in the books of the parish.
In addition, the peasants indicate that under the threat of not supplying the forest, they were charged 50 kopecks each. There, the Mutual Aid Committee opened 2 tea shops, the head of which wasted 1,700 rubles.
Voronezh province. Former chairman of the Sredne‐Karachanskiy
KKOV Novo khoperskiy u. wasted 700 poods. of bread.
Oryol lips. In Muravlskaya Vol. M. Arkhangelsk in the committees of mutual aid, a number of waste was discovered: in the Nikolsk Committee there is a shortage of 300 poods. grain products, in Tureyevsky ‐ 200 and Voronetsky ‐ 400 poods. The peasants are indignant and say: ʺNo matter how much they collect, everything is only for themselves.ʺ
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. All L. Georgievskoe, during the reelection of the KKOV, it turned out that the monetary fund was appropriated by the chairman (a former psalmist) 81.
6. Insufficient payment of the grassroots apparatus
North Caucasus. Dagestan. In most districts, there is discontent on the part of employees for a meager salary: the secretary of the village council (Samur village council) receives 7 rubles. per month. Due to the insecurity of local workers, illegal extortions from peasants are noted locally.
Volga region. Bashkiria. Ufa canton. In Bulekey‐Kudeyskaya parish. due to the lack of money, the pre‐village councils do not receive salaries for half a year, due to which the pre‐village councils pay little attention to work, there is no connection between the village councils and the VIC.
Siberia. Novonikolaevskaya lips. (A rock). The technical staff of the Pankrushinsky Regional Executive Committee and its village council, including 22 people, are unhappy with the decrease in salaries. For example, those who previously received 20 rubles. they now receive 16 rubles a month. The employees of the village council of the Kiprinsky district have not yet received their salaries for August and September due to lack of funds.
Western edge. Belarus. The technical staff of the Bobruisk Volost Executive Committee submitted to the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars of Belarus a ʺdemandʺ describing the plight of the workers of the grassroots soviet in connection with the decrease in salaries during the transition to a new zoning. The statement indicated that it was necessary to save in the budget at the expense of those receiving 300500 rubles. per month and that the increase in salaries made recently for workers of the grassroots soviet has actually affected only 2‐3 employees of the RIK, while the entire mass of co‐workers, who actually support all the work, continue to remain in an extremely difficult situation.
Yenisei province. (Kanskiy u.). Among the employees of RECs, there is dissatisfaction with the low salary rates, expressed from 16 to 17 rubles. per month with the use of overtime.
Far East. Buryat region in some VICs and HIKs of the Troitsko‐Sava aimag, the salaries of employees for the month of August have not yet been paid, the rest of the aimags were satisfied only for October.
7. Bribery
Centre. Tambov province. Junior policeman of the Sampur parish. Tambovskiy u., Having caught a moonshiner s. Seleznevka, for hiding demanded a bribe of 10 rubles. When the latter refused, the policeman took out a revolver and began to extort a bribe with a weapon in his hands.
In with. Kalikino Dobrin parish Members of the village council distribute the received semssud for bribes: two members of the village council demanded from one widow two bottles of moonshine for the fact that they would add her to the list for receiving the semssud.
Western edge. Belarus. The senior policeman of the Krupsky district of the Borisov district, hiding the moonshiners, takes bribes. In the village. Vyazok, having found a tub of moonshine brew in one of the peasants, agreed for 10 poods. potatoes and a bottle of moonshine do not take the case to court.
Volga region. Penza lips. In Chembarsky u. Chernyshevskaya Vol. the police take bribes from the moonshiners. Police clerk, having arrived in the village. Sipyagino, summoned the moonshiners, at which the protocols were drawn up, and demanded bribes from them, and demanded 3 rubles from the citizens of Krylova and Gorina. and forced them to have sexual intercourse.
Samara lips. Arrived in Pugachev from Vitebsk province. Mr. Pisarev turned to the chairman of the Prigorodny village council Tulaev for a plot of land. Allocating the allotment, the pre‐council charged Pisarev 8 rubles, of which 2 rubles. 25 kopecks. in state revenue, and 5 rubles. 75 kopecks. left for himself for the trouble.
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 8
COOPERATION
1. Dissatisfaction with the ʺappointmentʺ of the boards of cooperatives 82
Centre. Voronezh province. At a meeting of shareholders of the NizhneMelovatsky EPO Bogucharsky district. The shareholders protested against the candidate for the chairman of the board sent by the Ukom, declaring: ʺWell, we donʹt have our own, eh, communists.ʺ They pointed out that the former chairman of the credit partnership left without giving any report, and if he was their own, they would have demanded a report from him. The meeting was stormy. At the proposal of the wolf about providing one seat for the wolf, the meeting shouted: ʺWe will give, just allow us to choose those party members we want.ʺ
Oryol lips. In Kolpensky parish. Malo‐Arkhangelsk u. under the pressure of the kulaks, all the candidates nominated to the EPO board by the wolf were defeated. The list was opposed by a member of the RCP, the son of a former kulak, who said that, on the basis of the Constitution, it is impossible to choose persons who do not live in the area where the government is elected.
North Caucasus. Kuban District. Having failed in the re‐elections to the Soviets, the kulaks of the Popovichesky district are trying to lead their people into cooperation. The kulaks declare that the cooperation is ʺoutside politicsʺ and therefore the communists are not needed there.
Volga region. Samara lips. At the congress of authorized credit partnerships Dmitrievskaya vol. peasant s. Bogdanovka, speaking on behalf of a group of delegates headed by the agronomist Ippolitov, objected to the candidacy put forward by the Samara Ukom of the RCP, saying: “The party sends communists to the village not to work, but to rob. Therefore, we do not need newcomers. ʺ
At the re‐election of the EPO board in the village. Korovinsky Buguruslansky district a group of delegates demanded that the board be elected from the assembly, and not from the RCP faction. After the people proposed by the faction were elected, shouts were heard: ʺWrong.ʺ ʺThe congress is being held under the dictatorship of the Communist Party.ʺ
Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Mironovka Chumyshsky district of Barnaul u. after the EPO chairman was elected ‐ a communist, 14 shareholders were immediately discharged from the cooperative, who indicated that ʺthey do not need a communist chairman, because he is poor, and if he bargains, there will be nothing to take from him.ʺ In with. Gonbe Pavlovsky district of Barnaul u. on the waste of a member, edited by EPO 108 rubles. money belonging to the cooperatives, the peasantry declares: ʺNow we will not elect a single party member to the cooperative.ʺ
Yenisei province. During the re‐election of the board of the Maklakovsky credit partnership, the list of candidates for board members was disrupted at the initiative of the entire population since it categorically refused to vote for the communists and Komsomol members.
2. The clogging of the apparatus with anti‐Soviet and kulak elements
Centre. Moscow province. Bogorodsky u. Board of the Mysheronsky credit partnership, Ivanovskaya vol. consists entirely of an anti‐Soviet element, such as: Chairman Korovin is a former manufacturer and Menshevik, member of the board Savelyev is an unofficial deacon of the Zdekhov church. The designated persons were released, under the guise of an agricultural loan, to the chairmen of church councils with. Zdekhovo county Sedyushkin and der. Kormilino, Mr. Sushkov, money for the repair of churches.
