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Review of the political state of the USSR
Review of the political state of the USSR in April 1928
Tags: OGPU
A source: ʺTop Secretʺ: Lubyanka to Stalin on the situation in the country (1922‐1934), v. 6, 1928, Moscow, 2004
Top secret
Store along with the Ex. No. 132, 133 and 134 In the affairs of the department
The USSR
United State Political Administration Information Department
Ex No. Top secret
Store as a cipher
ʺʺ May 1928 Moscow
At the same time, an overview of the political state of the USSR for April 1928 is being transmitted. The review was compiled on the basis of data from the state information of the Information Department of the OGPU, supplemented by materials from the departments of the OGPU:
Transport, Secret (clergy).
This survey, in view of its top‐secret nature, should be kept on par with the code. Making copies and making extracts is not allowed in any case.
The PP of the OGPU and the heads of the provincial and regional departments of the OGPU can give an overview for reading to the secretaries of the regional committees, provincial committees, regional committees and the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).
When reviewing 6 applications and one table.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser
Head of the Information Department Alekseev
WORKERS
Renewal of collective agreements
April, the implementation of new collective agreements caused serious complications at the enterprises of Leningradtextile (Leningrad) and the GOMZ plants (Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow).
At the factories of Leningradtekstil (factories named after Khalturin, named after Nogin, ʺRabochyʺ) about 5000 people went on strike.
The outbreak of the strike movement at these enterprises was largely due to major shortcomings made during the collective agreement campaign (delayed renegotiation of the contract, inaccurate information about the terms of the new contract, which gave workers an idea of a general increase in wages), and the weakness of mass work (should be specially noted passivity of party and trade union organizers during the brewing of conflicts).
The largest strike occurred at the factory. Khalturin (6,000 workers), where dissatisfaction with the renegotiation of the collective agreement began to manifest itself since the beginning of this year (strikes of small groups of workers in January‐February and March and excitement due to the delay in the new agreement). The party and trade‐union organizers did not take measures to dissipate the growing discontent, despite the presence of data on the possibility of larger performances in the future.
April 7 when issuing wage strike occurred in the preparatory department, which soon spread to other departments, covering more than 2 / s factory workers. Due to the fact that the factory and the collective of the CPSU (b) did not show sufficient initiative this time, up to 260 party members (out of 780) and 500 members of the Komsomol were involved in the strike; some Komsomol members were the instigators of the strike action (they went to the shops where the workers continued to work, called to quit their jobs, took them off their machines, and threatened to beat up those who would start up the cars). A member of the factory committee was among the active participants in the strike. The strike lasted for about two days.
For a similar reason, strikes took place: at the ʺRabochiyʺ factory (5728 people), 450 workers went on strike and at the factory. Nogin (3283 people), 200 workers went on strike.
For the GOMZ plants, complications in the implementation of new collective agreements were caused by a decrease in wages under the new agreement for significant groups of skilled workers (Krasnoe Sormovo, Sudoverf ‐ Nizhny Novgorod, Kolomensky and Mytishchi plants in Moscow province).
A particularly tense mood was created among the workers of the Sormovo plant (metalworking, diesel, mechanical, steam locomotive and other workshops). Dissatisfaction with the decrease in wages increased due to the weak study of the tariff part of the contract in the shops and the arbitrariness of the TNB during re‐tariffication.
The administration and the factory committee were inattentive to the statements of the workers pointing to the distortion of the collective agreement and the incorrectness in the rates and norms. In some shops (diesel, etc.) applications were considered only after the workersʹ strike actions. As a result of all these abnormalities, in a short period of time (from 17 [March] to 1 April), there were 4 strikes with 86 participants. One of the strikes (diesel workshop) was attended by 7 party members, one of them is a member of the cell bureau.
At the Kolomensky Zavod, where, under the new contract, earnings (from 15 to 20%) are to be reduced in a number of shops and where the norms and rates for workers are not clear enough, there was an increase in the strike mood.
At the Sudoverf (Nizhegorodskaya guberniya), in mid‐April, in a mechanical workshop, several advertisements were found with the slogans: ʺWorkers, organize and fight wage cutsʺ, ʺHelp those affected by the new tariff scale.ʺ
At the Izhevsk factories (RUZH trust, 13758 workers), due to an inaccuracy made during the re‐tariffication, the payment of wages under a new contract to 8000 workers is delayed. In this regard, the manifestation of mass discontent is possible.
Fermentation among railway workers. Fermentation among transport workers, caused by a decrease in wages for certain categories of workers and the attribution of some railway stations to low‐paid belts, does not stop (South‐Western, Ekaterininskie, Siberian, etc.).
some railway points, the activity of anti‐Soviet people was revealed, seeking to inflame workersʹ discontent in order to disrupt the tariff reform. Rumors are spreading about strikes on other roads, about an allegedly special resolution of the Central Committee of the Central Committee of the Peopleʹs Commissars (Bolsheviks) to refrain from carrying out tariff reform (Ekaterininskie railways).
In the depot in Barabinsk (Siberia) a leaflet was posted against the tariff reform: ʺThe Soviet government is clamping down on workers with a new collective agreement,ʺ and so on.
Among some of the party members, there are khvostist sentiments. At the key party meeting in Stalingrad, there were statements that ʺdecisions of the upper ranks are optional for the seats.ʺ In the Chita workshops at the party activists, a group of party members tried to protest against the tariff reform and suggested lowering the party maximum to 163 “apparatchiks”.
Strikes and conflicts
Textile workers. Discontent of workers in factories with the transition to a 7‐hour working day. Despite the drop in the number of strikes among textile workers, in April the number of workers involved in the strike movement and the duration of the strikes give a sharp increase (7 strikes with 5576 participants and 6401 people days, versus 23 strikes with 2376 participants and 819 lost man days), due to large strikes. at the enterprises of Leningradtextile.
In a number of factories, which switched to a 7‐hour working day and compacted work, dissatisfaction arose in connection with a slight increase in wages and even a slight decrease in it (some factories in Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Moscow provinces). The decrease in wages is explained by the following points: a) the weak qualifications of the newly hired workers, b) the lack of good‐quality raw materials, and c) production problems.
At the factory ʺKrasny Perekopʺ the wages were to have increased by 11%, but increased by 1.1%, and even decreased for many workers. On April 8, workers sent a delegation to other factories, which switched to a 7‐hour working day, consisting of 10 people. A sharp aggravation of workersʹ discontent is possible in May with the transition of the entire factory to a 7‐hour working day. At the f‐ke them. Nogin (IvanovoVoznesensk), the technical staff did not take into account the required amount of roving for the water machines, which caused downtime of the water machines and a shortcoming.
Seasonal workers. In April, the strike movement among seasonal workers due to the slow development of seasonal work remains at the same level (9 strikes with 846 participants ‐ the information is incomplete, against 15 with 1538 participants). Strikes arise in connection with dissatisfaction with the level of wages, late payment of wages, disruptions in food supplies and harsh living conditions. In some cases, dissatisfaction has been exacerbated by management violations of preconditions for hiring.
A major strike took place at the construction of a new branch line at st. Uch‐Adji (Central Asian Railway). The strike was caused by a number of the above abnormalities, which the administration of the building, which consisted mostly of anti‐Soviet people (the head of the work is an engineer ‐ a former large landowner, the head of the farm ‐ a former colonel of the General Staff, etc.), did not deliberately eliminate. The workers (268 people) went on strike from March 30 to April 2. The administration has been arrested.
A strike of a similar nature broke out at the construction of houses for the workers of the Berezinsky plant (Votskaya oblast), 165 workers went on strike.
A number of strikes with a total of up to 800 participants took place in the Moscow province. (up to 600 people went on strike due to nonpayment of wages for the first half of April for the Easter holidays).
Transport workers. Reduction of workers in railway transport. In a number of workshops and depots, significant groups of workers (up to 300 people) were cut back in April. Dissatisfaction with the reduction took on sharp forms (a number of excesses were noted on the part of the redundant, in many cases the intensity of labor was falling).
In the Raisin workshops (Donetsk roads), a group of redundant tried to set fire to the workshop building. In the Red East workshops (Central Asia) there was an attempt to beat the brigadier. The workers are in a tense mood.
the Omsk depot, where 666 people are scheduled to be laid off, fermentation was also noted (in total, 5,000 people are to be cut on the Omsk road, due to the excess of the established staff).
The mood of the unemployed
Speeches of the unemployed in connection with abnormalities in the work of exchanges.
In April, major conflicts took place at a number of labor exchanges (Leningrad, Arkhangelsk, Krivoy Rog, Syzran). In most cases, the aggravation of unemployed discontent was caused by serious abnormalities in the work of labor exchanges. On a number of exchanges, the management staff of employees uses their official position to get a job under patronage. In addition to protectionism and nepotism on the part of labor exchange workers, there is a rude and tactless attitude towards the unemployed.
The biggest complication arose on April 19 at the Leningrad subsidiary labor exchange. The ferment among the unemployed arose out of dissatisfaction with being sent to low‐paid public works and the rude attitude of the exchange employees. The windows were broken, the partition was broken, the unemployed threw chairs, sticks, etc. at the exchange employees. The unemployed tried to beat the militiamen trying to restore order. The employees of the exchange disappeared and the exchange actually ended up in the hands of the unemployed.
It was established that certain employees of the exchange, when asked to send unemployed women to work, replied: ʺGo to Ligovka 164, you will earn money there.ʺ
At the Arkhangelsk Labor Exchange, the unemployed, outraged by the protectionism practiced when sending them to work, demanded that the head of the general section, Ivanov, be removed from work. If Ivanov was left at work at the labor exchange, the unemployed threatened to destroy the exchange and deal with him themselves (Ivanov was arrested).
Sharp dissatisfaction of the unemployed with the lack of job prospects, as well as nepotism, protectionism and rudeness of the exchange workers, was noted on the Buguruslan and Buzuluk exchanges of Samara province.
To the Editor Buzuluk newspaper ʺa farmerʺ 165 received a letter on behalf of the organization ʺRed Actionʺ (written unemployed defectors), which extends the requirement to provide the unemployed to work, otherwise it will be applied terror and sabotage (stop rail and local transport agencies explosion) ...
Ferment among unemployed construction workers. The influx of seasonal workers (mainly builders) into the cities created a flock of job seekers on the stock exchanges. Due to the delay in the construction season, the demand for construction workers in April was insignificant, and the resorption of the inflowing workforce was extremely slow. This moment, as well as the termination of the granting of benefits to builders, caused a number of conflicts.
A major conflict arose at the Krivoy Rog labor exchange (Ukraine). On April 17, about 600 people gathered at the exchange, who, under the influence of the agitation of two anti‐Soviet persons, demanded to be sent to work. Harsh anti‐Soviet and anti‐Semitic shouts were heard from the unemployed. When the initiators of the conflict were arrested by the police, the unemployed (about 200 people) gathered near the police station and demanded the release of those arrested. On April 18, a group of unemployed (100 people) again tried to secure the release of those arrested.
At the Kiev Labor Exchange, due to the insignificant demand for labor force, the mood of the unemployed is tense. The agitation of an anti‐
Soviet element has enjoyed some success among the unemployed. Particularly sharp dissatisfaction arose in the section of the builders.
On April 25, under the influence of the agitation of a group of unemployed (including the unemployed ‐ a member of the city council and the initiator of the speech of unemployed builders on March 29), unemployed builders (25 people) went to the Okrug Executive Committee, where they demanded ʺto unload the stock exchange until May 1ʺ. The unemployed also sent delegates to a meeting of representatives of the construction organization.
Fermentation among builders was also noted at the Ulyanovsk labor exchange in Frunze (Central Asia).
Demonstration calls. On May 1, at the Moscow and Leningrad labor exchanges, there were individual speeches calling for ʺa demonstration of the unemployed.ʺ On April 26, at a meeting of the unemployed of the Narpit Union in Leningrad, such a proposal was met with applause.
Interruptions in the supply of workers and urban population with essential products (for April)
Interruptions in the supply of flour and other essential products to the urban population in April took place in certain regions of Ukraine, the North Caucasus and the Urals.
The most acute supply situation was created in a number of working regions of Ukraine (Artyomovskiy, Krivorozhskiy, Mariupolʹskiy, Stalinʹskiy districts), where from the second half of April, due to rumors about the death of winter crops, impending crop failure and famine, the demand for flour and bread has increased significantly.
In those cities where bread baking met the usual demand (Zinovievsk, Nikolaev, etc.), the demand increased daily and the cooperatives were unable to meet the requirements. Flour was not given at all, the population bought bread for drying on crackers ʺin case of hunger.ʺ The traders have inflated prices for grain‐grain.
In Nikolaev, bread is sold twice as much against cooperative prices. In Mirgorod, prices increased by 80%. The speculation in khlebozero is further aggravating the panic. In this regard, in the city of Nikolaev, there were cases of resistance of the inhabitants to the export of bread from the shops for transferring it to other shops. Facts of this kind also took place in the Zinovievsky and Cherkassky districts. For cooperatives, queues are established from 2‐3 hours. nights. There are often scandals and stampedes in the queues. In a number of districts, cooperatives trade for no more than 2‐3 hours. a day, and then closed for lack of bread.
In Konstantinovka (Artyomovsk district), private bakeries are closed, the existing one cooperative bakery cannot satisfy 30,000 population. Queues of up to 800 people accumulate at the distributors. There were cases when individual families could not receive bread for several days.
In Gorlovka, due to the lack of bread and meat on the market, the number of lunches in the Narpit canteen has been reduced, as a result of which some of the workers are left without lunches. 300 workers left without lunch demanded to check the work of the canteen.
In the Krivoy Rog region, rumors of ʺan impending famine in connection with the increase in grain exportsʺ gave rise to panic. In addition to the workers, city dwellers and peasants were drawn to the workersʹ cooperative, which caused conflicts in the queues between groups of workers and peasants.
Interruptions in the supply of meat are also noted in a number of regions. Private traders stop trading, indicating the severity of taxes.
In Yenakiev, someone started a rumor that the deputy was to blame for the closure of private shops. the chairman of the bazaar committee. As he passed by the butcherʹs shop, the women standing in line attacked him. The beating was prevented by the police.
The lack of food causes serious discontent among workers. Bachelors, who are not able to stand in line for bread, show especially sharp discontent. Anti‐Soviet elements spread provocative rumors that in Nikolaev the workers staged a demonstration and demanded that the executive committee settle the supply issue.
In the queue, standing near the workersʹ cooperative at the Metallurgical Plant. Frunze (Yugostal), the crowd made a scandal due to the cessation of the distribution of bread, and anti‐Soviet elements were agitating: ʺWe all go to the RIK and the factory management and we will demand bread, down with the communists, long live the rule of workers and peasants.ʺ
Some workers, who have taken plots for building, stop working, pointing out that now is not the time to build, it is necessary to store food, otherwise there will be a war.
The lack of bread is viewed by a significant part of the workers as a harbinger of war. There is talk that in connection with the upcoming war, flour is sent to supply the army.
PEASANTRY
Self‐taxation
Campaign progress. In April, the self‐taxation campaign continues, mainly in the central industrial provinces, in the North‐West, West, and DCK. The campaign in the Volga region and Siberia has not yet been fully completed.
Counteracting the self‐taxation of the kulaks and the wealthy. The self‐taxation campaign is taking place everywhere in an atmosphere of organized resistance and opposition from the kulaks and the wealthy. In their speeches, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do openly call not to recognize the law on self‐taxation and to refuse to implement it. The agitation of the kulaks against self‐taxation is sharply anti‐Soviet in nature and in places turns into calls for an uprising and reprisals against workers who are carrying out self‐taxation.
ʺIt is necessary to make an uprising, then the matter will come out soonerʺ (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk). “The Soviet regime will lead the peasants to the point that they openly come out with arms against it. You, communists, sat on the peasantʹs neck, wait, weʹll shake it off soon, you wonʹt ride on us much” (Luga district).
The kulaks especially sharply oppose the class principle of self‐taxation, striving to use anti‐poor sentiments among the middle peasants in order to lead them against the poor. Agitating that self‐taxation should be carried out ʺat the discretion of society,ʺ the kulaks put forward the demand for equalizing taxation and insist on taxing the poor. The active protests of the poor are contributing even more to the aggravation of the struggle over self‐taxation. In some cases, the kulaks threaten reprisals against the poor if they vote for self‐taxation (Moscow, Tver, Oryol, Tula provinces, Irkutsk and Belarus).
In the Votsk region. in with. Askashur the fists and the well‐to‐do on Easter week, when they got drunk, caught the poor in the street and beat them; the chairman of the village council himself beat the liquidator of illiteracy, telling him: ʺYou are in charge of the poor and through you they were besieged.ʺ
Facts were noted when kulaks and well‐to‐do people, with the aim of preliminary study of the issue of self‐taxation, organized their illegal meetings (Center, Belarus). In a number of cases, with the aim of disrupting self‐taxation, the kulaks attended meetings with their families (Tver and Kaluga provinces and Achinsky district) and gave the poor people a drink (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province and
Karelia).
There were isolated cases of kulaksʹ refusal to receive notifications on payment of self‐taxation (Moscow province and Belarus).
Attitude towards self‐taxation of the middle peasants. The kulaksʹ protests against self‐taxation find support mainly from the most prosperous part of the middle peasantry, who also speak out against the class principle of self‐taxation. In some places, among certain groups of middle peasants, there was a tendency to isolate the poor from discussing and resolving the issue of self‐taxation.
ʺThe question of self‐taxation must first of all be raised on the middle peasant masses, and there is nothing to talk about with the poor, since they are exempt from tax and self‐taxationʺ (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya Gubernia, Siberia).
On this basis, there is a partial aggravation of relations between the poor and part of the middle peasantry.
In this respect, attention is drawn to the fact that in der. Borisovschina Bobruisk district (Belarus) middle peasants, having left the meeting for self‐taxation, armed with stakes and decided to beat the poor if they vote for self‐taxation. Upon learning of this, the poor abstained from voting.
In a significant number of cases, the middle peasants emphasize that self‐taxation is an ʺadditional typeʺ of tax and, complaining about material insecurity, speak out for the voluntary principle of selftaxation.
The bulk of the middle peasantry are in favor of self‐taxation, declaring: ʺSelf‐taxation will mainly fall on the well‐to‐do with all its weight, and therefore we have nothing to listen to their whispers.ʺ
The attitude towards self‐taxation of the poor. The poor, having understood the class essence of self‐taxation, in the overwhelming majority of cases actively advocate self‐taxation. The most characteristic facts in this regard are observed in Siberia, where in some places, at the insistence of the poor, the kulaks and the wealthy were taxed in the amount of 100‐200% of the amount of agricultural tax (Irkutsk District), while it was emphasized: “Here, comrades, when our real Soviet power came, it came the time when we have to take on the kulaks‐gulp ʺ(Irkutsk district).
Nevertheless, in the Center and the North‐West, there are frequent cases when the poor behave passively, and sometimes even completely shy away from resolving the issue of self‐taxation. There have been cases when the poor, who decided to actively support self‐taxation at their meetings, voted against or abstained from voting at all‐peasant meetings (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya Gubernia, Novgorod District, Belarus). The passivity of the poor is mainly caused by the fear that they may be deprived of material assistance from the well‐to‐do and for fear of reprisals from the kulaks.
Disruption of meetings and refusals to self‐tax. Mainly in the central industrial provinces and the North‐West, there are quite frequent cases of disruption of meetings by kulaks and rejection of resolutions on selftaxation.
In the Tver province. according to Rzhevsky u. 73 villages refused selftaxation, of which only Artemovskaya Volost. ‐ 50. In the Vyatka province. from 13 village councils of Kruglik parish. Kotelnichsky u. only 4 agreed to self‐taxation, while the rest flatly refused. In the Yaroslavl province. there have been cases when in the region of entire village councils 1‐2 villages agreed to self‐taxation.
In a number of cases, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, with the support of a part of the middle peasants, succeeded not only in rejecting selftaxation, but also in passing a resolution on renouncing self‐taxation.
In the Moscow province. at a meeting in the village. A resolution of the following character was adopted in prayer: ʺThe law on self‐taxation shall be recognized as wrong and untimely.ʺ Similar facts were noted in Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Stalingrad and other provinces.
There are also numerous facts of tax cuts at meetings.
In the Amur District, in 14 villages of the Tambov District, self‐taxation was accepted in the amount of 24,873 rubles. 50 kopecks, while 35% of the agricultural tax is 73,305 rubles. 50 kopecks
Participation in the campaign of workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus. In the course of the self‐taxation campaign, there were facts when the workers of the grassroots apparatus showed direct resistance to its implementation and opposed self‐taxation. There were also noted cases of adoption at plenary sessions of village councils of resolutions on refusal to carry out self‐taxation (Moscow, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk provinces).
In Moscow province, in connection with the self‐taxation campaign and the implementation of the loan, in the Moscow district. refused to work 38 of the pre‐village council, motivating their refusal with illness and family circumstances.
In some places, equalizing taxation was carried out, and the distribution of self‐taxation amounts was carried out by consumers (Kaluga, Moscow, Vyatka, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk provinces and the Cherepovets district).
Siberia. Additional taxation of the kulaks. In a number of Siberian districts (Kamenskiy, Achinskiy, and others), additional taxation of kulak farms is being carried out by freeing the poor and low‐power middle peasants from self‐taxation. In the course of this campaign, facts were noted of the distortion of the class line by the workers of the grassroots soviet. There were cases of additional taxation along with the kulaks and middle peasants, as well as the provision of discounts on self‐taxation to powerful middle peasants (Achinsk and Kamensk districts). In some places, the addition of kulaks exceeds the norm stipulated by the directive (Kamensk district). Subjected to additional taxation, the kulaks are in favor of the need to relocate and reduce their farms and crops.
Campaign for the implementation of the loan to strengthen the peasant economy
Campaign progress. The campaign for the sale of the cross‐loan in April did not have a significant impact on the growth of the placement rate.
Organizational weaknesses. One of the reasons for the weak placement of the loan has to be attributed to the insufficient explanatory work to popularize it (in some provinces of the Center, West, Siberia, DVK), as a result of which the bulk of the peasantry are mistrustful of it.
Mistrust is reinforced by the fact that instead of bonds, temporary certificates are issued. On this basis, there were cases of peasantsʹ refusal to receive temporary certificates and demands to issue bonds. In some cases, the peasants are somewhat distrustful of the fact that the loan is winning.
Throughout the Union, there were cases of weak participation of the grassroots administration (village councils, KKOV) in the implementation of the loan. On the part of certain co‐workers, there was sabotage, refusals to distribute loan bonds, and sometimes direct opposition to their placement.
The fall in March in the number of cases of distortion of party directives, excesses and administrative pressure from individual grassroots coworkers in April again gave a significant increase. The speeches of the loan distribution commissioners are typical in this respect.
Plenipotentiary of the Elninsky PEC (Smolensk Gubernia), handing over to the peasant village. Steps for 100 rubles. bonds for distribution, said: ʺDistribute, not sell ‐ you go to jail.ʺ To the peasantʹs question ʺhow to distribute?ʺ The PEC commissioner said: “Take the method of war communism as a basis. Here are the directives for you. ʺ
In a number of places (Center, Ukraine, Siberia) there were cases of involving kulaks and priests as counterparties, who often disrupted the placement of loans by distorting the class principle.
The “distribution” method is widely used everywhere. The village council or the commission on the placement of a loan at its discretion, often not taking into account the economic capacity of the economy and the class belonging of the taxable, make an ʺallocationʺ to the village, after which they call the peasants to the Council, where they are invited, according to the ʺlayoutʺ, to purchase loan bonds. In case of refusal, they threaten with arrest, deportation, inclusion on the ʺblack boardʺ, etc.
In a number of places (Center, Ukraine), there were cases of sale of livestock by the poor, low‐powered middle peasants to pay for the forcibly imposed bonds.
It is characteristic to note that in some places (Nizhny Novgorod, Penza provinces) the peasants summoned to the village council came with prepared biscuits, confident that they would be arrested.
There are frequent cases of forcible imposition of bonds when paying peasants for logging work (North‐West, West, Siberia) and when paying salaries in handicraft artels and lumberjacks (Center).
Often, such violent imposition leads to serious conflicts, refusal to work, police intervention and referral of the case to the court.
On the basis of the forced distribution of bonds when paying salaries to peasants working in the logging in the Lovnichi branch and in the Kalinkovichi area (West), a fight broke out between the latter and Lesbelʹs employees, the police had to be called and the case was brought to court.
In the Taishet district (Kansk district ‐ Siberia) 50 peasants working on logging at the station. Bayranovka, having received loan bonds on account of his salary, refused to work on the delivery of timber, without starting work for six days.
Bonds were forcibly imposed when issuing postal orders by withdrawing money from valuable letters and investing in place of money loan bonds, etc.
Head of the Ankovskaya post and telegraph office of Teikovskiy u. (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya gubernia), when peasants received money sent by mail, imposed them to take bonds, without giving out money in case of refusal.
In the Troitsk district of the same district, the head of the post office opens valuable letters, puts in bonds in exchange for money and makes the inscription ʺreviewedʺ on the envelope.
The same was also observed in the West, Ukraine and Siberia.
The method of delivery of bonds is also widely used when issuing various certificates, certificates (for grinding, purchasing timber, etc.), insurance payments, semesters, loans for the purchase of livestock, etc.
The distribution of goods (flour, leather, manufactory) by the grassroots cooperative network only to persons buying bonds is observed everywhere. There are also cases (Ukraine, Siberia) of doctors not providing medical assistance to patients who do not buy bonds from them, and refusals to dispense medicines.
In a number of districts (Center, North‐West, Zapay, Ukraine, Siberia), property was described from peasants for refusal to purchase peasant bonds, and cattle were taken away ‐ sheep and horses.
Threats, arrests, beatings. In addition, the commissioners for the placement of the loan made arrests of peasants who refused to purchase a loan, beaten and threatened to increase the amount of tax, selftaxation and enroll in ʺcounter‐revolutionariesʺ, ʺenemy of Soviet powerʺ, etc. Head of the cultural department of the Markovskiy RIK (Starobelsk district) in the village. In Kurichevka, up to 30 people were arrested for refusing to purchase bonds. The method of intimidation by increasing the amount of tax, self‐taxation, expulsion from the province and speculation in the name of the GPU is widely practiced.
In Poiska parish. Lukoyanovsky u. Nizhny Novgorod province. a senior policeman, a clerk of the volmilitia, one Komsomol member, being counterparties for the distribution of the loan, summoned a peasant to volmilitia with. Maidon and offered him to purchase a loan bond. The latter refused. Then he was severely beaten, and the hair of the beaten was pulled out of his head and beard, the mouth of the beaten was gagged with a guardʹs jacket, in whose room the beating took place. The beaten one escaped all bloodied. The beaten later died.
In a number of cases, the perpetrators of the beatings were arrested and brought to justice.
The ratio of the poor and low‐powered middle peasants to the crossloan. The attitude of the poor and most of the middle peasants, as in the past, to the cross‐loan continues to be positive. In their speeches and group conversations, the latter speak out for the need to ʺsupport the Soviet powerʺ and motivate refusals to purchase a loan by the severity of the simultaneous collection of taxes, insurance payments, selftaxation, etc. (Center, West, Ukraine).
The attitude of the wealthy and the kulaks. The attitude of the wellto‐do and the kulaks to the cross‐loan is still hostile. Not confining themselves to agitation against the acquisition of loans by attempts to disrupt meetings, the kulaks everywhere come out with ardent antiSoviet agitation, up to calls for the overthrow of the government through an armed uprising.
“With Soviet power, what will happen with Kolchak: until he pressed on the peasants, he held on, but as he began to press, he flew off; the Soviet power is also reaching ”(the village of Kurtayly, Saracharsky district of the Kansk district, Siberia). ʺThe peasants will be forced to raise an uprising, push this government aside and establish their own, the peasantʹsʺ (village Voskresenka, Elansky District, Omsk District).
Refusal of bonds and their return to village councils Under the influence of agitation of the wealthy and dissatisfaction with the forcible imposition of bonds in a number of places (West, Ukraine, Siberia, DVK), there were massive cases of peasants returning purchased bonds.
In some provinces of the Center (Yaroslavl Gubernia) and the Volga Region (Ulyanovsk), after the publication of the letter to Comrade. Rykov 166 peasants are returning the bonds, demanding money, referring to the explanation of the letter on the voluntary distribution of the loan.
Buying and selling bonds. There is also a sale by peasants, mainly poor and middle peasants, of forcibly issued bonds (when purchasing goods against wages, etc.) at a price below their value (Center, North Caucasus, West, Ukraine) and their destruction (North‐West,
West). Buyers of bonds are mainly kulaks and traders.
So, for example, in the Ozarichsky RIK (Minsk District, West), a local private trader closed his trade and engaged in a special purchase of bonds, paying for a bond worth 2 rubles. 50 kopecks 1 rub. 50 kopecks
Feed crisis
The fodder crisis, mass disease and deaths of livestock in connection with lack of fodder in the North Caucasus and Ukraine, noted in the last review, also took place in the reporting period.
In the North Caucasus, with the transition of livestock to pasture, a certain mitigation of the crisis and a decrease in the size of diseases and deaths of livestock are observed. However, the cattle was so depleted by the previous hunger strike that in some areas it could not be used during the sowing campaign (Kuban, Salsk, Stavropol, Black Sea districts, Ossetia, Ingushetia, Kabarda and Dagestan). It takes a long time for livestock exhausted by a hunger strike to recuperate with good feed. The fodder delivered to the areas affected by the lack of food has already been used up. In Stavropol, Salsk and other districts, the number of onerous deals in the sale of fodder by fists and wealthy people to the poor and low‐powered middle peasants is increasing.
For example, in s. For a load of straw, a poor man gave the kulak a halfload of good reeds (7 rubles), 200 slabs of tiles (10 rubles) and 100 pieces of burnt bricks.
The poor are extremely embittered against the gouging of prices by fists and the well‐to‐do, and in some places they talk about ʺsetting speculators on fire.ʺ In a number of areas of the Black Sea, Salsky, Maikop and Stavropol districts, individual state, cooperative and public organizations (communes, partnerships, state farms, etc.) are also engaged in speculation of fodder, inflating prices for it and supplying those in need with poor‐quality fodder.
In the Ukraine, an acute shortage of fodder occurs in a number of southern districts, and especially in Nikolaev, Odessa, Melitopol, and certain areas of the Stalin district. Diseases and deaths of livestock are observed in these districts, especially in small‐scale farms. Thatched roofs are opened to feed the cattle. The working cattle are severely depleted and their working capacity is reduced.
The lack of forage is also noted in certain districts of Siberia, in particular, in certain districts of the Barnaul district. There are massive cases of the death of cattle and horses (in the first half of 1927‐1928, 16645 heads of cattle fell against 7834 heads in the same period of 19261927).
Food difficulties
Food difficulties, which were noted last month in certain districts of Ukraine and the North Caucasus, worsened significantly in the reporting period, capturing a number of new districts.
In the North Caucasus, a food crisis is observed in certain areas of the Kuban, Tersk, Stavropol, Maikop and Armavir districts.
The food issue is most acute in areas affected by crop failure last year. In the Kursavsky district of the Stavropol district, the poor are starving. The situation is aggravated by the fact that cooperatives do not have sufficient food supplies. The kulaks, the well‐to‐do and part of the middle peasants, who have surplus grain, due to poor harvest prospects, out of a desire to squeeze the poor, refuse to sell bread to the latter.
In Ukraine, the crisis covered Melitopol, Nikolaev. Kherson, Shevchenkovsky, Zinovievsky, Odessa, Artemovsky, Stalin and Shepetovsky districts. The food crisis has the most acute forms in the Melitopol, Kherson and Odessa districts, where famine is observed in some villages. In Kherson (the village of Kostovarovo, Kochkarovsky district), isolated cases of starvation were recorded. In Odessa (khut. Kalinovka), Melitopol (Molochansky district), several cases of diseases and swelling due to hunger were registered. In the Nikolaev district, in some villages, as a result of hunger, there is a massive departure of even the last workers from the economy to earn money. In the Odessa District, in a number of villages, starving migrants intend to abandon their land and go in search of work in the city.