Egoryevsky u. Among the population of Luzgarinsky parish. there is discontent with the newly elected board of the Krivandinsky EPO, in which the former manufacturer and lieutenant of the old army Trushin were elected as chairman and Tsvetaev, the son of a priest and the psalmist of the local church, as a member of the board. The designated persons have surrounded themselves with only relatives and in the work of the cooperative they deliberately create confusion that cannot be taken into account.
Sergievsky u. The Korovaevskoye agricultural credit partnership is headed by the former landowner Zimin, who is given loans to former owners, hiding behind the flag of labor artels (a shoemakerʹs artel in the village of Mikhailovskoye, a felting artel in the village of Dmitrovskoye).
Kursk lips. Konshinskoe agricultural products of Staro‐Oskolsky u. among the population is not popular. The board consists of two former guards and two officials. The cashier of a white gang partnership is deprived of the right to vote.
In with. Raskhovets Sredne‐Rashovetskaya par. Shchigrovsky u. the cooperative was organized 3 times. The first time it was headed by a priest, the second time a Socialist‐Revolutionary climbed into the chairmen of the board. With the cooperative went bankrupt. At present, the peasants have organized a cooperative for the third time.
In Rybinski Budy, Kursk u. agricultural partnerships include kulaks, former police officers, guards and merchants. The VIC filed a motion to exclude 18 members from this partnership as deprived of the right to vote. The peasants call this partnership ʺa trust of kulaks, supported by the authorities by granting them free patents.ʺ
Voronezh province. In with. Popasnom Bogucharsky u. during the reelection of the EPO boards, a former officer, a former secretary of the VIC, who was tried for embezzlement of property, and a former white refugee passed through.
Ryazan lips. Chairman of the Busaevskaya agricultural cooperation Ryazan district. is the kulak, the chairman of the church council, along with him serve his two sons (one clerk, the other accountant) and the rest of the staff is selected at his discretion. The Presidency combines the office of a church head. When he goes to Ryazan to buy goods for cooperation, he simultaneously brings candles, incense and other items for the church. He selects the best products for himself with a 5% discount, which he sells on the market.
The Syukmor production cooperative includes 2 merchants, 2 kulaks and timber merchants, this artel rents a starch factory and has its own trade.
The board of a large Sarajevo cooperative includes: the chairman of the board is a right‐wing Socialist‐Revolutionary, a middle peasant and 2 board members are middle peasants.
In the Spassky consumer society of Spassky u. on the board are SR Ivantsev Sergei Ivanovich, his brother Mikhail Ivantsev, the son of deacon Vinogradov and the sergeant Padlozov 84.
Tverskaya lips. In the board of a number of cooperatives of Kimrsky u. priests and hucksters enter. According to Ostashkovsky u. on the boards there are clergymen, former merchants, kulaks, former bailiffs and police officers, former members of the party of the Cadets and Socialist‐Revolutionaries. In the Tver province disabled cooperative association under the guise of disabled people [into the board] hucksters, police officers and policemen infiltrated [ 85].
Tula lips. During the re‐elections of the EPO Karachevsky u. two kulaks passed to the board of the Pokrovsky and Lugovsky EPO. One of them is a former policeman, the other was a participant in the March uprising in 1920. These candidates entered the board at the insistence of the district union instructor, despite the indignation and unwillingness of the peasants to lead them.
Volyn province. The chairman of the Volyn cooperative organized a drinking party in the house of the former police officer, in which members of the EPO audit commission took part; while drinking the moonshine, the chairman of the EPO board shouted: ʺDrink, we will find funds to drink, Leninism is being drunk.ʺ
Northwest. Leningrad province. In EPO Lozhgolovskaya Vol. Kingiseppsky u. the board consists of members of the church twenty.
Arkhangelsk lips. The recent re‐registration of agricultural partnerships gave the following results: 28 partnerships with 6865 members were surveyed. 341 people were expelled, of which 22 priests, 78 merchants, 27 fishermen, 5 former white officers, 31 former police officers, 10 large owners, 39 hired workers, conducting anti‐cooperative campaigning 10, 39 moonshiners under trial 18, deprived of the right to vote 62 ...
Kirkrai. Ural lips. In the Ural district. in EPO pos. Slamikhino presidency, an intellectual, the son of a former bourgeois, was on trial on charges of embezzling the peopleʹs property. The 2nd member of the board graduated from theological seminary, was on trial for speculation, has 13 heads of cattle and 50 rams. The 3rd Secretary of the EPO was also on trial. Members of the board, without the knowledge of the general meeting, doubled their salaries. At the request of dissatisfied members of the cooperative to convene a general meeting and make a report, the board declares that, according to the charter, they are elected for 3 years and no one has the right to convene any meetings.
Ural. Ural region in with. Nevyansky of the Irbitsky District in agricultural cooperation, the chairman is Maltsev ‐ a SocialistRevolutionary, the clerk is his son, board members: the Raschektaevs, uncle and nephew are wealthy and unreliable personalities, members of the revolutionary commission ‐ Kushnikov and Borzunov ‐ both kulaks, have hired workers and blood trotters, treasurer Kalugin is excluded from the RCP, spent public money in the amount of 500 rubles.
Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Savinskoe Aleisky district of Barnaul u. a meeting for re‐election of the EPO board was appointed at the time of the absence of the poorest population and members of the RCP. Gathered 3 / 5 members elected board, which included former speculators and fists.
Omsk lips. In the Nikolaev credit partnership of Omsk u. serve as follows: accountant Chulaev ‐ a former large tsarist official, who in 1922 was sentenced to capital punishment for a fire in the Isilkul district union, an accountant ‐ topographer Popov, who says that ʺhe lives in the village only because there are no harmful party members there.ʺ ... In addition, Alekseev and Pugilov, former Cossack police officers, serve in the partnership.
More than 100 similar facts about the composition of the boards of cooperatives were received during the month.
3. Use of cooperation by private capital
Centre. Moscow province. Leninsky u. In the Lenin Union of Cooperatives, head. Bukhalovʹs department store sells goods to private traders on credit with a 5% discount. For example, 4 bags of sugar, 30 poods were released to the private trader Minin. millet and kernels, as well as barrels of sunflower oil. Due to this, during the two pre‐holiday weeks of December, these products were absent in the cooperative and the population bought them from Minin.
Vyatka lips. In the Bilyamorsky credit partnership of the Urzhumsky district the chairman of the board is a kulak, who, in addition to acting as chairman, is engaged in trade in his own shop and at the same time is the chairman of the Sabuyal EPO, in which the entire board consists of former merchants.
In Klyuchevskoy Vol. Kotelnichesky a consumer society with up to 50 members was organized. The society was organized on the initiative of the kulaks. The board includes former traders who entered into an agreement with a private trader who contributed half of the capital to the EPOʹs turnover and received 50% of the profits. The brothers of this merchant are the clerks of the society and, using the confidence of the board, conduct commercial transactions for their own purposes.
Northwest Territory. Pskov province. In Usvyatskiy EPO Velizhsky district the board is occupied by former traders who sell their own goods under the guise of a cooperative.
Vologda province. In the village. Monastery Totemsky u. next to EPO, a private trader Markov trades, whose capital is increasing every day due to the fact that he uses credits and loans from the Totem branch of Gostorg, TPO in V. Ustyug and in Nyuksentsy of the North‐Dvinsk province.