The fists are holding back the bread, waiting for the moment when the price of it will be raised by the starving poor and low‐powered middle peasants.
A partial shortage of bread in rural areas occurs in certain districts of
Siberia (Krasnoyarsk), DVK (Amur) and the Urals.
In the districts of Ukraine and the North Caucasus seized by the food crisis, the mood of the poor and low‐powered middle peasants has deteriorated significantly. Along with the decadent, anti‐Soviet sentiments were noted among these strata of the peasantry. These sentiments are intensely inflamed by kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements, provoking the poor to excesses and in a number of cases agitating for an uprising ʺagainst the communists who took grain out of the countryside, leaving the peasants starving.ʺ Several mass demonstrations of the poor and middle peasants were recorded, demanding the distribution of grain and resisting the export of the prepared grain from the district.
In the Melitopol district (Ukraine) in the village. Troitskoye, a crowd of peasants approached the house of the pre‐village council and began to demand grain. The Pressel Council was forced to flee from the angry crowd through the window. In with. In the Osokrovka of the Kherson district, a crowd of poor women of 250 people tried to resist the export of the prepared grain from the village. In with. Veselovka of the Melitopol district during April there were several group actions of peasants demanding the delivery of grain. During one such speech on April 21, the crowd tried to beat the secretary of the district party committee. In the same district in the village. Timashevka, a crowd of peasants (up to 1000 people) approached the EPO, demanding the delivery of grain and threatening to destroy the shop. In Ukraine, similar ʺbagpipesʺ took place: in the Kherson district ‐ in the villages of Mayachki, Gopriy and N. Vorontsovka; in the Odessa district ‐ in the village. Beacons of the Chervono‐Insurgent region;
In the North Caucasus, group performances demanding bread took place: in the Kuban Okrug — in the villages of Brikovskaya, UstLabinskaya, Voronezhskaya, Olginskaya, Bryukhovetskaya (in the last two, the crowd tried to beat the workers of the village council); in the Armavir district ‐ on the hut. Khlebodarovsky (a crowd of peasants tried to beat the secretary of the village council ‐ a communist). Similar performances were registered in the Krasnoyarsk District (Siberia) in the villages of Klyukvensky and Seliverstka. In the colony of Sheremetyevo, Armavir district, a kulach‐stundist 167 convened an illegal meeting of women in her apartment, after which they went in a crowd to the grain barn of the SHT and hung their lock on the door in order to prevent the export of bread from the village. When the partnership sent carts to load the grain, the women resisted for a long time. A similar case was noted in the same district in the village. Semyonovka.
It is characteristic that in almost all of the above speeches, women predominated among their participants, promoted by anti‐Soviet elements of the village and kulaks.
Sowing campaign
The death of crops. In Ukraine, in a number of regions, the death of winter crops was noted. Mainly affected are the southern, most graingrowing districts: Melitopol, Nikolaev, AMSSR, Zinovievsky. In a number of areas of these circles, winter crops died in the amount of 90100% (Melitopol district), 50‐70% (Nikolaevsky, Zinovievsky). The early spring crops (weathering of crops) were significantly damaged by the hurricane that swept through the end of April in the southern part of Ukraine across Melitopol, Dnepropetrovsk and a number of other districts.
In the North Caucasus, winter crops have improved somewhat recently. Along the entire region, the death of winter crops is 8% of their total area. The greatest damage to winter crops is noted in the Kuban, Donskoy, Chernomorsky, Salsky and Taganrog districts, where in some areas the percentage of death is more significant (from 20 to 50%), the area of winter crops requiring replanting was about 200,000 dess. Partial death of winter crops from damping is noted in Kursk (the percentage of death in individual counties ranges from 20 to 40) and in a number of other provinces of the Center and the West.
Lack of semimaterials. In a number of provinces and districts of almost all regions of the Union, there is an insufficient supply of seed materials to the poor and middle peasants who need them. The issue is especially acute in areas affected by the death of winter and early spring crops (North Caucasus and Ukraine). The kulaks and the well‐to‐do, having surplus sowing materials, striving to disrupt the full sowing of the sowing area by the poor and low‐power middle peasants, refuse to sell seeds to the needy (North Caucasus, Ukraine, the Volga region, Center, Siberia). Only collective farms and communes are adequately supplied with government agencies and cooperation.
In the provinces and districts of the Center, the West, the North Caucasus, there is a large shortage of seeds of industrial crops, flax and oats, which threatens to reduce the sowing of these crops.
In Smolensk Gubernia, for example, only 60% of applications were satisfied with the available stocks of flaxseeds. In the Cherepovets lips. due to the lack of oats, in a number of villages the land prepared for sowing oats is sown with herbs.
To a large extent, the blame for the lack of seed supply falls on the grassroots apparatus, which does not timely submit applications for seeds, the inconsistency and negligence of the local authorities and the cooperatives, who did not attend to timely consideration of the need for seeds, their harvesting and promotion to the field. In Siberia, the Center, the North‐West, the North Caucasus and Ukraine, in a number of cases, despite the presence of seeding materials in the zemorgans and cooperatives, the moment for its advance to the site was missed, and due to the onset of thaw, the seeds arrived at the site with a delay, which caused refusal of the poor and middle peasants to receive them.
An inadequate seed supply is almost universal among the poor. In the Kursk and Orenburg provinces, in the Ukraine and the North Caucasus, there have been facts of the surrender of the cultivated land by the poor to the kulaks, often on enslaving terms.
Poor quality seeds. In the Center, the North‐West, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, the Volga region and Siberia, the facts of the delivery of poorquality seeds continue to be observed, instead of a varietal loanordinary ‐ of low quality and varieties of seeds that are not suitable for climatic and soil conditions to the region. In the North Caucasus and in the Volga region, there were facts of export of local good seeds to other regions and the importation of poor‐quality seed materials from outside the region. In the Kamensky District (Siberia) in the Kachnovsky District, seeds with a germination rate of 15‐20% were obtained. Similar facts were noted in almost all regions of the Union. Machine supply. Shortcomings of a similar nature are also noted in machine supply. Agricultural machines and implements that are not suitable for the area are being supplied to the sites. Similar facts were noted in the provinces of the Center, the Volga region, the North Caucasus, Ukraine and Siberia. Machine‐supplying organizations in certain provinces and districts of Ukraine, the Volga region, the North Caucasus and Siberia, with significant non‐fulfillment of plans for the delivery of seasonal spring machines (seeders, graders, plows, harrows), were imported in large quantities exceeding the current demand, of harvesting machines, reapers, threshers, etc. P. As a result of the underestimation of the need for agricultural machines and implements, it was not uncommon for individual districts and districts to import machines in sizes far exceeding the demand for them, while in neighboring districts and districts there was a great shortage of them (Kursk, Kostroma provinces, etc.
High capes on agricultural implements and machines and difficult credit conditions (insufficient long‐term credit, the obligatory payment of a rather significant deposit when receiving cars on credit) led to poor sales of expensive agricultural implements and machines among poor farms, and the latter (even poor groups) buy only simple and inexpensive machines (North Caucasus, Volga region, Siberia).
Collectivization. In all regions of the Union, there is a significant attraction of the poor and low‐power middle peasants to collectivization. In some places (especially in the Volga region and Siberia) the zemborgs approached the question of collectivization formally, setting the task only to fulfill the plan for organizing collective farms.
The agronomist‐economist of the Barnaul okrzZU instructed the regional agronomists: ʺOrganize more teams, fulfill the target figures.ʺ
The strong middle class is less willing to unite in collectives. The growth of collectives proceeds spontaneously both in the North Caucasus, in the Volga region, and in individual provinces and districts of the Center, the Urals and Siberia, which significantly exceeds the assumption. Such spontaneous growth often makes it impossible for the organizations leading the collective‐farm movement to control the social composition of collective farms, the expediency of their organization and organizational coverage. In parallel with the poormiddle peasant collective farms, kulak collective farms are growing, often enjoying the support of state and cooperative organizations (see Appendix [No. 4]).
Almost everywhere the preparatory campaign for collectivization was carried out weakly, and in a number of cases the poor and middle peasants, who want to organize themselves into a collective farm, do not know how to organize it (see Appendix [No. 4]).
The kulaks, the well‐to‐do and some of the strong middle peasants are actively fighting against collectivization. If last month the kulaks paid most attention to agitation for the reduction of the area under crops, then this month the main fire is directed against collectivization, the receipt of seeds, agricultural machinery by the poor on credit, etc. From intimidation to terror directed against those who sign up for collective farms, the kulaks are trying by all means to disrupt collectivization.
In with. Nekrasovka, Kursk province. kulaks threaten the poor: ʺIf you donʹt leave the collective farm, weʹll burn.ʺ In with. Bogdanovsky, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. There was a long struggle between the collective farm and the kulaks, and in April 1928, after the kulaks failed to organize their ʺcollective farmʺ, they set fire to the house of a member of the CPSU, the organizer of a poor collective farm.
A number of cases have been noted when, under the influence of kulak agitation and terror, the poor left the collective farms, and the latter fell apart (Siberia, Center, Ukraine). Great resistance of the kulaks in the Ukraine, the North Caucasus, in the Center, the Volga region is met by a campaign of public cultivation of land for the horseless poor.
Contracting 168. A number of shortcomings are noted in the work of organizations carrying out the contracting of crops. With the exception of individual provinces, almost everywhere the work on contracting is deployed with a great delay, loans and seeds are released out of time. Often as a result of red tape with drawing up plans and coordinating them between various provincial and district organizations and the latter with the grassroots network of agricultural cooperatives, the work on contracting was disrupted.
For example, Rubtsovskiy Selkreditsoyuz, having received the consent of Selbank to lend to cooperatives, started work and, until March 22, contracted 5,000 dess. crops. In the midst of its work, Selbank sent a telegraphic notice of the closure of the loan with a proposal to Sibselbank to return the previously released amounts. The work was thwarted.
A big hindrance to work is the presence of many organizations carrying out the same work in the same area.
For example, in the Votsk region. in Glazovsky u. at the same time they are engaged in the contracting of Flax Center, Flnogostorg, concluding contracts on different terms and interfering with each other.
Negatively, the mood of the peasants was affected by the increase in the percentage of crops subject to delivery by contract, from 50 to 70.
Flax contracting in Smolensk, Tver, Yaroslavl provinces, Votsk region. in general, it is going well. The contract in the Novgorod District is under threat of failure due to the late deployment of the campaign and the distribution of loans. In the Tula province. contracting of potato crops is developing poorly. As of April 14, only 40% of the proposed sowing area has been contracted. The same situation is in the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk and Nizhny Novgorod provinces. The contracting of grain and industrial crops is being successfully carried out in Saratov, Samara and other provinces of the Volga region, in most of the districts of Ukraine and the North Caucasus, although the campaign has also been launched here with some delay. With a great delay, a campaign was launched in the Voronezh province. In the work of contracting organizations, there are numerous facts of distribution of loans without observing the class principle and often even predominantly among the wealthy strata of the peasantry. The poor and middle peasants in most regions treat contracting favorably, willingly concluding contracts.
The kulaks and the wealthy are campaigning against treaties. This campaign does not enjoy significant success.
Attitudes towards the expansion of the cultivated area of various strata of the peasantry. As before, in all regions the kulaks and the well‐to‐do are campaigning for the reduction of the cultivated area and the closure of farms. In some places, the kulaks are demanding that the state guarantee ʺthe freedom to dispose of its surplus grain.ʺ However, in practice, the kulaks also rarely reduce crops and reduce the size of the farm (a more or less significant reduction in crops was noted only in the Urals).
The middle peasants. Some middle peasants are also talking about the need to reduce the area under crops. These tendencies are especially strong in those areas where excesses were made during grain procurement and the collection of the unified agricultural tax. The actual reduction of crops by middle peasants takes place in the Urals. In the rest of the regions, as a mass phenomenon, the reduction of the cultivated area by the middle peasants is not observed.
In some districts of the North Caucasus and Ukraine, affected by the death of winter crops and the fodder crisis, it is possible that the middle peasants undersow the crop area solely due to a lack of seeds and depletion of livestock.
Poor and low‐powered middle peasants. The poor everywhere are in favor of expanding the cultivated area, willingly uniting in collectives and contracting crops: ʺThe sown area must not be reduced, as the kulaks whisper, but we must try to increase by all meansʺ (speech of the poor at the Tiskul meeting of the Achinsk district). The observed almost everywhere inadequate delivery of semomaterials to the sites, the refusal of the kulaks to sell seeds and the impossibility, in connection with this, to completely sow the fields of the poor, causes discontent of the poor, especially significant in those affected by crop failure and experiencing food, feed and seed crises, in the districts of Ukraine, the North Caucasus and in Tambov province, passing into a decadent mood.
Grain procurement
NORTH CAUCASUS
In April, only 25% of the monthly assignment was completed, and in some districts this percentage is much lower (in Maikop ‐ 10%,
Salsky — 11%). The sharp decrease in the rate of procurement in April is explained by the retention of bread by the well‐to‐do kulak, and partly by the middle peasant strata of the village due to the food difficulties that have caused a significant increase in grain prices, in some places by 2‐3 times (st.Staro‐Shcherbinovskaya, Donetsk Okrug), grain surpluses, as well as due to the death of part of the crops. The latter circumstance created an extremely unfavorable situation for increasing the rate of grain procurement and was used by the kulaks to intensify agitation against them. So, in the Kuban, Armavir, Donetsk districts, cases were noted when the grain purchasing commissions were boycotted by the population and even dispersed.
Interruptions in grain supply also caused dissatisfaction with grain procurements on the part of the poor and other underpowered strata of the village: “If they don’t give us bread tomorrow, we will go to smash the authorities, we will show how to take the bread, we will arrange another demonstration on May 1” (Kuban District). Sharp protests of the poor and farm laborers against grain procurements were also noted in the Donskoy and Armavir districts. The kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements in the countryside are trying to channel the discontent of the poor along the anti‐Soviet channel, calling for the robbery of bread shops, warehouses and disrupting meetings for grain procurements.
SIBERIA
Workpiece travel. The weakening of pressure on the holders of grain surpluses in late March and early April, the sowing campaign in April and the coming thaw caused a sharp drop in the rate of grain procurements in April in all districts. The kulak‐prosperous strata of the village, while retaining their surplus, are simultaneously conducting intensified agitation among the middle peasants for retaining bread, spreading provocative rumors about the imminent arrival of food detachments, the impending famine, etc. their surplus of 30‐50 pounds, sewing flour into bed, etc. (Barabinsky, Kamensky, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Tomsk districts). For the purpose of sheltering grain, the kulaks distribute their surplus among the poor, organize themselves into flour‐milling artels, etc. (Barnaul and other districts).
Perversion of class and party lines. The renewed pressure on the holders of grain surpluses in the second half of April entailed a distortion of the class line and a number of excesses in relation to the use of repression against the middle peasants who had surpluses. So, in a number of districts, the system of universal summons to village councils of middle peasants and even individual poor peasants has been resumed, where various threats were proposed to [them] to export grain (see Appendix [No. 5]).
Attitude towards grain procurements. The increased pressure on the holders of grain surpluses caused an increase in the discontent of a part of the middle peasantry, who held back the grain. A part of the poor, fearing a grain shortage, also reacts negatively to the increased export of grain. The dissatisfaction of a part of the poor with grain procurements has been especially aggravated in recent years due to interruptions in the supply of grain, noted in a number of districts (Slavgorodsky, Kamensky, Barnaulsky) (see Appendix [No. 5]).
URAL
All April five‐day periods gave a systematic sharp drop in the rate of grain procurement. The well‐to‐do and kulaks hide their grain surpluses in every possible way, refuse to sell grain to the poor, expecting a rise in prices. The growing pressure on the holders of grain surpluses was met by the kulaks with the spread of various provocative rumors. The increased pressure on grain procurements also provoked discontent among a part of the middle peasantry who have surplus of grain: ʺThe policy of the authorities is completely incomprehensible, they take bread from the peasant under the guise of surplus and thus cut down the tree on which they themselves sit.ʺ Dissatisfaction with grain procurements is aggravated by the excesses noted in a number of districts and the distortion of the class line when repressions are applied to the holders of the surplus.
In a number of districts, there are cases of competition between different procurement bodies (Perm, Irbitsky, Chelyabinsk, Kungursky, Tyumensky and other districts). In the Ishim Okrug, grain procurement organizations still violate the maximum prices in order to obtain more grain. On the other hand, among the procurement workers, inactivity, tailism and decadent moods are noted: ʺOur situation is getting worse every day, the fulfillment of the plan is impossible, it is beyond human strength, there is only one thing left ‐ to go to jailʺ (Kurgan District).
In some districts of the Kungursky, Sarapulsky, Chelyabinsky, Irbitsky and other districts, the poor are in dire need of bread. In a number of cases, the poor take bread from the kulaks at extremely high prices. This circumstance causes a negative attitude of some of the poor to the export of grain.
ʺThe Soviet government, apparently, wants to starve the poor, all the bread was taken to the centerʺ (Sarapul district). ʺThe Soviet government will force us to resort to 1918, to take away bread from the kulaks and divide it among the poorʺ (Kungur district). Similar sentiments are noted in Zlatoust, Shadrinsky and other districts. In the Kizelsky region of the Troitsky district, due to the lack of bread, a group of horseless and one‐horsemen abandoned their farms, and, having organized themselves into an artel, went to work.
Anti‐Soviet manifestations in the countryside
In connection with the end of the campaign for grain procurement, cross‐lending, self‐taxation and the beginning of sowing, April is characterized by a slight decrease in anti‐Soviet activity in a number of regions of the Union.
The exceptions are Ukraine and the North Caucasus, where we had an increase in mass demonstrations on the basis of the food crisis in the village market.
Kulak and anti‐Soviet groups. In total, 68 cases of the creation of antiSoviet groups were registered in the Union in April (107 cases in March). The decrease is distributed evenly across all districts, with the exception of the North‐West, where 22 groups were registered in March, and 36 in April. Most of the groups registered in April were created in order to oppose the measures carried out by the Soviet government in the countryside. by spreading provocative rumors, terrorizing individual workers and activists of the village (Center, Ukraine, CCM). In a number of cases, kulak groups developed their activities with the participation and under the leadership of former members of anti‐Soviet parties, former landowners and police officers.
In connection with the recent revival of Petliurism in Ukraine, a number of groupings should be noted, in which the leading role is played by former Petliurists, Makhnovists, etc. ʺMoscowʺ, for ʺindependent Ukraineʺ.
Agitation for the COP. Campaigning for the creation of the Constitutional Court during the reporting period decreased, in March there were 112 cases of speeches, 120 participants, in April, 82 cases, 94 participants. In most cases, when campaigning for the Constitutional Court, demands are made to create the Constitutional Court as a political organization (19 cases) and a peasant trade union (21 cases).
Most of the appearances for the Constitutional Court fall on the central provinces.
Terror: The number of terror incidents also gives a slight decrease. In total, 73 cases of terror were registered in the Union in April (and 109 cases in March), of which: murders ‐ 11, injuries ‐ 2, beatings ‐ 19, attempted murders ‐ 14, arson ‐ 2.
Leaflets. The total number of leaflets registered in March was 91, and in April ‐ 91. Of these: 23 against campaigns, 19 with threats to party and Soviet officials, and 16 with a call to overthrow Soviet power. Half of all leaflets registered in the Union fall on Ukraine (19) and the North Caucasus (23). Of the leaflets distributed in Ukraine, it should be noted a significant number of leaflets of a Petlyura‐chauvinistic nature with calls to fight against Soviet power, for the independence of Ukraine (Kiev, Shevchenko districts).
Mass performances. Of all the types of anti‐Soviet manifestations in the countryside, mass demonstrations deserve special attention. If in March, 6 cases of performances were registered in the Union, then in April we have 38 cases. Of these: on the basis of a food crisis in the village ‐ 34, on the basis of land management ‐ 1, on the basis of grain procurements ‐ 1 and on religious grounds ‐ 2. In some regions of the Union, this picture is drawn as follows: Center ‐ 1 case, Ukraine ‐ 24, Northern Caucasus ‐ 12, Volga region ‐ 1. Thus, most of the actions fall on agricultural, grain‐procurement areas, currently affected by the food crisis. Both in Ukraine and in the North Caucasus, the performances are homogeneous in nature. Groups of 100 to 300‐400 people, mainly women queuing for bread, at the instigation of kulaks and merchants, they go to the buildings of the village councils, RIKs, shouting: “Taxes have been taken away, bread has been pumped out, and now you don’t give money for money, we’re starving to death, it’s enough to scoff at us,” etc. (Odessa district). As a rule, speeches are accompanied by beatings or threats directed at party and Soviet workers: ʺIf you don’t give bread, we’ll go smash up the bosses, someone must turn their heads.ʺ ʺIt is necessary to kill the secretary of the party committee and the pre‐district executive committeeʺ (Kuban, Melitopol districts). In a number of cases, mass demonstrations were repeated several times in the same settlement. In the Ust‐Labinsk district of the Kuban district, where the kulaks managed to capture part of the poor and middle peasants during the grain procurement campaign, 7 mass demonstrations have been registered since March.
In addition to speeches on the basis of the food crisis, the mass demonstration in the village of. Zhurinki of the Uman district, where a crowd of peasants of up to 1000 people, armed with pitchforks and stakes, attacked the peasants of a neighboring village, who received a disputed plot of land through a court order, beat them and destroyed agricultural implements. Moreover, the employees of the district police who arrived for the investigation were forced to flee back to the area under pressure from the crowd.
For individual regions of the Union, anti‐Soviet manifestations are characterized in the attached statistical tables (see Appendix).
EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS AND AUTONOMOUS AREAS UZBEKISTAN
Old city. Political mood. The trip of the Afghan padishah to Europe 169 contributed to the strengthening of anti‐Soviet and defeatist agitation on the part of the merchants of the old cities. Rumors are spreading rapidly that allegedly ʺAfghanistan has made an alliance with England, Uzbekistan will go to England, the padishah is demanding Turkestan for himselfʺ, etc.
Private trade. In all the old cities of Uzbekistan, there have been numerous cases of large traders closing their trade enterprises, mainly due to dissatisfaction with the ongoing tax campaign. In some cases, traders at their meetings talk about the need to curtail all private trade in order to ʺforce the Soviet government to ask to resume itʺ (Andijan). Most of the traders, closing their businesses, switch to patent‐free trade (23 cases in Tashkent). Some of the merchants liquidating their enterprises unite in partnerships (Samarkand) or continue trading under the firm of handicraftsmen (Tashkent).
Kishlak. Cotton campaign. Interruptions in the supply of grain to cotton growers contributed to the intensification of the agitation of the Baystva and other anti‐Soviet elements against the expansion of the cotton area. In a number of districts, agitation against the cotton campaign assumed a fairly wide scale (Bukhara district). In some places, cotton growers are going to reduce the area in comparison with the numbers of applications (Tashkent District). In some cases, when making bids, entire villages were supposed to plant cotton on a smaller area than indicated in the bids (Khojent District).
When contracting cotton crops, there were often cases when local organizations tried to increase the cotton area according to a preplanned plan, trying to carry it out at all costs without taking into account the possibilities (Andijan and Tashkent districts). Along with this, there have been cases of forced registration of farmers to plant cotton. There have been registered cases when dekhkans who refused additional appropriation were arrested (Staro‐Bukhara region).
The lack of vehicles caused significant interruptions in the supply of bread to the village in early April. In a number of districts of the Samarkand district, there was no bread at the purchase points for a long time and the prices for wheat rose to 40 rubles. for batman. By the end of April, interruptions in the grain supply have been minimized.
The crisis in livestock fodder is much more acute than the grain crisis. The most disadvantaged areas are Fergana and Andijan districts, where at times there is a complete lack of forage or the import of sunflower cake, to which the local cattle are not used. At the same time, in a number of districts, tens and hundreds of thousands of poods of oilcake were not sold due to poor quality (Zeravshan and Khojent districts). In the distribution of agricultural loans to cotton growers, improvements are noted in comparison with last yearʹs
campaign. Along with this, there are frequent cases of issuing loans to bai, merchants and Muslims.
The Ravat Agricultural Credit Partnership of the Samarkand District issued loans to 81 persons from merchants, former police officers, representatives of mus‐clergy and bays.
A widespread deficiency in supplying cotton growers with agricultural implements is the absence of clamps, harnesses, rollers and strings in the inventory issued. In some places, seeders without transmission chains or plows without yokes were obtained. There is an acute shortage of tractors almost everywhere. Along with this, in some areas, some of the available tractors are idle or make unproductive runs due to the lack of a plan.
The water question. Repair and cleaning work was carried out with long delays, which is explained, in addition to inclement weather, and negligence in the work of the Vodkhoz apparatus.
In the Samarkand Okrug, the cleaning works started only in midApril. Local Soviets (village councils and RIKi) in many cases showed complete inactivity, in some places they refused to help in carrying out cleaning work by providing workers.
In a number of cases, there was a negative attitude of the dekhkans to bearing in kind. There have been cases when large groups of dekhkans abandoned the work of cleaning irrigation ditches or refused to work altogether, claiming that cleaning irrigation ditches should be carried out at the expense of the state (Samarkand District). Bai, as a rule, do not go to work themselves, but hire farm laborers for themselves.
Land‐water relations. There is an increase in the activity of the bays, striving to seize the plots selected by the land reform. Cases have been registered when the poor, under pressure from the bayys, applied for the return of their former lands to the bayis. Bai kishlak Haroba Bukhara district took water from the poor, beating him. Along with this, there is an increase in cases of buying or leasing poor land by bays and traders, as well as usurious deals between bays and poor people in need of seeds. In a number of cases, the laborers who received land under the land reform are forced to return them to the bays ‐ the previous owners due to the lack of draft animals and agricultural implements from the laborers. Often, farm laborers, returning land, are again hired to work for the bays (Bukhara, Tashkent districts).
Loan to strengthen the peasant economy. The increase in the rate of sale of the cross‐loan is mainly due to strong pressure and forced distribution of bonds. In the Zaamin district of the Samarkand district, there were cases of distribution of bonds by a police chief with a revolver in his hands.
The chairman of the Assakenskiy RIK of the Andijan district, bypassing the traders, asked them to borrow 10 rubles. and, receiving them, handed over loan bonds. In the Verkhne‐Chirchik region of the Tashkent district, bonds of 100‐150 rubles were forcibly distributed, and a number of bays who refused to purchase bonds were arrested.
The forced implementation of the loan was practiced not only among the beys, but also among the poor, and in some cases, the poor were forced to sell food supplies to purchase bonds. Along with this, many agricultural partnerships, without selling the bonds, contributed money from their own funds (Samarkand District).
The agitation of anti‐Soviet elements against the loan was often successful among the poor and middle peasants, who, under the influence of bai‐traders, refused to acquire loans (Kashka‐Darinsky, Samarkand, Fergana districts).
Zhenkampaiya. Some revival of the campaign, which began on March 8, continued to be observed throughout the month of April.
In Bukhara and Zeravshan districts, 12,000 women again threw off their burqa. There have been registered cases of women submitting applications to party organizations for the provision of mosques for premises for womenʹs clubs (Gijduvan).
The gangs and the Muslim community in some cases seek to close women who have thrown off their veils, or to liquidate family circles (Samarkand).
In April, 3 murders of discovered women were recorded, 2 cases of poisoning, 8 cases of beatings and 1 case when Basmachi kidnapped a newly discovered Uzbek woman (Kashka‐Darya district).
In a number of cases, grassroots party officials show a negative attitude towards the womenʹs campaign, in some places actively opposing it. There have been registered cases of party members refusing to open their wives with reference to Sharia law. In Old Tashkent, a member of the Uzbek Central Executive Committee, at one of the meetings, beat an activist who advocated the discovery of women.
TURKMENISTAN
Sowing campaign. Most of the shortcomings in the repair and cleaning work have been eliminated. Only Turkmens are involved in cleaning up the international channel Mangyt, while Uzbeks and Karakalpaks are busy cleaning internal highways. By force of the Turkmens alone, the canal cannot be cleared in time. In some districts, due to the lack of grain, there is a negative attitude of farmers to the expansion of the cotton wedge. In places, anti‐Soviet elements, taking advantage of the mood of the farmers, are campaigning for the reduction of the cultivated area.
Interruptions in the delivery of bread in most cases have been eliminated, with the exception of certain districts (Tashauzsky, partly Kerkinsky). The situation is worse with the supply of agricultural implements.
When distributing agricultural funds, there were cases of issuing loans from a poor fund to prosperous and baysk farms.
In the Serakhsky region from 20,000 rubles. the poor manʹs fund went to the wealthy. In the Mer century district, a former volunteer with 1000 rams received a loan from a poor manʹs fund. Similar cases were reported in Bayram‐Ali and Tejen districts and in Chardzhuy district.
There were also cases of untimely distribution of the poor peasantsʹ fund, as a result of which the poor leased out land (Iolotan region). On the same basis, the Serakh RIK was forced to take grain mutually from local bais.
Land relations. The seizure of the beys, who were most actively engaged in the seizure of the plots alienated by the land reform, significantly increased the activity of the poor. The number of onerous deals has decreased. Land surveying work that has begun in the Ashgabat region, due to the lack of an explanatory campaign, has caused various provocative rumors.
In the Geok‐Tepe region, rumors spread that land and water would be taken from the poor during land management. In the Kizyl‐Ayaksky district of the Kerkinsky district, the bais are campaigning among the population for emigration to Afghanistan.
Banditry. The revival of foreign gangs moving from Afghanistan is noted. Davlet Sardarʹs gang is preparing an attack on the Karakul breeders of the Chardzhui and Kerkinsky districts, simultaneously carrying out a number of robberies. A gang moved to the territory of the Merv region from Persia for the purpose of robbery. In the BayramAli region, a gang of 170 Ersarins carried out a series of robberies, killed two employees of Vodkhoz and Khlopkom, and took one agronomist prisoner.
KYRGIZSTAN
Political mood. The trip of the Afghan padishah to Europe caused intense rumors about the allegedly concluded military treaty between Britain and Afghanistan against the USSR and about the upcoming intervention of the capitalist countries. Rumors spread widely that the Bukhara emir, together with Kurshirmat 171 with 50,000 troops, were attacking Bukhara.
Merchants. Among the merchants of the Frunze canton, there is a massive dissatisfaction with taxes. There have been cases of collective tax refusals. In the Osh canton, traders are campaigning for tax evasion with reference to the impending fall of Soviet power.
Group fight. The struggle between the groupings of solto‐tynai and bugu‐sayak takes on a fierce character. Both groups are led by responsible party and Soviet workers, Kyrgyz. The solto‐tynai group, with the aim of removing representatives of the hostile group from the communist party, made a number of arrests through the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Justice and the prosecutorʹs office. The Sayak‐Bugu group, which has the Karakol District as its center, is busy strengthening its ranks. The leader of the Solto‐Tynais, the well‐known manap Kundubaev Sagyn, was arrested.
National antagonism. There is an exacerbation of relations between
Russians and Kirghiz on the basis of land and pasture disputes.
In the Jalal‐Abad canton of the Kyrgyz with. Achi, the agitated head. APO cantkom of the VKP, did not allow the Russians to plow the land they rented, threatening to beat them up. There was a case of Kyrgyz refusal to admit Russians to an agricultural partnership (Chui canton).
In the Osh canton, a number of clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks over land use have been reported.
Womenʹs campaign. In the southern regions, the campaign to remove the burqa took place in most cases through pressure on the population. The Osh City Council and members of the campaign commission sent to all neighborhood committees a mandatory order for all women to attend meetings. One of the members of the commission suggested that the meeting participants forcibly remove the burqas from Uzbek women appearing on the streets. There were 14 cases of violent disruption of the burqa and 6 cases of rape of women by hooligans. In the northern regions of the Bae‐manapa, they intensified agitation against women attending meetings.
Sowing campaign. Delays in cleaning irrigation ditches and repairing them are explained by the failure of the executive committees and village councils to fulfill orders for the supply of labor, as well as the reluctance of the population to go to work. A more negative attitude of peasants to the expansion of the cotton area was noted in two districts of the Osh canton and in Kugart vol. In the same cantons, there is an acute shortage of fodder, on the basis of which the peasants, endowed with the land and water reform, return the cattle they received.