Ust‐Pechenskoe EPO in Kadnikovsky u. is in the hands of kulaks, since all EPO funds are formed from deposits of 500 rubles, which belong to a group of investors of 8 people. Thus, the kulaks turn over all the affairs of the EPO, having everywhere both in the board and in the technical apparatus ʺtheir own people.ʺ
Volga region. Samara lips. In the village. Russian Voklya Buguruslansky u. head EPO Stolobushkin from the working capital available in its department in 14,000 rubles. spent 2,000 rubles on his own trade.
Kirkrai. Aktobe province. In Temir district in an agricultural partnership, a member of the board is a private trader who has his own shop, which he replenishes with goods at the expense of the partnership. A member of the RCP (has 40 head of cattle and his own house) uses the means of partnership for personal speculation.
4. Significant amount of membership fees
Centre. Kursk lips. Agricultural partnership with. Kosikovo Rybinsk parish Kurskiy established a membership fee of 25 poods. of bread. The partnership includes only kulaks.
Agricultural partnerships in Cheremisinovsky, Sredne‐Raskhovetsky and Podgorodischensky districts of Shchigrovsky u. set a membership fee of 50 rubles, an entrance fee of 10 rubles. The partnership fell into the hands of the kulaks.
Ukraine. Donetsk province. From the village correspondentʹs letter to the ʺKrestyanskaya Gazetaʺ. In with. Nikolayevka Lozovo‐Pavlovsky district of Lugansk district organized an artel of ʺgrain growersʺ, this artel includes the majority of kulaks. Each entrant is charged 50 rubles. membership fee, so, for example, they took 35 rubles from Passer Vasily. moreover, they demanded the magarych, who also bought moonshine rubles worth 15. Poor peasants cannot, of course, be members of this kulak artel.
North Caucasus. Taganrog District. In the Golodaevsky District, there is a weak involvement of the poorest peasantry in cooperatives. Cooperative share 5 rubles. 60 kopecks; since no installments are made, the poor are left behind.
Volga region. Penza lips. Existing in Ivanovka Krasnoslobodsky u. the agricultural cooperative unites only the wealthy strata of the peasantry. The established share contribution (15 rubles) closed access to the poor. The cooperative has placed itself in a hostile position towards the poor.
5. Lending by cooperation of kulaks
Centre. Moscow province. Kashirsky u. Among the poor peasants with. Kokino Yamsko‐Slobodskoy Vol. there is dissatisfaction with the board of the Kokino credit partnership that it refuses a loan to the poor, pointing out the lack of funds, and at the same time the local kulak Abramov was given a loan of 100 rubles.
Northwest Territory. Cherepovets lip. In Bechevinsky par. Belozersky u. there is a peasant association that has not won the confidence of the population, since the government is headed by an alien element that is not interested in raising agriculture, and loans are given to people who do not need it. So, for example, 120 rubles were issued. for the purchase of a horse to the former noble landowner Lenchevsky, who had no intention of buying horses at all. The chairman of the partnership received 75 rubles, while peasants in this amount are not given a loan.
Western edge. Belarus. In the board of the Lastochka agricultural partnership in the Minsk district, the chairman is a smuggler kulak, the board members are: kulak, a former warrant officer of the old army and a smuggler, the cashier of the partnership is a smuggler, the accountant was arrested for espionage, the clerk was imprisoned for stealing goods. On the revision commission, either relatives or kulaks, with one former headman 86... Credit is given mostly to kulaks, and credit to one kulak reaches 100 rubles, while the poor man, after countless requests, hardly gets 20 rubles. The board did not convene a single meeting of shareholders and did not issue reports. Members of the board declare that, according to the law, re‐elections can only take place once every three years, and the board decided to take 100 rubles from each person who passed to the board during elections, thus protecting itself from the poor.
Volga region. Bashkiria. Birsk canton. Kulaks and priests made their way to the board of the Ponomarev universal agricultural partnership. Cash loans are primarily issued to kulaks, and in some cases, simply to speculators (not members of the partnership). For example, a horse was given as a loan to a former landowner. The poor and middle peasants in most cases refuses a loan. Similar facts are noted in the Duvan universal agricultural partnership of the Mesyagutov canton.
Kirkrai. Ural lips. Chairman of the Board of Duaninsky agricultural credit partnership Jam [beytinsky] u. states that agricultural loans should be issued only to independent farms that are able to pay for it. The poor peasants who signed up as members of the partnership have not yet received credit.
Siberia. Omsk lips. In Bor‐Forpostovsky consumer society, due to the negligence of the management of bad debts, there are up to 5800 rubles. The board refused the needy peasant 10 rubles, at the same time giving mutually 100 rubles. to the priest Yartsev.
6. Mismanagement
Centre. Tambov province. Sukmanovskiy EPO Borisoglebskiy u. agricultural products from peasants are purchased on credit and payment for them is delayed. So, one peasant, having sold a pig, went to the regional union office for money 11 times, not getting it to this day.
Voronezh province. In the Verkhne‐ and Nizhne‐Karachanovsky EPO of the Ostrogozhsky district. instead of kerosene, tar and salt, there are perfumes, powder, crosses and rings.
Credit partnership with. Manino Bogucharsky u. cattle were purchased from peasants, but the money for payment is delayed, which is reflected in the receipt of agricultural tax.
Kursk lips. Akhtyrskoe agricultural commodity association Cheremisinovskaya vol. Shchigrovsky u., Taking cows from the peasants of the surrounding villages and promising them 40 rubles. pay, paid only 7 rubles. 50 kopecks ‐ 12 rubles; the peasantry is outraged by this fraud.
North Caucasus. Black Sea District. Lazarevskoe EPO suffered a loss of 4500 rubles on blanks. As a result, peasants distrust the cooperative and try to avoid it.
In EPO with. Arkhipo‐Osipovka in the board is exclusively kulaks and former traders, with 22% of the overlap on working capital of 30,000 rubles. EPO earned only 500 rubles. Cases and reporting are terribly confused, and the Revolutionary Commission refused to carry out an audit, since it is still impossible to find out anything.
Kirkrai. Akmola province. In the village of Mikhailovsky, the peasants handed over 20 thousand poods to the gubernia union. wheat, for which they received goods instead of money. To pay the tax, they had to sell the remaining bread.
Siberia. Altai lips. In with. Alekseevsky Baschelaksky district Biysk u. the indignation of the peasants is caused by the unprofitable activity of the agricultural partnerships under the leadership of the kulakʹs presidential administration, the peasants declare: ʺThis is not cooperation, but speculation and dressage on the peasantʹs neck.ʺ
7. Debts of cooperation employees
Centre. Moscow province. Bronnitsky u. There is a murmur of peasants about the weak work of the Lobanovsky cooperative, in which all members of the board have a large debt, namely: treasurer Baskakov ‐ 1,700 rubles, accountant Shibryaev ‐ 500 rubles, board member Filatov ‐ 300 rubles, secretary of the RCP cell Smirnov ‐ 300 rubles ...
Oryol lips. Board members and clerks of grass‐roots cooperatives in Uritskaya parish. they take goods on credit, sometimes for 100‐200 rubles, thereby reducing trade and undermining the already weak cooperation.