Re‐election of cooperation. During the re‐election of the boards of cooperative partnerships, a fierce struggle between various tribal groupings headed by bae‐manaps emerged.
The struggle became especially acute in the Alamedin region of the Chui canton. In the Kara‐Baevskaya, Bazar‐Kurgan and Kugart volosts, almost exclusively bays and their proteges, who headed the tribal groupings, were elected to the board of associations.
KAZAKSTAN
Sowing campaign. Semi‐material supply. In a number of districts, there is a lack of semomaterials, which in some places threatens to disrupt the campaign (Dzhetysu province). A significant brake in sowing is also the untimely distribution of the available seed grain by agricultural partnerships (Syr‐Darya province). Cases of import of poor‐quality and low‐grade seeds (Semipalatinsk province) were noted. The lack of seeds causes discontent among the poor and the underpowered part of the middle peasantry.
Agitation for the reduction of the area under crops. The kulakwealthy elements are intensively campaigning for a reduction in the area under crops. Under the influence of kulak agitation, some of the middle peasants also intend to reduce crops.
Grassroots Soviet apparatus. During the campaign, a number of shortcomings in the work of the grassroots Soviet apparatus were revealed. Due to the slowness in the work of the uzemapparat, a number of land disputes between the Russians and the Cossacks were registered (Syr‐Darya province). In Pavlodar district Semipalatinsk province. on the basis of land conflicts, the aggravation of relations between Russians and Cossacks is noted, which threatens to result in serious clashes. The State Administration does not take any measures to prevent and eliminate conflicts. There is also a lack of a sufficient explanatory campaign and a formal attitude towards the campaign of some party members (Semipalatinsk province).
Organization of teams. In connection with the sowing campaign, there is an increase in agricultural cartels.
In the Aman‐Karagai region (Kustanai district), from the beginning of the campaign until April 10, 27 agricultural cartels were organized among the Russian population (of which 3 were middle peasants and 24 poor farm laborers); among the Cossack (Kyrgyz) population, 20 artels were organized (of which 3 are bays). According to Bukhtarminsky u. (Semipalatinsk province) 38 newly organized groups are registered.
The kulaks are campaigning against joining collectives, striving in every possible way to disrupt the beginnings of the peasantry in the field of collectivization.
Distortions of the party line in carrying out grain procurements, selftaxation and the implementation of the peasant loan. The distortions of the party line in carrying out grain procurements, self‐taxation, and especially in the implementation of the peasant loan caused strong indignation of the peasants.
The representative of the Aktobe RIK, having arrived at the Alekseevsky VIC, summoned the poor and middle peasants to himself and offered to sign up for loan bonds for no less than 100‐150 rubles, bringing to justice those who refused to take bonds. On this occasion, the peasants say: ʺThis is not the government, but the devil knows what, only whites scoffed when they retreated.ʺ
Mass demonstrations in connection with crop failure and grain crisis. Due to partial crop failure, a grain crisis is being observed in a number of regions, which is especially strongly felt by the poor. In the village Akbulak (Aktobe province) bread is issued on ration cards for half a pound per consumer. On this basis, there is strong discontent among the poor. In the village Marluk, a crowd of up to 100 poor people (most of them women) gathered at the VIK building and began to demand bread, threatening to break the elevator. In the village In Akbulak, 50 people gathered in front of the VIK building with similar demands, and there were attempts to beat the VIK deputy chairman. In the city of Temir, 40 women tried to break into the warehouses of the city [odskiy] PO (Aktobe province), the kulak‐wealthy elements and merchants used the moment for anti‐Soviet protests. In the Aral‐Tyube (Lugovskoe village) Taldy‐Kurgan u. Dzhetysu lips. under the leadership of the kulaks, the peasants seized 3,000 poods from the warehouses of procurement agencies. bread in order to prevent its export from the region. In addition, a group of 30 people from Araltyubins, most of them kulaks and well‐to‐do, went to the village. Kugan and led agitation among the peasants for the non‐export of grain, as a result of which the prepared grain was seized here. All L. Lugovoi attempted to destroy the grain storage facilities. The commission arrived from the district to prevent the defeat. 7 active participants of the speech were arrested in Kugani. In Aral‐Tyube 16 people were arrested, in Lugovoy ‐ 5 people. After the arrest at the agricultural gatherings, the following resolutions were issued: 1) consider the action counter‐revolutionary, provoked by the kulak‐antiSoviet element, 2) return the seized grain to the warehouses within two days, and 3) do everything possible to help identify the initiators of the action. The poor people who participated in the seizure of grain admitted their mistake at the meetings.
The success of agitation for the seizure of grain in this area was facilitated by the unsettled land management and a number of distortions of the class line during the campaign on grain procurements, the UCHN, etc.
In the Kostanay district, traders spread rumors that baked bread would be discontinued in May, as a result of which over 1000 people were queuing at the bakery of the city [odeskiy] PO for several days. Merchants in the queues waged anti‐Soviet agitation, calling for the beating of PO workers and an uprising.
NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS
Difficulties and perversions of the party line during the sowing campaign. The sowing campaign at the very beginning met with a number of objective difficulties. The latter include the lack of fodder and the associated depletion of cattle that survived the mortality, unable to serve the needs of spring sowing and significantly already exhausted by the transportation of goods during the past grain procurement campaign. As a result, part of the loan granted was misused. A no less obstacle to the successful sowing campaign was the land disorder. Unfinished work forced a number of farms to refrain from timely sowing in order to obtain new, more convenient land plots. At the same time, these farms did not allow those groups that cultivated these plots to sow on the disputed lands. As a result, a number of plots remained unseeded.
For a number of districts, the actual needs of the population for seeds and agricultural implements have not been taken into account. A significant number of facts have been recorded of the sending of seed material (especially corn) to those points where there was no need for them, sending the seed material with a great delay and often of poor quality (Ingushetia).
In a number of cases, the lower‐level party apparatus distorted the class line. A number of pre‐village councils, under the influence of the kulaks, quite often supplied the wealthy with semessud, denying it to the poor, at best dividing it equally among all strata of the aul (Kabarda). Agricultural machinery also often fell to the wealthy. All this provoked in places discontent and criticism of the Soviet power from the bulk of the mountain peasantry.
The collectivization of agriculture. There is a noticeable growth in the collective farm movement, which tends to further develop. This is especially the case in Ossetia, where the number of individual farms, united in collective farms in 1928, is 61% of the total number of farms. In all national oblasts, the bulk of the mountain peasantry are interested in collectivization, sympathetically meeting the measures taken by the Soviet government to organize collective farms.
In a number of cases, plowing of the land by decisions of gatherings is shifted to strong farms. There have been isolated cases when the poor “confiscate” agricultural implements belonging to the kulak and transfer it to collective farms and KKOV. So, in Adygea, more than 100 pieces of agricultural machines and tractors were taken away from the kulaks, which were transferred to collective farms and KKOV.
The kulaks everywhere strive to penetrate the collective farms and take a leading role in them, which they sometimes succeed in (especially in Ossetia). In a number of regions, there are cases when for this purpose the kulaks give their own inventory to collective farms.
Of the lagging national districts, Dagestan should be noted, where the land disorder and contamination of the Soviet apparatus are a particularly serious obstacle to the development of the collective farm movement. The leadership of the party organization in this movement in the DSSR is also extremely weak. Niv in one of the districts of Dagestan did not carry out any broad explanatory campaign.
Loan to strengthen the peasant economy. A weak distribution of the remnants of the peasant loan continues to be noted in all regions.
The campaign is especially weak in Dagestan, where, with the exception of the Avar district, there was no awareness campaign among the peasants about the purpose of the loan and the benefits of acquiring it. In Kabarda and Ossetia, an institute of “loan distribution subagents” has been created, consisting almost exclusively of the wealthy, who, acting in the name of the authorities, in their desire to evade the purchase of loan bonds, imposed them on the poor. In Adygea, a number of village councils practice boycotting people who do not purchase bonds, regardless of their property status, do not issue the required certificates, certificates, do not register marriages, births, etc.
Border land and pasture disputes During the reporting period, there were several border clashes caused by land insecurity and the absence of clearly established land borders between national regions.
April 13 and 14 this year because of the border land plot Balakhta, owned by Kabarda, but contested by North Ossetia, there was a conflict, as a result of which the Ossetians forced the Kabardians to stop plowing the site, destroyed the premises of the Kabardian forest guard, took away the things and part of the weapons in it, taking with them the two tractor drivers who were working. who were subsequently released? In this regard, relations between Kabardians and Ossetians are extremely strained.
On the basis of disputes over the Tomgulam pasture mountain (on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan), there are continuous clashes between Chechens and Dagestanis, accompanied by the mutual burning of kutans (a kind of dugouts).
Local authorities do not take any measures to prevent these conflicts. A number of decisions of the regional and central authorities on the establishment of a firm border have not yet been implemented.
Noteworthy are the disputes in Chechnya between the Chechens of upland and flat auls over the use of pastures. On this basis, with. A fight broke out in the Samashki Novo‐Chechensky District, as a result of which seven people were injured on both sides.
The attack of the Kabardians on the Russian border village of the Tersk District. April 23 this year a crowd of 300‐400 Kabardians on foot and on horseback from the Nagornyi Okrug KBAO, in order to find a fellow villager who disappeared with a bull, attacked the border Russian settlement. Progress of the Goryachevodekiy district of the Tersk district, where she carried out an unauthorized general search. The searches, accompanied by all sorts of atrocities, were led by a representative of the Nagorny Okrug Executive Committee, who demanded the extradition of the missing Kabardian, otherwise threatening to burn down the entire village. As a result of the searches carried out, a number of things were seized and two residents of the village were arrested. April 24 this year Kabardians carried out a secondary search in the Russian village of Progress. The population of neighboring villages is extremely alarmed and outraged by the behavior of the Kabardians.
[ORDERING]
ARMENIA
Agitation for the resettlement of the Turks from Armenia. In a number of Turkic villages, the agitation of the kulaks and other antiSoviet elements for the resettlement of the Turks from Armenia to Azerbaijan continues. The agitators motivate the need for resettlement by the inevitability of the massacre of the Turks by the Armenians in connection with the allegedly impending war and the fall of Soviet power. In most cases, agitation meets with the sympathy of the well‐todo strata of the countryside. Under the influence of this agitation, a number of Turkic farms are preparing to secretly move to the Nakhichevan region. Turks who come to Armenia from Nakhichevan Territory and Azerbaijan are also campaigning for resettlement.
Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Former Dashnaks, together with the kulaks, do not stop conducting anti‐Soviet agitation, while inciting the population against the communists and activists of the village. In a number of districts, under the guise of revelry, former Dashnaks regularly convene illegal meetings, at which, along with reading Dashnak literature, they discuss issues of providing material assistance to arrested Dashnaks (Erivan district). Two cases of organized collection of money in favor of arrested Dashnaks (Erivan district) and one case of convening a meeting of the Dashsomol were registered, at which it was decided to arm the Dashsomol (Echmiadzin district). AntiSoviet and defeatist agitation is carried out by the Dashnaks and at weddings and name days organized in the village, at which toasts are pronounced “to the expected freedom” and calls are made “to be on the alert in order to repel the enemies at the right time” (Etchmiadzin u.). Noteworthy is the intensified anti‐Soviet work carried out in the village by a number of teachers who previously convened secret meetings together with anti‐Soviet elements (Erivansky district).
Groupings. In a number of Turkic villages of Erivan u. there are groups hostile to each other, led by representatives of the grassroots Soviet apparatus and bandits. There were three cases of beatings and one case of rape on the basis of group struggles. In some places the group is headed by party members (Hrazdan district).
Lack of forage. A number of districts are experiencing a food crisis (Erivan, Echmiadzin and Lori‐Bambak districts). Poor and underpowered middle peasants, whose livestock are severely depleted due to malnutrition, are especially acutely in need of forage. In this regard, the poor are forced to sell their livestock to the kulak‐wealthy elements who buy livestock at a low price. In addition, the kulaks sell their surplus fodder at high prices.
AZERBAIJAN
The activity of the kulaks. The kulaks are most active in the land issue. In addition to the unauthorized seizure of the poor plots, the kulaks do not stop campaigning against the land management work being carried out. In their work, the kulaks often find support from the representatives of the lower Soviet apparatus, who endow the kulaks with the best and larger plots of land.
The agitation of the kulaks also does not stop against school construction. A case was noted when the population, under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks, voted against the construction of a new school (Shemakhinsky district).
Attention is drawn to the cases when kulaks and beks compel individual peasant farms to move out of the village, threatening them with refusing murder (Kurdistani u.).
Livestock mortality. Due to the drought in 1927 and the prolonged severe winter in 1927/1928. in a number of districts there is a mass mortality of large and small livestock.
In some places, the death of cattle reaches significant proportions ‐ up to 1000 head of cattle (Karyaginsky district, Nagorno‐Karabakh).
Local authorities, lacking forage, are unable to provide assistance to the population.
CRIMEA
Livestock mortality. The death of draft animals creates significant difficulties in the sowing campaign. There is no assistance from cooperative and government organizations.
In the Kerch region, where lack of food is especially acute, there was a case when a cell of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks turned to the kulaks with a request to release forage (old straw) to peasants in need. The kulaks responded to the cellʹs request with consent, provided little assistance, but at the same time opened the sale of old straw at prices 3‐4 times higher than normal prices.
Hooligan attacks on Jewish settlers. A group of hooligans attacked the 75th Jewish resettlement site of the Dzhankoy region. The attackers with the slogan ʺbeat the Jews, save the economyʺ terrorized the residents of the site. The (Russian) driver who was at the station was beaten for trying to persuade the hooligans. In the evening of the same day, the hooligans, who had joined them four more guys, again attacked the precinct, shouting ʺbeat the Jewsʺ, began to beat windows, doors, etc. Panic arose among the settlers, and they telegraphically requested help. The commission that arrived at the scene found that the pogromists were the sons of local kulaks and wealthy peasants. The local Russian poor, after discussing this case, condemned the actions of the hooligans‐kulaks. The participants in the performance were arrested.
CLERGY
Reactionary churchmen. In April, Metropolitan Sergius received a number of inquiries from foreign Orthodox metropolitans: Metropolitan Dionysius (Poland) asks to approve the autocephaly of the Church 172 , Metropolitan Eleutherius (Lithuania) petitions for his confirmation as the ruling metropolitan, Metropolitan Eulogius sent a general list of names of not all clergymen those who wish to break with Metropolitan Sergius; the archbishop of Sinai appealed to Sergius and the Renovationists 173 with a proposal for unification.
The state of the churchmen opposition to Sergius can be considered stabilized by now.
The Moscow clergy in many churches demonstratively commemorates “prisoners, hard workers, etc. clergyʺ. Some churchmen collect taxes for the exiled priests. In a number of cases, priests and reactionary laity propagandize that the struggle must be waged not with the Soviets, but with the party, since it persecutes religion, that there is no need to be afraid of communists and atheists in matters of faith, and the Red Army must demand from their commanders that the latter should be released without hindrance. them to church.
Churchmen are spreading persistent rumors about the alleged union of
Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky with the Anglican
Church 174. These rumors are especially shared by individuals from the opposition (Moscow Gubernia).
The priests ‐ followers of Bishop Andrei Ukhtomsky ‐ distributed an anti‐Soviet leaflet, which says that the existing church division is a torment of godless power. Priests must rebel against government interference in church affairs (Ufa). In Crimea, reactionary priests were offered 25 rubles for removing anti‐religious posters from reading rooms. In order to revive the peasantry against the Soviet power, the Crimean clergy shifted self‐taxation amounts onto the believers. The four monastic ʺagricultural artelsʺ that still exist today are breeding grounds for malicious anti‐Soviet agitation.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser
Head of SOU Deribas
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Alekseev
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
ANNEX No. 1 to the April 1928 survey.
WORKERS
Strikes and conflicts
Switching to a 7‐hour day at textile factories. 1. F‐ka them. Nogina
(Vichuga, Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province). The decrease in workersʹ wages is explained by the fact that the technical staff did not take into account the required amount of roving for the water boats before switching to three‐shift work. The lack of roving caused a number of downtime of water‐cooled machines, especially in the newly introduced third shift (out of 18 water‐cooled machines, 4 do not have roving all the time). This situation causes strong discontent among the workers. Dissatisfaction is also increasing due to the fact that until now, night shifts have not been established in nurseries. There are many women with babies working on the night shift (3rd).
2. F‐ka ʺKrasny Perekop” (Yaroslavl province). With the transition to a 7‐hour day and a more dense work in the mule department (500 workers) and the preparatory department, earnings should have increased by 11% on average, in fact, for many workers it increased by only 1.1%, and for some workers even decreased. This is due to the fact that the prices (to compensate for the unworked hour) were increased instead of 11% by only 9%, and the administration used 2% to reduce the cost of production. In addition, the decrease in wages was affected by the under‐production of yarn due to the weak qualifications of the newly hired workers.
The issue of wages in connection with the transition to a 7‐hour working day makes workers very nervous. After the payment of wages for February, a group of workers began to demand that the FZK and TNB explain the reasons for the insufficient increase in wages, proposing to revise the rates and reduce the production rates.
At the meetings, there were a number of sharp protests by workers against the transition to a 7‐hour working day and the threat of a strike.
On April 8, a delegation of 10 people left for other factories, which switched to a 7‐hour working day.
A sharper aggravation of workersʹ discontent is possible with the transition of the entire factory on May 5 to a 7‐hour working day. Certain groups of workers (reel‐to‐reel makers, warmers, etc.), whose earnings have decreased, submit applications to the RKK demanding a revision of the norms and prices.
Reduction of workers in railway transport. 3. Izium workshops
(Donetsk roads). A sharp discontent arose among the workers in connection with the planned reduction of 300 workers. On April 20, workers almost did not work and, gathering in groups, discussed the issue of layoffs: “If they lay off, it remains only to go to the gang,” “if there were only local workers in the workshops, and not newcomers, it would be possible to go on strike.” Some workers spoke out in favor of setting fire to the former military barracks. On April 25, this threat was carried out. Three foundry workers set fire to 15 square meters of grass. meters adjacent to the workshop building. The resulting fire was immediately contained by the local fire brigade. The perpetrators were arrested.
4. In the depot [station] Omsk it is planned to reduce 666 people, of this number so far it has been announced that 310 workers will be cut by April 7. 90 people to be laid off filed a collective statement to the local committee, in which they indicated that the reduction was being carried out incorrectly, demanding the convocation of a general meeting. When this was refused, they went to the RCT with a complaint. The recently demobilized Red Army soldiers were laid off. In total, 5,000 people are to be cut on the Omsk [railway] road due to the excess of the established staff.
5. Letter from the unemployed to the Buzuluk newspaper ʺZemlerobʺ (Samara province).
“The organization “Red Boevik” makes its demands to place all the unemployed in permanent positions with the issuance of security up to a normal salary, as well as the fulfillment of all requests of the unemployed masses. Every last person should be placed. If our requirements are not met within the period from March 10 to April 1, measures will be taken to stop both city and rail transport and raise four railway bridges and three city institutions into the air, and also three more stores will fly into the air. ʺ The author of the anonymous letter is a defector (the latter was arrested).
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX No. 2 to the April 1928 survey
MASS PERFORMANCE
UKRAINE
Artyomovsk district. In with. Selyanovo in the middle of April, under the influence of kulaks, a crowd of women did not allow the shipment of flour.
2. Zinovievsky district. In the city of Mirgorod, due to the lack of flour for baked bread in cooperative organizations, on April 19 and 20, a panic broke out among the population. There was a strong crush in lines of 300‐200 people, the windows and doors of the bakery were broken.
In the city of Zinovievsk, those standing in line made a brawl. Shouts were heard from the crowd: ʺWhere do you eat flour, we will break your shops if there is no flour.ʺ Released to calm women head. the store was forced to hide in the store.
3. Dnepropetrovsk district. In with. In Ivanovka, Mezhensky district, the kulaks, having learned about the arrival of the authorized representative from the district, assembled a gathering without permission, at which they demanded that grain procurements be stopped due to the food crisis. At the gathering, the kulaks incited the chairman and the secretary of the RIK to beaten. Leaflets of a religious nature were immediately thrown around. S. Ivanovka during the civil war was struck by banditry, to this day, former Makhnovists live in the village, during the campaigns in the village there were cases of distribution of anonymous letters with threats to the representatives of the Soviet government.
4. Melitopol District. In with. Veselovka from April 16, daily crowds of peasants came to the office of consumer society, demanding the delivery of flour or bread. On April 25, the crowd gathered at the cooperative and headed to the district executive committee. The crowd tried to beat the secretary of the regional party committee and the chairman of the EPO board who came out for negotiations; the demobilized Red Army soldiers were especially prominent among the activists. The incident was liquidated by the regional executive committee.
In the Kranfeld colony of Prishibsky district, a crowd of poor colonists, about 100 people, came to the village council, demanding the distribution of bread.
April 20 in the village. Patience, a crowd of up to 100 people, standing in line for bread, due to insufficient supply, nevertheless demanded to continue issuing.
Shouts were heard from the crowd that it was necessary to kill the secretary of the party committee, the chairman of the district executive committee, etc. The crowd wanted to arrange lynching over the chairman of the board of the cooperative who had come out to calm down. The incident was eliminated when the police intervened.
In Posad Lomanovsky, a demobilized Red Army soldier assembled a gathering without permission, at which he called for the defeat of the RIK and for the murder of the chairman of the village council, saying that for this purpose he would organize a group of 10 people.
April 5 in the village. Demyanovka, Novo‐Serogodovsky district, a crowd of peasants led by kulaks went to the apartment of the authorized RIK in order to ʺkillʺ. Not finding a representative, the crowd came to the mill, where they took apart the flour and grain that was there, trying to deal with the miller.
5. Odessa district. In with. Troitsky, Chervonopovstanskiy district, a crowd of women up to 100 people, having come to the local EPO, demanded torment. Having learned that there was no flour, they tried to beat the secretary of the cell. The incident was eliminated with the help of the police.
In the colony of Condel, a crowd of women of up to 65 people (extremely poor), appearing at the EPO, demanded the distribution of flour, saying that they were ʺdying of hunger.ʺ Those who came were partly satisfied with flour.
In with. Monki of the Chervonopovstanskiy district at the bazaar, a crowd of women, surrounding the RIKʹs authorized sowing campaign, shouted: ʺThe bread was pumped out, the tax was taken away, and now there is no bread for money either.ʺ The whole crowd moved to the building of the village council, demanding the release of bread.
In the Berezovsky district, RIK is besieged daily by a crowd of women with children demanding bread. The crowd offered the RIK chairman to release bread under the threat of breaking the glass.
In with. The poor man gathered a crowd in the silovka of the TarasoShevchenkovsky district and campaigned: “The bread was taken and now we are starving; Letʹs beat someoneʹs head, itʹs enough to mock us.
ʺ
In the colony of Mannheim, a group of poor women went to the RIK and the village council to demand the distribution of flour. When the chairman of the village council wanted to calm the crowd, the latter rushed to beat him.
In the Zeltsy colony of the Friedrich‐Engels district, a crowd of women, having come to the district party committee, demanded the distribution of bread, threatening to strangle the secretary of the party committee.
6. Nikolaevsky district. In Nikolaevsk on April 27, a crowd of women obstructed the export of bread from the bakery. The incident was eliminated with the help of the police.
7. Shevchenko district. In the city of Cherkassy on April 25, a crowd of local residents who came for flour, learning that the latter would be issued only to members of the workersʹ cooperative who contributed a full share, shouted to the regional executive committee, where they demanded to explain the reasons for not dispensing flour.
8. Kherson district. In with. N. Mayachke, Kakhovsky District, on April 12 and 13, near the bakery and flour shop, a crowd of peasants gathered up to 600 people, demanding the release of bread. When a part of the population was satisfied with bread, those who did not receive it directly from the queue moved to the village council, where they demanded the distribution of bread.
In with. Osokrovka Kochkarevsky district on April 12 from the local consumer society was asked to transfer 200 poods grain in with. Vorontsovka.
Women in the number of 250 people, having come in an organized manner to the village council, demanded to leave the grain for the needs of the village, threatening otherwise to resort to violence. The grain was taken out in the evening.
In with. N. Vorontsovka, Kochkarevsky district, from April 11 to 23, women in groups went to the village council, demanding the distribution of bread. On April 23, when an attempt was made to transfer bread to the needy areas, a crowd of about 300 women resisted and the shipment was stopped. In the following days, the population set up posts near the barn every night in order to sound the alarm in case of an attempt to take out bread. If any of the representatives of the authorities went to the postal and telegraph office to speak on the phone, then 3‐4 women were assigned to control the negotiations. Under pressure from the crowd, the village council released 30 poods to the bakery every day. flour, and baked bread was bought not only by the needy, but also by the kulaks who fed them to the cattle. In fact, the power in the village was in the hands of the crowd for five days. The instigators were arrested, including a speculator and a vodka saleswoman.
In the Kherson district during April and May, there were 12 cases of mass demonstrations and ʺbagpipesʺ.
NORTH CAUCASUS
9. Kuban District. On April 28, at the railway station of the Ust‐Labinsk region, a group of 20 women appeared during the shipment of bread products and demanded that the shipment be stopped. The women entered into an agreement with the village carters (about not exporting bread), chose delegates and sent them to the Stansoviet with a demand to stop exporting bread. Representatives of the regional committee eliminated the incident.
In stts. Voronezh, Ust‐Labinsk district on April 28 when trying to transfer 300 poods flour in stts. A crowd of up to 200 people gathered at the Ust‐Labinskaya mill, mostly women, and did not allow the flour to be taken out. The instigator was a disenfranchised merchant.
In stts. Ust‐Labinskaya On April 29, a meeting was held on grain procurement, attended by up to 400 people. The son of a kulak, who spoke to provoke the meeting, said that ʺtwo carriages of bread have been thrown out at the station and it is spoiling.ʺ The women, believing him, gathered a crowd and headed towards the station. At the station, the crowd increased to 300 people. The wives of emigrants (two) and the wife of a kulak actively spoke out, proposing to burn down the warehouse. The authorized OGPU and the chairman of the VIC with difficulty managed to persuade the audience to disperse.
On April 30, in the same village, a crowd of men shouted at the procurement commission: ʺWhy did you come, leave, you are deceiving us.ʺ A member of the village council shouted: ʺI will go against the authorities with arms, and there are many of them.ʺ In the Ust‐Labinsk region in March, four mass demonstrations on the basis of grain procurements were registered.
In stts. Khmelnitskaya on April 28, a crowd of poor people of up to 70 people surrounded the barn from which it was supposed to take out the grain, and for two days was on duty, preventing the export.
In stts. Olginskaya crowd of women, incited by a fist, tried to beat the pre‐village council. In stts. Bryukhovetskaya before the May 1 holiday, long queues gathered at the bakery. The crowd, incited by kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements, tried to beat up a member of the Stansoviet, threatening, “if you don’t give us bread, we’ll go to smash the authorities”.
In stts. Brinkovskaya On April 29, a crowd of up to 500 people gathered at the building of the Stansoviet, 50% of them were women, who shouted at the Representative Council: ʺTraitor, where is our bread?ʺ The meeting was open, speakers were: a poor man, a church head and a former village chieftain. As a result, a decision was made: ʺBread from the stanitsa should not be taken out, having ensured uninterrupted supply of the stanitsa, and to employ the unemployed.ʺ
On the hut. Aleksandrovsky on April 29, a crowd of 50 women did not allow the export of flour intended for transfer to areas in need. From one of the wagons, women pulled the loaded sacks, distributing flour among themselves for 1 ruble. 50 kopecks for a pood.
On April 30, a group of women came to the village council, demanding that they hand over the keys to the farmʹs shop. The initiators of the speeches were eight women, of whom one was wealthy, two were middle peasants, one was the wife of a former merchant, and the rest were poor.
April 30 in stc. East near KKOV, a crowd of women of up to 30 people gathered, demanding the immediate distribution of bread. A prosperous grain grower, inciting the crowd, said: ʺLook where the communists have brought us, they want the poor to die of hunger.ʺ The widow of the red partisan shouted: ʺIf we all get together, we will disperse your entire committee, we will kill you and take away the flour.ʺ
10. Armavir District. In the Sheremetyevskaya colony, at the end of April, a meeting of women was convened in the apartment of a local podkulachnik at the initiative of an ardent Stundist, where a decision was made: ʺDo not allow grain to be shipped from the barns of agricultural partnerships and resist, defending yourself with anything.ʺ When they arrived to ship the grain, a crowd of women gathered and resisted. Only after a conversation with the crowd of the secretary of the district committee of the CPSU (b) was it possible to make the shipment.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 3 to the April 1928 survey
SHEETS
Flyers calling for an economic boycott
1. Louvain district. On the doors of the Romodanovsky village council of the Mirgorodsky district was pasted a leaflet with the following content 175: “Seize Ukraine. Shanovne comradeship, why not take over your life, see the kind of bonds unanimously and do not carry anything to the bazaar, manage, as you can, not sell anything, especially kliba, because the look of hunger is lost; I will suvoro follow them, I will sell khlib and everything in the bazaar, and we will accept peace of mind to people and punish them with great punishment, I will bury a ryatunka for you and our mother Ukraine. Shiriy Ukrainets ʺ.
2. Kuban District. In stts. Timashevskaya on April 17 at 8 oʹclock In the morning, on the fence of the Ascension Church, a plaque was found, to which was attached an appeal with the following content: “Grain grower. If you want to be the master of your labor, you want to free yourself from the yoke of the Bolsheviks, from their tyranny, beatings and prison: 1) this is only for yourself, 2) not a single furrow, not a sheaf of threshing punks, 3) not a single laborer, 4) carry less to the market, eat more yourself, 5) sort out the shares from the robbery, 6) this is the guarantee of your liberation, 7) less fear, more patience. Remember fall allocation. Krasnodar Bureau ʺ.