Volga region. Bashkiria. Mesyagutovsky canton. In the BolsheOkinsky universal agricultural partnership, a number of abuses were revealed ‐ self‐supply: the treasurer took a cash loan of 200 rubles, the clerk 250 rubles. etc. The employees and members of the board are listed as 836 rubles. while the peasant is given 20‐30 rubles. the loan is refused. Similar phenomena were noted in the same canton in the Verkhne‐Kiginsky universal agricultural partnership.
Kirkrai. Bukeevskaya lip. In Dengisovsky district The Konyushkinsky cooperative has four people in the staff who receive 200 rubles a month. They go to Astrakhan for goods for 2 months, while private traders spend one day on it. Few essential goods are brought in, and prices are much higher than those of private traders. Similar phenomena are noted in Ush‐Sharkey vol.
8. Abuse, theft and waste
Centre. Moscow province. Moscow u. Peasants of the Spas‐Setun parish. strongly indignant at the work of the EPO board, which has brought the EPO to a very difficult situation; so, for example, there are about 280,000 rubles in debts, a member of the board Pertkov (member of the RCP) spent 9250 rubles. In view of this, the peasants of five villages want to completely withdraw from the EPO members. Currently, the EPO board has been re‐elected and Pertkov has been arrested.
In the Khlebnikov agricultural credit partnership of the Communist Vol. found waste manager. branch der. Khlebnikovo Karyagin ‐ 2800 rubles and board member Maslennikov ‐ 2,400 rubles. In the Likhoborsk agricultural credit partnership, the embezzlement of the head. general department Sinitsyn 3500 rubles, head. grocery store Kosankov 400 rubles., Head. Likhoborsk branch LaRushin 100 rubles. In addition, 768 rubles were taken from the cash desk by a member of the board Sinitsyn. and cashier Fronin 171 rubles.
Yaroslavl lips. In EPO Kalinin parish. Rybinsky u. embezzlement in the amount of 8000 rubles was found.
Vladimirskaya lips. In the Vysheslavsky EPO, Suzdal Vol. there is a shortage of goods worth about 1000 rubles. The EPO board has been systematically drunk lately.
Kursk lips. In agricultural partnership with. Kosikovo Rybinsk parish Kurskiy the chairman and the secretary squandered 2,000 rubles, but thanks to their connections, their squandering does not open (the partnership consists of kulaks).
Tverskaya lips. In the Vezozhetskiy EPO, waste of 500 rubles was found, Rovenitskiy ‐ 2,400 rubles, Svepushchenskiy ‐ 400 rubles, Kositskiy ‐ 150 rubles, Tomitskiy ‐ 300 rubles. In the Ilta agricultural company, the audit revealed a shortage of goods in the amount of 172 rubles, in the Ilgoschinsky EPO ‐ by 2000 rubles, in the Likhoslavl EPO by 2000 rubles.
Northwest Territory. Murmansk province. The board of the Umbsk cooperative sent 600 poods. salmon to Leningrad, which was accompanied by four people led by the precooperative. The escorts spent a month and a half on this trip, as a result, they spent about 2,000 rubles for their purposes, which laid a heavy burden on the cooperative as an overhead expense.
Pskov province. In the Griva agricultural partnership of Opochetskiy u. the board made an embezzlement in the amount of 6336 rubles. 94 kopecks
Leningrad province. Board member of the Kipensky EPO Trotsky u. spent 4000 rubles. Large fictitious accounts were also discovered.
Volga region. Tsaritsyn province. Pre‐cooperative at the hut. Kachalinsky Five‐Izbyanskaya stts. without the knowledge of the board, he bought 25 pieces of cattle and 80 pieces of sheep. When selling, it suffered a loss of 500 rubles. Upon his return from Tsaritsyn, the chairman of the proceeds, 700 rubles. left for himself, then took from the store goods in the amount of 300 rubles. In addition, it turned out that they were presented to the store with fictitious invoices for 600 rubles.
At a meeting of the members of the Zhitkurovsky EPO, the chairman of the board announced that 3000 rubles had been spent on the trips of board members. This message provoked a heated protest, as a result it was explained that this included 1200 rubles stolen from one of the board members; During the debate, the rest of the board members protested against such a combination, stating that that member of the board was sent by the RCP Ukom and they would not be responsible for him.
Samara lips. A member of the board of the Perelyubsky EPO who was sent to Samara to purchase goods did not buy goods, but the 1180 rubles handed over to him. drank and wasted on their own needs.
Siberia. Omsk lips. Andreevsky consumer society is threatened with collapse due to the negligence of the government, which has squandered all funds. The boardʹs debt is over 31,000 rubles. Northwest. Leningrad province. On February 12, at the provincial congress of cross‐coms, the disadvantages of lending were hotly discussed by the participants in the debate, because the method of issuing loans is extremely burdensome for the borrower. Of the 100 rubles issued, as it was revealed in the debate, the borrower received 66‐70 rubles in his hands, since, in addition to high interest at the rate of 24% per annum, the purchase of two peasant shares at 5 rubles was mandatory.
Novgorod province. February 10. For loans to individual borrowers of peasants, the credit partnership charges 12% per annum, the amount includes the cost of peasant shares of 5 rubles. share, share contributions on average 5 rubles. and introductory 1 rub. As a result, many cases were noted that for two poods of oats (worth only 2 rubles 50 kopecks), peasants sign an IOU of 15 rubles, since 5 rubles. share contribution, 1 rub. entrance fee, 5 rubles. the cost of a peasant share, interest per 10 rubles. 50 kopecks. for 6 months and 18% per annum ‐ 1 rub. 70 kopecks and on hand to buy oats 2 rubles. 50 kopecks.
As a result, there are cases of refusal of the population from loans, and often peasants apply to a credit partnership with a request to take a mortgage or buy a share. At a general meeting, the peasants sneer evilly at the peasant share, etc.
Siberia. Irkutsk lips. December (From a letter to the Red Army): “We have opened an agricultural loan ... I think, wait, I’ll take it myself, and if it’s useful, then we’ll write it out for my mother, otherwise I’m not going to be in love, then only I will suffer, did so. They said that they give a loan for 6 months, I wrote out 35 rubles for myself, began to receive it, when it was issued, it turned out that the period was only for 4 months, then they calculated the interest ‐ 1 rubles. 60 kopecks, then 2 rubles in selcredit share. 60 kopecks and a peasant share of 10 rubles, and here the shop debt ʺcooperativeʺ also calculated 5 rubles, and 20 rubles. failed ‐ this is the support of our pants. ʺ
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 9
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT of a non‐party peasant ‐ the pre‐
village council at the re‐elections of the district council of the Kostroma province.
Why the RCP (Bolsheviks), carrying out the behests and ideas of the great leaders Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, is carrying them out only in words and on paper, and not in deeds?
After all, our RCP (b) is the nucleus, vanguard and leader of the dark workers and peasants of almost the whole world, and all of it emerged from the workers ʹand peasantsʹ environment, having experienced the exploitation of the capitalists and landowners, and having taken power into its own hands, it also turned into in the exploiters, because less worker and peasant work, and the content is too solid, and the higher the post, the higher the content. Simply put, the party has become heavily bureaucratic.
Where are those fighters for the proletarian revolution who led and fought with the tsarist generals and the counter‐revolutionary gang, that they are silent and allow their comrades to be bureaucratic? Unfortunately, I suppose, most of them honestly fell in battle, and apparently self‐seekers remained, and after singing a funeral march about the fallen fighters who defended the revolution, they began to settle down more warmly. Comrades, this revolution is far from over, the foreign bourgeoisie can attack at any time, you have to be prepared, you take this into account perfectly well, and in order to be ready at any time and give a proper rebuff to foreign capitalists, you need to enjoy the RCP (b) tremendous trust and sympathy labor masses, which, unfortunately, is scarce in the countryside, and the laboring masses in the USSR ‐ 75% of the peasantry, and in order to win the sympathy of the peasantry,
In 1920, if I am not mistaken, Demyan Bedny wrote a poem, and from it I well remember the following excerpt: ʺWe will give to each according to his needs and we will take from each according to his ability.ʺ Why now the responsible workers have not given their abilities to the people for the usual necessary need ‐ to be well‐fed and dressed ... And this requires little. Letʹs take the best food, living for one person, it will cost no more than 20 rubles. per month; based on this calculation, letʹs put a person for a year at local prices:
6 poods rye flour 1 rub. RUB 6
6 ʺ‐ʺ grains ʺ‐ʺ 6 ʺ‐ʺ 36 ʺ‐ʺ
5 ʺ‐ʺ meat ʺ‐ʺ 6 ʺ‐ʺ 30 ʺ‐ʺ
1 ʺ‐ʺ sugar ʺ‐ʺ 16 ʺ‐ʺ
1 ʺ‐ʺ oils ʺ‐ʺ 16 ʺ‐ʺ
200 eggs 4 ʺ‐ʺ
Total: 108 rubles. in year
Yes, put the same amount on clothes, and everything will cost no more than 20 rubles. a month, and at present, members of the executive committee, as I heard, receive 112 rubles each, and in 1920, a member of the PEC received maintenance in banknotes for one and a half poods a month, and now, of course, about the province and the center, Probably the big money‐boxes have been postponed for a rainy day ... But the situation of the peasant has not improved so many times against 1920, as the party improved their position. And the workers 3 times improved its position ‐ it is clear at least the following reasons: before the war gave the peasant worker for one peck of bread 6‐7 arshins 87 calico, and at the same time the workers supported the class of exploiters, manufacturers and their servants, and now the peasant buys only 2‐3 arshins in exchange for a pood of bread. The October Revolution gave the peasant little, although it promised a lot, it is true, the peasant received the land, so the Soviet government beats such taxes for it that the peasant is not happy with the land ‐ more than the tsarist government; The tsarist government in our village used to collect state fees of 300 rubles, the zemstvo fees ‐ 300 ‐ only 600 rubles, and the Soviet government requires a single agricultural tax ‐ 2,576 rubles. 72 kopecks, and insurance of 392 rubles, this will cost 136 householders, on average about 19 rubles. agricultural tax and about 3 rubles. insurance ‐ only 22 rubles. Moreover, indirect taxes are practiced with might and main, and what the tsarist government gave to the peasant and what the Soviet government gives can be seen from the following comparison: there used to be a good school in the village with two teachers and about 100 pupils, before a man went to the hospital for all kinds of help free of charge, before a man walked and traveled across the river to the town of Kologriv on a bridge bridge for free, in 1907 the tsarist government in our village produced land management in wide strips free of charge; but now there is no good school in the village, it has burned down, the school is replaced by a peasant hut, and then one and one school worker. There are about 50 students, and the Soviet government is not in a position to hire two premises and support two school workers, supposedly half of the children are studying ‐ they will liquidate illiteracy ... Medical care, medicines are now for a fee, our peasant travels to the city across the river by ferry, costs three hours in line and for this pleasure pays private landlords two poods per summer season. And the poor Vonyukhovs somehow organized themselves and agreed to redistribute the land and replace the unprofitable three‐field with the correct crop rotation with grass sowing, so the Soviet government demands 1 ruble each. 10 kopecks from a tithe, and for approximately 1000 acres of land in our use ‐ 1100 rubles, and will not start work until we make a deposit of 1/3.
In my opinion, land surveying in our village costs no more than 150200 rubles. This, comrades, is not good, the peasants, having smashed the tsarist generals and bandits on all fronts, thought to improve their position by doing this ‐ after all, the peasant sees it, only, of course, he will not say soon, because he is downtrodden and intimidated; an old man will die like a submissive brute like that, and the younger generation, I believe, will point out all the shortcomings and perhaps replace the communist party with cheaper non‐party workers if it does not change its policy towards the peasant.
Why does the Communist Party, for example, not obligatory make the transition from the three‐field to the multi‐field, or why does it not oblige all citizens to be members of the cooperative, after all, the peasant pays the agricultural tax and compulsory insurance, in the same way, under pain of selling the last cow, he will pay the membership fee to the cooperative, and will pay for land surveying, and sow clover, he will soon be convinced of this benefit and will not require further compulsion.
If the material condition of the peasant is improved, then it is not
difficult to eliminate illiteracy; at the present time, perhaps, it is useless to send a village woman or girl to study if she has to work 16 hours to satisfy her necessary, unpretentious needs to be well fed and dressed in home clothes. per day, so, he will say, no time for training, comrade ... And it is much easier to improve, at least partially by compulsion, the peasant economy than to re‐educate the population with the help of educational centers, because at present the population has absolutely no time to engage in self‐education.
In our village, the population took into account the benefit of literacy, if it seems possible to anyone, they have learned so and now they are learning, only the bad thing is that there is nowhere to teach ... children of school age have nowhere to teach.
Then, why the Soviet government does not give the local peasantlumberjack wages ... Why the local government does not organize dark lumberjacks in artels, but allows the peasant to be exploited by all kinds of intermediaries who not only pay defectively meager wages, and sometimes do not pay at all; We have as many facts as you want in our village ... In my opinion, it would be necessary to do this: organize lumberjacks in artels, provide them with a logging area on credit, and let them work, and when they float and sell the timber themselves, then collect the root cost and a small deduction to the treasury income from the amount earned.
Comrades, peasants, peasant youth, wake up, build your prosperity, there is nothing to hope for anyone or anything; it is enough to hope for God and for the master; and in order not to create a new master, a new exploiter, you need to look in both eyes, you need to be more interested in politics and take an active part in building your own well‐being, otherwise, look, new gentlemen appear, like so‐called officials, who receive substantial maintenance, merchants come to life again ... Comrades, we have been given a wide and free field of cooperation, I stress ‐ a free field of activity; through cooperation we can win back both trade and production, and not only from individuals, but also from the state, if it supplies us with too expensive manufactured goods in exchange for our agricultural products, i.e. until the state squeezes these scissors at least to the pre‐war limits, when it will be possible to buy 5‐7 yards of chintz for a pood of bread ‐ this is often in our interests, the interests of the peasant, and if we ourselves, i.e. peasants, let us not strive for our interests, so none of us will improve the situation. In the same way, a wide field of activity is given to the peasant and through the committees of mutual assistance ‐ these are two purely peasant organizations through which the peasant can put himself in an independent position and achieve all kinds of improvements in his life ... Also, comrades peasants, I urge you to take seriously the upcoming re‐elections because a lot in the fate of the middle peasant depends on re‐elections. It is impossible to elect a well‐to‐do element to the Soviets, because they will be deaf to the poor, for a well‐fed hungry will rarely understand
Chairman of the village council of the Vonyukhovsky district
I. Veselov
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 10 PROTOCOL
electoral meeting of citizens with. Krasnogo Kolyadin, Dmitrievsky district, Konotop district, Chernigov province. during the time from December 14, 1924
Listened: The report on the work of the executive committee is made by the representative of the executive committee, comrade Titorenko.
Resolved: After hearing the report on the work of the Chernigov Provincial Executive Committee, the general meeting of citizens recognizes the work for the past period 1923‐1924. satisfactory, considers that for the current period the executive committee should pay the most serious attention to the correction of defects on the following issues.
a) Unified agricultural tax. The tax from year to year is heavy for the peasants, ruining our economy. According to the press, it is clear from the actions of the central, up to the district, authorities that it is precisely the difficult situation in the village of the peasants that is not understood. In the press we, the peasants, find the words of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Finance of Ukraine Comrade Kuznetsov on the state of the tax campaign in the Chernihiv region, that everything is going well, the peasant fulfills the tax easily, the administrative bodies carry out their work correctly, orderly, painlessly and legally. We state the opposite: the agricultural tax is carried out under strong pressure from the instructions, this pressure did not affect the kulaks, who fulfilled the tax in a timely manner, but the poor and middle peasants, and it resulted in a gravity flow to the private market for a pittance of agricultural products, industrial crops, livestock, horses, inventory and even clothing; in other words, we peasants gave away everything without which it is impossible to exist and to conduct agriculture. Administrative bodies, when taking property from defaulters, took the last cow from the poor, and the tablecloth and towel from the widow. These cases took place in the village. Krasniy Kolyadin, s. Krasny Kolyadin suffers from natural disasters from year to year. This year, the entire area of spring and winter crops has suffered from drought and has fallen out by 75‐100%, even the seeds have not returned. The surrounding villages are also in this position.
All discounts do not improve the situation. It is necessary: to reduce the tax to a minimum, and if it is possible ‐ to completely exempt from the tax.
b) Provide early assistance with seed loans and cash loans.
c) Prohibit the seizure of property in areas affected by crop failure.
d) In the future, 1924‐1925. when imposing an agricultural tax, do not consider cattle and horses to be taxed for tithes, but only an indicator of the capacity of the farm.
e) Take decisive measures, up to and including bringing the Dmitrievsky district administration to justice, which buys the confiscated cattle and property for next to nothing.
If these measures are not urgently implemented, our farms will be ruined to such an extent that we will not be able to restore them for several years, and the administration will continue its criminal activities.
On the land issue it is necessary:
a) Accelerate land management, because with our small land area, farms are becoming impoverished.
b) With our solvency to increase the loans issued credit for land management.
c) Unload the warehouses of agricultural machinery and implements, providing them at nominal prices on a long‐term loan.
d) The Dmitrievsky district executive committee contains an area of land of 60 dess. in Krasniy Kolyadin under the guise of a seed plot in an ownerless state. This land is not plowed up, overgrown with weeds, on this Rybudzheg loses 500 rubles. In addition, the district executive committee has 3 dess. field land within the boundaries of the village under the guise of an agricultural field is leased, and tenants lease it for different crops. We demand the transfer of these plots to the company with. Krasnoy Kolyadin in view of the lack of land, and the case for mismanagement to transfer to the provincial prosecutor.
e) Dmitrievsky regional executive committee has made an inventory of unallocated land plots for public use in the local budget, as in the village. Krasniy Kolyadin, and throughout the district: rates, pastures and cemeteries, while 64 st. Of the Criminal Code, all this should be directly at the disposal of the community. We ask you to issue a decree on the transfer of the aforementioned lands to the zemstvo community, for this issue was raised, but the regional executive committee did not pay any attention.
About the forest it is necessary:
a) Before the war, the peasantry used imported timber and building material. During the revolution, buildings fell into complete decay. Local former peasant forests have been cut down by 90%. Our need is not satisfied even by 10%. There is no imported wood. It is necessary for the gubernia executive committee to take care of the delivery of such material from wooded areas at affordable prices for the peasantry through lending through grassroots agricultural cooperatives.
b) The remaining peasant forests in the dachas of Krasniy Kolyadin should be put at the disposal of society as a matter of urgency.
c) In view of the crop failure this year, the population is not able to heat itself, since there is not enough straw not only for heating, but also for feeding livestock. From the report of the representative of the executive committee it is clear that the executive committee released 150 dessiatins to meet the needs of the peasantry of Chernihiv oblast. forests, so we ask you to urgently transfer a large amount of forest to our treeless places. For public education it is necessary:
a) The matter of public education, we are told, is another striking question; the tax is collected and as can be seen from the report of the executive committee, 32% is deducted from the local budget for this purpose, but the village school is still not being repaired. No teaching aids are provided. The cause of public education is at the freezing point. The executive committee must urgently transfer the maintenance of the school to the local budget.
For healthcare it is necessary:
a) The tasks of the Soviet government are to bring medicine closer to the peasantry. But in fact, we notice that medical care is separated from the peasantry, the peasantry does not have medical care. There are no medicines at the outpatient clinics. Patients are treated with prescriptions alone. S. Krasny Kolyadin, with the reduction of medical areas, closed the hospital that had existed for 50 years. The hospital building is new, fully equipped; we initiated a case before the health department and the provincial health department for the restoration of the hospital. According to available information, the provincial health department released funds for the restoration of the hospital and the maintenance of the doctor. Okrzdrav still retains funds and at the expense of the Krasnokolyadinsky first‐aid post is expanding the Dmitrievsky district medical center. Please draw the attention of the provincial health inspectorate to the restoration in the village. Krasny Kolyadin first‐aid post urgently.
The general meeting of citizens of Krasny Kolyadin hopes that the gubernia executive committee will take urgent measures to correct these defects and provide assistance to the peasantry. We know the means of local budgets, [we know] that all responsible workers are specialists who came from among the peasants and workers, and moreover, most of them are Party workers, receive a fabulous salary from the national treasury, 5 times or even more than workers. those who strain health in factories and plants, and this is when we, the peasants, are taken away every last thread on account of the tax, when we, citizens, are torn off and freeze to death in unheated huts.
The peasantry will not allow such a phenomenon that some would starve in the absolute sense, while others would take the tax and live on a grand scale. He will not allow peasants to misfortune or ruining farms to build their personal happiness and well‐being. This is a crime before the revolution. To restore destroyed farms and strengthen Soviet power, to link the city with the countryside, it is necessary, on the one hand, to reduce the tax, and on the other hand, to reduce the highest wage rates to the subsistence level of an employee and worker.
Secretary of Informo where State Political Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 11
MOOD OF THE INTELLIGENCE
Centre. Kostroma lips. In the local scientific community of local history, 88 there is a significant contamination by anti‐Soviet elements and members of anti‐Soviet parties.
Tula lips. At a meeting of doctors, following a report on the events in Estonia 89, a resolution was adopted to protest the atrocities of the Estonian executioners. But when it was proposed to sign the protest, about 60% of those present did not.
Kaluga lips. At a delegate meeting of teachers before the elections to the city council, it was decided that if the list of teachers does not pass, teachers should leave the meeting.
Yaroslavl lips. One of the teachers, during conversations in the hutreading room, said to the peasants: ʺThe state exists solely on the means of the peasants, and therefore the peasants live badly.ʺ
Volga region. Bashkiria. The Bashkir society for the dissemination of natural history knowledge keeps itself apart from professional and Soviet organizations. The attitude towards the communists is hostile.
The circle of friends of the art museum brings together the most reactionary part of the intelligentsia. Access to the circle is only on the recommendation of members. The circle has the character of a closed club.
Ural. Ural region at the 1st regional congress of engineering and technical forces, tendencies towards aristocratization of engineering and technical sections were noted ‐ the exclusion of persons with less than secondary education in them.
Siberia. Yenisei province. The Krasnoyarsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society has the character of a conservative caste organization.
Tomsk lips. Some of the teachers dismissed during the purge are campaigning among the kulaks for the removal of their children from schools in which teachers are Komsomol teachers.
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev
APPENDIX No. 12
ORTHODOX CHURCHENS
Tikhonovtsm. By the end of 1924, that part of the Orthodox Church that recognizes Patriarch Tikhon as its leader had largely outlived the confusion and confusion that had been created in it as a result of previous circumstances, such as: a clash with the state in 1922 90, the subsequent split etc.
It can be stated that by the indicated time, the Tikhonov church had again acquired the form of an organic and ideological whole, if one does not take into account the small number of episcopates opposed to
Tikhon and 91 autocephalists, also numerically insignificant.
It should be noted that the hierarchical apparatus of this group has been restored in most provinces, although not completely. Almost every province has a diocesan (provincial) bishop, and sometimes, moreover, subordinate vicar (district) bishops. Maintaining written and live communication with the patriarch, the leaders of the Tikhonovschina in the localities strove not only to fill the entire staff of bishops, but also to create more perfect ecclesiastical administrative bodies, similar to diocesan administrations, sometimes seeking to legalize them, and sometimes completely not turning them attention to this side.
Currently, there are the following, not registered with the relevant Soviet bodies, but actually existing ecclesiastical administrative institutions: the diocesan administration in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, the council of priests in the Pskov province, the Tverskoe UEU, the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk association of priests, the deanery council with the functions of the EU in the Urals, some organs of the same purpose in Siberia and others.
Among the newly appointed bishops there are often people who in the recent past had very little relation to the priests, but who showed themselves in anti‐Soviet activities. In this respect, the most striking example is Bishop Sergius, consecrated by Metropolitan Sergius, a former Tsarist officer, an active Kolchakist, who was a priest for only two years.
In general, by now, the Tikhonovism is beginning to crystallize as a group hostile to Soviet power, and the efforts of its leaders are directed towards pulling up and grouping the anti‐Soviet element, not to mention Tikhonʹs attempts to collect monasticism in monasteries and make monasteries, by legalizing them, centers of a unifying nature. ... A clear proof of the above can be provided by the parish councils, whose members quite often include such monarchist‐minded persons as the engineer Volzhansky (Siberia, Novonikolaevsk province), the doctor Rafaelev (Yenisei province), the publisher in Kozlov during the Mamontov raid 92 of the monarchist newspaper, citizen Chelikin (Voronezh province), former princess Volkonskaya and former landowner Gordenina (there are also the Popov brothers, one of whom is a former Kornilovite 93 , and the other is a member of the Kuban
Rada 94 (Kuban), etc.)
Parish councils have played and are currently playing a major role in the Tikhonov movement, supporting the latter financially, putting pressure on the priests of the opposite camp in order to force them to join Tikhon, throwing out unwanted renovation priests, etc.
The most far‐sighted Tikhonov bishops, taking into account that such influence of these organizations may in the future turn out to be disadvantageous for the Tikhonovschina itself, seek to limit their rights, such as, for example, Metropolitan Sergius (N Izhegorodskaya province) and Bishop John (Ufa), who forbade independent reception and dismissal of clergymen by church councils.
The mood of parish councils and priests is very reactionary, which is expressed in conversations about Kirill Vladimirovich (Semipalatinsk province), the appearance of Olga Romanova in the Saratov convent, agitation on the topic of taxes (North‐Dvinsk province), agitation about persecution on faith from sides of power (Tambov province), characterization of Soviet power as anti‐Christ (Saratov province), etc.
In the manifestation of Tikhonovismʹs anti‐Soviet essence, there is noticeable great insolence, especially in the localities; during the seizure of Renovationist churches, which were transferred by the last legal order to the local authorities, they arrange formal battles with the beating of Renovationist priests, which cases, for example, took place in Oryol, Kiev, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk and Mogilev provinces. Particularly interesting was the massacre during the ʺcaptureʺ of the Dukhosshestvenskaya Church in Saratov, where a crowd of up to 1500 people gathered.
During the occupation of the Intercession Church in Novonikolaevsk, the locks were knocked off the doors.
The facts that even more confirm the renewal of Tikhonovism are:
Summoning a crowd of 200 people by means of an alarm and throwing out the school furniture and aids from the school (the former priestʹs house), as well as forcibly removing the teacher and students from the school.
Convening in Semipalatinsk province. pop the crowd in the same way and incite her against the chairman of the village council.
Dispute of the Renovationist Metropolitan Vvedensky in Moscow 95, at which, during the words of the lecturer that the Tikhonov church only thinks that the arrival of Kirill Vladimirovich, the Tikhonites responded with friendly applause.
The correction of the Tikhonov church was revealed, however, not only in individual specific cases, but also in the general direction of its activity.
Thus, the struggle between the Tikhonists and the Renovationists, which continued with less intensity than before, moved from the canonical church to the political one. The former accuse the latter of being too loyal to the Soviet regime, while, in their opinion, the church should be neutral.
In their relations with the Renovationists, the Tikhonites show a much stronger intransigence than before.
The anti‐Soviet campaign is still being conducted under the banner of the struggle against atheism, and moreover, at the same time, hostility to the Soviet power and attacks against it are revealed. Wishing to prevent young people from engaging in cultural work, the priests try to influence the parents of their children, in addition to general agitation, also by threats of church punishment, such as: nonfulfillment of demands 96, excommunication, etc.
The Tikhonov church has recently been particularly striving to put forward its ideology as a counterweight to the communist one; as a particularly interesting fact in this area, it should be noted the Marxist circle for priests and youth, organized in the city of Nizhny Novgorod by Metropolitan Sergius, whose task is to criticize Marxism as a doctrine in general.
The completion of all the anti‐Soviet activities of Tikhonovism in 1924 was the preparation for an ecumenical council convened in May 1925 in Palestine at the initiative of the foreign Black Hundred clergy 97.
At the suggestion of Tikhon, a number of prominent church leaders took part in this preparation, who began to intensively collect materials about the attitude of the church to the state in the USSR, who compiled a list of bishops who ʺsuffered for the faithʺ since 1917. A number of laypeople took part in the collection of information. such as: the former assistant minister of trade and industry of Kerenskyʹs time, citizen Massalsky, daughter of Admiral Nevakhovich, some bishops, students of the former Theological Academy, former secretary of the tsarist synod Grebinsky and a number of others. Church professor Popov was supposed to deliver this information to the cathedral. To accomplish this task, Popov contacted the Czechoslovak mission. The activities of this group were liquidated by the 6th branch of the SO OGPU.
Despite the obvious strengthening of Tikhonovism, its situation has recently become somewhat complicated due to the illness of Patriarch Tikhon, which has become quite serious, so Tikhon was forced to go to hospital. It is possible that he was greatly influenced by the death of his cell attendant Yakov, who was killed during a raid on the Donskoy Monastery. Fearing the collapse of the church in the event of his death, prominent Tikhonists are currently taking all measures to create Synod 98, legalizing it if possible and which could replace Tikhon in the management of the church.
During the reporting period, a very important event took place in the life of the canonical church, which, however, did not noticeably affect the position of this church in the USSR: Patriarch Constantinople VI was expelled from Constantinople by the Turkish government. How the Tikhonov church will react to this is not yet known.
Renovators. The activity of the churchmen of the renovation group during the period under review consisted in general in opposing the advancing Tikhonovism, and this was not always successful for them. The desertion of unstable renovationists continued and in some provinces was significant: for example, in the Kursk province. to Tikhon passed entirely one deanery, in the Novonikolaevsk province. 19 church communities passed over, in the city of Samara only 2 of the 7 renovationist communities remained, in
Nizhegorodskaya 4 or 5, in Tverskaya ‐ 29. As a result of Tikhonovʹs energetic offensive, the renovationists were disorganized in places, which is especially noticeable in Gomel province, where no one obeys the diocesan administration , in the Stavropol province, where a number of priests have submitted an application for their withdrawal from communion with the synod, in the Kuban, where, although the majority of the Renovationist priests are still pulling for reconciliation with Tikhon, which is explained by the fact that the Tikhonov‐minded believers do not support the Renovationist priests well. The material position of the Renovationists is generally worse than that of their opponents, not to mention individual priests; often even diocesan administrations do not have sufficient funds. So, for example, the Vladimirskoe UCU cannot in any way collect three kopecks from the church in the Gomel province. The EU cannot pay for utilities for the premises it occupies, the Amur EU does not have any funds at its disposal, etc.
The general situation forced the Renovationists to pay more attention to raising their activity in the struggle against Tikhonovism and to take a number of measures in this regard, among which are the provincial and district congresses and preparation for such. Among the most favorable diocesan congresses for the renovationists, the Kiev diocesan congress should be noted, in which up to 100 delegates took part.
The most important factor in the anti‐Tihon activities of the Renovationists was the All‐Russian conference, which recently ended.
This meeting was small, with 70 people in total. But it had to take place with the participation of only major renovationists.
The meeting was definitely businesslike. The main issues on the agenda were the following: 1) the question of the attitude towards the upcoming council, 2) the establishment of the canonical foundation for the renovationist hierarchy, 3) the search for a more successful line in the fight against Tikhonovism.
The meeting summed up the renovationist forces on an all‐Union scale, defining them in the following figures: 170 renovation bishops, 14500 priests, 13,650 churches.
Considering that the Tikhonovism began to definitely declare itself as an anti‐Soviet group, the conference stood on a platform of complete loyalty to Soviet power. They sent a delegation to the government, conveying a greeting drawn up by the meeting and a wish for success in their work.
The participants in the meeting were very cheerful due to Tikhonʹs illness, which should certainly weaken the group he leads. The meeting was also well impressed by the two greetings received: one from the American Methodist Bishop Blake, the other from the newly elected
Patriarch of Constantinople Constantin VI.
As other measures, the Renovationists in the fight against the Tikhonists used: the distribution of appeals and proclamations, disputes with the Tikhonists, sermons, the propaganda of
Renovationist ideas in print (there are currently 3 magazines) and oral.
In the Yenisei province. a special missionary department was created to carry out anti‐Tihon work. Troikas also began to deploy their activities in the fight against Tikhonovism.
In some provinces, the renovationists retained an unconditional superiority over their opponents. So, in the Tomsk province. renovationist communities 221 against 48 Tikhonov, in Voronezh ‐ 708 against 174, in Vitebsk 100 against 30, in Oryol renovation communities 55%, etc.
In some places, the Renovationists even attacked Tikhonovism, as, for example, in Tsaritsyn province, where they almost completely seized the diocese, forcing a number of priests who went over to Tikhon and repented before him, in turn, publicly repent to the Renovationists. In the Kiev province. Renovationists also achieved major successes, having received the Kiev Lavra and propagandizing parish councils and communities in the Shevchenko district in their favor.
In general, Tikhonʹs illness and the Renovationist conference should give a new impetus to the development of Renovationism.
Sects. Among the sectarians, ʺeven among 100 Tolstoyans, there is a slight weakening of interest in the activities of sects. In some places such phenomena as quarrelsomeness, disintegration of small sectarian communities, division of large communities, etc. begin to develop.
Examples include the departure of a leader and the collapse of the Lapotnitsa Baptist community 101 in Vladimir Gubernia, the disintegration of rural evangelical communities 102 [due to the impossibility of] maintaining their own preachers; attendance at sectarian gatherings in Siberia has generally dropped dramatically. Disputes in communities, even on personal issues, often end up splitting them into independent parts. This was the case in the Tsaritsyno Baptist community, among the Samara Baptists, among the Yenisei Baptists and among the Tver evangelists.
A more serious character is dissatisfaction with the activities of the council in the Molokan sect 103, where some of the large workers and large communities condemn this council for its excessive, in their opinion, progressiveness, and some stand for it.
Sectarian youth are gradually leaving the influence of sects, revealing a gravitation towards the LKSM, which is observed among the
Evangelicals and Baptists, and especially in the Molokan sect.
This phenomenon forced the sectarians to pay serious attention to the subordination of young sectarians to their ideology. Most of all, the Baptists were engaged in this issue, who created entire traveling detachments of preachers (Tambov province), who managed paid preachers who received a salary of 50 to 70 rubles. per month, and took a number of other measures.
In addition to addressing the issue of youth by creating local circles, this issue, as well as the issue of work among women, was the subject of discussion at many sectarian congresses. 2nd Caspian and AllSiberian Congresses of Adventists 104, South
The Eastern Regional Congress of Evangelicals and others spoke in favor of centralizing work on youth and among women by creating central leading departments for these sectors.
All sectarian congresses, both listed, and the Samara regional congress of Baptists, the All‐Siberian congress of evangelists, etc. spoke in favor of unconditional serving of military service. In this respect, the most interesting is the Melenkovo district congress of Molokans (Vladimir province), which decided to serve it with arms in hand.
The anti‐Soviet activity of the sectarians during the reporting period consisted of anti‐state, anti‐militaristic and anti‐tax agitation and had the character of separate (few) demonstrations.
This agitation had no consequences, with the exception of the Tomsk province, where, due to the agitation of one Baptist, a malicious defaulter for several years, the whole volost refused to pay agricultural taxes in Tsaritsyn province, where several Baptists were prosecuted in this direction.
The performance of the evangelical sect in the Mogilev province was absolutely exceptional, where they spoke together with the kulaks with their list of candidates for the village council and led two people.
The sects live very unfriendly with each other, which is especially noticeable in relation to evangelists and Baptists, although some attempts are being made not only to reconcile them, but also to merge.
Of the individual facts of sectarian life, the congress of the Mennonite sect in Moscow should be noted. The congress drew up a message of greetings from the Soviet government, which indicated that the Mennonites would make every effort to rationalize agriculture.
Secretary of the Information Department of the State Political
Administration
Soloviev