Leaflets calling for action against Soviet power. 3. Nizhny Novgorod province. March 29 in the village. Zenets Lyskovsky u. On the wall of a shop in the Zenetsky consumer society, buyers found an appeal with the following content: “Appeal. Peasants get ready for the armed overthrow of Soviet power and the rule of the communists. We do not need communism, it leads us to destruction, so, get ready for the destruction and overthrow of the power of the Soviets and the rule of the communists. ʺ
4. Voronezh province. April 12 in the village. Fucking Bobrovsky u. up to 30 proclamations were pasted on the fences: “Dear comrades. We, the group, appeal to you with a request ‐ wake up, wake up your eyes from a long sleep, we appeal to you with such a request, down with the darkness, pay attention to how the communists strangle us, take away bread without the insight of conscience, leave us hungry and cold; how they obscure us, that the peasants donate grain voluntarily, but they take it in an impudent way, they themselves go to the barns and order all the grain to be transported to the state. Stand up, peasant, with your chest in front of the communists, donʹt let us take away the grain. The hour will soon come, and we, the groups, together with you, will strangle and hang the communists, take care of the new fighters for the peasantry for the future. This group is fighting not for the liberation of the communists, but for the liberation of the peasantry and the oppressed people. Long live the group of victorious communists. Down with the robbers of the communists and the oppressors of the peasantry. ʺ
5. Kuban District. March 23 in stts. Brinkovskaya PrimorskoAkhtyrsky district on the fence of the apartment of the authorized RIK was found an anonymous note‐proclamation, written in a hard‐to‐read handwriting, illiterate, with the following content: “Comrades, peasants and peasant women. Enough to endure, the bread is taken away, sent somewhere, and you fools are silent; it is necessary to organize a Cossack gathering, to get up, take druchki 176, and we will give help. ʺ
6. Salsky district. On April 17, in the city of Salsk (at the house of the Soviets), an anonymous letter was dropped into the mailbox, written by hand, with the following content: ʺOn your noteʺ Attention to the village correspondent ‐ how the party cell conducts the decisions of the 15th Congress ʺ. After the departure of the peopleʹs oppressors and bloodsuckers from Moscow, the party in the countryside robbed the peasants from their grain surpluses first of all, and not only the surplus, but also took the sowing crop from many, then self‐taxation allegedly invented by the peasants, and not by the gang that sat in Moscow, then bonds in enforced, which forced the majority to sell the last cow. And when they were robbed, then they begin to make excuses that some workers acted rudely and forced the peasants to buy bonds. And how conscience is enough for our alcoholic bandit and bloodsucker of the peopleʹs Rykov, sitting with his pack of oppressors of the people in Moscow, and you, all the bastard, sit on the peopleʹs neck in the provinces and districts and lie endlessly, but do not think that your kingdom will have no end. The time will come when the whole party bastard will not find a place for himself in our vast Russia, all that is needed is war, and your kingdom will end. The last three campaigns have undermined faith in you and opened the eyes of the people. There is no need to write about the holiday of the first furrow in the village, because the peasant knows what the peasantry should do without us. I donʹt find it necessary to describe the village councils to you, because this is your gangster organization. It is not worth writing about the poor peasants, because the poor, as the poor were, so in poverty they will have to die, and you need one, and the more the vagabond, the more support you will have. I am also a poor man who never had anything, but I see that there is almost no difference between the landowner in the middle of the 19th century, the state farms and the komkhozes, then the landowner had slaves, from whom it was possible to escape somewhere into the woods, but from you, devils, there is no salvation in the tundra; Lapps and Samoyeds177 and those you find to rip off taxes. And therefore the state is the most evil exploiter of the people, and your whole goal is for everyone to be the slaves of the state, and you, the all‐Russian gang of the peopleʹs stranglers, i.e. Communists, you will soon tell the people that the state is you. You have separated the church from the state, and at the same time you climb there with your pigʹs snout, there are rolls and want to drag the people into disbelief, but the people see that you are wolves in sheepʹs clothing and are sending your preachers of anti‐Christian doctrine, i.e. antichrists, over whom the people mock; and when a comrade protested ‐ why laugh, because I came to you to open the light to you, the citizens replied that we do not need such light and that you can, comrade, clear the hall and not infect the atmosphere. And here are the results of your actions in the village, and you think that the people do not know what kind of benefactors you are for yourself, so that the breeches were wider and that it would be better and fatter to devour the piece taken from the people. Concluding my message, I am still sure that no matter how gentlemen of the situation you are, you still don’t dare to write my message on the pages of The Countryside Plowman. Peasant hut. Yesyreva Ivan Beorbulya ʺ.
7. Trinity District (Ural). In the village A leaflet was found in the Suktelan Steppe region: “Announcement to all citizens. In the name of father and son and holy spirit, amen. Down with Soviet power, return Romanov to the tsarʹs generation. Under the tsar we lived, as many people could sow, as many cattle were kept, it was calm, there were no taxes. The Soviet government is stripping the last skin of the peasants and drinking blood. I neglect Soviet power. Down with, down, down, all amicably for the Soviet power, down with her, so that there is no. Amen. Amenʺ.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 4 to the April 1928 survey
SEEDING CAMPAIGN
Disadvantages of collectivization
Organization of kulak‐prosperous collective farms. Promoting them to the apparatus.
1. Kursk province. In the 1st B. Well Society of Stakanovskaya Vol. Shchigrovsky u. fist hut. Isaev‐Verkh organized a collective farm of kulaks and the wealthy. One middle peasant in a conversation with fellow villagers about this collective farm said: “What kind of collective it is, who enters, who organizes it. One is a well‐to‐do peasant, in 1926 he drove the cooperatives, all the time he keeps the land of the poor on enslaving conditions, the second is a kulak, whose son was an officer in the White Army, in the pre‐war period had up to 10,000 rubles in the bank, the third is a well‐to‐do who is engaged in exploitation their fellow villagers, it is these citizens who will create a team, how can this be allowed. They only hinder societyʹs transition to multi‐field. ʺ
2. Moscow province. Leninsky u. In the village. Gusty, on the initiative of a wealthy handicraftsman, in order to seize the best land from society, a collective is organized from 13 wealthy farms. The charter has already been registered with the MOZO and the land cutting should take place soon. The poor are passive. The VIC does not take any measures.
3. Nikolaevsky district. In the Ochakovsky district there is a kulakprosperous artel on shares ʺPchelaʺ. Two members of the artel were deprived of voting rights for exploitation. Each member of the artel has 30‐40 dessiatins per yard. sowing and from 4 to 30 head of livestock, two members of the artel have their own threshers and sets of agricultural machinery. Despite the resolution passed a year ago on the liquidation of this artel, the okrZU gave it a loan for sowing campaign. The further existence of the artel and the receipt of a loan refers exclusively to a favorable attitude, head. rayZU Podhaets.
4. Kamensk district. The Pankrushikhinsky credit partnership released two seed drills from the machineʹs preferential fund and 1000 poods without a deposit to the Zadonsk machine partnership, consisting of kulaks and the wealthy. pure wheat. To the machine partnership ʺGet up, poor manʺ, which consists almost exclusively of the poor, the district agronomist, without approval from the RIK, reduced the loan for machine supply by 300 rubles, to the machine partnership ʺTrudovikʺ reduced the issue of loans for grass sowing by 800 rubles.
In the village Tula organized a machine partnership of 15 well‐to‐do householders, three of them all the time engaged in speculating in livestock. The machines available in the partnership are not in common use, but each has its own. The partnership has applied for pure‐bred seeds and is allowed a loan despite having enough of its seeds. The partnership hopes to get a better piece of land and then disperse.
5. Maikop district. The Dondukovskoe Agricultural Partnership issued a loan to two prosperous collective farms, 51 rubles each. 12 kopecks to each. The great agricultural partnerships, distributing loans among the collective farms, favored the kulak‐middle peasant collective farms, not paying sufficient attention to the poor peasants.
In stts. Gubskoy organized a livestock association of kulak, prosperous and middle peasant farms. In the Great Agricultural Partnership there is no accurate accounting of collective farms, it does not know their social composition and condition. Owing to the weak work of the partnership for the collectivization of farms, there is contamination among the collectives by the presence of the kulak‐wealthy element in them.
6. Kurgan District. In with. The walrus of the Bakushi region organized an agricultural labor artel of 11 householders, out of 11 poor farms ‐ 3, the rest are kulak and wealthy. The organizer of the artel is a well‐todo man who says to his peasants who have joined the artel: “I am a former party member and I know well the policy of the party and the Soviet government. The Soviet government decided to cut off the kulaks and prosperous peasants and at the expense of them raise the well‐being of the poor, you need to think about this issue and you can find a way out of this. Now, if we organize into a partnership, we will not lose anything from this: they will look at us as a collective and will not endure any harassment, as we do now, we will not. This means that we will only get benefits from the artel. ʺ
7. Novosibirsk district. In with. Borovlyanka of the Karpysak region, the kulak Poluektov and the former policeman Sirotin created a machine partnership of 10 well‐to‐do people and two poor people.
Weak assistance from village councils and zemborgans to poor and middle peasant collective farms. Normal attitude towards collectivization. 8. Tambov province. In with. Kunya
Novosiltsevskaya par. on the initiative of 8 poor people, a group was organized for collective cultivation of the land and a charter has already been requested from the VIC. The chairman of the VIC, having formalized the team, automatically introduced the ninth member of the village council member, whom he entrusted with further leadership. The latter, in conversation with the members of the collective, began to agitate for the liquidation of the collective, declaring: ʺUnfortunately for us, out of 8 people, we have a lot of idlers, but there are no funds.ʺ As a result, the team fell apart.
9. Salsky district. Vorontsovo‐Nikolaevsky area. Since the announcement of the sowing campaign in the district on March 23, 27 partnerships have been formalized and registered in the district ZO, most of them for joint cultivation of the land. In with. Bogorodskoye could create more collective farms than they are organized, but from the conversations of the population it is clear that they are little familiar with the procedure for organizing collective farms, and the village councils do not know what documents are needed for the district ZO at the time of registration. The newly created poor collective farms do not receive loans, which may lead to disintegration. In with. Razvilny created a collective to cultivate the land, but thanks to the wrong approach to the members of the latter, which was expressed in the collection of all property and products in one yard, discord and disputes between the members turned out and the collective disintegrated.
10. Kungurskiy district. There is a desire to organize into collectives for joint cultivation of the land. There is a lack of agronomic power. The existing agronomists are unable to satisfy the needs of the population and fully serve. Cases of dissatisfaction with agronomists for their inactivity and immobility became more frequent. For example, a middle peasant in Manchazhsky district, at the address of regional agronomists, says: “For three years, not one of them has deigned to leave for the dark corners of the district. Whether for their own hunt, tired of lying, or at the suggestion of RIK they leave, but these exits are just skating. They will drink tea with jam at the fist on the top floor, the authorized representative will assure that they have been, and they go on like that; Why do we need such parasites, why do we need them, and without them ʺleadersʺ we will be able to live. We need agronomists, but not the Yorkshire breed 178, but simple ones, who would not lie in the box, but were with us so that we could see them at least once every two months. ʺ Members of the newly organized collective in the village. Duvan of the Podvoloshinsky village council of the Berezovsky district several times came to the district for an agronomist in order to get an explanation of the goals and objectives of the team and asked to go to the place, but the agronomist did not come. A similar situation exists in a number of other places in the district.
11. Kuznetsk district. In the village. Gusavitina, Leninsky district, for collective plowing and sowing, an agricultural cartel was organized from 52 poor and middle peasant households. The RIK approved the application of the artel for seeds, but when the time came to receive the seeds, the artels refused this and suggested reducing the number of the artel to 33 yards, which was done. When the artel applied for seeds for the second time, RIK again proposed to reduce the number of members to 10, which was also done, but the artel still did not receive seeds. Extremely dissatisfied members of the artel say about this: “They pumped out bread from the village, they promised to give us seeds, but the opposite happened ‐ they cheated us; even if they had not promised earlier, it would have been possible to buy, but now there is no time for this, and there is nowhere to buy. ʺ
12. Barabinsk district. The Tatarsky District Crossing Committee, which was tasked with organizing three collectives, has not done anything yet, doing completely different, non‐Krestkomovsky work (setting up pubs, canteens). The situation is even worse with the organization of the poor collective in the village. Bogdanovka of the Tatar region, where 12 poor people decided to organize a team, about which they submitted an application to the Tatar agronomist and went to him personally. The agronomist promised to send an instructor to formalize the team, but two months have passed and no one has come yet, about which the poor man Meshankin (a member of this group) said: “The state only writes about collectivization, but in reality there is nothing. Our organization is poor, so the agronomist does not come to us, but often travels to the village. Itʹs bad where the rich men are. ʺ
13. Novosibirsk District. The poor man who spoke at the meeting in the village. Bridges of the Legostaevsky district said: “It is always done this way: as the thunder breaks out, then we begin to build all kinds of collectives and do all kinds of things to ridicule people. Is that how it is done ‐ once or twice and itʹs done, as if this is the case ‐ spat and itʹs over. We write a resolution ‐ and a partnership is organized. Whom do you want to organize? Poor fellow? So, it was necessary to prepare her in winter, it was necessary to explain to her what was the matter. We have a reading room, money is spent on it, but there is no benefit. We will gather a partnership, the poor will think ‐ we will organize, they give seeds on preferential terms, and then they disperse, because they are not prepared for this business. ʺ
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
A source. ʺTop Secretʺ: Lubyanka to Stalin on the situation in the country (1922‐1934), v. 6, 1928, Moscow, 2004
APPENDIX 5 to the April 1928 survey
BAKERY
SIBERIA
Perversion of the class and party line. 1. Kamensk district. Commissioner for grain procurement in the village. Chernovka summoned everyone to the village council, even the poor, to whom he said: ʺTake the bags in the cooperatives and hand them over without talking, and then you will come to me to check in.ʺ
In the village. Bukreevo, authorized for grain procurement, to the objection of some of the middle peasants summoned to the village council that they would be forced, if the required amount of grain was delivered, to reduce sowing, replied: “At least you’re not this one for me, but now, take it.
2. Novosibirsk district. In the villages of Gorevka and Chertanovo, a representative of the Gustovsky Regional Executive Committee arrested a number of middle peasants for 10‐12 hours and under threat of execution, showing a revolver, offered them to take out bread.
3. Kuznetsk district. In the village. The Ursk representative of the RIK on grain procurement forced one middle peasant to take out 33 poods of seed wheat, saying: “If you don’t take it out today, we’ll send the police.”
4. Barnaul district. In all the villages of the Mamontovsky district, an authorized district executive committee gave orders to the chairmen of the village councils ‐ all those who refuse to buy bonds of a peasant loan and export grain should be taken to the police for trial. At the meetings, the authorized representative to the peasantsʹ statement about the impossibility of taking out the required amount of grain said: ʺWe will arrest and strangle.ʺ
In a number of villages in the district, the grain procurement commissioners summoned the middle peasants and the poor and demanded surplus surplus, even if there were five poods
Attitude towards the export of bread. 5. Krasnoyarsk District. The middle peasants, in connection with the increased pressure on the holders of grain surpluses, say: ʺIt is not order ‐ to arrest for your good, how soon these shock workers will run out, they beat and beat everyone on the peasantʹs neck, took all the bread and took it abroad.ʺ
6. Barnaul district. Part of the poor, fearing a hunger for grain in connection with the export of grain, says: ʺSince the wealthy are ruined, they rake out grain, then we will have to die, no one is selling us a single pound of bread.ʺ
7. Barabinsk district. Some poor people, expressing dissatisfaction with the increased pressure on the holders of grain surpluses, say: ʺIf the kulak does not have bread, then the poor also will not have it.ʺ
8. Slavgorod District. In connection with the interruptions in the supply of grain, part of the poor, expressing dissatisfaction with grain procurements, say: “So we tried to find the surplus of grain from our kulaks, we thought that when we didn’t have, they would give us, but it turned out not like that, now even die of hunger ʺ.
9. Kamensk district. In the village. Ustyuzhanino at the bazaar due to the lack of bread, some poor people shouted: “If there is no flour at the next bazaar, then we will come and sort out the cooperation; let the cooperators get bread wherever they want; there is nothing else to do, if you sit hungry, you will decide on everything and go to the pogroms.
In a number of villages, there are cases when the poor walk around the village for several days in search of a pound of bread and to no avail, since the kulaks refuse to sell bread to the poor. In this regard, some poor people say: “We will try to find out who has bread, we will gather 5‐6 people and scoop out all the bread from the barn; if the owner resists, then weʹll lay him down and thatʹs it. We will kill two or three, so the authorities will send bread to the village.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 6 to the April 1928 survey
(EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS]
UZBEKISTAN
Female campaign
1. Samarkand District. Thanks to the agitation of the clergyman in the Bakhshi‐Tepin village council of the Yukary‐Dargom region, the organized family circles stopped their activities.
In the Zanaka quarter (Samarkand), representatives of the clergy are persuading women not to take off their veils and obey the orders of the Soviet government, while they are convincing that Soviet power will soon be destroyed. As a result of this agitation, women in this quarter again began to walk closed, and work in family circles was falling apart.
As a result of the Bayskoy agitation in the Kuk‐Mechet quarter, family circles have not gathered for three months.
2. Tashkent district. Deputy the chairman of the Tashkent okrsotsstrakh, an old party member, who is also the chairman of the “hujum” commission of the 4th polling station (Tashkent), categorically forbade his wife to go out in the open.
In the village of Kibray (Tashokrug), a family evening was organized, which was attended exclusively by the responsible workers; farmers were not allowed for the evening; For this purpose, the cell compartment was placed at the door of the policeman. One farm laborer said: ʺA policeman pushed me out now, what kind of evening is it when the farmers are not allowed to see him.ʺ This evening was attended by Europeans, at the request of the latter to translate the report into Russian, the department rudely shouted: ʺThis meeting is for Uzbek women, if you do not want to sit, then vacate the premises, but there will be no translation.ʺ
The chairman of the union of woodworkers (st. Tashkent city) tried to rape the wife of a farmer (who opened).
A member of the control commission of the okrkomol in mah [alla] Katta‐Terek (Tashkent city) summoned the ulemists 179 and invited them to reveal their wives, otherwise threatening to draw up acts on them.
3. Samarkand District. The head of the family circle in the 1st and 2nd quarter of Devasi (Samarkand) has not held meetings of the circles for several months. When asked to convene a family circle, he replies that he has no time.
The activities of the “hujum” commission of the Kalandar‐Khanin part (Samarkand) froze, the party members did not reveal (part of) their wives, and some did not do any work among women. Family circles in the neighborhoods, due to the inactivity of the asset, are not successful.
Family circles in the Urgut district (Samarkand district) are not established, only five percent of the party members have opened their wives, the Komsomol members do not attach importance to the cause of emancipation, the district engineering department is not efficient.
4. Andijan district. On the proposal of the members of the village council, Gildardau to open his wife, the pre‐village council said: “I will not open my wife, as it is contrary to Sharia,” and with these words he threw the seal of the village council.
A member of the board of the “Senaat” 180 union (Andijan) categorically refused to open his wife. Following his example, the grassroots workers also did not reveal their wives.
5. Bukhara district. The head of the Chelangu Rometan district, together with a fellow villager, tried to rape a citizen Rajabova (who opened).
The secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol of the Karakul region at a meeting of women forcibly pulled off the veils from the last.
The head of the Yangi‐Bazar Council of the Vobkent region punished the vakils of 181 subordinate villages: ʺIf a commission for the emancipation of women comes, then drive it away from the village and do not hold any womenʹs meetings.ʺ
6. Fergana district. At a meeting in the village. Yukary‐Almaz, the commissioner for the womenʹs campaign, said: “I am against the emancipation of women, and therefore I will not open my wife or the wives of the inhabitants of my quarter, as it is against Sharia. Although we were given land and money, we will not open it anyway, it is better to return everything back to the authorities. ʺ
Members of the party in the village of Dangara, Kokand district, instead of their wives, brought the wives of their acquaintances, whom they discovered.
7. Samarkand District. After the end of the womenʹs meeting in the Suzan‐Garan part of the women, leaving the meeting on the Registan Square, they began to remove the burqa from the women who were passing by. Here they burned these burqas (April 3). On April 4, the same women walked the streets of the old city, forcibly removing the veil from all the women who were covered.
8. Bukhara district. April 8 p. All over the Gijduvan region, the burqas were removed for up to 10,000 women. In addition, 96 women were opened in the village councils of Cherokhinsky, Rabat‐Tunchinsky and Khayrabad.
In the Gijduvan region, there is a desire for education on the part of women, in connection with which they are increasingly submitting applications to the womenʹs department and the district party committee for the provision of clubs to the female activists of the mosques of Gijduvan.
9. Zeravgian District. In the city of Kermine, in the villages of Mazar, Mir‐Bazar, Argun, Bashir, Makhram, Daury‐Kurgan, Kiyat, Tali‐Kara, 1150 women opened.
At the womenʹs meeting held in Kermine, there were many women who wanted to take off the veil, but due to the fact that there was no order at the meeting, noise, etc., women who wanted to take off the veil refused.
10. Samarkand District. In the village of Buzy, Yukary‐Dargom region, a discovered Uzbek woman was killed. The corpse of the latter has not yet been found. There is an assumption that she was killed by relatives for having thrown off her veil.
Bai, who lives in the Yangi‐Khayrabad quarter of Samarkand, beats his wife for attending meetings and school.
A resident of the Mubarak quarter (Samarkand) beats his wife for taking off her veil and attending a family circle.
11. Fergana district. A resident of the village of Sary‐Kurgan, Buvaida district, beats the latter severely for his wifeʹs intention to take off the veil. In addition, he forces her to beat his second wife and son, and the latter repeatedly carried out this order.
12. Bukhara district. A resident of Guzar 182 Khoja‐Zainutdin (Bukhara), in order to avoid the discovery of his wife, poisoned her with poison.
A resident of the Khoja‐Zainutdin quarter (Bukhara), for opening on March 8, was poisoned by her mother‐in‐law. The victim died three days later.
A resident of the village of Rukhambat, Bukhara district, beat his wife to unconsciousness for revealing herself.
A resident of the Yukary‐Dzhandar village of the Rometan region beat a woman who invited his wife to a meeting with a stick. There were three similar cases in the villages of the Bukhara district.
13. Khojand district. An anonymous letter was planted in the village of Auchi‐Kalach in the Khojent region, in which it threatened to interrupt all activists for the liberation of women, as well as those who would allow their wives to open up.
14. Kashka‐Darinsky district. On the night of March 24, unknown bandits took away the newly discovered Uzbek woman from the
Shakarters village (Shakhrisabz district). Until now, its location has not been established. She is presumed to have been killed. This fact greatly alarmed the women who opened up in the Shakhrizab region.
15. Andijan district. In the village of Gurkurau of the Tashkichik village council, Boltabaevʹs husband Tokhta Bibi was killed. The latter was a member of the Tashkichik village council.
16. Tashkent district. On April 3, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Uzbekistan, Aman Islyamov, chaired a general meeting of women makh [alla] Tar‐Kucha of the Kukchi part of Tashkent. Badal Khoja Aka spoke in detail about the harmfulness of the burqa. When, in order to speak again, he asked Islyamov to speak, the latter hit him in the face with his fist and began to kick him. Then the women got scared and fled from the meeting, jumping out of the windows, some pregnant women fell ill. On this occasion, many women submitted a statement to the regional party committee, in which they indicated: ʺWe are going to a meeting, and our husbands are beaten because of the burqa, now we will never go to meetings, even if they cut off their legs.ʺ
KYRGIZSTAN
Female campaign
17. Chui canton. All L. Kechi‐Keben, a meeting on womenʹs day did not take place, as the clergy and bai‐manapa led the agitation, saying: ʺIf women go to the meetings, they will become prostitutes, they will renounce the Muslim religion.ʺ Through this agitation, husbands forbade their wives to go to meetings.
In with. Shamshi bai, the head of the Kaindy 183 clan, on the day of March 8, suggested that men, of a kind, not let women into the meeting. As a result, only two women from the Kainda clan attended the meeting.
In Tokmak, at a womenʹs meeting, three Uzbek women took off their veil.
18. Osh canton. In connection with the ongoing campaign to remove the burqa in Shar‐kishlak, in the Yuldash‐Khan teahouse, rumors spread that all neighborhood committees were given a timetable ‐ to take all women out into the street without a burqa.
In Osh parish. Commissioner Ahmed Ali Riza Akhunov, under the threat of prosecution, forced husbands to bring their wives to the meeting and take off their veil. On March 11, in the old city, Riza Akhunov took off the burqa from two passing women. On March 16, Riza Akhunov detained four women at a bazaar in the old city through a policeman, took off their veil and immediately tore them up. On March 17, Riza Akhunov, together with Khakimdzhan Talipov, removed the veil from Sayd Tulebaevʹs wife. On March 18, at 9 oʹclock in the morning at the bazaar, Riza Akhunov approached a woman, began to ask her whose wife she was and tried to forcibly take off her veil, at this time her husband approached and raised a scandal.
On March 21, Riza Akhunov detained one woman in a burqa at the market and locked up in a shop, and in the evening he raped her with two of his comrades.
In Osh parish. all party and Komsomol members were invited to bring their wives to meetings on March 8. The City Council has written an attitude to all neighborhood committees to invite all women to the meeting. Quarter committees sent women to meetings by force.
At the meeting, member of the commission Riza Akhunov said that if anyone does not take off his veil, he will be fined 50 rubles. and arrest for six months. Riza Akhunov said: ʺIf you see a woman walking in a burqa, then you can take pictures of her yourself.ʺ Another member of the commission, Abdurakhmanov Baba‐Raim, intimidated citizen Umikhtan Atabayeva with prosecution for removing the burqa, and she, fearing this, under Abdurakhmanovʹs compulsion, came to his apartment, where he raped her together with Akhunov.
In the old city of Osh, policeman Ahmed Almhalfa, guard artyk 184, several party members and 2‐3 women detained women passing under the veil and forcibly removed their veil. The population, outraged by this, wanted to file a complaint with the authorities, but a resident of the village of Dekhkanguzar, a Tatar, did not advise doing this, saying: “The power — mutagam 185 (swindlers) issues a law on the voluntary removal of the burqa, but does the opposite, so there is no need to complain to such authorities, it is better Complain to God. ʺ
An employee of the administrative department Sibirjanov Umarjan is against removing the burqa and does not reveal his wife. The same is
observed on the part of the bailiff Adibayev.
In Osh parish. Inhabitants of the village Nariman Khusainbai MizarAlimov and Khaidarbai Dadabaev with policeman Akbar‐AliMukhamed Toktaev tore off the burqa from two passing Uzbek women, from the wife of Muhamed Palvan Sadykov and Fazil Tashaksev, and carried them away. In the same volost in Kizyl‐kishlak in the Bazarbai teahouse, a resident of the kishlak Nariman Bayzak 186 Mirza Tashkaziyev said: ʺThe communists forcibly take off the veils from women to see if they are beautiful, and they will make a prostitute out of a beautiful woman.ʺ Tashkaziyev said that Zakirdzhanov Umar, Salikhov and Kasymov Abdurazak forcibly removed the veil from one woman, gave her drink and raped her.
In the old city of Osh, during the campaign for the emancipation of women, the leaders of the forced removal of the burqa were the residents of Kizyl‐kishlak Akhmed‐Khalfa, Barutdin Musayev, Talipjan Tamiljanov, Yusupjan Miraizov and of the women ‐ the sister of the Sultan 187 Archamazar 188 , known to everyone as a prostitute. All of them are brought to justice through the prosecutor.
KAZAKSTAN
Distortion of the party line in the placement of a peasant loan. 19. Akmola province. In stts. Shchuchye of Kokchetavsky u. the control figure for the cross‐loan is 5,000 rubles. The loan is placed in most cases on a semi‐compulsory basis. The village is divided into districts by the village council. An authorized representative is assigned to each district. The latter places the bonds of the loan in this way: he summons the kulaks and hands them bonds for a certain amount on the condition that they spread them at all costs. The kulaks, fearing that the village council will not take back the remaining bonds from them, distribute them in the following way: some kulaks tell the peasants: ʺThese bonds must be distributed without fail,ʺ others, not wanting to go around the houses, pay the village council money and take bonds for themselves ...
In the same place, credit partnerships obligatory impose cross‐loan bonds on members‐shareholders applying for a loan to purchase a horse or a cow; he is allowed a certain amount, but, depending on the permits for the issuance of the amount, he is credited in addition with the amount on the bonds of the peasant loan with an appropriate installment plan.
In a similar way, the loan is distributed by the Katurkul village council of Shchuchin vol. and in stts. Zereida Peasant parish
20. And the Ktyubinskaya province. Authorized for the implementation of a peasant loan in villages No. 5 and 6 of Chelkar vol. and the district (a former member of the VKP), being in the Berchugur aul, demanded a horse and a cart for himself, but since the horse was not in the aul, he was provided with a camel. On the road, the camel fell, after which he invited the poor to unharness the camel and carry him in a sleigh. Poor people in the number of five people harnessed to the sleigh and drove him to the next village.
Speeches in connection with crop failure and grain crisis. 21. Akmola province. In with. Rodionovsky Revolutionary Vol. Akmol [inskiy] u. up to 127 poor householders are starving, which has led to isolated cases of poor people attempting suicide. In case of dissatisfaction of the poor with food grain, all the semomaterial brought into the village will be stolen.
A similar situation is noted in the villages of the Rozhdestvenskoye Revolutionary Vol. and Kiev United Vol. the same county.
A group of poor people with. Rozhdestvensky came to the village council and said: “There is not a crumb of bread, we are starving. They contacted the VIC; they do not give us. If you donʹt, too, then we will have to break into the cooperativeʹs barn and take away the bread, and then do whatever you want with us. ʺ Selkrestkom gave them the last bread, which lasted only for a week. There are a number of demands for satisfaction with bread.
In with. In Kiev, deaths were recorded due to hunger.
Cases of hunger also take place in the villages of Pushkinskoye, Makinsky Volost. Kokchetavsky u. and Mariinsky Soviet Vol. Atbasar district, where daily groups of the poor come to the village councils demanding bread, expressing dissatisfaction with the local authorities. Due to the lack of bread, local authorities cannot satisfy the need for bread.
22. Aktobe province. A crowd of about 100 poor people gathered at the building of the Temir VIC demanding bread. Having failed to achieve any results, they all went to the PEC building with the same requirements. The PEC also did not satisfy their demands. Many, expressing strong dissatisfaction, said: ʺThis is not Soviet power, but worse than under Nicholas, now life is worse than in 1921ʺ.
NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS
Border land and pasture disputes. 23. Kabarda‐Ossetia. Arrived at the scene of the conflict that took place on April 13 and 14 this year. on the border between Kabarda and Ossetia land [land] area Balakhta, the representative of North Ossetia Deputy. the chairman of the regional executive committee, without waiting for the arrival of representatives of the Kabardian regional executive committee, spent in the village. Lower Urukh general meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the M.‐Kabardinsky district executive committee. At the meeting, the representative of Ossetia announced to the latter that, according to his information, the chairman of the regional executive committee of Kabarda telegraphed to the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee about the events that had taken place, to which he received an answer from the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee that the plot of land was actually still controversial and the issue of it would be resolved in the near future Peopleʹs Commissariat for Land, as a result of which plowing of land on the disputed plot is prohibited until the conflict is resolved.
The Kabardian regional executive committee categorically denies the statements of the representative of Ossetia, claiming that the deputy. The chairman of the regional executive committee of Kabarda, who was at the time of the incident in Moscow, raised this issue again to the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee, from which he again received confirmation that the disputed area was finally assigned to Kabarda. The plowing of the disputed area by the Kabardians continues, the Ossetian population, without hindering them, keeps on the sidelines, waiting for the authorities to intervene.
24. Chechnya. Due to the tightness of land, Chechens drive out a significant part of their sheep from the upland regions annually in spring and summer 189 on flat lands, mainly on the lands of the former Cossack region, now the Novo‐Chechensky district. The Georgians are also driving their sheep here from Tushetia (neighboring Chechnya), who usually conclude contracts for the lease of pasture plots. As a rule, Chechen mountaineers do not observe this order, grazing their livestock without permission. This circumstance constantly leads to conflicts with flat auls, which are forced to maintain protection on their lands to protect their interests. On this basis, on April 21‐22, in the area of the villages of Samashki and Zakan‐Yurt, the first conflicts this year took place. April 21 security with. Samashki, who discovered a large batch of mountain sheep on her site, invited the mountain shepherds to immediately leave the pastures. The latter refused to comply with the proposal of the guards, as a result of which a fight ensued. as a result of which four shepherds and three guards were injured. The next day, a group of minors, who arrived with the mountaineers, beat a woman with sticks, trying to drive them out of the pasture due to their refusal to pay for the use of the latter. Returning to the village, the beaten woman raised the alarm and said that they had tried to rape her, which greatly agitated the population, the male part of which was about to leave for the field to deal with the mountaineers. However, the local authorities managed to prevent a new massacre, arrested the shepherds who had beaten the woman, promising to recover losses from the highlanders to investigate the case. April 21 p. in with. Zakan‐Yurt, an incident of a different nature occurred. One of the mountaineers of the resettlement village near the aul (formed in 1926‐1927 for the landless highlanders) sheltered a sheep breeder who arrived with a herd and drove the sheep into the aulʹs gardens. The local pre‐village council, having appeared to him, suggested that the sheep breeder immediately drive the herd out of the gardens, in response to which he was beaten. By order of the chairman of the okrIK, the participants in the brawl were arrested, but when they were sent to the okrug center, a significant crowd of displaced mountaineers attacked the police convoy and, despite the latterʹs shooting (upward), beat off the arrested. The indigenous population of the village of Zakan‐Yurt is extremely outraged by the behavior of the immigrants, and the part of the aul, akin to the beaten‐up village council, threatens them with serious reprisals. The incident created extremely tense and hostile relations between the two camps, threatening new conflicts for the most insignificant reasons.
A representative of the regional executive committee was sent to the area of incidents for a detailed examination of all the causes of conflicts arising here on the ground. In addition, the regional executive committee put up for discussion the issue of measures to regulate the relationship between the mountaineers‐migrants and the population of flat villages.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov