Review of the political state of the USSR

Review of the political state of the USSR in January 1928

Top secret

ʺʺ February 1928

At the same time, an overview of the political state of the USSR for the month of January 1928 is being transmitted. The review was compiled on the basis of state information data from the Information Department of the OGPU, supplemented by materials from the OGPU departments: Transport, Secret (clergy and anti‐Soviet parties), Counterintelligence (banditry).

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

The PP of the OGPU and the 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 CP (b).

When reviewing 7 applications and one table.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser

Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Alekseev

GENERAL BY WORKERS

WORKERS

Renewal of collective agreements. The main points that stood in the center of attention of the working masses in the reporting period were: the renegotiation of collective agreements, the transition of individual factories to a 7‐hour working day and the question of supplying workersʹ districts. The collective bargaining campaign, which is taking place with significant workersʹ activity, has been dragged out due to its linkage with tariff reform in most regions. In a number of cases, insufficient preparedness of union and economic organizations for the implementation of the tariff reform 4 was revealed, which in some cases led to the curtailment of the explanatory campaign and the lack of clarity for the workers about the new tariff scale.

In connection with the delay in resolving the issue of tariffs under the new agreement, a major strike took place at the Lyubertsy plant of agricultural machinery (Moscow province).

In the course of the collective agreement campaign, anti‐Soviet and opposition elements continue to actively manifest themselves (the Lyubertsy plant, the Vladimirovsk plants, etc.).

Transition to a 7‐hour working day. The main factor complicating the transition to a 7‐hour working day was the haste of this event.

As a result of the haste, the political and technical preparation of the transition at a number of enterprises turned out to be insufficient, hence the friction and conflicts during the transition (the Krasny Perekop factory ‐ Yaroslavl province, the Krasnoye Znamya factory ‐ Moscow, V. Seredskaya factory ‐ Ivanovo‐Voznesensk).

Interruptions in supply of industrial areas 5. Interruptions in supply, which have become protracted in a number of districts (Center, Promrayon, Ural), create an anxious mood among the workers. The most acute issue is supply in the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk and Vladimir provinces.

The strike movement in January, despite the drop in the number of strikes (40 against 62 in December), gives a significant increase in the number of participants (7111 against 4674 in December), and this growth is due to the main industries (metalworkers, textile workers, miners ‐ 26 strikes with 5267 against 38 strikes with 2762 participants in December) (see table).

[GENERAL BY PEASANTRY]

PEASANTRY

Grain Procurement Campaign. In January, the main moment that determined the mood of the village was the grain procurement campaign. A number of measures to strengthen grain procurement (the delivery of manufactured goods to the countryside, a reduction in private procurement, an increase in the collection of various arrears and payments) gave an increase in the supply of grain to almost all regions and in the last days of January revealed a sharp change in the procurement process.

Attitude towards the export of bread. The increase in the export of grain in January is mainly due to the export of it by the middle peasants, who sell surpluses for urgent payments, by collective farms. The kulakprosperous groups of the village, which are currently large holders of grain (often stocks for a farm are 1000‐2000 poods, and in some farms from 5 to 10‐15 thousand poods), they refrain from exporting grain, expecting an increase in prices, making regular payments in cash, if possible, and in some cases refusing to receive goods in exchange for bread. Some of the kulaks and the well‐to‐do took out grain only under pressure out of fear of reprisals and in order to show their loyalty to Soviet power.

Anti‐Soviet activity of the kulaks. The pressure on the malicious debtors ‐ kulaks and the well‐to‐do (arrests and inventory of property) and especially the implementation of a new law on self‐taxation 6 led to the growth of their anti‐Soviet activity (agitation for an uprising, against the export of grain and self‐taxation, the spread of provocative rumors about the introduction of appropriation, war communism 7 , war 8 , famine, etc., beatings of Soviet workers, attempts to provoke mass demonstrations, the spread of counter‐revolutionary appeals, etc.). It should be noted that no significant performances in the Union were noted.

Perversions of the Party line by grassroots Soviet workers. The agitation of the kulaks in some cases met with sympathy among the middle peasants and even the poor, which, in addition to dissatisfaction with the simultaneous collection of various payments, was caused by: Red Army men, etc.) and b) perversions of the party line on strengthening grain procurements, carrying out self‐taxation and distributing loans 9 (intimidation with arrests, withdrawal of subscriptions for the obligatory export of grain, setting up cordons and barrage detachments that forced the delivery of grain to delivery points, forced distribution of loans, beatings and threats, etc.).

Such actions in the localities where they took place created an alarming mood among the middle peasants (cases of burying bread for fear of requisitions are typical). In some cases, the kulaks succeeded in provoking the middle peasants and the poor to refuse to pay taxes, insurance payments and against the sale of property alienated from debtors (isolated facts in Ukraine and Siberia); in a number of cases, the middle peasants and the poor vote with their kulaks against selftaxation (North Caucasus, Ukraine, Siberia). Some hesitation of the poor on the issue of self‐taxation is also explained by the economic pressure of the kulaks (boycotting the poor, refusing to rent, refusing to provide draft animals and agricultural implements, distributing bread to the poor) and the fear that the authorities will not provide the necessary assistance with bread and seeds.

Sabotage of the grassroots co‐apparatus. It should be noted, along with this, numerous cases of sabotage by the grassroots co‐apparatus of measures to increase grain procurement due to unwillingness to ʺpress on the peasantryʺ and exacerbate relations with the population and fear of persecution by the kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements (Ukraine, North Caucasus).

Re‐election in cooperation. The re‐elections of agricultural cooperatives were held with great activity in comparison with the reelections of KKOV 10 that ended. At the meetings, the issue of the commodity shortage in the countryside and the priority supply of the city was especially raised (in a number of regions, corresponding resolutions were passed). The kulaks waged a sharp struggle under the slogan ʺLong live private trade, down with cooperationʺ, against the increase in share contributions and deductions for cultural needs and cooperation of the poor. The kulaks, however, did not have significant success.

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. In January, there is a noticeable increase in terror (128 cases against 67 with a decrease, however, the number of murders ‐ 2 and 6), groups (82 and 55) and leaflets (56‐13), cases of agitation for the Constitutional Court were registered 189 (without Ukraine and the DCK ) against 231 in the Union last month.

[SUMMARY ON] EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS AND AUTONOMOUS AREAS

Grain Procurement Campaign. In the producing regions (Tataria, Bashkiria, Akmola, Semipalatinsk provinces and the Kustanai district of Kazakstan), grain procurement is poor, mainly due to the tactless actions of local procurement bodies and the negligence of the Soviet apparatus. In Akmola province. (Kazakstan), Bashkiria and Tataria, rumors are spread in places about the transition to surplus appropriation.

The self‐taxation campaign provoked increased opposition from the kulak elements in the Russian village of Aktobe province. and the Kostanay district of Kazakstan. Cases of agitation for an uprising have been registered. Under the influence of kulak agitation and insufficient explanation of the campaign, a negative attitude of a part of the middle peasants towards self‐taxation is noted.

Lack of bread and manufactured goods. An acute shortage of grain was felt in a number of regions (cotton regions of Central Asia, national regions of the NCC and Transcaucasia), leading to a sharp rise in prices

(up to 7‐10 rubles per pood) and in some cases causing excesses. Among 11 dehkans (Central Asia) on this soil, the tendency to switch from cotton to wheat has intensified. In Dagestan (SKK) antiSoviet agitation intensified due to the grain crisis in Makhachkala.

Dissatisfaction with the lack of industrial consumer goods in a number of national republics and regions is intensified by the presence of such goods in the hands of a private trader who is overly inflating prices. The lack of manufactured goods is especially acute throughout Georgia, in Armenia and in a number of districts of Uzbekistan (especially, in Kashka‐Darinsky).

The activity of bayism and anti‐Soviet elements. The seizure of poor land by Bayami 12, terror of farm laborers, opposition to the womenʹs campaign 13, water tax, land and water reform 14 and a campaign to register pre‐conscripts (Central Asia and Kazakhstan) continue to be noted. The pre‐election campaign to the Soviets, which managed to unfold sufficiently before the decree to postpone the re‐elections to the fall, caused increased activity of the Baystva and Baysko‐Manap groups 15 (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan).

In Uzbekistan, there is a further curtailment of the womenʹs campaign, the strengthening of autonomous tendencies. Among the Russian Cossacks of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk provinces of Kazakstan, there is an increase in autonomous tendencies. In the Syr‐Darya province. 3 fist killings of village activists were registered.

There is a further revival of the activities of the former Dashnaks 16

(Armenia).

In connection with the arrest of the chairman of the Crimean CEC 17, there is lively talk among all strata of the Crimean population, and dissatisfaction with the arrest is noted mainly among the kulakhuckster part of the Tatar population and partially among the nationalist‐minded Tatar students.

[WORKERS]

Renewal of collective agreements

General course of the campaign. Directives on the end of the campaign to renegotiate collective agreements by January 1 were not fulfilled in most regions of the Union (for example, on the CCM, up to 30% of the collective agreements remained not renegotiated ‐ Grozneft, Donugol, Gospromtsvetmet). In some industries, renegotiation of contracts is delayed due to disagreements between trade unions and business executives (8 contracts have been submitted to arbitration for the metal industry of Leningrad). In other cases, the reason is the lack of preparedness for the campaign on the part of households and trade organizations.

Due to the delay in the preliminary study of the contract at a number of enterprises, the projects of the tariff part were hastily discussed by the workers (Tula, Ural, Nizhny). At the delegate meeting of the Tula Cartridge Plant, the report on the collective agreement lasted only 20 minutes. The discussion was purely formal, since the meeting was called after a representative of the Union went to Moscow to approve the treaty. At the Zlatoust factories (Urals), the discussion of the agreement was held within two days, which caused complaints among the workers against the heads of organizations: ʺWe do not even know what we voted for.ʺ

Deficiencies in the clarification of the new tariffs. At a number of enterprises, the explanation of the essence of the tariff reform was extremely unsatisfactory, since the question of a new grid remained unclear for the professional workers themselves (individual enterprises in Moscow, Leningrad, the Urals, Nizhny, Siberian coal mines). The issue was often covered incorrectly, and sometimes it was clearly distorted. At the Zlatoust factories, the trade union representatives could not explain a number of points concerning the norms and prices, and in order to rehabilitate themselves before the workers, they referred to ʺthe absence of directives.ʺ The representatives of the factory organizations and the trust who took the floor assured the workers that the position of all groups of workers under the new agreement should improve.

At the ʺProletarkaʺ factory (Tverskaya Gubernia), the workers, pointing to a weak explanation of the terms of the new agreement, say: ʺThe agreement is unclear, the tariffication is confused, we do not understand, they are cheating us.ʺ The workers of the three departments of this factory (mechanical, weaving and spinning) brought up resolutions at their meetings demanding a second clarification of the issue of tariff reform. The workers of the ʺRalphʺ factory (Rzhevsk, Tver province) intend to put forward similar demands.

At the factory ʺKrasny Perekopʺ of Yaroslavl province, where the collective agreement at the shop meetings was not worked out, at a general factory conference a former member of the CPSU (b) thwarted the resolution proposed by the presidium: ʺTo consider the completed elaboration of the tariff part and the tariff scale acceptableʺ and was adopted : ʺTo take note of the report on the tariff scale as informationalʺ.

Poor awareness of workers about the terms of new contracts creates the possibility of conflicts in the implementation of collective agreements.

Conflicts led by anti‐Soviet and opposition elements. In a number of enterprises, workersʹ dissatisfaction with certain clauses of the new collective agreements led to conflicts. An active role in the conflicts was played by anti‐Soviet individuals and individual oppositionists seeking to break new agreements and discredit the unions and the party in the eyes of the workers.

Conflicts at the Vladimir enterprises took the most acute forms.

Conflict at the Red Profintern Spinning Factory. The reduction of wages to significant groups of workers and the cancellation of payments for ʺcommunal servicesʺ (included in the wages) while increasing the amount of communal money in connection with the renaming of the village of Gus‐Khrustalny into a city caused massive discontent among the workers of the Krasny Profintern spinning and weaving factory and the glass factory named after ... Bukharin. At the Krasny Profintern factory, discontent was exploited by a group of antiSoviet people (16 people, including 18 former SocialistRevolutionaries and expelled from the CPSU). Individual members of the group were included in the workersʹ delegation that traveled to the headquarters of the Union to renegotiate the collective agreement, which raised their authority in the eyes of the workers. This group tried to ruin the collective agreement at a working conference on January 14, but since this did not succeed, the group made intensive preparations for breaking the collective agreement at a general meeting of workers, the approval of which was subject to the agreement. At the general meeting on January 28 (2,000 people attended) the group showed great organization. After an hour of debate, 6 members of the group were included in the presidium. In relation to the representatives of party and trade organizations, the group behaved defiantly. The information of the delegates (members of the group) about the results of the trip to the city department pursued the sole purpose of breaking the agreement and discrediting the party and trade organizers.19. “The workers are now under pressure. People lived better under Tsar Nicholas. ʺ ʺThe Communists are cheating us.ʺ During the speech of one of the members of the group, there was a cry ʺto strikeʺ. The meeting did not allow the Ukom secretary and the factory cell secretary to speak. The proposal of a member of the group ʺto disagree with the collective agreement and to call representatives of the Central Committee of textile workers to the factoryʺ was accepted. In the days following the meeting, the group continued its activities. On February 1, at the plenum of the factory committee, to resolve the issue of the collective agreement, a delegation was elected to the office of the Textile Workersʹ Union, which included members of the anti‐Soviet group. At the same plenum, a decision was made ʺwith a resolution to transfer Gus‐Khrustalny to the position of a city ‐ not to agree.ʺ

Conflict at the Glass Factory. Bukharin. At the Glass Factory. Bukharin (Gus‐Khrustalny, Vladimir Gubernia) due to a decrease in the total salary fund, the salary of Gutten craftsmen is significantly reduced. During the preliminary study of the collective agreement, the workers insisted on maintaining wages at the level of 1927, and the clause of the agreement on the inclusion of utilities in the wages also aroused sharp objections.

The meeting on January 18 (attended by 600 people) to discuss the new treaty was disrupted by a group of drunken workers (among them ‐ individual members of the CPSU, including members of the shop cell bureau). The group tried to beat the chairman of the GO Chemists, calling him a ʺtraitor to the working class.ʺ On January 14, many did not work, individuals, including members of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, campaigned among the workers, arguing that “the administration of the plant must be driven out, and the plant must be taken into our own hands, at least for two months, to eliminate all losses ʺ. On January 15, a delegation was elected from the plant to the Central Committee of Chemists on the issue of a collective agreement. On February 2, a meeting of factory workers was held (there were 900 people) to hear the delegatesʹ report on the results of the trip. Speaking with a report, one of the delegates, supported by individual members of the CPSU and the presidium, consisting of a group of 6 former members of the CPSU, his attacks against the representatives of the trust and the Union so heated the mood of the meeting that the secretary of the committee and the chairman of the civil society were not allowed to speak, interrupting them with shouts of ʺdown with bloodsuckersʺ As a result, at the suggestion of the delegate who spoke, the meeting rejected the collective agreement, declared the conflict ongoing and decided to call representatives of the Central Committee of the Union to the plant.

Cases were noted when the oppositionists, speaking on the issue of collective agreements, put forward demagogic demands for a general increase in wages, the immediate introduction of a 7‐hour working day (Urals). At the Metal Plant them. Vorovsky (Rostov‐on‐Don) oppositionists expelled from the party took an active part in the activities of the group (13 skilled workers, including one former mechanic), which set itself the task of disrupting a new collective agreement.

Discontent among groups of skilled workers. Conflicts were noted in connection with a decrease in wages for groups of skilled workers (mainly the metal industry). At the State Plant them. Dzerzhinsky (Mos‐Sredprom) a group of workers of the adding shop went on strike in connection with the alleged reduction of prices under the new contract. The elected mixed commission decided to keep the old rates. The initiators of the conflict were a group of former Komsomol members. This group went to the shops and campaigned for joining the strike of the adding shop.

At the State Brake Plant of the GOMZ Trust 20 (Yaroslavl Gubernia), in view of the reduction in the wages of pieceworkers, who account for up to 42% of all workers, the general meeting passed a resolution ʺto prevent wage cuts, an increase in labor productivity, an improvement in product quality and a reduction in production costs should take place through rationalization of production and organizational measures.ʺ At the lifting equipment plant (Mossredprom), the workers of the mechanical and construction shops did not vote for the proposed resolution on lowering the categories; at the general meeting, instead of the FZKʹs proposal ʺto accept the treaty as a whole,ʺ the oppositionʹs resolution was adopted (excluded from the All‐Union Communist Party): ʺTo adopt the treaty as a whole for a year, and the tariff part only for three months.ʺ At the meeting of the first shift of weavers of factory No. 11 of Mostrikotazh, a resolution was adopted recognizing the Unionʹs line on the issue of the new agreement as wrong (under the new agreement, the salary is reduced to 20%). A group of weavers on the second shift of this factory, dissatisfied with the cut in wages, did not work for 15 minutes.

Discontent among miners. Siberia. At the coal mines of Siberia (Cherembasstrest, Kuzbass, Anzhero‐Sudzhenskie mines), at almost all meetings, the proposal to increase the number of miners exits was rejected by the workers.

At a number of mines in Cherembasstrest, workers refused to vote on an increase in the number of exits. At mine No. 6 out of 300 workers at the meeting, no more than 40 people took part in the voting. At the Anzhero‐Sudzhensky mines, the workers left the meeting after the announcement of the collective agreement. The discontent of the workers at the Anzhero‐Sudzhenskiy mines is also caused by the establishment of mandatory exits after holidays and salaries (truants are deprived of credit and quit after three reprimands) (see Appendix No. 1).

Switching to a 7‐hour working day

During the 7‐hour working day at the enterprises outlined by the resolution of the government commission on January 21 (January 7), the businessmen and trade unionists had to meet a number of difficulties.

The main factor complicating the issue of the transition was the lack of sufficient time for technical and political preparation for the 7‐hour workday. Local party and trade‐union organizations, to a large extent and household workers, learned about the timing of the transition of enterprises to a 7‐hour working day from a newspaper report, the issue of the transition was only supposedly worked out in narrow administrative and technical circles.

The consequence of this lack of preparation was the lack of activity in this matter of Party organizations at a number of enterprises.

The dissatisfaction of significant groups of workers with the transition to a 7‐hour working day was caused by the tightening of the working day in the absence of sufficient clarity on the issue of prices for the compacted work. Other circumstances that hindered the introduction of the 7‐hour working day were: the passivity of the technical staff (during the 7‐hour working day, work was carried out almost exclusively by the directors), resistance to the introduction of the 7‐hour working day on the part of the lower technical staff (mainly apprentices), who, using Difficulties encountered during the transition, in a number of cases tried to give the workersʹ discontent a political shade (it is characteristic that the new event affects apprentices less than other categories of workers). The resistance of workers to the transition to dense work in a number of factories increased due to the fact that

Protracted conflicts. As a result, the transition to a 7‐hour working day in a number of factories was accompanied by misunderstandings and conflicts. In some factories, conflicts over the 7‐hour shift were protracted, as large groups of workers stubbornly resisted the move. At the Verkhne‐Seredskaya factory (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya gubernia), except for the mutilation department, no one went over to the dense work. The workers from the stock exchange, sent for the compacted work, were beaten by the watermen, and they had to be sent back. On January 19, in the night shift, in connection with the voluntary transition to the compacted work of one water‐girl, the remaining 100 people protested, stopped work and began to work at the machines only after this water‐girl was removed from work. It should be noted that the technical staff of the factory took almost no part in the work on the transition to a packed working day.

The consequences of unpreparedness for the transition to a 7‐hour working day at the Krasny Perekop factory (Yaroslavl province) had a dramatic effect. The order to move took local organizations by surprise. A number of party members at a meeting of the party activists and at meetings of workers spoke out with sharp objections to the transition. On January 14, at a general factory conference, those who spoke in defense of the compacted work were not allowed to speak. In conclusion, the conference adopted a resolution proposed ʺon behalf of the group of workers.ʺ The resolution welcomed the government and the Central Committee of textile workers for ʺintroducing a 7‐hour working day,ʺ but indicated that ʺthis must be done without compaction, since the factory was compacted earlier.ʺ In connection with the situation in the factory, it was decided to carry out a new awareness‐raising campaign.

Position in other factories. The campaign to switch to the 7‐hour workday and the associated compaction have caused temporary friction in other businesses as well.

At the f‐ke them. Abelman (Vladimir Gubernia), the proposal to switch to a 7‐hour working day was voted by the water‐girls three times, but was not accepted. The technical unpreparedness of the issue affected the discussion of the event at production meetings. In one case (the weaving department), due to the complete lack of clarity of the issue, no decision on the issue of compaction could be made, in the other case (the spinning department) a number of questions remained open.

At the f‐ke them. Nogin (Moscow), two groups of weavers went on strike, protesting against the transition from 3 to 4 looms. Workers pointed to poor ducks 22, warp and unprepared machines. At the Faculty No. 1 of the Shuya Combine (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk Gubernia), the workers, having received orders, began to tear them up, declaring: ʺWe will go to work, but we will not go over to a packed job.ʺ

Apprentice speeches against the 7‐ hour working day. In a number of factories, carrying out a 7‐hour working day was hampered by the hostile attitude taken by apprentices on this issue. In many cases, the speeches of the apprentices were clearly anti‐Soviet. At the Dreznenskaya f‐ke (Gostrest No. 3, Moscow) a group of apprentices actively opposed the transition to dense work. The performance of the apprentices was also noted at the Weaving Mill No. 1 of the Proletarian

Dictatorship (Moscow), the Shuisko‐Tezinsky Mill No. 1 (Ivanovo‐

Voznesenskaya Gubernia).

Agitation for disrupting the transition to a 7‐hour working day. Oppositional and anti‐Soviet speeches. At a number of meetings to discuss the transition to a 7‐hour working day, speeches by antiSoviet and opposition‐minded individuals were noted. The speeches in some factories were accompanied by attacks on the party and the Soviet government. In some cases, anti‐Soviet groups campaigned for disrupting the 7‐hour working day and even for arranging illegal meetings to prepare an organized performance (the Krasny Perekop factory in Yaroslavl, the Krasnoye Znamya factory and the Dreznenskaya m‐ra, Moscow) ...

Insufficient study of the issue of normalization and prices. In some factories, the insufficient elaboration of the question of norms and prices for compacted work is already beginning to affect. At the f‐ke them. Noginʹs administration and trade union organizers put forward two independent projects of payment for the compacted work. Both projects are unsatisfactory, their introduction should cause variegation and unevenness in the pay of workers (ʺKrasny Perekopʺ and others). (see Appendix No. 2).

Strikes and conflicts

Metalworkers. Among metalworkers, there were 8 strikes in January with 2,994 participants versus 10 with 862 participants in December last year. The increase in the number of strikers in January is due to the strike of 2,800 workers at the Lyubertsy plant (Moscow). In connection with the renegotiation of contracts, strikes of less significant groups of workers were noted: the plant. Dzerzhinsky (29 people, Moscow) and ʺKrasnaya Etnaʺ (60 people), ʺOktyabrya Beepʺ (10 people, Nizhny Novgorod province). The rest of the strikes were caused by changes in the wages of certain groups of workers and did not affect the bulk of the workers. On average, for each strike, except for the strike at the Lyubertsy plant, there are about 30 people.

Attention is drawn to the conflict at the Verkhne‐Turinsky ironsmelting plant (Nizhne‐Tagil district, Ural) in connection with the reduction of 300 workers. The reduction was caused by the lack of orders for shells and the cut in credits. On the initiative of the workers, a two‐person delegation was elected for a trip to Moscow. A sharp conflict in connection with the dismissal of 300 workers also took place at the Dugno plant (Gozachuplav trust, Kaluga) due to the closure of the plant.

Textile workers. Most of the strikes among textile workers in January are caused by dissatisfaction with the existing level of wages and lower wages (there were 15 strikes in January with 2038 participants, in December last year there were 18 strikes with 1701 participants).

Most of the strikes involved small groups of workers (20‐50 people) and only in three cases 100‐700 people. The largest number of strikes falls on the Moscow textile factories ‐ 8, in Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province. ‐ 5, in Leningrad ‐ 2.

Large strikes on January 4, 5 and 6, involving a total of over 700 people

(spinning and weaving departments), took place at the 10th Anniversary of October Paper Spinning Mill in Moscow due to dissatisfaction with low prices.

A strike of 150 weavers took place at the factory. Zhelyabov (Leningrad), was caused by a decrease in prices for the produced fabric. Discontent on this basis among the weavers was noted long before the strike.

35 members and candidates of the CPSU (b) took part in the strike.

A strike in connection with a decrease in wages was also noted at the Red Banner Knitting Factory (Leningrad), two strikes (for fillers, partakers and weavers) at the Nogina, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk

province. At the Glukhovskoy convent (Moscow), the initiators of the strike were two party members; the group of polishers led by them demanded that they be transferred from the 12th to the 15th category.

Miners. In the mining industry, the strikes in January are minor (3 with 235 members versus 10 with 199 members last December).

The largest strike took place at Azneft enterprises, where 150 workers of drilling parties went on strike, protesting against the introduction of 23 6‐hour work on Thursdays (holiday eve) instead of 8‐hour workday.

Seasonal workers. The strike movement among seasonal workers in January gave a significant decrease (6 strikes with 847 participants versus 15 strikes with 1734 participants in December last year).

Most of the strikes are due to dissatisfaction with low wages.

Other industries. The strike movement in other industries in January did not produce significant changes (8 strikes with 997 participants versus 8 strikes with 178 participants in December last year).

Three significant conflicts in connection with the reduction of wages arose at the enterprises of Leningrad (the Zinoviev stationery, the Krasny Triangle factory, the Krasny Parus sewing factory) (see

Appendix No. 3).

Interruptions in the supply of food and goods to working areas

Interruptions in the supply of food in a number of workersʹ districts (Moscow, Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya, Vladimirskaya, Kostromskaya provinces, the Urals) are of a protracted nature. Insufficient delivery of flour, sugar, butter, as well as goods: manufactory, footwear, etc. (in Moscow there is a lack of flour, soap, tea).

In some regions, the supply of bread products is completely unsatisfactory (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, Vladimir provinces). In the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. in the city of Teikovo (over 8000 workers) bread was not given out for 11 days. In Kohma of rye flour was granted only by special permission rule to a 1 1/ 2 kg per consumer. In this regard, among the workers of the factory of the B. Kokhomskoy convent (5500 workers) a strike mood was created.

In Penza, calls for a strike were also heard in the tail: ʺWe need to ensure that bread was, at least a strike.ʺ A similar state of affairs with supplies and in some areas of the Vladimir province. (Gusevsky u.), Velikodvorsky, Kurlovsky and Urshalsky workersʹ cooperatives for a long time did not give out baked bread. At the Urshalsky glass factory, no bread was baked for a week. At the Kurlovsky glass plant, at a general meeting, workers demanded to supply them with bread, threatening to stop working.

In those areas where bread and goods are dispensed, long lines are causing discontent. The queues reach 600 people. Cramps, scandals, squabbles are common. A number of cases have been noted when, during a strong crush, women fainted (Penza, Bryansk province).

Anti‐Soviet elements are trying to use the situation to stir up discontent among the workers. Anti‐Semitic agitation is waged in the tail. There are calls to ʺdeal with the communistsʺ, ʺcrush the cooperativesʺ (a speech by a former member of the anti‐Soviet party at the factory ʺKrasny Profinternʺ, Vladimir province). “Everybody must go to smash the gubernia executive committee and the gubernial committee of the party, they are to blame for everything” (Samara province). Cases of defeatist agitation have been reported. Leaflets were distributed in some regions demanding an improvement in the supply of bread (Ukraine, the Urals, the Volga region).

The issuance of products and goods according to the norm and according to books will give rise to fears that a transition to the card system will be carried out. Rumors are spreading about riots in Moscow due to the lack of food and the transition to a packed job with a 7‐hour working day. There are conversations: ʺThe Soviet government gives only one hard work ‐ 3 machines, but there is no breadʺ (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, (unsettled trading hours, inattentive attitude of sellers). For example, in Ukraine (Tulchinsky district), due to insufficient attention, a worker beat the store manager ...

The credibility of cooperation is also undermined by abuses (selling goods ʺby acquaintanceʺ), by the connection of individual co‐workers with private traders (purchases from private traders and sale to a private trader for profit). On the part of workersʹ reports of cooperatives, they meet sharp criticism, which in some cases takes on an anti‐Soviet tinge (Leningrad, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, Kaluga).

Attempts on the part of the opposition elements to use the difficulties created to defend the opposition line were noted. For example, a former Komsomol member expelled for factional work spoke at the buildersʹ club in a group of young people in Kharkov: “Not even a month has passed since the party congress 24 , but our prophecies are coming true, the Bolsheviks no longer know how to take bread from a peasant, they send goods to the village, and because of this in the city the worker cannot get what he needs. ʺ

Unemployed (December ‐ January)

In recent months, there has been an increase in unemployment in a number of large centers of the Union. In Moscow, from October to January 1927, the number of unemployed increased from 165381 to 187358 (in particular, in the group of industrial unions from 19,815 people to 27,829), in Samara from November 25 to January it increased by more than 2,000 (17,500 to 20,000 people), Siberia in the seven most

large cities of the region ‐ from October 1 to December 1, 1927 from 28983 to 38577 people, etc.

The mood of the unemployed, in addition to the general reasons (unemployment, lack of job prospects in the near future, the difficult financial situation of IT. P.), Aggravated also because of gross violation of a number of agencies and labor exchanges 25 existing rules on the procedure rabsily hiring. Characteristic is the digital data on the number of persons who were protected when applying for work. The secretary of the labor exchange in Zlatoust (Ural) received 150 notes in two months (the head of the exchange received significantly V. Seredsky district).

Under these conditions, workers react more painfully to the shortcomings of cooperative work). The Irkutsk Exchange received 200 notes in October‐December. Smolensk Labor Exchange out of 200 people sent to work, 150 were sent by notes.

Protectionism takes other forms as well. Heads of institutions, in order to avoid accepting labor through labor exchanges, impose unrealistic demands on workers sent from the exchange (for example, in Omsk the agricultural commune ʺHammer and Sickleʺ, demanding from the labor exchange an accountant with a salary of 30 rubles, a horse to ride to service, etc.). The unemployed are ironic about this: ʺIsnʹt there a need for a clerk with his capital?ʺ

As a way to combat abnormalities in the work of labor exchanges and bypassing labor exchanges by business executives, the unemployed put forward the creation of control cells (triples, fives) to monitor the work of the exchange. In Rostov, Samara, Moscow, Leningrad, Simferopol, proposals were made to create a union of the unemployed and a commission to control the work of the exchange.

Along with this, there are sharp statements for the liquidation, ʺdefeatʺ of labor exchanges.

The discontent and ferment of the unemployed is clearly manifested at meetings, where, along with harsh criticism of the work of the labor exchange, attacks are noted against the union organizations, and in some cases against the Soviet government and the party.

At a meeting of the unemployed in Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, all the speakers demanded to change the administration of the labor exchange headed by the head.

In Novosibirsk, at a meeting of unemployed builders (attended by 600 people), a group of unemployed, led by a former member of the CPSU (b), taking advantage of the unemployedʹs discontent with not giving them additional benefits for the holiday, sharply opposed the workers of the regional department of the Union: “The regional department did not lift a finger to alleviate the situation of the unemployed ʺ. “There is only one thing left ‐ to take the club and kick everyone out. We need to organize and flog the belly of these tummies. ʺ The representative of the regional department, who tried to speak on the report, was booed and not allowed to speak.

At meetings of the unemployed in Omsk, there were sharp protests against the authorities. “Will this power decay soon? What is it doing ‐ is creating an army of the unemployed, the hungry? Life has become much worse than before, protectionism is everywhere, without it you canʹt get anywhere. ʺ As they left, the unemployed said: ʺNext time we will bring rotten apples, potatoes, sticks to throw at representatives.ʺ

Anti‐Soviet activity among the unemployed is noticeably increasing.

The content of the agitation takes on a sharper political coloration ‐ agitation for the creation of organizations, demonstrations, up to calls for an armed struggle against the Soviet regime and joining the gangsters.

The most typical in this respect are leaflets distributed in Samara (January 21) signed by the “committee of the unemployed”. The leaflets called on the unemployed to organize and ʺbring out their anger and anger in a demonstration in the city of Samara.ʺ The demonstration was scheduled for January 22, ʺon the day when the workers of St. Petersburg asked the tsar to increase their pay for their work on 26 January.ʺ In another leaflet of the ʺcommittee of the unemployedʺ on January 22, a general meeting of all unemployed people in Samara was appointed with the following agenda:

1) What needs does the unemployed face? 2) Who is getting fat from this unemployment. 3) What the governing bodies get from this. 4) What caused unemployment. 5) Why exactly we, non‐party people, were reduced. 6) Why is the meeting scheduled for January 22nd.

The leaflet also planned a demonstration to the gubernia executive committee under the slogan: ʺWe want to work.ʺ ʺDown with arbitrariness and bullying.ʺ The leaflet contained an appeal to ʺthe soldiers and militiamenʺ to support the ʺunemployed demonstratorsʺ and to the workers: ʺWe ask you to help us in our trouble — we are on this bench today, and tomorrow you are.ʺ

The slogan was put forward in the leaflet: ʺIn the struggle you will acquire your rightʺ 27 (the authors of the leaflet were arrested).

A leaflet calling for a demonstration of the unemployed ʺTo the AllUnion Central Executive Committeeʺ on February 5 was also found in Kharkov. Campaigning for the demonstration was noted in a number of regions (Siberia, Ukraine, Crimea, Samara, etc.). The call for a demonstration with black flags 28 was also noted in Odessa. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of unemployed builders in connection with their removal from benefits (Kharkov Labor Exchange), a group of unemployed builders led by an unemployed ‐ a member of the City Council (anarchist‐minded) led an agitation among the unemployed for convening a meeting of unemployed builders. The members of the group told the Union representatives that the unemployed were “being pushed into the second Gaponism” 29.

The leader of the group is campaigning among the unemployed for a speech: “If after the meeting they do not pay attention to us, we will have to pick up the flag with the slogan“ The unemployed want to eat, give jobs, bread ”and go with it around the city. Go to the VUTSIK with a black placard with the words ʺCondemned to hunger and death.ʺ ʺWe will soon come out with a black banner, no power is needed, we will distribute food without any institutions, we will exchange with the peasants in our own way.ʺ

At a meeting convened by the unemployed, the builders adopted a resolution proposed by one of the group members. The work of the Union was recognized as unsatisfactory.

Among the unemployed in Kherson and Kiev, anti‐Soviet people spread rumors that “all over the Caucasus, detachments of red partisans are being organized from the unemployed; the purpose of the detachments is to orderly demand a device for service, i.e. come to an enterprise or institution and forcibly demand work, and if work is not given, then take money. ʺ

Agitation for the demonstration was also noted several times among the unemployed Red Army soldiers and command personnel (Moscow, Tashkent, Simferopol, Saratov). In Tashkent, a group of demobilized people campaigned among the unemployed ʺfor a demonstration with a black flag.ʺ

In Moscow (January 23), at a general meeting of unemployed printers (350 people), with open anti‐Soviet agitation, spoke under a false name unemployed (accountant, former member of the All‐Union Communist Party). In his speech, he said: “There are at least 10 million unemployed throughout Russia. We sit like flies in a web. Economic policy is whipped up by a bunch of people who are hell knows what. We set ourselves an unrealizable goal, conceived to carry out industrialization without means, to drag out the workers and peasants. Swung without restraint and without measure and to no avail. The business executives do what they want, worse than the old capitalists. The role of our unions is a canine role. We used to have workersʹ unions, but now the factories are run by the communists and the unions are run by them. How you go to complain to a communist about a communist, and even if you go, it’s useless (shouts “right,” applause). The unions unite mainly non‐party workers, and the leadership should be composed of non‐party workers in the union. Our path to socialism has turned into a dark place. We must change the direction of economic policy. ʺ They were offered a resolution: 1) To recognize the work of the Union in terms of resolving unemployment as weak and insufficient, 2) to provide the unemployed with the opportunity to convene a conference of the unemployed in Moscow and the province, 3) to submit all decisions of the conference to government bodies, 4) delegates to this conference should be exclusively non‐party, without any manipulation and without the participation of the Union (thunderous applause), 5) increase the unemployed benefit to 35 rubles per month. The proposal was accepted by an overwhelming majority (later the speaker was arrested).

Individual speeches with agitation for terror and an uprising against the authorities were noted. Also, in Moscow, several speeches of unemployed oppositionists were recorded.

At the Moscow Labor Exchange in the food industry section, one of the unemployed (a former anarchist) called for terrorist attempts against members of the Soviet government: “The leaders of the opposition were exiled to Siberia, 30 and the workers are silent. There was a time when they tried to assassinate, but now for some reason no one would think of trying to assassinate our exploiters. If someone suggested me, then my hand would not flinch. ʺ (Later arrested).

In the section of tanners (Moscow Labor Exchange), an unemployed, former member of the CPSU, expelled for opposition, said: “The Central Committee consists of bureaucrats, they have never been workers and will not understand the needs of workers. We, the oppositionists, told them directly that you are afraid of us and for this you are imprisoning and sending us to the ends of the world, while at the same time you continue to deceive the workers ”(see Appendix No.

4).

Distribution of opposition leaflets

In January, in connection with the arrests and deportations of individual oppositionists expelled from the CPSU (b), in Moscow, Leningrad and Ukraine, a number of similar leaflets directed against the party were distributed to factories and sent by mail.

The leaflets appeal to the workers with an appeal ʺto demand the immediate return from exile and the release from arrest of the oppositionists.ʺ At the same time, leaflets indicate that after the defeat of the opposition, the Central Committee ʺbegins to crack downʺ on the workers ‐ ʺthey press on the norms, on the prices, they want to enslave the working class again, bureaucrats and kulaks are again crawling around our necksʺ (leaflets around Moscow).

Claiming that ʺthe Central Committee led the country to an unheard‐of economic crisisʺ, ʺan unprecedented shortage of goods, to a new rise in prices, to unemploymentʺ, ʺput the country in front of the threat of a currency collapseʺ, ʺled the USSR to unheard‐of defeats on the international front,ʺ the leaflets state, that the party leadership is forced to focus on ʺforeign exchange traders who can support Stalinʹs economic insolvency with their credits,ʺ but for this support the capitalists demand, first of all, ʺreprisals against the revolutionary proletariat.ʺ The ʺbrazen offensive of fascism against the working classʺ begins. “The world capital is turning more and more to Stalin as to the liberator of Europe from international Bolshevism” (leaflets from Moscow and Leningrad).

In a leaflet distributed in late January in Moscow and Kharkov, signed by the Krasnopresnenskaya group of proletarian opposition and the Kharkov group of proletarian opposition, the slogan was openly put forward to create a second party ʺto fight for the overthrow of the fascist Rykov‐Stalinist regime.ʺ

“We will not let the working class be devoured by the Thermidorian counter‐revolution. Down with the Thermidorians” 31.

These leaflets have not received significant distribution.

PEASANTRY

CENTRAL DISTRICT

Grain procurement. As a result of the measures taken in the second half of January, there is a sharp change in the course of procurement in the Voronezh and Tula provinces. Procurements in the Kursk and Oryol provinces are somewhat weaker.

Holding bread with fists and the well‐to‐do. For the most part, the kulak‐prosperous strata of the village continue to hold on to grain in the hope of a rise in prices in the spring: “We are delaying bread because it will rise in price by the spring, but the poor themselves will pay us more, since they have no more than 2 ‐3 months ʺ, etc. In the Oryol province. 4 kulaks of the villages Kazinka, Slepukha, Studenovka and Kryakova, with up to 20,000 poods grain do not export it in the hope of a spring price increase. The goods available in the cooperation do not meet the requirements of the well‐to‐do in their assortment, from whose side there is a demand for complex agricultural machines, cloth, sewing machines, etc. The statement of a group of wealthy people in Voronezh province is characteristic: the tractor will let go of us and for the loose grain, then we undertake to pour 10,000 poods,

In some districts (Kursk, Tula provinces), there were cases of buying up grain by fists and speculating in flour. In the Tula province. the activity of buyers coming from the neighboring Kaluga province is well developed.

Agitation of the kulaks against the delivery of grain. In connection with efforts to enhance the grain procurement kulaks vigorously spread provocative rumors about the imminent war, requisitions, and surplusappropriation system, the fall of gold pieces 32 and so on, and an open campaign is being conducted against the regulation of the grain market by the state, for ʺthe right to free trade in grain.ʺ In some cases, agitation meets with sympathy among the middle peasants. So, for example, in the Tula province. at the general meetings of the peasants, as a result of speeches by the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, the rural farmers adopted resolutions: “We recognize the need to give us the right to free trade in grain” (Sergeevka village). ʺLong live the private trader and offer all higher organizations to lower prices for manufactured goods and increase prices for agricultural productsʺ (st. Khvaleevka). There is a single statement in favor of the uprising: ʺThe peasants will not rise in vain, for then there would have been a war and the defeat of the Soviet regimeʺ (Tambov province).

Attitude towards the distribution of manufactured goods. The preferential supply of manufactured goods to grain suppliers and the refusal to sell the latter for cash causes strong discontent among the poor and part of the middle peasantry, who sold their surpluses earlier. “The one who is rich gets the goods; the state kills the poor and, if not by raising prices, then by supplying goods, makes it possible for the rich to profit” (Voronezh province). ʺThe Soviet power begins to spin off from the poor and defend the kulaksʺ (Tambov province).

Discontent is especially pronounced on the part of the poor and middle peasants who are cooperative shareholders. In the Voronezh province. on this basis, there were separate facts of the withdrawal of shareholders from cooperation. At the general meeting, the members of the Bogdanovskiy EPO shareholders passed a resolution: ʺTo propose to the chairman of the board to apply to the Novokhopersk PEC with a petition so that the latter authorize the sale of the manufactory for money.ʺ

Distortion of the directives of the Party and the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Trade. In the campaign to increase grain procurement, some local workers showed arbitrariness and distorted the directives of the Party and the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Trade. Along the Vistula parish Kursk lips. some village soviets made allocation by yard with an indication of the amount of grain subject to mandatory dumping at procurement points. Arrived at the Shuminsky village council of the Tambov province. To carry out grain procurements, the authorized VIK, announcing the confiscation of grain, forced the pre‐village council to immediately start checking the peasantsʹ cash surplus of grain, which caused strong agitation among the peasants. In the Tula province. at a meeting of representatives of the district committees of the All‐Union Communist Party and the RIKs of the territory of the former Belevsky district. The representative of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Trade recommended the forced dumping of grain, the return from the markets of peasants who do not sell grain to state producers, as measures to strengthen procurement, etc. The resolution of the conference by the provincial committee, adopted in this spirit, was canceled. On the part of individual workers of the Soviet apparatus, intimidation with the ʺconfiscationʺ of bread and the conduct of ʺsurplus appropriationʺ (Tambov and Voronezh provinces) was noted.

Re‐election of cooperation. The campaign for re‐election of cooperatives is taking place with more active participation of peasants than was the case at the re‐election of KKOV (attendance reaches 50%, and in Voronezh province, in some places, up to 75‐80%). According to the reports of the boards, the poor and middle peasants sharply criticize the shortcomings in the work of the cooperatives, noting the insufficient supply of the shareholders with the necessary goods and the advantageous position of the city. The poor peasants who spoke out pointed to the non‐use of the poor peasantsʹ funds for cooperating and lending to the middle peasants and the well‐to‐do, to the detriment of the interests of the low‐power strata of the village.

The kulak‐prosperous strata of the countryside actively opposed the creation of funds for the cooperation of the poor and the increase in the share contribution, against the candidacies of party members and the poor, and with the slogans: ʺDown with cooperation, long live private trade.ʺ

Proposals to increase the share in cooperation were sometimes rejected by the poor and middle peasants for lack of funds: “The poor people have nowhere to take a 7‐ruble share, such cooperation is a scarecrow for the population” (Tambov province). A number of facts were noted that the new composition of the boards of the cooperatives was littered by the kulaks and former traders. The new board of the Streshevsky consumer society in Tver Gubernia, using the resolution of the general meeting on taking measures to replenish the share contribution by shareholders, up to and including expulsion, excluded 105 members, mostly poor people, without any warning.

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Agitation for the creation of the COP. In January, 78 cases (against 92 in the previous month) of agitation and demonstrations for the creation of cross unions were registered (42 of them in Moscow province).

Groupings. The activity of 13 kulak groups was noted, of which 10 spoke at the re‐elections of the cooperatives and three were organized in connection with the reporting campaign of the village councils.

Terror. 11 cases of beatings and attempts on the life of workers of the grassroots soviet and agricultural workers were registered.

The defeat of the collective farm. Noteworthy is the defeat of the kolkhoz in Lutsenkovskaya Volost. Voronezh province, where kulaks with a shout of ʺbeat the communistsʺ wounded several members of the collective farm. After the arrest of the attackers, the secretary of the collective farm was planted an anonymous letter with a threat: ʺWe demand the release of those arrested, otherwise we will chop all collective workers into cabbage.ʺ

Arson and robbery of a state farm. In Kolomenskoye u. Moscow province. the peasants, on the initiative of the kulaks, plundered and set fire to the state farm.

Speeches in connection with the show trial over the fist. In with. Voskresensky, Yaroslavl province. during a show trial of large speculators‐meat traders, the court session was disrupted by a crowd of peasants (up to 600‐700 people), provoked to speak by a kulak group. In their agitation, the kulaks called for ʺthrowing out the 3colored flag 33 and raising an uprisingʺ, to refuse to pay taxes, demanded the abolition of the monopoly of foreign trade, the introduction of free trade, and called on to intercede for the ʺbenefactorʺ of the kulak. (A number of instigators of the speech were arrested).

Speech on the basis of the removal of equipment from the factory ʺSovkatushkaʺ. In the Vladimir province. peasants, incited by kulaks and former owners of the canned factory Sovkatushka and anti‐Soviet elements, came to the workersʹ conference and, not allowing the speakers to speak, protested against its closure, preventing the removal of cars; factory in two days was guarded by the party of the peasants of the surrounding villages, armed with iron canes and knives.

Leaflets. In January, handwritten leaflets ʺIn Defense of the Peasantsʺ were found in the Tambov province. and ʺTo all the working massesʺ in Kursk province, issued in connection with grain procurements.

NORTHWEST

Re‐election of cooperation. Preparations for the re‐election of the cooperatives were somewhat better than during the re‐election of the KKOV, but in general they were insufficient. Attendance at pre‐election and re‐election meetings reaches 30‐50%, sometimes rising to 80‐100%.

In the speeches of the shareholders, according to the reports of the board, it was mainly noted that the supply of goods to the countryside was weak and that workersʹ cooperatives had an advantage over the rural ones. In the Pskov district, at the re‐election of the Efimov consumer society, a resolution was passed: ʺTo get rid of the interruptions in the supply of goods, for which to enter the Union with a petition to equate us in supply with the workersʹ cooperatives.ʺ The poor pointed to the weak use of the existing funds for cooperating with the poor (Leningrad, Borovichevsky districts). The kulak‐prosperous strata of the village showed great activity, speaking out against the candidacies of the Communists, against the creation of funds for the cooperation of the poor, for the division of dividends, etc. In with. The Melogi of the Novgorod District, led by three former Social Revolutionaries, a grouping at the re‐election of the consumer society, failed the candidacy of a member of the CPSU (b),

On the basis of interruptions in the supply of goods to the countryside by the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, there were actions for the liquidation of cooperatives and the expansion of private trade: “Cooperatives are heading for collapse and in all cooperatives there are no goods. Down with the cooperative, long live private trade” (Komi‐Zyryansk region). “You need to take your shares back from the cooperative and transfer them to a private trader, although the private trader will take more expensive, but he will give everything he needs” (Pskov Okrug). Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Leaflets. In the reporting month, two leaflets were found circulating in the Novgorod district and the Vologda province. The leaflet, signed by the Committee for the Protection of the Peasantry, calls on people to act ʺin the fight against Bolshevismʺ in case of war.

Groupings. In January, 6 groups showed themselves, of which two participated in the re‐elections of the cooperation. Noteworthy is the group in the Leningrad District, called by the local peasants the ʺWhite Guard Clubʺ, which systematically organizes its meetings and established membership fees.

Agitation for the COP. In 5 constituencies, 13 cases of campaigning and speaking for the Constitutional Court were registered.

WEST

Re‐election of KKOV. The reporting, pre‐election and re‐election campaign of the KKOV in most districts of Belarus took place with a low activity of wide strata of the village (the percentage of participation in pre‐election meetings did not exceed 40, sometimes decreasing to 610%), in many cases, due to the absence of voters, meetings were convened in two three times (with more active participation than last year, re‐elections of the KKOV were held only in Bryansk province). The kulaks advocated the elimination of the KKOV, sometimes finding support from certain groups of the middle peasants and the poor. The kulaks, and in some cases the middle peasants, sometimes motivate their proposals to eliminate the KKOV by the fact that the KKOV is an organization “helping only idlers”. There are proposals to transfer the functions of KKOV to village councils.

UKRAINE

Grain procurement progress. With the adoption of a number of measures to eliminate the peasantryʹs debt for all types of compulsory payments (ESNH 34 , insurance 35 ) and loans (semssud, targeted loans, payment for land management), a noticeable increase in grain procurements has been noted, starting from the second five‐day period in January.

Attitude towards the export of bread. The kulaks and the well‐todo. The increase in the export of grain to the market was mainly due to the middle peasantry and some part of the wealthy peasantry. Another part of the wealthy and kulaks to this day hold back bread, hoping for an increase in bread prices by the end of grain procurements: “Right now, when the middle peasants have ground the bread, they have taken it out, you can drink, have a bite and see how the government will do without bread” (Nikolaevsky and others district). ʺSince the authorities are so worried about grain procurements, it means that something is wrong in the center, bread must be held back and the authorities must make further concessionsʺ (Zaporozhye and other districts). As an argument, the kulaks cite the increase in prices for barley that took place in January. ʺOnce the price of barley has been increased, they say the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, they will even increase the price of wheat.ʺ

The kulaks and the well‐to‐do, demanding higher prices for bread and lower prices for manufactured goods, simultaneously put forward the demand for unlimited grinding of grain and a ʺfree market.ʺ ʺTo what they have lived, say the kulaks in the Nezhinsky district, the peasant is not allowed to freely dispose of his grain.ʺ In the Zinovievsky district, well‐to‐do and anti‐Soviet elements of the village are agitating for the announcement of a ʺgrain strikeʺ: ʺSince the state presses taxes in order to force the peasants to export grain, then this grain must be held back.ʺ

The drying up of the grain reserves of the poor and the approaching sowing campaign make it possible for the kulaks to sell their grain on more favorable terms by lending grain to the poor on enslaving terms. The kulak of the Zaporozhye district declares: “I have up to 3000 poods bread, but why would I bring it to the state at a cheap price if I can sell it to the poor at a better price; the poor pay me more, and I give them a loan for that. ʺ

One of the reasons for the weak export of grain by the fists and the wellto‐do is the lack of sophisticated machines, agricultural implements, thin cloth and other expensive goods on the market. The kulaks say: “There are no goods we need, and there is no point in selling bread in order to keep the money” (Zaporozhye District).

The middle class and the poor. Rumors (about the approaching war, famine in the north, the transition to a system of surplus appropriation and the depreciation of money), fanned by the anti‐Soviet element, restrained kulaks and traders, played a well‐known role in the delay in the export of grain by the middle peasants. This caused in places the burying of bread in pits (noted in 5 districts), taking deposits from savings banks, refusal to sell bread for paper money, etc. Rumors about the depreciation of money are partly caused by the establishment of a procedure for the preferential distribution of scarce manufactured goods to grain distributors.

The middle peasants do not so much demand higher prices for bread as lower prices for manufactured goods. The poor speak out against the increase in the price of bread. The increase in prices for barley caused considerable discontent among the poor, who declared: “With such a price increase, at the end of grain procurement, the government supports the kulaks, and kills the poor. In autumn we sold bread at a cheap price, but we have to buy it at an expensive price” (Kievsky, Izyumsky, Kherson and other districts).

The distortion of the party line by the lower Soviet apparatus. In the campaign to strengthen grain procurements, numerous facts of distortion of the partyʹs line on strengthening procurements and receipt of payments were noted. In a number of cases, peasants were forced to dump by state producers by the threat of appropriation, repression, etc. In the Stalin district in the Armavir district, the police forcefully forced the peasants who came to the bazaar with bread to dump it to the state producers. The peasants in protest left their horses in the police station, declaring: ʺYour bread, yours and horses.ʺ In the Boryspil borough of the Kiev district, the police forbade the sale of bread in the bazaar, forcing them to bring bread to the delivery points. In view of this, many peasants who came to the bazaar took the bread back. Member of the Mariupol regional executive committee, having arrived in the village. Azov summoned 78 wealthy peasants and told them: “If you don’t take out your surplus within six days, then measures will be taken up to confiscation and expulsion to distant areas, and even ʺspankingʺ (flogging)”. Especially numerous are the facts of distortion of the class line by the local authorities when collecting arrears on payments. Sometimes the actions of the village councils, littered with an element alien to Soviet power, were clearly provocative. The Bereznigovatsky District Electoral Commission of the Kherson District gave the following directive to the chairmen of the village councils: ʺTo make a general inventory of the property of tax evaders, not excluding the poor.ʺ The implementation of this directive caused a widespread murmur of the poor: ʺHere they are shaking, so shaking, worse than under the tsar.ʺ In the Kherson Okrug, the UAHN Commissioner described the property of all the insolvent poor without touching the kulaks at all; when the poor came to complain to the village council, the agricultural commissioner said: “We wanted to laugh and see as it will beʺ. In with. Khocepetovsk of the Artyomovsk district, the village council arrested two poor defaulters, to whom he said: “Itʹs a pity to spend bullets on you, so we will forever drive you into prison,” the kulaks gloat: “Well, they beat us before, but now they have started for you.”

Tactful actions often turn into arbitrariness of the workers of the lower soviet. In the Zinovievsky district, those who left for a show trial of tax evaders s. Nikolskoye Peopleʹs Judge and a representative of the District Party Committee came to the village drunk, arrested 23 peasants, 21 of them are poor, and, speaking with the peasants, said: ʺWe will drink your blood and ride in cars.ʺ The crowd tried to arrange lynching over them (the peopleʹs judge was arrested).

When self‐taxation was carried out in the Zinovievsky and Zaporozhye districts, there were facts of intimidation by the self‐taxation commissioners of those who voted against self‐taxation by ʺhanding over the caseʺ to the police, etc. In the Volyn District, in some districts, arrests of those opposed to self‐taxation were quite common. During the distribution of the loan, in a number of districts, the facts of imposing loans on peasants by the workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus forcibly took place.

In the Kolarovsky District of the Melitopol District, the chief of militia, authorized to distribute the winning loan, threatened with arrests those who refused to sign for the amount that the head of militia had appointed.

In Vtoro‐Pokrovsky district, the secretary of the party cell in a number of villages beat peasants who refused to sign for a loan (expelled from the party and arrested).

Self‐imposition. The self‐taxation campaign met with particularly sharp resistance from the kulaks (illegal preparations for disrupting a meeting, corrupting the poor by bribery and soldering, etc.) In a number of cases, the poor did not actively participate in self‐taxation meetings. In the Zinovievsky district in the village. Poor Vasino used to say: ʺYou have to support your kulak, I donʹt have a cart 36 , but if you vote for self‐taxation, the kulak will notice and when you come to him to ask for a cart, he will refuse.ʺ

The success of kulking the middle peasant in some places was facilitated by the tactics of the commissioners on self‐taxation, who devoted all their attention to the poor and completely ignored the work with the middle peasant.

On the other hand, there were a number of facts of sabotage and direct opposition to the campaign but self‐taxation on the part of the workers of the grassroots apparatus (more than 100 such facts were registered). In the Poltava district, the chairman of the Grigorievsky village council refused to work on self‐taxation and responded to threats of arrest: “Well, if I go to court, it’s for the people.” In the Lubensky district, the pre‐village council campaigned for the peasantry to declare an ʺItalian strikeʺ 37 in response to self‐taxation. As a result, 87 cases of disruption of self‐taxation meetings were registered in 12 constituencies. In some cases, the poor also voted against self‐taxation, although the issue was resolved positively at the meetings of the poor (9 facts in 5 constituencies).

Distribution of a peasant winning loan. Preliminary data on the progress of the campaign to distribute the peasant winning loan indicate hostility to loans on the part of the wealthy strata of the countryside. In a number of districts, rumors have spread that the loan will be compulsorily distributed. In the Melitopol Okrug, in a number of villages, kulaks took out loans solely for fear of reprisals. Upon learning that the subscription to the loan was made on a voluntary basis, many kulaks came with bonds to the village councils and

demanded the return of the money.

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Terror. In 22 districts, a sharp increase in terror was noted in January on the basis of measures to strengthen procurement, 70 facts of kulak terror were registered (murder ‐ 1, attempted murder ‐ 8, wounds and beatings ‐ 18, arson ‐ 6, etc.). In the Odessa district in the village. Antonyukakh, after unsuccessful attempts by the kulaks to disrupt the meeting, the kulaks broke into the village council and beat the secretary of the village council; gathering the crowd, the kulaks provoked it by shouting: ʺtake the clubs, hit them.ʺ

Excesses due to the collection of arrears. The kulaks and the well‐todo, using the facts of pressure on the poor and the unacceptable actions of the grassroots Soviet apparatus, in a number of cases caused excesses. In Nikolaev, Zaporozhye and a number of other districts, facts of resistance of the poor and middle peasants of the inventory of property were noted. In the Odessa and Izyum districts, even the facts of beating of representatives of the authorities by the poor were noted.

In Odessa, Nikolaevsky, Kherson, Izyum and Zinovievsky districts, 9 facts of beating of workers of village councils with fists during the production of an inventory of property of defaulters of kulaks were noted. In the Romensky district of the Zinovievsky district he was beaten with his fists and put in a barn ʺunder arrestʺ by the pre‐village council. In the village Iogonestal of the Nikolaev district kulaks beat the secretary of the village council, broke into the premises of the village council, took away the property of the defaulters and handed it over to the previous owners.

Anti‐Soviet leaflets. 13 leaflets were found in 8 districts, of which 38 ‐ 5 anti‐Semitic, 39 ‐ 3 from Petliura, and 3 were directed against grain export and tax collection and self‐taxation ‐ 3. The monarchist leaflet in the Mariupol district was distributed in 30 copies, the leaflet directed against self‐taxation (in the Zinoviev district) contained a call for an uprising (the authors were arrested). Noteworthy is a leaflet ‐ a letter to the newspaper ʺVistʺ 40 containing a developed Petliura program (V,

1‐3).

Groupings. In connection with the self‐taxation campaign, the activities of 27 kulak groups were noted.

Operational activities. During the grain procurement campaign, the OGPU arrested: for anti‐Soviet agitation ‐ 128 people (114 kulaks and 14 persons with an anti‐Soviet past) and for terror ‐ 22 (kulaks ‐ 21 and persons with an anti‐Soviet past ‐ 1), of whom 39 kulaks have already been tried and sent ‐ 4.

NORTH CAUCASUS

Grain Procurement Campaign. As a result of the measures taken by the regional authorities, the rate of procurement in January increased, especially in the last two five‐day periods of the campaign, when a radical change was outlined. The January plan was fulfilled with an excess (123%) while 88% of the total task was completed on February 1.

The attitude of the kulaks and the wealthy to the export of grain. Under the influence of agitation for the export of grain, the kulaks formed a mood to hold back the grain in order to hasten the fall of Soviet power. The following statements of the kulaks are characteristic: ʺNo matter how hard you try; you wonʹt get enough bread.ʺ “I have a thousand and a half loaves of bread, but I will not give them, I’d better burn it or save it for my own, they will come soon”. ʺThere is no need to give bread to the Bolsheviks, it must be hidden or given to the poor with a return, but not to hand over, so as not to support these bastards ‐ then our people will sooner come.ʺ “Iʹd rather burn my bread, and not give it to the Bolsheviks” (statements by the kulaks of the Kuban District). In the Donskoy district, the well‐todo, when asked to take out bread, replied: ʺEat your chervonets, but you have no bread.ʺ

There are a number of facts when the kulaks hid grain in pits and took it out to the steppe. Everywhere the kulaks and the well‐to‐do make the export of grain a condition of raising the price of it, while emphasizing the presence of high prices for manufactured goods. “Put 2 rubles each. for a pood of wheat and in three days there will be 15,000 poods at your market. bread ʺ, ‐ declared the kulaks of the Kuban district. “If they charge 180 rubles for a mower, then not 1 rubles are needed for bread. 10 kopecks, and 3 rubles. Bread does not need to be exported until prices are raised to 3 rubles. for a pood ʺ(Donskoy district).

Some kulaks are trying to use difficulties in grain procurement in order to obtain voting rights: ʺI will sell you 3000 poods for money, and take 2000 for nothing, just give a voteʺ (Donskoy district). “Weʹll be lucky, but you will restore us in voting rights and publish about us in the newspapers” (Kuban district).

Along with this, the kulaks are striving in every way to appease the poor (by giving out bread in a reciprocal manner, etc.), to present themselves in the role of a ʺbenefactor.ʺ At the same time, it agitates among the poor that “if we do not support you, then tomorrow you will all die, and hope for Soviet power, so you yourself know what it is” (prosperous village of the Russian Stavropol District). ʺThe Soviet government only cares about you on paper, but in reality it is pulling the skinʺ (statement of the kulak at the plenum of the Bratkovsky village council of the Kuban district). A number of cases have been noted when the kulaks distribute bread to the poor peasants before the new harvest (partly out of fear of its forced withdrawal).

The mood of the poor in connection with the pressure of the fists. Among part of the poor, anti‐kulak sentiments are manifested in connection with measures to increase grain procurement. The following statements are typical: “Why stand on ceremony with them (fists). Come to the courtyard, take it, and we will show you from whom” (Azov District of the Don District). ʺThey should have remembered 1921‐1922 41, so that they would feel what Soviet power is and how not to give breadʺ (st. Platnirovskaya, Kuban

District). “Instead of giving goods to the kulaks, with whom they will speculate, it is better to requisition the surplus of the kulaks for a fee, which will be dissatisfied, but others will not be offended” (st. Korenevskaya, Kuban Okrug).

At the same time, insufficient preparation of the poor for the campaign, threats to the kulaks and economic pressure on the poor, refusal to rent land, help with inventory, etc. often led to the fact that the poor spoke out in favor of weakening the pressure on the kulak, voted against selftaxation at meetings, for a decrease in the percentage of self‐taxation and postponing it to the next years until the new harvest (according to the CCM, 73 facts of this kind were noted in two weeks in 8 districts) ...

In the Donskoy District, in the Mechetinsky and Bataysky districts, at a number of poor peasantsʹ meetings, such speeches of the poor were noted: “Bread from the wealthy will be pumped out, but what will we, the poor, live with. As a result of crop failure, the family does not have bread, and if the wealthy have it, they will take it out, and we will have nowhere to buy it, it’s good if the cooperatives leave part of the bread, and if it’s a deception ”(similar statements in other districts).

Tactful actions of the grassroots co‐apparatus. The campaign to strengthen procurements in a number of cases took the form of sharp administrative pressure on those with surplus grain (temporary detention of the most stubborn kulaks and the wealthy, confiscation of receipts for the export of grain, etc.), and these measures often touched the middle peasants. In the Donskoy District, the chairman of the Kushchevsky Regional Executive Committee, speaking at village gatherings, repeatedly addressing the kulaks, said: “Bread must be taken. If you do not want surplus appropriation ‐ hand over in peace, until they came to you with a rifle and began to clean the barns. ʺ Following the example of the RIK chairman, the village councils began to use the same tactics. In the hut. The Vodyanoy cell of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, without informing the pre‐village council, seized a car from the seed‐growing organization of the KraZU and set off at night to take bread from the kulaks. In the Voinovsky village council, mobilized workers called one well‐to‐do peasant to their ʺheadquartersʺ at night, put the revolver on the table and demanded that the well‐to‐do take out the grain surplus. There were cases when RIK workers, going to a peasantʹs barn, walked the border with a stick along the grain and said: ʺThis is for you, this is for us.ʺ

In the Labinsky District of the Kuban District, the grain procurement officials summoned all the peasants with surpluses of 40‐50 poods and took away subscriptions for the export of bread. In the OlkhovoRogovskiy village council of the Donetsk district, on the personal initiative of the chairman, up to 20 people were arrested without any reason, etc. At general meetings on the issue of strengthening the procurement, there were such statements: ʺEven if you die, take out the required amountʺ (the Presidential Council of the Stefanido‐Darsky District). “Take him out without any further ado, arrest him, send him to the district” (chairman of the Zeleno‐Roshchinsky village council, Donskoy district). “Tomorrow, take it to the dump, if you donʹt want 1920 to return and donʹt go to the barns with a rifle” (Azov district), etc. Sometimes local workers, by their incorrect explanations of the reasons for the intensification of procurement, brought panic to the villages.

Sabotage of the grassroots co‐apparatus. Along with these, it should be noted the facts of sabotage and manifestations of decadent sentiments on the part of the lower Soviet apparatus, as well as individual members of the CPSU (b) and the Komsomol (ʺthere is no one else to take breadʺ, ʺthe plan is exaggeratedʺ, etc. statements by Tersky and Donetsk districts). In the Taganrog district in the village. Alekseevskoe of the Golodaevsky district, a number of Komsomol members, under the influence of the kulakʹs agitation, announced their withdrawal from the Komsomol.

Dissatisfaction of the poor and low‐powered middle peasants with increased collection of arrears. A number of facts of the perversion of the class line in the collection of various arrears (for the unified agricultural tax, state insurance, semester, credit arrears, land management, etc.), listed mainly for the low‐powered, the inventory of the property of the poor and the compulsory seizure of property caused discontent among some of the low‐power peasantry, creating the basis for the successful anti‐Soviet agitation of the kulaks.

In a number of districts of the Kuban, Donskoy, Tersky and Armavir districts, the work on providing tax discounts has not yet been completed and payments for the unified agricultural tax and land management are being collected from the poor peasants to be exempt, which causes especially acute discontent. In a number of cases, repression was used only against the poor. In the chamber of the peopleʹs judge of the Mechetinsky district Do no circle there are 22 cases against the unpaid unified agricultural tax, exclusively the poor. There are facts of the withdrawal of the last small livestock (Donskoy district, etc.). Often the poor meet the commissions on the inventory of property on their knees. Cases of poor peasantsʹ refusal to pay arrears have been registered, and it comes to the beating of representatives of the village councils who came to describe the last horses and cows (the villages of

Kuchey and Gulyai Borisovka).

Self‐imposition. The self‐taxation campaign meets with stubborn resistance from the kulaks and the wealthy (ʺSoviet power has found a new form of plunderʺ). The middle class in a number of cases also opposes self‐taxation. In the Donskoy and Kuban districts, meetings of a number of village councils are disrupted. A positive solution to the question of self‐taxation is often under great pressure (noted for three districts of the Donokrug). Meetings of the poor and middle peasants, recognizing self‐taxation as necessary, put forward demands to postpone it until June‐July or until autumn, or in the amount of 10‐20% of the UCHN, declaring: ʺLet the Soviet government not be offended, there is no strength.ʺ This is largely facilitated by the weakness of the explanatory campaign of local Soviet and party organizations, as a result of which the poor and middle peasants do not always understand the class essence of self‐taxation.

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. The intensification of measures for the export of grain and pressure on the arrears of the kulaks and the wealthy provoked active resistance from the kulak and anti‐Soviet elements of the village and stanitsa. They are intensively spreading provocative rumors about an imminent war and the fall of Soviet power, the introduction of food appropriation, the devaluation of the chervonets, famine in the central workersʹ districts, etc. Agitation is aimed at causing panic among the middle peasants (the threat of food appropriation) and delaying the export of grain, and on the other hand, intimidating the poor (with a refusal of assistance, the threat of hunger). There are cases of agitation for the uprising (12 facts in Tersk and other districts).

Terror. From January 13 to January 30 p. 12 cases of beating of workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus were registered. In stts. NovoTitarovskaya, after a meeting of the party activists on the issue of forcing grain procurements, the cellʹs premises were destroyed, the office and office work were destroyed.

Kulak groups. In total, 18 kulak groupings showed themselves in January, of which 9 ‐ in connection with the re‐election of the cooperatives, of this number, 12 groups newly emerged in 7 districts (in total, there were 59 active groups in the CCM by January). It should be noted the grouping in stc. Serviceable Donetsk district, trying to release the arrested from the premises. In the Mechetinsky district of the Donskoy district, a kulak group (5 people) had a machine gun stolen from a military unit. In the same district in the Bogaevsky district, a group of young Cossack kulaks disrupted grain procurements by issuing leaflets, the same group tried to organize a ʺunion of Cossack youth.ʺ The group had weapons.

Speeches for the COP. In 7 constituencies, 45 performances for the Constitutional Court were registered during the reporting period. Armavir and Stavropol districts are in first place in terms of the number of performances.

Leaflets. From January 15 to February 1, 21 leaflets were found in the Donskoy, Armavir and Kuban districts, not counting a number of anonymous letters addressed to Soviet party workers with threats of reprisals ʺfor the violence committed.ʺ Most of the leaflets were issued in connection with the grain procurement campaign. Some leaflets (5) contain indications that the opposition, led by Trotsky, is against the government. A leaflet found in the Azov region of the Don District states: ʺTrotsky will find an end to the Bolsheviksʺ (V, 4‐5).

Operational activities. By the beginning of February, the OGPU bodies were arrested for counter‐revolution aimed at disrupting grain procurements ‐ 216 people, mainly kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements, and for sabotage and arbitrariness ‐ 79 workers of the grassroots Soviet organs.

POVOLZHE

Grain procurement progress. By the end of January, there was a significant increase in procurement in the main producing provinces. Nemrespublika and Votskaya oblast are lagging behind the general rate of procurement.

Attitude towards the export of bread. The main suppliers of bread are mainly the middle peasants and part of the wealthy ‐ the holders of the surplus. The kulaks, as a rule, abstain from selling bread everywhere. Even the delivery of manufactured goods to the village did not change the mood of the kulaks. The latter say: “We do not need rags and we will do without rags, but we will not carry bread at a cheap price. Bread will always be in price ‐ we will wait until spring or until the next harvest. And there it will be seen” (Samara province).

Under the influence of pressure in individual districts of the same province (Buzuluk and Bugur uela some), there has recently been a tendency on the part of the kulaks and the wealthy, who have not yet exported their surplus, to export grain to cooperatives in order to secure a receipt for the delivery of grain (as “ certificate of political reliability ʺ). In connection with the increase in the rate of procurement, cases of agitation of the kulaks against the dumping of grain products to state cooperative procurers and for concealing grain surpluses were observed everywhere, as well as the spread of rumors about “requisition of grain, imminent war”, etc.

Shortcomings in the work of the grassroots procurement and coapparatus. The spread of rumors about the ʺforced confiscation of grainʺ was, to a certain extent, facilitated by cases of distortion of party directives on increasing the rate of procurement by grassroots Soviet workers. So, for example, the representative for grain procurement in Neplyuevskaya parish. Buzuluk u. Samara lips. summoned the peasants with grain surpluses to the VIC, and, threatening them with reprisals, offered to take out the grain to a certain procurement point within three days and receive coupons for the delivery of grain. There have been cases when peasants came to Buzuluk with a complaint that the commissioner offered to hand over 300 poods to them. bread, while they have only 150 poods, and they do not know what to do. Commissioner for Derzhavinskaya Vol. (Buzuluk u.) Calls the kulaks one by one to the office of the volost militia and offers to hand over the surplus bread to the EPO, and present the receipt to the head of the militia, immediately takes from them a non‐disclosure agreement on the reasons for the export. In Leninsky district Stalingrad province. in with. On January 13, Kapustin Yar detained a peasant at the bazaar who had brought several sacks of wheat and rye to the bazaar, offering to hand over the rye to a procurement point, and sell the wheat to anyone he wanted. A crowd of about 100 peasants gathered at the police station. Shouts were heard: ʺWhat are these rights when rye is taken by force and forced to hand over to agricultural cooperatives.ʺ Similar cases were noted in the Penza lips. when rye is taken by force and forced to hand over agricultural cooperatives. ʺ Similar cases were reported in Penza lips.

KKOV election campaign progress. The campaign for the re‐election of KKOV almost everywhere in the Volga region went with a low level of activity among wide strata of the village (the percentage of turnout at meetings did not exceed 25‐40, and in some places it was even lower).

The sentiment of certain groups of middle peasants and poor peasants was noted for the liquidation of KKOV as an ʺunnecessary organizationʺ, but most often due to lack of funds, inactivity, etc. There are also statements by certain middle peasants about the liquidation of KKOV as exclusively poor organizations.

Along with proposals to liquidate KKOV in some places (Penza, Stalingrad provinces and the Nemrespublika), a demand is being put forward to transfer the functions of KKOV to village councils. In all cases, the kulaks initiated the liquidation of the KKOV.

The course of re‐election of consumer cooperation boards. Campaign for re‐election of boards of rural consumer cooperatives in all districts

The Volga region was livelier than the re‐election of the KKOV (in Penza [Gubernia] and Votskaya oblasts, sometimes 80‐90% of shareholders were present).

The attention of the speakers at the re‐election meetings was focused mainly on the issues of insufficient supply of the population with manufactured goods and essential products, increasing the share contribution (from 5 to 7 rubles) and lending to the poor. In with. Boguslavka of the Penza province. a resolution was passed: ʺTo establish the same procedure for supplying the village with manufactured goods on an equal basis with the workers.ʺ The poor in their speeches pointed out the inadequacy of the work of cooperating with the poor, the non‐use of funds available for this purpose. Everywhere the kulaks and the wealthy acted with agitation for the elimination of cooperatives and the expansion of private trade, against the benefits of cooperating with the poor and the choice of the communists.

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Agitation of the COP. In total, during the reporting period, 22 cases of campaigning for the creation of a CC were registered. In total, 7 groups were registered, of which 5 were due to the re‐election of the cooperation.

Speeches against the grain procurement commissioners. On the hut. Black River of Samara u. the village council, with the participation of members and a drunken chairman, searched the agent of the Selkhozbank in a crowd, there were shouts of ʺbeat him, the bandits came to take bread.ʺ

URAL

Attitude towards the export of bread. The kulaks and the well‐to‐do are delaying the export of grain, waiting for a rise in prices. The conversations were noted: ʺWe will wait for the workers to come to us, as in the years of famine, and ask them to exchange bread for things under our windowsʺ (Perm District). “We must hold back the bread, because not today or tomorrow there will be a war” (Kungur district). “If they forcefully take away bread, then we will be able to cope with the authorities, I will feed the pigs, but I will not sell it to her” (kulak, Chelyabinsk District).

Dissatisfaction with grain prices and insufficient delivery of manufactured goods determine the still observed in most of the districts a weak delivery of bread by the middle peasants: “If the prices for bread were not so low, then the peasants would have been more lucky” (Tyumen District).

Attitude towards changes in the timing of payments. Measures to increase the payment of agricultural taxes, insurance, various arrears and other payments aroused discontent on the part of the middle peasants and the poor and sharp resistance from the kulak‐wealthy strata of the village. Some hesitation among the middle peasants and the poor is caused by a careless approach when collecting arrears. In the Sarapul District, out of the total number of debtors, 66.4% of the poor are considered debtors for various payments, 30.4% of the middle peasants and 3.2% of the wealthy. During the period of increasing pressure on collection of payments, 7303 inventories of the defaultersʹ property were made, and 159 defaulters were put on trial and the property of 128 farms was sold at auction. There are a number of cases where the last horse, cow or sheep were sold from the poor. Attempts to murder were noted on this basis (Sarapul and Kungur districts). In the Tyumen district, a poor man came to the village council with a rope noose around his neck, saying: ʺThis is what the Soviet government has brought.ʺ Making payments early is slow. On the part of the middle peasantry, the following statements are noted: ʺLet them do whatever they want, but we wonʹt take a pound before the specified timeʺ (Tyumen Okrug). The kulaks and the well‐to‐do led an intensified agitation against changing the timing of payments, using their dissatisfaction with repressive measures: “We do not recognize any orders now, and the government has no right to change by setting an earlier payment deadline; let them shoot, but we will not carry a single pound and we do not advise others” (kulaks of the Yalutorovsky district of the Tyumen district).

Attitude towards the law on self‐taxation. The self‐taxation campaign provoked especially sharp resistance from the kulak‐wealthy strata of the village. Due to insufficient explanation of the campaign in some places, the kulaks succeeded in thwarting self‐taxation. In the Olkhovsky district of the Shadrinsky district, due to the agitation of the well‐to‐do in 8 village councils, proposals for self‐taxation have failed. The same was noted in individual villages of the Sarapul district, where peasantsʹ gatherings passed resolutions on the refusal of loans and self‐taxation, sent to the yards for posting receipts were expelled by peasants from their yards. In some cases, kulak groups (StaroUtkinsky district of the Sverdlovsk district) spoke out against selftaxation at meetings. In with. Nizhne‐Salsk, as a result of the agitation of the kulak group, by a majority of 200 votes and against 10 votes, a resolution was adopted:

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Terror. Of the 12 reported acts of beatings of Soviet and public workers, 9 cases took place in connection with the intensification of repressive measures against non‐payers. In with. Aromashevo, Ishim District, on the night of January 20, during a mass drunkenness on the occasion of the ʺchristeningʺ 42, the building of the house of arrest and a drunken peasant who was detained in it burned down. On this basis, a group of peasants led by the brother of the burned down with shouts of ʺdown with the powerʺ tried to beat up the communists and workers of the district council. One of the members of the group told the chairman of the RIK that he would be killed.

Kulak groups. Of the 4 groups that showed themselves, two failed proposals for self‐taxation (Staro‐Utkinsky district of the Sverdlovsk district) and achieved success.

Leaflets. Identified two leaflets on the latest measures to increase the export of bread.

SIBERIA

Grain procurement progress. As a result of the measures taken by the regional authorities (postponing the payment of agricultural tax, insurance, increasing the collection of all kinds of arrears, importing manufactured goods, reducing private procurement), the rate of grain procurement increased, especially in the last January five‐day period (which gave 47254 tons against 19,568 tons in the 5th five‐day period and 10‐12 thousand tons in the first five days of January).

Progress in receiving various payments (tax, insurance, arrears, etc.). On early collection of agricultural tax, insurance and all kinds of arrears, there is a significant increase in the rate of receipt in a number of districts (in Biysk district and Tomsk district 90‐100% of the task). Receipts of payments in the districts (Tarsky, Kamensky, etc.) are weaker.

Attitude towards the export of bread. The attitude of the poor and part of the middle peasantry to the measures taken to increase grain procurement is mostly positive. “It would have long been necessary to curb the kulak offspring, they kept thousands of poods in order to squeeze our poor brother in the spring” (Barnaul district).

The kulaks and the well‐to‐do strata of the countryside, as a rule, everywhere have a sharply negative attitude towards the measures being taken, which is expressed in the delay in grain and agitation against its export. The kulaks and the prosperous, thanks to the availability of free banknotes, repay all payments in money. Fearing the forced confiscation of grain, they distribute it to local needy farms for future harvest or labor. ʺThe authorities will soon take away our bread by force, it is necessary to hide it or distribute it from anyone who can reserve itʺ (kulak of the Barnaul district). ʺYou want to arrange 1920, almost take away the bread from the peasants by force, you will not succeed, I will sell a cow, I will sell two more, but I will not give a pound of breadʺ (speech at a meeting of a well‐to‐do in the Krasnoyarsk district).

Perversion of the party line by the apparatus. On the part of the workers of the lower soviet, cases of connivance with the kulaks and non‐observance of the class approach in collecting tax and other payments were noted. So, for example, in the Omsk district, there are facts when the poor for 70‐80 kopecks. arrears described the property. In the Irkutsk District, there were cases of inventory of property for non‐payment of insurance among the poor, pre‐conscripts, in the Zilair ʺdistrict, the poor described for arrears, having no bread, sells their last livestock. often were clearly provocative.

Attitude towards early payment of tax, insurance and selftaxation. The kulak‐prosperous part of the village, sharply opposing the change in the timing of payment of the agricultural tax, calls for ʺrallying, becoming more united and giving the Soviet power an organized rebuffʺ, ʺto rebel against the government with arms in handʺ (Tomsk Okrug). Cases of disruptions by kulaks of meetings were noted, at which the issue of early payment of agricultural tax was discussed. In a number of districts (Minusinsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, etc.), the kulaks refuse to pay taxes. In the Omsk District, under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks, the population of four villages refused to pay the tax (after the explanation the tax was introduced). The agitation of the kulaks against compulsory insurance, which is regarded as a ʺsecond taxʺ, is especially strong; agitation is successful among a section of the middle peasantry. In four villages of the Ishim district of the Irkutsk district, the population, under pressure from the wealthy, refused to pay insurance.

In the same place, when collecting taxes, there is pressure against nonpayers from the less powerful strata of the village, the underpowered expressed dissatisfaction with the change in the timing of payment of the agricultural tax and insurance: ʺThe authorities have no right to change the dates, since they passed by decreeʺ, ʺthere is no need to pay ahead of scheduleʺ ( Biysk district). “The state changes its laws every time” (Minusinsk district).

Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Terror. Of the 15 registered cases of beating of Soviet workers in 9 cases, the reason was the implementation of measures to strengthen grain procurement. So, in the village. V. Toleutsky, Kamensky District, kulaks, wishing to take revenge on a fellow villager for his energetic work on identifying objects of taxation (he revealed hidden cattle in these kulaks), invited the latter to visit, brought him into a remote driveway, where they had a moonshine still on the move, and tried dump into the fire under the moonshine; due to the fact that neighbors came running to his cry, he managed to avoid death. In with. Berezovka (Tomsk District), a group of peasants, led by kulaks, beat the chairman of the village council on the basis of confiscation of property for non‐payment of tax.

Kulak and anti‐Soviet groups. Registered (according to incomplete data) 8 kulak groupings, which arose mainly in connection with the collection of tax and aimed at organized opposition to the collection of tax.

Operational activities. A total of 123 people were arrested, of whom 88 people were arrested for counter‐revolutionary activities aimed at disrupting the procurement and 35 sabotage and arbitrariness of the Soviet apparatus. Of the total number of those arrested: 65 kulaks, 16 middle peasants, 2 poor peasants, 40 employees and others. ...

EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS AND AUTONOMOUS AREAS UZBEKISTAN

Kishlak. Land management. Bayte activity. The activity of the bayi in matters of land management, manifested mainly in the seizure of poor lands and water, is especially often noted in the Bukhara and Zeravshan districts. Two cases of killing farm laborers and several cases of beatings (Bukhara district) were registered. Along with this, the bai conduct a systematic anti‐Soviet agitation, spreading rumors about the war, with the aim of intimidating the farmers. In the Kashka‐Darya and Surkhan‐Darya districts, in connection with the preparation of the land and water reform, land plots are being fragmented by bays. Carrying out land reform in Aimskoy parish. Andijan okrug was accompanied by increased opposition of Muslims and bays with the energetic assistance of the poor and farm laborers (VII, 5‐6).

Re‐election of the Soviets. The preparatory work for the re‐election of the Soviets, despite its suspension due to the postponement of the reelection until the fall, revealed the activity of anti‐Soviet elements. There was a strong contamination of the election commissions with an alien element (Kokand, Tashkent districts) and the desire of the members of election commissions to provide election rights to representatives of the Muslim Spirituality 43 and Baystva. At the same time, negligence, drunkenness, and a formal attitude to the case on the part of members of election commissions were noted. The mass of dekhkans reacted passively to the election campaign (falling interest in comparison with last yearʹs re‐election). For a number of village councils of the Tashkent, Khodzhent, Bukhara and KashkaDarya districts, the percentage of attendance at campaign meetings ranges from 11 ‐ 27.

Lack of bread and manufactured goods. The acutely felt shortage of bread and manufactured goods caused a significant increase in prices for private traders. Bai and traders, buying up membership books of cotton farmers, received flour for them, reselling it to farmers (Fergana district). The lack of bread was most acutely felt in the city of Kokand, where for several days huge queues (1000 people each) for flour formed. Among the queues, there was talk of an impending war, panic, scandals and fights. The lack of bread causes strong discontent among farmers, who often point out in their speeches that the ʺauthorities are deceivingʺ them by promising to give wheat in exchange for cotton. On this basis, conversations about the need to switch again from cotton to wheat culture are becoming more frequent.

A particularly acute shortage of consumer goods is observed in the Kashka‐Darya district. The almost complete absence of tea for a whole month aggravated the demand of the population. With the receipt of tea by the Kassan shop of Uzbektorg at the end of January, about 1,500 farmers gathered, demanding the immediate sale of tea. The sentry militiaman was unable to withstand the pressure of the growing mass of farmers. The head of the district militia arrived in time with two militiamen and began to besiege the crowd, using whips and checkers and firing shots from revolvers.

Womenʹs campaign. A further curtailment of the campaign to remove the burqa continues to be observed amid the incessant agitation of the Muslim spirituality and bays. In a number of cases, 44 imams oppose the campaign in mosques, and 45 ishans forbid their murids 46 reveal wives. Meetings of beys and representatives of the Muslim community are often convened to discuss methods of countering women’s campaigns. At the same time, the bai are campaigning for filing compromising statements against the leaders of the campaign. Not limited to campaigning to disrupt the campaign, anti‐Soviet elements continue to use terror against activists and women who have revealed themselves. As a result, in January 1928, 6 people were killed, many women who were exposed during the campaign were beaten (Samarkand, Bukhara, Zeravshan districts). During the entire campaign (from June 1927 to February 1928), 43 people were killed and wounded on the basis of the womenʹs campaign, 15 women were raped, and 48 women were insulted and harassed (for details, see Appendix [No. 7]). In connection with the persecution of revealed women, the weakness of the work of local organizations and the curtailment of the campaign in general, there are cases of mass closings of women who threw off their veils at the beginning of the campaign. In some places, about 50‐60% of women closed again (Khojent, Samarkand districts). Along with this, circles organized for women are falling apart, centers for the elimination of illiteracy are being closed, and in a number of cases work among women completely stalls

(Samarkand). Local Soviet and party workers in most cases show a negligent attitude towards womenʹs work, and in some cases they themselves disrupt it (Bukhara district) (VII, 1‐4).

National intelligentsia. An increase in anti‐Russian sentiments is observed among the nationalist part of the Uzbek intelligentsia. A number of speeches by major nationalists point to the allegedly Russifying colonialist policy of the Soviet regime in Uzbekistan (Kokand, Tashkent). Along with the speeches, there is pressure on the Russians from some Uzbek workers. There have been cases of systematic refusal to admit Russian children to a boarding school (Katta‐Kurgan), to provide premises for a school for the Russian population (Kerminansky district), etc.

Russian village. The anti‐Soviet agitation of the Russian kulaks (Tashkent district) continues to be noted, mainly aimed at disrupting the tax campaign. Three cases of beating of poor activists with the slogan “Beat the laborers” were registered. There were several cases where employees sovapparata (Russian) deliberately delaying the settlement of the natives 47 cost of cotton surrendered them, refused to supply flour and so on. N.

Banditry. The activity of the Pakir‐Mamatkul and Bekish gang (19 people) was noted, which imposed 10,000 rubles on the residents of the Vorukhsky village council. After a clash with our detachment, which lost one [man] killed and 6 wounded, the gang moved to the Batkal region.

TURKMENISTAN

Preparation for the re‐election of the Soviets. The campaign for the reelection of the Soviets by the time the CEC decided to cancel the reelection was already quite widespread. Preparations for re‐elections almost everywhere caused an intensification of group and tribal struggles. As a result, a number of cases of clogging of election commissions by gangsters, traders and other anti‐Soviet elements were noted. There were also cases of womenʹs participation in gangs (Bakharden district). Along with the tribal struggle, an attempt was noted by the workers of the Soviet apparatus to maintain the previous position in the village councils or to bring their supporters to the new aul councils (Serakhsky, Tejen and Tashauz districts). On this basis, a number of cases of manifestation of antagonism between the Uzbeks, on the one hand, and the Kyrgyz and Karakalpaks, on the other (Tashauz district), were noted. In a number of districts, an extremely low attendance by farmers of reporting meetings was noted (VII, 7).

Purge of the Koschi Unions 48. In a number of districts, the purge of the Koshchi unions was carried out almost solely by representatives of the district committee of the Koshchi unions without the participation of the dekhkan masses. As a result, a number of cases of exclusion from the union of the poor and middle peasants and the abandonment of bais and merchants in the union (Tejen, Ashgabat and Bakharden districts) were registered (VII, 8).

Basmachism 49. The gang of Dzhunaid Khan, numbering up to 40‐50 people, united with the Shaltai‐batyr who had thrown from Kungrad, moved in the direction of the wells of Kupekli and Karpenet and raided a caravan going from Khiva to Dargan‐Ata, capturing 60 camels with packs of rice and 11 and manufactories man.

Moving on, the gang made the following raids: 30 camels were captured in the village of Ata‐Turkmen, 1,600 sheep were captured in the Dargan‐Ata region, 6 herds of sheep and 4 shepherds were captured in the vicinity of the Ak‐Yaili cemetery (140 versts east of Kizil‐Arvat).

KYRGIZSTAN

Land and water reform. In the Osh and Jalal‐Abad cantons 50, the active participation of the poor and chairikers 51 (farm laborers) in the identification of hidden Bai and Vakuf lands is almost universally noted 52 and liquidation of Bai farms. There was only one case, when four poor people refused to receive land documents due to poor land (Kagazdy village, Naukent vol., Jalal‐Abad canton). The middle peasants also actively support the campaign. In a number of villages of the Osh canton, only thanks to the middle peasants, unaccounted landlord farms were revealed. In the Jalal‐Abad canton, the middle peasants‐cattle breeders donated working cattle to the fund of the land commission (Chanach vol.). Along with this, there were a number of shortcomings in the activities of the assistance groups. Some members of the groups, being under the influence of the beys and the Muslims, helped the latter in hiding property, sometimes receiving bribes for this. Bayism and Manap elements continue to oppose the land reform, while trying to prevent the poor and middle peasant masses from attending meetings organized by the land commissions. A number of beatings by bays of their chairikers were recorded for their participation in revealing hidden Baysk lands (Kurshab vol., Osh canton). A case was noted when the bai, in their agitation against the land reform, tried to restore the Kirghiz against the Russians: “The Russians want to Russify the Kirghiz and soon they will force us to abandon Sharia53 and visit Russian churches ”(Ichkelik vol., Osh canton). A similar campaign against the land reform is being conducted by the ishans of the Osh and Jalal‐Abad cantons. Thanks to this agitation, a case of tearikersʹ refusal to receive the land of their owner was recorded ‐ “encroachment on someone elseʹs land is a great sin” 54 (Chanach vol. Of the Jalal‐Abad canton). During the campaign, abnormalities were noted in the work of the land commissions themselves.

Group fight. Despite the cancellation of the re‐election of the Soviets, in Northern Kyrgyzstan, there is a noticeable revival of groups for mastering the lower government apparatus. The group struggle takes place especially in the Frunzensky canton, where it is waged by two large tribal groupings of the cantonal scale, the solto‐tynai and the bugu‐sayak. Both groups are headed by Soviet workers and carry out all their work through the bai‐manapov, with whom they are closely associated. The solto‐tynai group, as the most powerful, is engaged in collecting compromising materials on the bugu‐sayak group, the latter is carrying out intensive work to recruit new supporters (VII, 9‐11).

Basmachism. Rumors are spreading among the population of the Osh canton that in the spring there will be a performance by the Basmachi, which will meet with the support of all those restrained by the land reform. The gang of Dzhanybek‐Kazy, hiding in China, has increased by 20 dzhigits from the Chonbagysh clan.

KAZAKSTAN

Grain procurement. Despite a slight increase in the rate of grain procurement in Akmola province. by the end of January, the tendency to hold back bread, mainly by the well‐to‐do and the fists, is still taking place. Facts of excessive administrative pressure have been registered. For example, the Akmola district executive committee issued a decree prohibiting the purchase of grain in the market and bazaars and obliging to hand over to cooperatives the existing availability of grain bought for the purpose of resale. At the same time, all private shops were sealed. Subsequently, the order was canceled, but, despite the removal of the seals, the merchants did not dare to open shops.

Attitude towards the self‐taxation campaign. Kulaks, well‐to‐do merchants, carry on anti‐Soviet agitation, opposing in every possible way the self‐taxation campaign (Aktobe province). There have been some reports of the need to organize an uprising. “This is not a right; we do not have the ability to dispose of our yard. We need to raise the black flag and make an uprising, just endure it. ʺ “What do the communists think, when they rake the last pound of the peasant out of the barn, they probably want to raise a peasant uprising against themselves” (Kustanai district). At a general meeting of peasants of the village. Leninsky Temirsky district Aktobe province. Under pressure from the kulaks, the question of 35% self‐taxation was abandoned and the proposal for 10% self‐taxation was passed. In the village Chekhovsky, Fedorovsky district, fists and well‐to‐do people planted an anonymous letter on the local communists with the following content: “You only live until dark,

Campaign for registration of pre‐conscripts. Further opposition of the Baysko‐Aksakal elements is noted 55 campaigns for registration of preconscripts among the Cossack population. Agitating against the registration, the bai are simultaneously agitating against the call to the Red Army of the indigenous population, spreading rumors about the war and the mobilization of the Kyrgyz to the front. ʺThe international situation is becoming more and more tense, there will soon be a war with Britain and China, so now the Kazyouth is being counted.ʺ At the Baysko‐Aksakal meetings, resolutions are passed on resistance to the campaign for registration (Syr‐Darya province). Under the influence of Bai agitation and with the assistance of a number of workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus, there is a massive shelter from the registration (Syr‐Darya, Semipalatinsk provinces). It is not uncommon for the chairmen of aul councils to conceal the draft age of the sons of the beys for bribes (Syr‐Darʹinskaya province).

The majority of the poor have a positive attitude towards the campaign (VII, 12‐16).

Preparation for the re‐election of the Soviets. Despite the fact that the re‐elections have been postponed, the bayism continues to vigorously prepare for the forthcoming re‐elections of the Soviets. There is an increase in the activity of various groups preparing for the capture of village councils and VICs. In a number of groupings, along with the bays, workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus are involved, convening meetings at the Bai apartments, at which the issues of gaining influence on the poor masses and the nomination of the Bai candidates for the new composition of the village councils and VICs are discussed, as well as agitators for distribution to the auls (Aktobe and Ural provinces ). Along with this, an attempt is noted by the beysdisenfranchised 56 restore yourself to voting rights. For this purpose, the goers to the gubernia center (Semipalatinsk gubernia) are selected at the Bai meetings. A similar preparation for the re‐election of the Soviets is taking place among the Russian Cossacks of the Semipalatinsk province. (VII, 17‐19).

The activity of the kulaks. Simultaneously with the revitalization of the kulaks in connection with the campaigns for the re‐election of the cross committees, cooperatives, agricultural‐credit partnerships, there is an intensified opposition of the wealthy kulak elements of the tax campaign, land management, anti‐Soviet and defeatist agitation and terrorizing the communists and village activists. In the Syr‐Darya province. during the reporting period, three cases of killing of village activists with fists were registered, two of which were former Red Army soldiers (facts in the Appendices). In everyday life in the countryside, the kulaks oppose cooperative and school construction, and are campaigning against various public organizations, trying to disintegrate them (VII, 20‐27).

Russian Cossacks. Allocation of the Russian Cossacks Voroshilov Volost. Akmola u. into an independent Cossack volost is interpreted by the kulak‐ataman elite of the Cossack village as ʺa concession of Soviet power to the Russian Cossacks in connection with complications in the international situation of the USSR.ʺ The lack of a more or less sufficient explanatory campaign on the part of party and public organizations contributes to dissatisfaction with the allocation of some part of the poor and middle peasants. At the general meeting stts. Akan‐Burluk Kokchetavsky district after the report of the PEC representative, the poor people heard shouts: “We did not apply for this allocation and we do not want to stand out”.

The kulak‐ataman elements are demanding the restoration of estate privileges and the return of the former Cossack lands. The kulaks are campaigning for the allocation of RIKs exclusively from representatives of the Cossacks. Razinsky Stanislavsky Executive Committee of Bukhtarma District Semipalatinsk province. issued a resolution to petition the PEC for the allocation of Russian Cossacks to a purely Cossack region, otherwise the stanispolkom should be left as an independent Cossack unit (VII, 28‐31).

NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Political mood. Rumors around grain procurements. The grain procurement campaign and the simultaneous collection of arrears, the collection of various kinds of overdue loans, the spread of peasant loans, etc. caused the spread of provocative rumors about the war, about the impending famine and the agitation of anti‐Soviet elements for ʺholding bread until prices rise.ʺ The prosperous kulak top of the aul is trying in every possible way to disrupt grain procurements. Campaigning for the need to raise the price of grain, the kulaks, in the hope of the imminence of the fall of Soviet power, demonstratively evades the surplus. At one of the kulak parties with the participation of former White Guards, toasts were made to ʺTrotskyʹs health, freedom of trade, speech and pressʺ (village Tulatovo, Ossetia). The most ridiculous rumors are spread by the kulakprosperous elements: “Trotsky created an army, the Soviets therefore buy up grain, in order to weaken him in case of war” (Shali District, Chechnya). “Bread is purchased not for workers, but for sending to Jews in Palestine” (Adygea). “In the spring, war has been declared with England” (Ossetia), etc. Along with the campaign against grain procurements, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do are calling on the population to refuse to surrender arrears, payments for payments, cover loans and buy government loans. In this regard, in Ingushetia, several cases of active resistance by non‐payers when describing their property (the villages of Plievo and Surkhakhi) were registered. Agitation against grain procurements is sometimes carried out by the Muslim clergy, which, referring to the December eclipse of the moon as ʺa sign of war and hungerʺ, calls on the population ʺnot to sell bread and value it more than gold.ʺ This agitation takes place especially in Chechnya, where it is carried out by members of the reactionary Alimitaev sect57. In all regions, a popular version is that the pressure on the peasantry was caused by a co‐government agreement on the supply of grain abroad in exchange for machines. Even among the party members and Komsomol members of Chechnya there is talk that “the Soviet government is thinking of destroying money and is pursuing this line in the form of experience by organizing commodity exchange” (VII, 33‐35).

The mood of the population due to the lack of consumer goods. In all mountainous regions, there is an increased demand not only for industrial goods, but also for consumer products (tea, sugar, salt, kerosene, etc.). The goods arriving at the cooperative shops are immediately bought up by the peasants, and in the overwhelming majority of cases the purchase is made ʺfor stockʺ, which further exacerbates the commodity crisis. Abnormal demand is boosted by well‐to‐do kulak elements, who persistently spread rumors about the ʺcollapse of Soviet industry,ʺ that ʺa war will start ‐ nothing will happen,ʺ ʺforeign countries are not giving Soviet power machines,ʺ etc. At the same time, they are campaigning against monopoly foreign trade, ʺpreventing the free access of manufactured goods.ʺ The position is especially widely used by private traders, who, despite large markups, are smartly trading, threatening consumers with higher prices by spring and the disappearance of goods from the market. Along with this, merchants and kulaks bought goods in the cities, mainly manufactory, through special agents. The kulaks often use the poor as ʺagentsʺ (Ossetia). The accumulation of goods in the hands of the wealthy causes the poor to fear being left without any goods. These sentiments are especially strong in those auls where local organizations do not reserve a certain percentage of incoming goods for the poor. Strong dissatisfaction is shown by those strata of the peasantry who donated their surplus harvest in the fall, ʺwhen there were no goods.ʺ In a number of regions of Dagestan, a grain crisis is being felt, which has assumed significant proportions. The bread shops of the Central Regional Committee of the city of Makhachkala are besieged by lines every day (100‐150 people). The prices for bread are inflated by private traders. The same phenomenon is observed in the districts (Laksky and Darginsky). In this regard, provocative rumors are spread in the queues (VII, 36‐40).

Attitude of the population to the agricultural census in Chechnya. In connection with the agricultural census and simultaneously the announcement by the Chechen military registration and enlistment office of lists of citizens born in 1906‐1907 in the flat districts of Chechnya and partly in the upland districts, provocative rumors spread about the war, mobilization and the forthcoming confiscation of livestock and other property from the Chechens. On the basis of these rumors, kulaks, merchants and members of the Alimitaev sect call on the population not to allow census takers, and the youth, if mobilized, to hide. As a result of this agitation and the absence of a wide explanatory campaign on the goals of the agricultural census, cases of the populationʹs refusal to give any information to the census takers were registered (Shali Okrug). There was a case when the village commission, elected to conduct the census, refused to conduct the census (Ustar‐Gordon village, Shali district).

Re‐election of KKOV. During the re‐election of the KKOV, weak leadership of the campaign from the district and aul authorities was almost everywhere noted. In some places, there was absolutely no preparatory work (Urvansky and Primalkinsky districts of Kabarda, Khumarinsky and Uchkulansky districts of Karachai). In a number of districts of Karachay, the population learned about the re‐elections of the KKOV on the day of their appointment. As a result ‐ extremely weak activity and attendance of meetings, disruption of the latter, a number of cases of failure of the lists of the poor and komyachek. Despite the defects of the campaign and the organized resistance of the upper strata of the mountain aul and the Russian village, according to preliminary data, the poor and middle peasants mostly entered the KKOV (VII, 41‐43).

ORDER

GEORGIA

The mood of the population due to the lack of basic necessities. Almost in all counties there is a shortage of consumer goods (flour, sugar, corn, salt, kerosene, manufactory), the absence of which creates discontent among the peasants and causes a variety of rumors about the reasons for commodity difficulties. The peasantsʹ discontent is aggravated by the fact that almost all the necessary goods that are absent in cooperatives are available on the private market, where they are sold at significantly increased prices. Anti‐Soviet elements ‐ merchants, kulaks, former Mensheviks ‐ are using commodity difficulties, spreading provocative rumors about an allegedly impending war as the cause of a commodity shortage (VII, 4550).

Re‐election of cooperation. On the whole, the campaign for re‐election to the cooperatives is proceeding satisfactorily with the active participation of the poor and middle peasants. However, a number of abnormalities have been observed during the campaign. In a number of counties, there was no preliminary explanatory work, discussion of candidates for the board of cooperatives, timely notification of the day of re‐elections (Senaki district). As a result, in some places re‐elections were held with 15‐25% of voters (Kutaisi district). A case was noted when, at a re‐election meeting, which consisted mostly of the poor and middle peasants, the faction imposed the candidacy of the old chairman on the general meeting against the wishes of the latter (Akhalkalaki u.). Kulaks and other anti‐Soviet elements were very active, speaking out at meetings against the lists put forward by the poor and the faction, trying in every possible way to bring their representatives into cooperation (Akhalkalaki district; Sukhum district ‐ Abkhazia). The preliminary results of the re‐elections indicate a partial contamination of the cooperation by the wealthy, kulaks and former Mensheviks58 (Kutaisi district ‐ Samtredsky district and Orpidskoe by those 59 ‐ Akhalkalaki district) (VII, 52‐53).

ARMENIA

Population dissatisfaction with the lack of goods in cooperatives. The lack of consumer goods in cooperatives and their abundance among private traders at high prices cause strong discontent among the peasants. This circumstance is widely used by private traders not only to increase their turnover, but also for antiSoviet agitation. ʺThe co‐government has taken the monopoly of trade into its own hands, forbids us to trade, and the people are forced to starveʺ (Erivansky u.). Along with this, there were cases when private traders completely refused to sell goods to members of the cooperative (Dilijan u.)

Activities of the former Dashnaks. The activity of the former

Dashnaks is still aimed at disrupting the events of the Soviet government and anti‐Soviet propaganda. In a number of villages, under the guise of revelry, former Dashnaks systematically organize illegal meetings at which they discuss issues of providing material support to the ʺhero‐martyrsʺ (imprisoned Dashnaks) and establishing ties with abroad and Persia in order to inform them about the latest events in connection with the opposition in VKP (b) and on the internal situation of the USSR (Erivan and Leninakan regions) (VII, 54‐55).

Anti‐Soviet proclamations. In Etchmiadzin district. found two proclamations (10‐12 copies each), one of which is of oppositional content, directed against the Communist Party and calling for the protection of the opposition. In Erivan district registered a case of sticking by a member of KOM s. Chatkran on the walls of the village council of opposition slogans received from a member of the opposition party. In the same district, opposition elements have recently noted the organization of a number of illegal meetings with the involvement of all those expelled from the party and the Komsomol, non‐party and former Dashnaks. At these meetings, opposition literature was analyzed and methods of struggle against the party were worked out (VII, 56‐58).

Conference of Yezidi Kurds 60. At the conference of Yezidi Kurds held in Erivan, the delegates noted the shortcomings of the work carried out among them. The lack of good pasture areas and water was especially emphasized, due to which their livestock died. Considering the insufficient number of cooperatives serving them, their remoteness, and in some places their complete absence, as a result of which the Kurdish population is forced to turn to a private trader, the delegates asked for an increase in the network of cooperative organizations. Along with this, they also pointed to the insufficient number of Kurdish Soviet schools, the lack of a new alphabet, teachers who know the Kurdish language, and the poor state of the reading rooms.

AZERBAIJAN

The activity of the kulaks. The kulaks are especially active in the land question. In their agitation against land surveying, the kulaks often refer to religion, while resorting to the help of local Muslim authorities (Nukhinsky and Baku districts). Along with the seizure of the poor and public lands, the kulaks, in order to retain their surplus land, are trying in every possible way to put their protégés in the land commission. The activity of the kulaks in some places leads to the fact that the kulaks, having 20‐30 or more dessiatines of land, remain completely unaffected by land distribution (Karyaginsky u.). On the basis of a pasture dispute, a case was recorded of a fist wounding a poor man with a threat to kill if the latter complained to the village council. The agitation of the kulaks also continues against school construction, often motivated by the fact that ʺgirls will turn into prostitutesʺ in Soviet schools.

Discontent of cotton growers. In a number of districts, cotton growers are dissatisfied with the abnormalities that occur when accepting cotton from them. Particular dissatisfaction is caused by the untimely supply of bags (bardans 61) for packing, as a result of which the cotton either rots or its grade is reduced. No less dissatisfaction is noted due to the late payment of money for the cotton handed over, and cotton growers either have to come several times to receive money, or wait for money for weeks on end, spending on accommodation, food and a horse (Aghdam and Ganja districts). Along with this, when accepting cotton, peasants are often weighed, they take the first category for the third, and on acquaintance they pay for low‐grade cotton in the first category (Nakh [Ichevan] region) (VII, 59‐61).

Banditry. In Lankaran, Salyan, Karyaginsky and Kurdistan districts (border areas), local and foreign gangs are still operating, and at times are very active. Of some speeches, noteworthy is the raid on January 9 of this year. by a gang of 16 people at the station. Sontanlu (section of the Jebrail border detachment). As a result of the shootout from the side of the gang, 6 people were killed and 7 people were captured. In addition, on January 3 of this year. In the Karodonli outpost of the Jebrail border detachment, when a group of bandits tried to cross the territory of Persia, one bandit was killed and three horses and four heads of cattle were captured. One Red Army soldier was killed on our side.

CRIMEA

Re‐election to village councils. Despite the postponement of the reelection of the Soviets until the fall, active preparation of the kulaks and the well‐to‐do part of the countryside for re‐elections continues. All means are used to penetrate the election commissions, there is a temporary refusal to hire farm laborers in order to restore them to the election administration, and vigorous campaigning is being conducted among the poor and middle peasants, sometimes falling under the influence of the kulaks.

Re‐election of cooperation. The re‐election campaign of cooperation is taking place with the active participation of all strata of the population, and the most active are the kulaks and the well‐to‐do part of the native and Russian countryside. The latter are intensified agitation against the cooperatives, attempts are made to disrupt re‐election meetings, etc. At the same time, the kulaks are striving to appoint their proteges to the new boards and revision commissions. To acquire supporters from among the poor and middle peasants, the kulaks practice soldering the poor (Yalta region). As a result, in a number of cases, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do succeed in attracting their protégés to the new government.

Re‐election of CCV and zemsovoy. The kulaks are no less active in the re‐election of the KKOV, on the one hand, campaigning for the elimination of the cross‐committees, and on the other hand, nominating their candidates for the new KKOV composition. In their work, the kulaks rely in places on the support of the clergy (Simferopol region), who are campaigning against the KKOV. Some of the poor are falling under the influence of the kulaks. As a result, the kulaks in a number of cases manage to penetrate the KKOV.

A similar activity of the kulaks during the re‐election of land commissioners is met with vigorous resistance from the poor.

Threats and beatings. Along with anti‐Soviet agitation, the kulaks in some places practice direct threats and beatings of the village activists. Thus, in the Feodosiya region, the chairman and secretary of the village council, who took part in the tax campaign, were beaten with fists, who also dispersed and beat up groups of poor people who were trying to protect the victims.

Agitation for the COP. During the month of January, 9 cases of agitation for the creation of a Constitutional Court were noted, emanating mainly from the kulaks and the well‐to‐do ^ In some cases, the campaigning for the Constitutional Court was accompanied by an indication of the uselessness of cross‐committees (VII, 62‐64).

The mood in connection with the arrest of the chairman of the Crimean CEC Veli Ibraimov. The arrest of the chairman of the Crimean Central Executive Committee, Veli Ibraimov, caused lively rumors from all segments of the Crimean population. Among the Tatars, talk about the beginning of the ʺRussian offensive against the Tatarsʺ prevails. There have been isolated cases of anti‐Semitic demonstrations with the indication: ʺThis is only the fault of the Jews.ʺ The strongest discontent is expressed by students‐Tatars (Krymrabfak, Tatpedtekhnikum), the Tatin intelligentsia, merchants. There were no mass demonstrations or more or less active manifestations of discontent. Only in one case did a group of traders and Tatar students, talking about the arrest of Ibraimov, point out the need to protest against the arrest.

Russians, Greeks and representatives of other national minorities in almost all cases approve of the arrest, making various kinds of assumptions, among which the predominant are guesses about Ibraimovʹs connections with nationalist elements and about abuse of office.

TATARIA, BASHKIRIA, CHUVASHIA

The mood of the peasants in connection with grain procurements. The determining factor in the political mood of the peasants is the grain procurement campaign. Lack of manufactured goods, competition between procurement organizations, a number of cases of distortion of the party line, such as the deployment of barrage detachments, repression against the middle peasants who are not engaged in speculation, etc., cause strong discontent among the poor and middle peasants. A case was recorded when, at a general meeting, the head of the volmilitia suggested that the peasants immediately hand over the surplus to the state producers, otherwise threatening to check the barns, confiscate grain and arrest (Spassky canton, Tatarstan). There was a case of beating of a member of the VIK and an agricultural contractor by the wealthy, who were traveling with bread to the bazaar and detained by a barrage detachment (ibid., Levashevskaya Vol.). In connection with this phenomenon, the poor and middle peasants have the impression of a return to surplus appropriation. Dissatisfaction with the grain procurement campaign is used by the kulak‐prosperous elements, who incite the population against the Soviet workers, urging them to organize and repel Soviet power. “It is necessary to raise an uprising and drive the communists into the forest” (Chelninsky and Yelabuga cantons).

In Bashkiria, the wealthy, as a rule, refrain from exporting grain, waiting for the price of bread to rise. In connection with the anti‐Soviet agitation of the kulaks and the spread of rumors about the war in some cantons, in particular Mesyagutovsky, the supply of grain was significantly reduced. The poor and middle peasants, who donated grain at the beginning of the campaign, express their dissatisfaction with the supply of goods exclusively to the grain suppliers at the present time (Birsk canton).

In Chuvashia, dissatisfaction with low prices for bread is associated with a shortage of manufactured goods and high prices for them (Ibresinsky and Shemurshinsky districts). In areas where the population needs imported bread, there is dissatisfaction with the untimely delivery of bread by cooperative organizations and pressure on private traders, as a result of which bread has to be obtained ʺfrom under the floorʺ at high prices (Alatyr District). In connection with the spread of provocative rumors about the war in the Shemurshinsky region (grain procurement), the peasants began to stock up on salt, kerosene and other goods (VII, 65‐67).

Re‐election campaigns of cooperation and KKOV. The re‐election of rural cooperatives and the KKOV was accompanied by a significant revival of the kulak‐wealthy elements of the native and Russian villages, who were conducting intensified agitation against the communists, grouping the poor, pre‐soldering them. The lists of candidates presented by the poor and the cells of the CPSU (b) were vigorously criticized by the kulaks. As a result, in a number of cases, the candidacies of the poor people failed and the kulaks or their henchmen were elected to the board. Thanks to the activities of the kulaks, and in some places the weakness of the leadership of the reelections of the KKOV, the organization of 6 rural committees (Bashkiria) was disrupted.

The political mood of the countryside in connection with commodity difficulties. The perceived lack of consumer goods creates discontent among the peasants and serves as a pretext for the spread of a wide variety of rumors. The kulaks and the well‐to‐do use commodity difficulties for anti‐Soviet agitation and spreading provocative rumors, attributing a shortage of goods to the coming war. The peasants are especially dissatisfied with the lack of goods in the cooperative society when the private owner has them at inflated prices (VII, 68).

BURYAT‐MONGOLIA

The mood due to the lack of manufactured goods. The lack of manufactured goods causes discontent among the peasants. The poor and some of the middle peasants believe that the reason for the shortage of goods is the unsatisfactory work of the cooperatives, while the kulaks spread rumors that the shortage of manufactured goods is allegedly caused by the forthcoming war, in connection with which the production of all goods has decreased. Commodity difficulties are used by the kulaks as a pretext for anti‐Soviet agitation and the spread of rumors related to the war danger, the severance of relations between the USSR and foreign states, etc. The peasantsʹ dissatisfaction is intensified by the lack of goods also because the consumer goods that are often absent in cooperation are available from private traders, where they are sold at increased prices (VII, 69‐70).

Re‐election of KKOV. The re‐election campaign was accompanied by significant activity from all segments of the population. Lists of candidates nominated by the poor and middle peasants were everywhere. On the part of the well‐to‐do and kulak part of the village, there were speeches with agitation against the KKOV with the motivation that KKOV does not give any benefit to the peasants and that KKOV should be eliminated.

A negative attitude towards KKOV was observed among all strata of the Tungus population, expressing dissatisfaction with the ignorance of the interests of the Tungus on the part of KKOV workers ‐ in most Buryats.

YAKUTIA

Banditry. For the reporting period, the bandit movement is drawn in the following form. Artemyevʹs gang, which changed its direction all the time, on January 17th. g. concentrated in the AmginoPetropavlovsk tract, from where it moved in the direction of the river. May towards Ayma. Mikhailov‐Rakhmatullinʹs gang of 42 people moved to the area of Sadag Nakharsky nasleg 62 , where it was on the day of surrender, i.e. until January 28 of this year January 21 this year our detachment captured the headquarters of Popovʹs gang, led by the latter in the amount of 7 people. The rest of the Nelkan group of 63 bandits fled towards Aldan.

ANTI‐SOVIET PARTIES

Mensheviks. During the reporting period, the distribution of Menshevik leaflets in a number of Ukrainian cities was noted (see the attached review for their content).

In places of exile, exiled Mensheviks show interest in meeting with exiled oppositionists. The Mensheviks abroad in the newspaper Days 64 published a note on the organization of a publishing house called Library of Democratic Socialism, headed by Potresov, with the participation of the far‐right Mensheviks who published the Zarya magazine 65 and Mensheviks who are affiliated with the platform of the Socialist Bulletin 66 . Judging by the note, an internal party struggle began among the Mensheviks abroad.

CLERGY

Reactionary clergymen, in connection with the decree of Metropolitan Sergius on the commemoration of the Soviet power at divine services, 67 are opposed to Sergius, and in some places they organize whole groups (Leningrad, Detskoe Selo, Severo‐Dvinskaya province, part of Vyatka province, Serpukhov, Moscow province) who do not recognize Sergius.

A significant part of the faithful, following the Old‐Mikhon clergy, 68 demonstratively leaves the church during the commemoration of the authorities. Opponents of commemorating the authorities do not want to obey Sergiusʹ orders because ʺyou cannot pray for godless rulers.ʺ ʺThey did nothing good to Russia, they only robbed, and gave half of Russia to foreigners.ʺ The refusal to commemorate is often associated with anti‐Semitism. So, one priest declares: ʺLet me be shot, but I will not pray for the Jews.ʺ

In a number of cases, reactionary clergymen, using the church pulpit 69, conduct intensified agitation against pioneer and Komsomol organizations, rural KKOV, etc., persuading the peasants to keep their children from joining the pioneer detachments and the Komsomol ([...] district of Ryazan province.). Some priests are campaigning against paper money, which, according to them, will fall in the event of a war, against the deposit of savings in savings banks (Oirat region). In the Barnaul district, the priests offer believers to keep the old tsarist money, declaring that ʺthey will go all over Russia, since Soviet power will soon be destroyed.ʺ

In some places, the priests continue to intimidate the population with a future war. So, in the Aktobe province. one priest said: ʺDo not shy away from religion and do not forget that the government will soon change and religion will take back its old direction.ʺ

In order to raise religiosity, the Tikhonites resort to all sorts of tricks, false rumors are spread about the appearance of icons to pioneers (Tara district), ʺmiraclesʺ are arranged with the renewal of icons (Armavir district), etc. etc.

SECTANTS

Baptists 70. Despite the adoption by the congress of a resolution on the military question, confirmation of this decision by all provincial and regional congresses, individual groups and individuals in the communities continue to work against service in the Red Army. The agitation of opponents of military service is usually associated with the attitude towards Soviet power: ʺIt is necessary to repel the enemy not with the sword, but with the word of God.ʺ During the week of defense in the Omsk district (village Simionovka), the Baptists refused to donate, saying: ʺWe do not want to help Soviet power, the bourgeoisie will not touch us.ʺ Similar statements also take place in the provinces (Siberia, Center, RSFSR, Ukraine), where this issue is associated with “tax complaints”.

Among the Baptists in some areas, there is an organization of new groups and an influx of new members (Tulunovsky District, Vladimir Gubernia, Tambov Gubernia, Ural). At the same time, there is a sharp drop in attendance at prayer meetings, an increase in cases of drunkenness and smoking, return to Orthodoxy, the departure of young people from the sect (Tulunovsky district, 5 communities of the Omsk district, Samara, Jetysu and other provinces). Cases of conversion to Orthodoxy are motivated by the fact that “since we have recognized military service, we are no different from the Orthodox”.

BANDITRY

Northwest. Of all the speeches of criminal banditry that have taken place in recent years, it should be noted only the robbery of the postal and telegraph agency in the village. Glotovo (Komi region), where money was seized and packages with mob [ilizational] documents were opened.

Ukraine. In addition to the usual activity of small unreported gangs, numbering from 3 to 6 people, there is also the activity of the registered Litvinchukʹs gangs in the Volyn district, Baychuk ‐ in Vinnitsa and Vashchenko ‐ in the Glukhovsky district.

From the performances of the bandit groups, it should be noted: 1) a raid by a gang armed with sawn‐off shotguns on freight train No. 402 on the Baryshevka‐Berezen stretch (all the attackers were detained); 2) the raid of four bandits on the station. Lyrovaya Grove, where the cash register was robbed.

The general manifestation of banditry and other types of crime for December 1927 is drawn in the following form: raids on railway stations and state institutions ‐ 4, various robberies and thefts ‐ 5483, murders ‐ 244, arson ‐ 149. The total amount of losses ‐ 546269 rubles.

By the measures taken, 15 gangs of the unknown] command were liquidated, totaling 121 people. Discovered stolen property in the amount of 132,000 rubles. Weapons were confiscated from criminals and from the population of 483 units. In total, there are 13 gangs in the region ‐ 66 people.

CCM. The usual appearance of unrecorded criminal banditry is observed in almost all districts of the region. Of the individual speeches of criminals, the robbery of the Khleboprodukt elevator at Art. Nazran, where on January 19 a group of Ingush including 10 people removed a fireproof cash register from the office of the elevator with 18,000 rubles. There are 5 gangs of 35 people in the district.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser

Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Alekseev

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX No. 1 to the January 1928 review.

RELEASE OF SHARE AGREEMENTS

Metalworkers

1. Zlatoust factories (Zlatoust district, Ural). Discussion of the legal and tariff part of the contract was carried out at the factories in a hurry (within two days). This caused criticism from the workers against the administration and factory organizations: ʺIt is not necessary to discuss the contract in an hour and a half, but it is necessary to give two weeks for a comprehensive acquaintance, so that the workers know what they are voting for.ʺ

Another serious drawback was the superficial elaboration of the tariff part of the agreement, mainly in relation to points of change in the production rate and the appointment of piece rates. Trade union representatives at meetings on these issues could not give workers definite and clear answers, since they themselves poorly understood the essence of the new tariff agreement; in order to somehow rehabilitate themselves before the workers, they mostly referred to ʺthe absence of directives.ʺ All the representatives of the factory organizations who took the floor assured the workers that ʺthe wages will be increased and the norms will be revisedʺ, ʺwe will not get anything except the benefits of the new contract,ʺ and so on. It should also be noted that at the general meetings there were no reports of plant administrations on the results of work for the 1926‐1927 operating year and therefore questions about the cost of production remained uncovered. labor productivity and measures taken to rationalize, production rates and prices. The ignorance of the workers about the actual directives of the higher professional and administrative authorities, the deliberate circumvention of the issues of the tariff part of the contract, and sometimes a complete distortion of these issues, the

assurance that the new contract would significantly improve position of all groups of workers, etc. ‐ all this caused at a number of meetings a great rise in the mood of workers; the speakers were greeted with shouts of ʺhurrayʺ and even proposals were made ʺto send gratitude to the Union for its successful work in protecting the interests of the workersʺ (Metallurgical Plant and the Arms Factory of the Mekhzavod).

Individual workers who spoke out with the indication that ʺthe draft was drawn up vaguely and it is not yet known whether the wages will increaseʺ were not successful. In reality, however, the situation is not entirely favorable. On a number of main issues, no agreement has been reached: 1) on the breakdown of factories into groups, 2) the Union demands the establishment of a nominal value of 27 rubles for the Zlatoust factories, Uralmet offers only 20 rubles, 3) even the question of methods for setting production rates has not yet been agreed upon. In addition, it is not yet known how much will be allocated to raise the wages of lagging groups of workers. In connection with the widespread rumors about a reduction in wages to certain groups of skilled workers, among them there was talk: ʺWith the left hand they add, and with the right they take away.ʺ Workers of the open‐hearth shop of the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant, receiving (thanks to a number of mistakes on the part of TNB) on average up to 80 rubles. per month, in connection with rumors that their prices would be cut by half, they said: ʺInstead of improving life, there will be a deterioration, but we will try to prevent this, even though we had to go on strike.ʺ

So far, the conclusion of the collective agreement is being delayed, which will strengthen the strike mood among the workers, since it will be necessary to recalculate the wages under the new agreement. On this basis, a number of sharp conflicts and strikes took place last year at the factories of Zlatoust.

Textile workers

2. Spinning and weaving factory ʺKrasny Profintern” (over 5000 workers, Gus‐Khrustalny, Vladimir province). The reduction in wages for significant groups of workers and the abolition of utility bills (included in the wages), while the amount of communal money increased in connection with the renaming of the village of Gus‐Khrustalny into a city, caused massive discontent among the factory workers.

The discontent was used by a group of anti‐Soviet people (16 people ‐ former Socialist‐Revolutionaries and expelled from the CPSU).

Individual members of the group were included in the workersʹ delegation that traveled to the State Civil Defense of the Union to renegotiate the collective agreement, which raised their authority in the eyes of the workers.

On January 14, members of the group (expelled from the CPSU) ‐ members of the delegation spoke at a factory conference (attended by 700 people), where they informed the workers that, allegedly in the government department, they did not want to be reckoned with as representatives of the workers, “they were called buzoters, whole for hours they forced me to sit in the corridor, signed a collective agreement without them ”and called on the workers not to accept the collective agreement. The members of the group (former Socialist‐

Revolutionaries) simultaneously, trying to ruin the agreement, carried out individual campaigning among the members of the conference. However, the conference passed a resolution: to approve the contract with the exception of the clause on utilities.

The final agreement was to be approved at a general meeting of workers. The group led intensive preparations for breaking the contract. Workers, led by group members, gathered in latrines, in the back streets of the factory, and discussed the issue of canceling the new contract.

The workers came to the general meeting (January 23, attended by 2,000 people) already significantly prepared for the breakdown of the contract. The group showed great organization (placement in the hall, performances, etc.). After an hour of debate, 6 members of the group were included in the presidium. The members of the group, being among the workers, distorted the words of the orators ‐ representatives of the union and economic organizations, inciting the workers against the trade union and the party.

The members of the group behaved defiantly in relation to the representatives of party and trade organizations. The worker (expelled from the CPSU) shouted, pointing at the workers of the Union and Party organization: “Down with them, murderers, destroyers, exploiters, parasites, beat them. Take us by the throat, take our blood, bloodsuckers, bastards. ʺ As a result, the meeting did not allow the Ukom secretary and the cell secretary to speak. The speech of the representatives of the Union was interrupted by shouts of ʺlie, down withʺ.

After the report of the chairman of the GO Textiles and the co‐report of the head of the TNB factory on the collective agreement, the meeting demanded information from the delegation of workers. The information of the delegates (members of the group) pursued a single goal ‐ to break the agreement and discredit the trade and party bodies.

In their speech, they stated that, despite the pressure of the Union and business executives, they did not back down from the order given to them by the workers, but representatives of the Union, in their absence, nevertheless signed an agreement. After this information, the meeting took on a stormy character. Members of the CPSU were not allowed to speak at all.

Almost exclusively members of the group (former members of the CPSU and former Socialist‐Revolutionaries) spoke in the debate; a number of speeches were openly anti‐Soviet in nature: ʺOur business executives and party members are following the Ford line.ʺ “The workers are now under pressure. People lived better under Tsar Nicholas. ʺ “In the 11th year of the revolution, new capital has grown in our country and there are capitalists, they strangle us, drink workersʹ blood. I do not say ʺbusiness executivesʺ, but I call them ʺcapitalists.ʺ “The Communists are cheating us, donʹt listen to them, comrades. Donʹt believe the communists. ʺ In a number of speeches, the members of the group emphasized that ʺthe party is putting pressure on the union.ʺ

During the speech of one of the members of the group from the audience there was a shout ʺto strikeʺ. After these speeches, considering that the mood of the meeting was rather tense, the group made a motion to close the debate, which was accepted.

The registered committee secretary and the factory cell secretary were not given the floor.

A proposal was accepted not to agree with the collective agreement and to call a representative of the Central Committee of textile workers to the factory.

In the days following the meeting, the groupʹs activities intensified. On February 1, at the plenum of the factory committee, to resolve the issue of the collective agreement, a delegation was elected to the province committee of the Union of Textile Workers, which included members of the anti‐Soviet group. At the same plenum, after the report of the secretary of the city council on the transfer of Gus‐Khrustalny to the position of the city, it was decided not to agree with this resolution.

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX 2 to the January 1928 survey

TRANSITION TO 7‐HOUR WORKING DAY

Textile workers

1. Verkhne‐Seredskaya block (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province). In addition to the mutilation department, no one has yet switched to a dense work. Waterwomen are especially protesting against the transition to a 7‐hour working day. The women workers sent for the compacted work from the labor exchange were beaten by the watermen, and they had to be sent back. Appeared in the shop to eliminate the conflict pom. one water‐woman tried to hit the director with a roll. On January 19, in the night shift, in connection with the voluntary transition to a compacted work of one water woman, the rest (100 people) protested, stopped work and began to work at the machines only after this water woman was removed from the compacted work. Of the shift meetings scheduled for January 23, only one (3rd shift) took place, meetings of the other two shifts were disrupted due to the absence of workers. At the meeting that took place, strong friction arose due to the issue of auxiliary workers (workers demanded assistants for every 8 sides, the management agreed only to 16 sides). A group of women workers, led by the water woman Razgulina (an active opponent of compacted work and a member of the commission to consider the demands of workers related to compaction of the working day), demonstratively left the meeting and carried away a significant part of those present, in connection with which the meeting was disrupted. In view of the categorical statement of the chairman of the department of the Union that the union refuses to support the water women and the statement of the deputy. the chairman of the trust that if the workers do not voluntarily switch to compacted work, they will be transferred to it by administrative means, the waterwomen accepted the offer to assign representatives to jointly discuss the issue with the administration and the trade union. However, at a meeting of the active water department on January 24, Razgulina again spoke out with harsh objections to the transition to dense work, accompanied by attacks against the Soviet government and the Unions: “We used to say that we were fighting the bourgeoisie, but now with ourselves, now we have new bourgeoisie ... There used to be a fight, but now there will be a war; we are not interested in a 7‐hour working day, we would have taken better care of apartments for workers. Trade unions do not protect us, and we do not need them. ʺ This performance was greeted with shouts of ʺright.ʺ After the statement of the representative of the board of the trust that ʺthe department will still be transferred to a dense work and if the workers persist, they will have to recruit workers from the stock exchangeʺ, shouts were heard: ʺWe ourselves will not work and we will not let others.ʺ A group of female workers headed by Razgulina left the meeting, thus the meeting was disrupted. It should be noted that the technical staff of the Verkhne‐Seredskaya plant during the entire campaign did not take any part in the work on the transition to a dense work and did not speak at meetings.

2. F‐ka ʺRed Perekopʺ (Yaroslavl province.). The transition to a 7‐hour working day was supposed to be approximately in April. The order to move took local organizations by surprise. A number of party members at a meeting of the party activists and at meetings of workers came out with sharp objections to the transition. The general meeting of the left wing of the factory, scheduled primarily for the transition to a 7‐hour working day, was disrupted: the workers defiantly left the meeting. On January 14, at a general factory conference (attended by 1000 people), those who advocated the compacted work were not allowed to speak. Certain anti‐Soviet persons tried to cause distrust of the planned event: ʺAll the same, the communists will not be able to do this, they are deceiving us, the workers, and will deceive now too.ʺ Finally, the conference adopted a resolution proposed on behalf of the ʺgroup of workersʺ. The resolution welcomes the government and the Central Committee of the Union for ʺintroducing a 7‐hour working day,ʺ but indicates that ʺthis must be done without compaction, since the factory was compacted earlier.ʺ On January 16, at a closed district party meeting (attended by 700 people), the speakers of the party pointed to a superficial study of issues among the communists. The comber of the new factory (a member of the All‐Union Communist Party) said: “Without reaching an agreement with the workers, without preparing anything, neither from the technical, nor from the organizational, nor from the party side, during 3‐6 days they want to make such a coup and carry out a seal in a cabinet way. Speak like this now, perhaps, will be considered an oppositionist, but it is necessary to talk about it. ʺ Another member of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) said that ʺthree party members were preparing material to disrupt the campaign and that on January 14, even before the conference, discussing the issue among themselves, they decided that if a consolidation was held at the conference, they would have to go on strike.ʺ Further, the speaker noted: ʺLyulin and Mednikov (who campaigned against the packed work and actively spoke at meetings) managed to get into the conference, and it was clear that they were preparing for it, but the party leaders did not prepare us, so it was a failure.ʺ In connection with the situation in the factory, it was decided to carry out a new awareness‐raising campaign. After preparatory work with party members and trade union activists, on January 19, a secondary conference of workers was convened (1,000 workers attended, of which a significant part of party members and Komsomol members). At this conference, after a series of speeches, it was decided to seal the left wing of the old factory. (Up to 70% of those present voted for this proposal).

3. F‐ka them. Abelman (Vladimirskaya province). Resistance to the transition to a dense work was put up by the water women of the 2nd shift of the factory. The proposal was voted three times, but it was not accepted. However, in the minutes of the meeting, it was recorded that ʺthe proposal to move to a packed job has been accepted.ʺ The technical lack of elaboration of the issue of the transition to compacted work

affected the discussion of the procedure for the transition at production meetings: at the meeting of the weaving department, no decision could be made due to complete ambiguity in the issue of compacted work, and the study of the issue was transferred to a specially created commission, at the production meeting of the spinning department a number of issues related to the compaction of work was left open. All these phenomena were explained by the fact that the issue was poorly worked out by economic organizations. Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX No. 3 to the January 1928 survey

STRIKES AND CONFLICTS

1. Dugnensky plant Trust Gozachuplav (Kaluga). At the plant, in connection with the dismissal of 300 workers, there was a sharp conflict due to the closure of the plant. At a general meeting convened at the request of the workers (under the application for convening a meeting to discuss the status of the plant, up to 150 signatures were collected), after the information from the plant manager that ʺthe provincial organizations refused to release funds for the repair and start‐up of the plantʺ, and proposals to ʺlook for work at other enterprises ”the workers decided to send a delegation to Moscow to resolve the issue, and at the insistence of the meeting, the delegation included exclusively non‐party workers. The delegation reached a decision in Moscow to oblige the trust to provide the plant with fuel for several months and release 30,000 rubles. to repair the plant. In this regard, the confidence among the workers in the administration and trade unionists has fallen greatly:

2. Textile dyeing factory named after Zhelyabova (Leningrad). On January 19, a group of weavers (150 people) stopped working, dissatisfied with the decrease in prices for the produced fabric (plaid).

Dissatisfaction with the decline in prices was noted long before the strike. At the meeting of the RKK, which took place in the textile workersʹ department, both sides approved the prices in the amount of 6 rubles. 07 kopecks for every 100 meters, while the workers demanded 6 rubles. 42 kopecks Upon learning of the results of the meeting, the workers became agitated. When the director appeared in the weaving department, a loud noise arose, and two apprentices (members of the CPSU (b)), assuming that a fire had broken out in the department, were so confused that they turned off two motors, which entailed a stop of 50 looms. At the same time, female workers working on 30 operating machines stopped working.

One weaver (a member of the Komsomol and a candidate of the VKP (b)) took an active part in the strike, who bypassed the Komsomol members, campaigning for the termination of work.

The director personally convinced each weaver to get to work. Didnʹt work for 12 minutes. Among the 150 strikers there are 35 members and candidates of the CPSU.

On January 20, this group of workers went on strike again and resumed work after the director and representatives of the factory organizations promised to convene a meeting and discuss the matter.

At a meeting of both shifts, held on January 20, the speeches of the administration and representatives of the Union, who defended the established rates, were interrupted by shouts: ʺThis is the Union, the defender of our interests,ʺ ʺWe will not work until you add more.ʺ After the director and the factory proposed to elect a commission of 10 people to work out the issue, shouts were heard again: “We donʹt need any commissions, whatʹs the point, the RKK has met several times; went to the Union, but in our opinion it still did not work out. ʺ Despite the objections of individual workers, the commission was nevertheless elected and entrusted with solving the issue within three days. At a meeting of the commission held on January 23, representatives of the Union and the administration did not come to an agreement with representatives from the workers. Since the administration stubbornly defended the rates it worked out, The working part of the commission intended to defiantly leave the meeting and refused to vote for the proposal of the head department of the Union of Textile Workers: ʺRecognize the prices as correct and invite the factory to carry out individual examinations of the machine tools to find out technical abnormalities causing under‐production of individual workers in order to give them a percentage increase.ʺ The commission stopped its work, and the representatives of the workers said that in the future they would not attend the commissionʹs meetings.

3. Plant ʺRed Triangle” Rezinotresga (Leningrad). At the plant, retariffication was carried out in the main locksmithʹs workshop, and the prices for some works were reduced by two or three times.

On January 13, a worker turner Polsky (a member of the All‐Union Communist Party), having argued with the rationers on the issue of prices, beat three rationers. The action of the party member met with sympathy among the rest of the workers. There was talk about the need to take Polsky ʺunder oneʹs protectionʺ if he was brought to justice. Certain workers (among them a member of the Komsomol) declared: ʺEvery worker should arm himself with a piece of iron and kick all the rationalizers in the head.ʺ

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX 4 to the January 1928 survey

SHEETS DISTRIBUTED AMONG UNEMPLOYED SAMARA

Over the past two months, 4 leaflets have been distributed in Samara ‐ appeals to the unemployed with a proposal to convene a meeting of the unemployed and organize a demonstration of the unemployed on January 22. Examples are given.

ʺThe unemployed needs

Struggle for existence, itʹs time to wake up and get a new right for existence, there is a decent number throughout the Union of the Unemployed, where our demanding voice must be reckoned with.

Comrades unemployed, look straight in the eyes and donʹt close them. Demand.

General meeting of the unemployed.

In this organized order, we will do something and put it into practice.

The main thing is to demand the right to a general meeting.

Organize amicably and actively for this cause.

Unemployedʺ.

ʺThe unemployed needs

Itʹs time to wake up and open your eyes, your civil right to fight for existence, look and donʹt hide, your position on the brink of death ‐ the unemployed are not decreasing, but increasing. Look straight in the eye and demand in an organized manner.

General meeting of the unemployed.

The general meeting will find ways and means of existence. Only in an organized manner will we make it count and put it into practice.

The main thing for us is the permission of the right to a general meeting. This is all our salvation and the salvation of our children, and we will relieve unemployment.

Comrades unemployed, take each one more seriously and remember that in this way you will improve your existence.

Amicably and bravely for this cause.

Unemployedʺ.

ʺAppeal

Comrades, the unemployed ... By the will of the party, we, the 25,000th army, were thrown overboard socialist society and found ourselves without trial on the shameful bench of the unemployed, doomed to starvation, and therefore, fundamentally protesting against such a campaign of the party against us, we are all as one should reveal their anger and anger with a demonstration in the city of Samara on January 22 at 10 oʹclock. in the morning. The gathering of all unemployed must be on the Revolution Square near the monument to V.I. Lenin, from where the demonstration will go to the building of the provincial executive committee with the slogan: ʺMaster, give me work. Letʹs die of hunger.ʺ

Committee of the Unemployed ʺ.

ʺAnnouncement

January 22 at 10 oʹclock In the morning, a general meeting of all the unemployed of the city of Samara was appointed on Revolution Square, where the question of unemployment will be raised.

1. What needs does the unemployed face?

2. Who is getting fat from this unemployment.

3. What the governing bodies get from this.

4. What caused this unemployment.

5. Why exactly we, non‐partisans, were reduced.

6. Why is the meeting scheduled for January 22nd.

After the report, all the unemployed will go to the building of the executive committee with the slogan: ʺWe want to work, down with arbitrariness and bullying.ʺ Comrades are unemployed. If we postpone this call by our non‐attendance and negligence, then blame yourself.

ʺIn the struggle you will acquire your right.ʺ Think about it, comrades, who visits Sovkino, etc., who drinks, walks in restaurants, who buys up our mohairs on the move 71 ; what have we done wrong before the state, what is the fault of us and our children who suffer from the hunger strike, who threw us overboard and for what and put us on a hunger ration ‐ we must mark all this with a demonstration on January 22, that is, on the day when Peterʹs workers asked the tsar to increase the pay for their work. And we hope that they will not shoot at us, because we are asking not for an increase, but for work for life, there is nowhere to wait, death is on the doorstep. All 25,000 people went to the demonstration.

Comrade soldiers and policemen, we ask you to support the unemployed demonstrators. Down with unemployment, down with arbitrariness and violence. Comrades workers, we ask you to help us in our misfortune, we are on this bench today, and you tomorrow.

Committee of the Unemployed ʺ.

Secretary of the INF OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX 5 to the January 1928 survey

ANTI‐SOVIET SHEETS

1. Mariupol district. February 3rd. January 22 in the Budennovsky district in the village. About 25 leaflets were pasted and scattered around Budennovka, 10 of them were written in block letters through carbon paper, the rest were written on half sheets of checkered paper, with a brush, in the form of slogans. The content is given below:

ʺDown with the commune leading the people to impoverishment,

Russia to destruction.ʺ

ʺDown with the commune leading Russia to destruction.ʺ

ʺBeat the Jews, the culprits of our misfortune.ʺ

Appeal: ʺCitizens, today is four years since the so‐calledʺ Great Leader Lenin ʺpassed away. What, in fact, did he do and who is he that you worship him with such fervor and worship blindly, not realizing who and for what, elevating him into some kind of genius who gave Russia freedom. ʺ

“But if you look deeper, you can, of course, see that this person is no more, no less like an adventurer who has set the goal of her life to achieve honor and glory. And he achieved this and gave us ʺfreedomʺ at the cost of the lives of many thousands of citizens dear to us. What did freedom give us? You can see it for yourself that apart from general devastation, a mass of innocent victims, the decline of industry, art, human morality, etc. she gave nothing more and will not give anything; and how could it be otherwise, when former convicts and Jews are in power, who strive for only one thing ‐ how to live better. They tax us with huge taxes and generally have an income that no other state in the world has, and they gloss over your eyes with some kind of Dneprostroy and Volkhovstroy; of course, there is still something to take from the population, there is still something to profit from these anarchist predators from the working people, but everything has an end and this end is soon; now there are many, many thousands of courageous citizens who are just waiting for the right moment to put an end to these bloody anarchist predators once and for all, and you, dear citizens, must help them to save Russia and yourself.

Down with the commune and Soviet power.

Long live (the coming new Russia). ʺ

Persons suspected of distributing leaflets were prosecuted.

2. Kharkiv district. January. A letter ʺNote to the government of the USSR and the government of Ukraineʺ was discovered on behalf of the Petliura organization, signed ʺSecretariatʺ, which contains an open call to fight against the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the independence of Ukraine. The letter represents the platform of the kulak‐Petliura counter‐revolution in the Ukraine.

“The peasants of Ukraine, represented by their Union (still an illegal organization), are addressing a protest (note) to the Russian government against its violent policy. The violence of politics is expressed in the main two features: 1) The forcible implementation of communism in Russia without the will and consent of the peasant masses. 2) Self‐expenditure of peasant blood resources without the permission of the people.

The violence of the Russian government is expressed in numerous particular features of politics, such as:

1) The Russian government was formed from the proletariat, and from the first days of the revolution it has been enjoying the benefits of the previous bourgeois government. It created a new noble class ‐ the communists, who enjoy all the rights and advantages of the former nobles. The entire cadre of communists costs us more than the tsarist cadre with a pack of nobility. Secretaries of cells, party committees and provincial committees are the same leaders of the nobility. Therefore, the peasants, in their entire mass of 90 million, demand: 1) to separate the party from the state, to recognize the party as a private matter, the convictions of an individual; 2) to close all loans for the maintenance of the Comintern 72 , provincial committees, party members, Komsomol and pioneer organizations; 3) to equate the communists with the rights of non‐party people.

2) Reduce staffing to a minimum. Previously, there was a clerk and a headman in the parish, and now there are countless servants who sit on our necks and suck our blood. We regard the staff of Soviet employees as our freeloaders and exploiters. They all get good salaries, dress well, eat deliciously, go to theaters, live like the foreign bourgeoisie. They do not bear any obligation and do not pay income tax. Close the governments of the autonomous republics so as not to burden taxpayers with the maintenance of swollen states.

3) Immediately redistribute the land per capita, 73 so as not to create classes among the peasantry, so that there are no poor peasants, middle peasants and kulaks among the peasants. It will cheat us 74, to set the peasant against the peasant, we are not dogs for you, you are doing this persecution deliberately in order to break our power. You see power in us and you want to break it. There should be no more classes in the village. The earth is for everyone. There is a poor man in the village who does not want to work. We do not have kulaks, but there is a working peasantry who toil tirelessly despite the fact that communist experiments interfere with them. The communist comrades of the working peasants are awarded prizes at exhibitions, and at elections they are deprived of their votes. We look at the well‐to‐do peasant as a labor bee and do not interfere with his work. Otherwise, the working peasantry will again sow only for themselves, as it was in 1921 and the days of great communism. You are preventing us from working. Your agronomists told us to sow crops, plant hops. The peasants of Ukraine sold their cattle on hop plantations, and you devalued hops,

4) We protest against the allocation of money for collectives. The collective is a private matter. State money is our money. They are collected from us. The laboring peasantry is subject to exorbitant levies, and these levies go to collectives and communes. This is a gross injustice.

5) Reduce land taxes before [before] wartime. Before the war, we paid approximately 1 ruble. from tithing. If you can arrange collectives on a public account, then you can also reduce the tax in kind for us.

6) Make training in seven years free of charge. And then on paper it is considered free education, but in fact they are tearing up the fee and more than under the old regime. Under the old regime, they took only 6 rubles. a year, and now from 20 to 90 rubles.

7) Reduce the price of goods [to] the pre‐war level. Enough to tear at your communist apparatus in trade. To reopen private trade, otherwise there will be tails in cooperation again. Remove Jewish employees from cooperatives, otherwise there is not a single Ukrainian in the cooperative. The cooperation became Jewish. Generally, to give Ukrainians more access to institutions, otherwise we have no access, all the seats are occupied by Jews.

8) Destroy the GPU, which is in the hands of the Jews. The GPU chairmen and investigators are almost all Jews. Anger is growing against the Jews, and it will eventually spill over into a Jewish pogrom. Not all Jews are to blame, but only those in the power apparatus, but anger is growing against everyone. In the past summer, the GPU of Ukraine arrested up to 5 thousand peasants. And this is the workers ʹand peasantsʹ government, it is arresting the peasants.

9) Do not interfere in the affairs of believers and their spiritual leaders. Release the arrested bishops of Ukraine. Do not think that it will be so‐so and the people will remain silent even further. Soon the people will say: ʺGet your hands‐off religion.ʺ

10) Give freedom of the press, otherwise we are tired of your songs about socialism, about your successes and achievements. Give us at least one non‐party newspaper, otherwise your communist spirit makes you sick. You say: ʺIt smells like a Petliura spirit.ʺ Yes, we villagers are Petliurists. Petliura was killed by a Jew 75, then “Mri about independent and independent Ukraine live with us. Ukraine has not died yet” 76.

11) Do not deceive other nationalities that the peasant masses are satisfied with your policy and that they consider the party as their inspiration. Believe me, comrades, that we obey not you, but your rifles. You hope for the middle peasant that he will follow the poor peasant. You ask the poor man if he will still follow you. You are thinking of starting collectives in the five‐year period. Will the poor go to your collectives? What a fool would sell his freedom for a bowl of communal borscht.

Write on your forehead, comrades, that we villagers are owners. We do not want a commune. If you still want to stay in power, then drop your songs about the commune. Forcibly, against our will, do not lead communes. Do not look at us like wild animals, do not take us, do not make various trenches to us. We also have our own mind, we have our own leaders, and therefore let us live the way we want. If you are ideological communists, give up your salary and serve for one dress and a table. But you wonʹt. You get a good salary and want to lure into the party. Every pack went to you, but you wonʹt lure us. Everything is fine in the commune ‐ palaces, cars, etc., but the commune is a golden cage for a bird. She doesnʹt want seeds; she doesnʹt want a golden cage. She strives for freedom. We will not trade our freedom for your borscht.

It will be for you to fool us with Leninism. You made Lenin a different Christ. You quote his words as Christians the word of Christ. They took Lenin into golden frames, Trotsky is jealous that the party considers him for an ordinary mortal, and Lenin for God and even studies his brains. He became an oppositionist. Oh, if you only knew how the peasantry is in opposition to you. You know this well.

Secretaries.

R.S. Shanovni to a friend. The secretaries of the split asks you to put our note of protest in ʺVisyahʺ, for the Communist Party knew that the peasants of Ukraine were barely guilty of the Party’s fault, but they could not tolerate the further command of comrade. communes Hai is alive Ukraine. Get rid of the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. Ukraine has not died yet ...” 77.

3. Kharkiv district. January 31 in the village. Dergachi, counterrevolutionary leaflets with the following content were found 78.

“Shanovna comradeship, beastly up to you and I bade you cim to explain sho at us already throwing a lasso of the liquid insiativi. Comrades, itʹs time for us to turn over and think about how we robe of the Radiansko‐Zhidivska Vlad, not to be bottled, to be afraid about us, where we can be so endured. You can guess, how we ranish lived, but now, how do we live. So given it is impossible to tolerate, moreover, the zhidivsky lasso embossed our turtlenecks and if we don’t vzmemsya for dilo, then win stisne so, sho for the sake of boules shamenuti, so will be pizno. Comrades let’s viznemoya zhidivska lasso for the lasso and skinno, it’s impossible to live like that. Well, why should we darken our eyes with freedom, ale hto її May and hto vidchuvas. Tilka Jew Comrades, so letʹs break the lasso of the Jewish will and make our own will, the will of the Ukrainian. ʺ

The leaflet ends with the following words: “Our anthem has not died, Ukraine and glory and will, we, brothers, bravely, will pacify our share. Biy is a Jew, ritual Ukraine. Hai live the awakening of the

Ukrainian will”.

“Comrades, we should be awestruck at the same time near us, chi vi bach your eyes, chi no. Throw off half a dozen, then sho buried our eyes, letʹs fraternize for dilo. Comrades come up with a healthy mind chi ranish so robbed us, chi no, chi we were strangled by vlada for a gourd, no. Yak, we will endure. On whom such a tax was imposed on the ranish, yak now, on no one, on whom the mine was robbed for a fee, on no one. Whoever was harassed for a tribute ‐ no one, whom we will tolerate that movchati, such robbers and giroids. Ranish so bulo ‐ to impose a tribute on you, you cannot pay in one rick, become a shit, you pay for another rick, and no one will tell you anything, but now be afraid. If ti chi hto inshih without paying todi, if the stink you give a deadline, go and take the rest, on the next day and no oneʹs laying hands and prytsyuvav and the stench in you take away and sell for bezcinok. Comrades ... the screech of a finger is not even aiming at all, but it’s also about eating around us. Smell screech screaming, sho mi won freedom, and hto її bach, hto її vidchuvae ‐ nichto. Our brother, yak, is a farm laborer, so eh, and a Jew of curses, yak riding on your backs, will ride until we will endure a feast. Dobri people do not know how to cheat, you don’t smell, but you already have a Jewish lasso on shyah. Let’s not wait, let’s call us not so tight, so tight for the sake of bully‐b otsich dati that bude pizno. So, let’s keep it off at a glance, we’re fighting for more, and let’s kick our pig Ukrainian midwives, we’ll give you a piggy snout. Derkachevsky. We are people who add the truth. ʺ

These leaflets were posted in the village. Dergachi, according to verified information, in the amount of 6 pieces. One of the leaflets is written in purple ink, block letters, the other with a chemical pencil. Both leaflets are written on lined paper, some letters are identical, which suggests that they were written by the same person. Measures have been taken to identify who wrote the said leaflets.

There is an agricultural school in this village, in which there are

Ukrainian‐chauvinist elements. In the past, Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries were grouped there 79.

4. Don district. January. In the Novo‐Margaritovsky village council of the Azov district, an appeal was posted on the doors of the cooperative shop with the following content:

“Don’t hand over bread. The authorities did not have long to live, as did all the Bolsheviks. Comrade Trotsky will soon put an end, as he has long been trying to free the peasantry from the Bolshevik yoke. ʺ

5. Don district. January. In the hut. An appeal and several slogans were found in Veselovsky, Bagaevsky district:

“Comrades do not believe all the slanders of the Party and our teachers, who fall for the Partyʹs bait.

Teachers also refute the words of our best leader of the revolution, Comrade. Trotsky. The party sees behind itself a huge warning, behind its own skin it refutes the words of Comrade. Trotsky.

Comrade Trotsky says that the peasants need to be given a complete turn in their farming so that the peasant can increase his farm. The peasants need good implements at a cheap price, and not to tear such skins as our Orthodox party fights. Another comrade. Trotsky says that the peasants need to sell the manufactory at a cheap price, and not as they are fighting now ‐ that for a pood of bread a peasant cannot buy a meter of material. But the party says something quite different, it is necessary to tear more taxes from the peasants, insurance, etc. This is evident from the present facts, what kind of things our unworthy party is doing; she decides that it is necessary to take away the grain from the peasants, who worked all summer. The party members sat in the chill and now they say that you are bringing bread to the cooperatives, hand over it at fifty dollars for a pood, but it will not work. The party did not have to exist for long, no more than a year.

Comrades, all follow the path of Trotsky. Comrades, everyone and everyone is for the expulsion of communism. ʺ (Signature).

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX 6 to the January 1928 survey

MASS PERFORMANCE

1. Yaroslavl province. January 17. Rybinsk u., Voskresenskaya Vol. On January 13, a hearing was scheduled, as a show trial, of the case on charges of large speculators, meat‐traders‐kulaks with. Voskresensky, prosecuted for malicious non‐payment of agricultural tax in the amount of 8000 rubles. and those accused under Articles 168 80 and 169 81 of the 2nd part of the Criminal Code.

After informing the population with. Voskresensky and volosts about a show trial, the local kulaks, especially the merchants, led a wide agitation among the peasantry to disrupt the process and release the arrested.

On the day of the hearing of the case, the reading room was occupied by a crowd of peasants. In total, up to 600 people attended. A group of merchants and kulaks (up to 20 people), deciding to disrupt the court session, joined the crowd and began to incite the peasants to demand the release of the accused, saying: free them all the time. They are led like animals under escort because they supported the peasants and did nothing bad, except good, to anyone. We must insist on their release, they are not to blame. If a man meets with support from them, then one should not judge for this, but thank. ʺ

Some of the group of merchants and kulaks openly called on the assembled peasants to free the arrested by force, shouting: “The Soviet government is bringing to justice those who feed the peasants. At the 15th Party Congress, Rykov spoke of a forced campaign against the kulaks. We must assume that all the peasants will be hit with the kulak.

Others called on the peasants not to pay the agricultural tax if the arrested were not released, adding: “And if this does not help, all that remains is to throw out the tricolor flag and raise an uprising, it is necessary to demand the abolition of the monopoly of foreign trade, the introduction of free trade without existing restrictions on private traders. If this were allowed by our Soviet government, then our benefactors (arrested) would feed the entire volost and everything would be in full prosperity. ʺ

The agitation was conducted in the same spirit by the others. As a result, the crowd of peasants who had gathered began to demand the release of the arrested, shouting: “No reason, the kulak is not a private trader, but the one who is in the cooperative. Beat the glass. Rise up the whole volost. The power is not peasant, but workers, which, relying on them, oppresses the peasants, ʺand so on.

Under pressure from the storming crowd, the hearing was dropped and moved to Rybinsk. A crowd of peasants, incited by kulaks and merchants, were not satisfied with the temporary suspension of the hearing and demanded that the investigation be continued with obligatory acquittal.

The defendants were released by an additional court order. When they left the courtroom, a crowd of 600‐700 people followed them all the way to the apartment.

A few hours later the accused were arrested again by the prosecutor and on the morning of January 14 were sent to Rybinsk, where they were brought to justice with the confiscation of their property.

Seven initiators and leaders of the speech were arrested. A show trial of the kulaks was appointed on the initiative of the authorized gubernatorial court in Rybinsk district. and pom. the prosecutor of the same county, without coordination with the party organizations.

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov

APPENDIX 7 to the January 1928 survey

[EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS AND AUTONOMOUS AREAS]

UZBEKISTAN

Female campaign

1. Zeravshan District. In the village of Kovaron, an exposed Uzbek woman was raped. In the village of Yangi‐Kurgan, an Uzbek woman who had opened up and actively participated in the campaign was severely beaten.

Art. Zerabulak. The revealed Uzbek woman, who was arrested for travel without a ticket, was beaten and raped by the police.

2. Kashka‐Darinsky district. An active worker who participated in the campaign was killed on the basis of a womenʹs campaign.

In the same district, in the village of Kazbi, a woman who took off her veil was severely beaten.

3. Bukhara district. In the village of Bogouetdin, an Uzbek woman who had removed her veil was killed by her husband. In the village of Muglon, an Uzbek woman who intended to take off her veil was severely beaten.

4. Table of active protests against the female campaign in Uzbekistan for 6 months of 1927

	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Total
The number of killed and wounded	4	8	4	2	6	4	nine	37
Number of raped		1	2	five	3	1	3	fifteen
The number of bullying employees of the female campaign	3	8	2	7	7	1	4	32
Number of insults in general women	2	4	‐	‐	2	1	7	sixteen

Bai Terror on the Ground of Land Use

5. Zeravshan District. Narpay district. Bai of the village of Baitur, cut down by the land reform, together with four odnokishlachniki killed a land‐tended laborer, who indicated to the land commission the land hidden by the bays.

6. Bai of the village of Balgaly, cut down by the land reform, killed the farm laborer endowed with the land reform, who pointed the land commissions to the land hidden by the land reform.

TURKMENISTAN

Re‐election of the Soviets

7. Serakhsky district. In the village of Kichi‐Aga No. 1, a supporter of the bays joined the electoral committee. In the village of Kichi‐Aga No. 2, a struggle unfolded between the clans of Yaba Arslan and Yab [a] Sayat 82. Representatives of Yaba Arslan were in the majority in the election commission.

In the village of Yalavach No. 2, the majority of the representatives of the baystva entered the electoral committee. In the village of Yalavach No. 1, the election commission also included many bays and a few poor people who are under the influence of bays. In the village of Kichi‐Aga No. 2 between the clans of Arslan and Yaba‐Sayat, a struggle began for the capture of the village council. Rod Yaba Arslan, headed by BabaAbduraimbayev, with the support of the chairman of the RIK, the secretary, are campaigning for their representative to the village council.

Purge of the Koschi Unions

8. Tejen district. In the village of Meana, the chairman of the village committee of the Koshchi union, together with the secretary of the district committee of the union, without explaining the goals of the reorganization, expelled 13 dekhkans from the union.

KYRGIZSTAN

Group fight

9. Talas canton. In the village number 1 of the Karoi parish. In connection with the upcoming re‐elections, the executive secretary of the Karoi VIC from the kaymasar clan suggested that the chairman of the village council be ready to help him to appoint his people to the council.

10. Chui canton. In Alamedin parish. atkaminers 83 p. Nanai set about recruiting supporters. These atkaminers enjoy influence over non‐party members and members of the Komsomol. A part of the Komsomol members have already joined the atkaminers.

11. In aul No. 3 Dzhakeev gathered a group of 28 people, including 84 Dauts and Uvake 85 Itybasovs, and invited them to take measures so that not a Dzhetygen 86, but an 87 Karakol from the Kaimasar clan, should become chairmen of the village council.

KAZAKSTAN

Campaign for registration of pre‐conscripts

12. Syr‐Darya province. In aul No. 5 V. Talas parish. registration of preconscripts‐Kyrgyz is slow. Bai and aksakals impede accounting.

13. Chairman of the village council No. 9 of Assinska parish. A.‐Atinsky u. hid 16 pre‐conscript Cossacks from the register. Similar cases were noted in aul No. 7 of the same volost and uyezd, where the chairman of the village council hid 6 people, and in aul No. 14 of the same volost, where the chairman and secretary of the village council increased the years from 23 to 29 years for 16 Cossacks of pre‐conscription age.

14. Chairman of the village No. 3 of Assinskaya parish. A.‐Atinsky u. Together with his secretary, he organized a general meeting in the mosque, at which the secretary of the village council said: “We, your workers, defended you, but at this time we spent 90 rubles from the collected funds for the school, what can you say to that,” those present said : “Yes, it’s true, they protect, for example, they hid most of our children from the register, and therefore, letʹs give these 90 rubles. we will collect from the population. ʺ Five people were immediately elected, one from each clan, who immediately started collecting money. Preparing for the re‐election of the Soviets

15. Syr‐Darya province. Baystvo area] Kuvan Kazalinskaya parish. and the county conducts preparatory work for the upcoming re‐elections of the Soviets, arranging meetings at which candidates for the composition of the village councils are discussed and representatives from their midst are outlined. At one of these meetings, one atkaminer said: “Soviet power is not like the tsarist government. With her, during the re‐elections, it will be possible to carry out whatever we want, but they will not be able to oppose us, we are representatives of a large family, which we will group for re‐elections and lead the masses behind us. ʺ

16. Aktobe province. On the initiative of the deputy. Chairman of the Kalmyk‐Kargan VIK Temirsky u. In aul No. 9, a Baysko‐Aksakal meeting was convened to discuss the issue of future re‐elections of the Soviets. Speaker on this issue, Deputy. the chairman of the VIC said: ʺWe need to gather near us the majority of voters, for this we need to campaign among the population, but I cannot travel on this issue, I am afraid of the authorities.ʺ As a result, it was decided to send the chairman of the village council No. 9 with the campaign.

On the initiative of the above‐mentioned deputy. the chairman of the VIK, together with a poor man and a member of the Komsomol, a similar meeting was held at the bai of aul No. 14 of the above volost, where the same deputy. the chairman of the VIC said: “I want to be the chairman of the RIK and the ukom also appointed me, your task is to gather the majority of votes around you, for this you do not need to spare cattle for the poor, if only they were on our side. In addition, for recruitment to your side, you need to send two people to number 8‐914 auls to campaign and support our line. Moreover, the poor need to be sent, since the authorities will not do anything for them. ʺ As a result, the poor were allocated to be sent to the villages. At the end of the meeting, they arranged a ʺbatuʺ 88.

17. Semipalatinsk u., Shulbinskaya stts., P. Ozerki. A group of Russian Cossacks (well‐to‐do, deprived of the right to vote) held a meeting to discuss preparations for re‐elections to the Soviets. One of those present said: “Before the elections, we need to win over the poor so that at the time of the elections we will be elected to the Council from our midst, then we will not be commanded by the communists. We will conduct business in the Council, as the ataman did earlier 89”. To restore itself in rights, the meeting decided to send its proteges to the agricultural electoral commission. This group has ties with all the Cossacks along the river. Irtysh also often practices such meetings. The group leader is the former village chieftain.

Activity of the kulaks and bays

18. Syr‐Darya province. In with. Mamaevka of Chimkent district village activist Amonin was killed with fists. The murder took place on the grounds that Amonin waged a systematic and stubborn struggle against the kulaks and thus had many enemies from among the latter. The murderers, in order to cover up the traces of the crime, invited the chairman, the secretary of the village council, as well as a doctor, gave them drink and forced them to draw up a false statement that Amonin had died. The murderers keep the family of the victim and those around him at bay.

19. Kulakami village Karl Marx Ukrainian par. Chimkent district a former Red Army soldier was killed for the fact that he, as a patient (seizure), is a dangerous element. Some of the killers have been arrested.

20. In the same village, on the eve of Mr. Markin attacked the apartment of compartment 90 of cell No. 12 of the Chimkent district organization of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Materov, broke the windows, broke into the apartment, beat Materov and his wife (to the point of unconsciousness), while threatening: ʺWe will strangle your entire party of communists.ʺ

21. Bayami aul No. 6 of Tyulkubas parish. a member of the CPSU (b) (former Red Army soldier) Tazabekov was killed because the latter opposed them. In particular, the bais, using the connection with the chairman of the VIC, paid only a part of the tax, leaving the rest on the population. Tazabekov persuaded the population to refuse to pay for bays.

22. Semipalatinsk province. Bukh [Tarminsky] district, Razinsky stanispolkom. Kulaki village Cheremshanka (active participants in the White bandit uprising in 1920 91) conduct anti‐Soviet and defeatist agitation among the population. In addition, they seek to abolish the past land management. To this end, they convened a meeting in the garden of a well‐to‐do (former chairman of the village council), at which they decided to convene an official general meeting of peasants in the village council, notifying about it only those middle peasants who knowingly follow the kulaks and in no case inform the poor that and it was done. A meeting was organized from among the kulaks and part of the middle peasants and the following resolution was issued: ʺThe redistribution of 1923 shall be considered invalid and plowed wherever he wants.ʺ The protocol of the resolution was sent to the executive committee. Having learned about this decree, the poor selected from themselves a representative to protest against this decree. As a result of the measures taken by the poor, the decree was destroyed. Fists, indignant at the fact

23. Syr‐Darya province. The well‐to‐do are preparing for the upcoming re‐election of the Telyauz agricultural partnership, trying to leave the old chairman of the board, who is an ardent grouper and their protege. Under his leadership, the partnership at the moment has a loss of about 2,000 rubles, which he tried in every possible way to hide, but the audit commission, when checking, found this loss.

24. Due to the clogging of the board of the Suzak Credit Partnership by shareholders, 50% of the buyers and atkaminers are. The partnership maintains close ties with the bays and traders, supplying them with goods first.

25. In case of re‐election of the board of the credit agricultural partnership in the village. Brich‐Mulla V. Chirchik parish. Tashkazak u. under the influence of the pressure of the Baystva, the old composition of the board remained, working under the leadership of the Baystva and in their favor. Poor people express strong dissatisfaction with this situation. But nothing can be done.

Russian Cossacks

26. Semipalatinsk province. Ustkamenogorsk district, NovoUstkamenogorsk vol. Srednyak s. Proletarskoye, in a conversation with the peasants, said: “Why did the authorities allow the separation of the Cossacks? No matter how wrong she was in this matter, how little they flogged our brother, a peasant and a worker under Nicholas, no matter how it happened again”. Those present agreed with him.

27. Ibid, Proletarskaya Vol. Poor s. Kamenka, in a conversation with the secretary of the cell of the CPSU (b) and a member of the bureau in the presence of others, said: “It’s bad, comrades, you do that you allow the separation of the Cossacks, they are tsarist defenders and you cannot rely on them, lest the same thing happen again, then all the blame will lie to power ʺ.

28. Pavlodar district Kulak village Urlutupa Zhelezinskaya Vol. in connection with the upcoming zoning, he said: “Recently we were separated from the Russian peasants, it was done well, but now there will be RIKs and the peasants will probably be added to us again. This would not be desirable, since the way of life of the Russian Cossacks is opposite to that of the peasant. When discussing this issue, we must insist that RIKi be created without peasants. ʺ

29. Bukh [Tarminsky] district. The Razinsky Stanislavsky Executive Committee issued a resolution to petition the PEC for the allocation of Russian Cossacks to a purely Cossack region, but if this cannot be done, then ask to leave the Stanislavsky Executive Committee as an independent unit (Russian Cossacks).

30. Akmola province. Population of the villages of Akan‐Burluk, Yakshi‐

Yangistau, Nizhniy Burluk and Upper Burluk Aryk‐Balyk vol. Kokchetavsky u. The essence and significance of separating the Cossacks into independent units did not properly understand, because the party organizations did not sufficiently cover this issue and was put forward completely unexpectedly for the population. This circumstance caused not only misunderstanding, but also dissatisfaction on the part of the poor and part of the middle peasants, for example, at the general meeting of stts. Akan‐Burluk, after the report of the representative of the PEC, cries were heard from the poor people: “We did not apply for this allocation and do not want to stand out. And if it is in our interests, then why did they not explain to us earlier. ʺ The kulaks regard separation as the granting of former rights.

31. At a meeting of the village council stts. Akmola of the same county, which was attended by up to 60 people (most of them were not members of the village council), the issue of joining the village to the city was discussed. According to the representative of the PEC, it is necessary to annex the village because it is located in the city and the majority of the population lives in farms, and only farm laborers and employees live in the village, who almost do not engage in agriculture. Up to 10 villagers who spoke in the debate spoke out against joining, arguing that the farm laborers and employees living in the village, according to the old habit, if not independently, then for hire, are engaged in arable farming and the PEC, by annexing the village to the city, will only reduce the overall percentage of those engaged in agriculture (because then the land will not be given), and when leaving the village as such, most of the farmers will move to the village because they have houses there, which are temporarily rented out for apartments. The speakers also noted that they were forced to move to the farmsteads92, which was required in the early years of Soviet power, and that then there was talk of taking the land from the

Cossacks and joining the village to the city. As a result, at the suggestion of the PEC representative, the meeting passed a resolution: to transfer this issue to the resolution of the PEC Presidium, where two people were elected to participate on behalf of the village council.

A few days later, a general meeting of the village was convened on the same issue, which completely spoke out against the annexation and decided: to make a petition to the GIK, and if necessary, to the KazCEC and the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee, elect two people. About 500 rubles were voluntarily collected for expenses for the elected representatives.

NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Political mood. Rumors around grain procurements

32. Chechnya. In with. Alkhankala, the local kulak, who appeared before everyone else at the gathering convened to discuss the issue of grain procurements, began to agitate against the latter, saying: ʺThey want to take away the grain from the peasants, and also impose illegal taxes on them, as the government is preparing for war.ʺ As a result of the kulakʹs agitation, the gathering did not take place and was postponed to the next day. At the re‐convened gathering, the same kulak, supported by others, delivered a speech aimed at disrupting grain procurements. Not limiting themselves to open speeches, the kulaks carry out individual processing of the population.

33. In p. The Urus‐Martan meeting on the issue of grain procurement was constantly interrupted by the exclamations of the kulaks, which tried to assume the role of the defender of the poor, declaring: ʺManufacturing is given out only to those who donate bread, and thus the poor are left without manufacture.ʺ

34. Adyghe‐Circassian region. In the hut. N.‐Sokolsky the kulak calls on the peasants to take their guns in order to ʺshoot the communists if they start raking out grain from the bins.ʺ

The mood of the population due to the lack of consumer goods

35. Karachay. In the aul Morkh head. a cooperative shop (Karachai) sells the manufactory primarily to his relatives. In view of the fact that the EPO unites both Russians and Karachais, conflicts arise between them on the basis of the release of goods, which almost turn into a fight.

36. Kabardino‐Balkarian region. All L. The old Urukh of the Urvan district, the manufactory brought to the consumer society was distributed among the members of the board and the revkomiss. The poor and middle peasants express strong dissatisfaction with the rule of the consumer society.

37. Adyghe‐Circassian region. All L. The Nikolaev board of the consumer society releases hot goods to consumers only if they buy a significant number of goods they do not need. On this basis, there is massive discontent among the population.

38. Dagestan. In the city of Makhachkala, queues are observed every day at all the bread shops of the Central Regional Committee and other cooperatives, which are often formed long before the shops open. Those who cannot stand in queues go to a private trader who takes 6 kopecks instead. per pound of bread ‐ 10 kopecks. In this regard, there is a significant revival of the grain trade among private traders.

39. Ossetia. The shortage of goods sparked lively rumors ʺabout the collapse of Soviet industry.ʺ The kulaks are agitating against the monopoly of foreign trade, hindering the free access of manufactured goods. Private traders began to intensively buy up goods, mainly manufactures from cooperatives, while recruiting special agents from among the queuing and unemployed for a certain reward. Due to the contamination of cooperative organizations, a number of cases of the sale of pieces of manufacture to private owners were registered.

Re‐election of CCVS

40. Kabardino‐Balkarian region. Malo‐Kabardinsky District. All L. Kizlyar, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do intend to defend the old composition of the KKOV board, since the latter plays into the hands of the kulaks with its inactivity.

41. Adyghe‐Circassian region. In the village of Pshizovsky, as a result of intensified agitation of the kulaks, former white officers and the Muslim clergy, the pre‐election meeting was disrupted due to the absence of the poor. Only 26 people attended the secondary meeting. The kulakprosperous elements came to the re‐election meeting with a previously discussed list of candidates for the KKOV, whom they completely carried out, failing the list of the KKOV, of which only one person was elected to the KKOV.

42. Karachay. Malo‐Karachaevsky district. In the auls of Eltarkach, K. Loovskoy, Hassaut and Kyzyl‐Pakun, the organized kulaks tried in every possible way to bring their proteges to KKOV. However, thanks to a strong rebuff from the poor peasants, who acted in a bloc with Komsomol and Party members, the kulaks only in the KKOV aul Eltarkach managed to hold two of their henchmen.

ORDER

GEORGIA

Mood of the population due to the lack of basic necessities

43. Ozurgeti district in with. The Lanchkhuti cooperative received 650 meters of manufactory, while the members of the cooperative have up to 2200 people. In this regard, a number of poor people are going to withdraw from the members of the cooperative and ʺsign up to a private trader.ʺ The commodity crisis is interpreted by the population as a sign of an impending war and supplies for the army.

44. Senaki district In Poti the price of bread rose to 10 kopecks. Due to the lack of bread, provocative rumors circulate that the RSFSR does not give Georgia bread, that in Kutaisi district. there was a famine, etc.

46. Akhalkalaki district in with. A crowd of 40 people gathered near the Diliska oil mill, who expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of basic necessities in the cooperative, as a result of which they had to turn to a private trader.

47. Gori district in with. The Akhal‐Daba cooperative shop began to bake low‐quality bread, mixing 75% black and 25% white flour. In addition, despite the fact that the population does not have enough bread (only one bag of flour is baked per day), a private trader who sells at the railway station is given two poods of flour.

AJARISTAN

48. Batumi district Due to the lack of basic necessities in cooperatives and circulating provocative rumors about the causes of commodity difficulties, the population of the village. Kosopeli is greatly alarmed. One of the middle peasants in a group of 18 peasants spoke out: “The village is dying from a lack of goods, since everything devours the city. What is the use of cooperation for us? Previously, at least the kulaks brought goods to us, but now the government strangles the private trader, but gives nothing in return. ʺ

49. Kobuleti district There is an acute crisis in bread, sugar, kerosene, salt and manufacturing throughout the county. Private traders sell black bread for 13 kopecks. per pound, and kerosene at 8 kopecks. AntiSoviet elements took this opportunity to intensify their agitation against Soviet power.

From s. Smekalovka came to Kobuleti 15 peasants, members of the cooperative, for shopping. Seeing that there were no goods in the cooperative, they threw their membership cards on the ground and left. One of them, a poor man, a party member, turning to the employees of the cooperative, said: “You are speculators and swindlers. You distributed all the goods to your friends and relatives”.

Re‐election of cooperation

GEORGIA

50. Kutaisi district Samtredsky district. The re‐election meeting was attended by 300 members of the cooperative out of 552. Four former Mensheviks became members of the new board.

51. Akhalkalaki district in with. Baraleth at the re‐election meeting after a number of poor and middle peasants made speeches exposing the activities of the board (drunkenness, issuing loans exclusively to kulaks and merchants, etc.) and their proposals for his re‐election, supported by the entire meeting, the faction nevertheless held the old chairman of the board as candidate. Outraged by the actions of the faction, the peasants said: ʺWhy are we being summoned if they themselves appoint whoever they want.ʺ

52. In p. Gandza of the same county at the general meeting of the members of the cooperative, after the report of the board, two middle peasants spoke out with an indication that prices in cooperatives are significantly high, even in comparison with private traders. After the debate, the re‐election of the board began. The list proposed by the Komsomol secretary was carried out in full. However, disagreeing from the meeting, a number of middle peasants expressed dissatisfaction with the interference of the Komsomol in the affairs of the peasants, and one of the middle peasants suggested organizing for the future and jointly speaking at meetings against the Komsomol.

ABKHAZIA

53. Sukhumi district in with. Yekaterininskoye, a former officer, with the aim of getting into the board of the cooperative, is strenuously agitating the peasants to nominate him for the upcoming re‐election. At the same time, he threatens with reprisal all those who will not vote for him. In this regard, many peasants in a conversation among themselves say: ʺWe will have to vote for the former officer, because if we do not support him, he, being a relative of the Pre‐City Council, will take revenge on us.ʺ

Activities of the former Dashnaks

ARMENIA

54. Leninakan district in with. V. Talim of the 6th precinct, a group of former Dashnaks, under the guise of revelry, arrange illegal meetings. The group maintains regular contact with the Dashnaks of Erivan, where a special person is sent twice a month to receive instructions.

55. Erivansky district All L. Bashgyarni at the wedding, one of the former Dashnaks called upon those present to donate 50 kopecks. for Dashnak prisoners. The wedding participants, having listened to this message, promised to provide material support to the arrested. As a result, 70 rubles were collected.

56. In the village. Artashat of the same district, a former Dashnak, in a conversation with another Dashnak, advised to keep an eye on the ʺSoviet agentsʺ and, if found, inform them in order to subject them to terror.

57. In p. Reganlu V. of the Vedibasar area of the same district, a local teacher summons the peasants to his apartment and propagates the ideas of the dash party to them.

Anti‐Soviet proclamations

ARMENIA

58. Erivansky district in with. Chatkran, a member of the Komsomol cell, having received three opposition slogans from the oppositionist, pasted them on the doors of the village council. The slogans were as follows:

ʺDown with the falsifiers of Leninism.ʺ

ʺDown with rude leaders.ʺ

ʺLong live healthy criticism.ʺ

59. Etchmiadzin district on the walls of Ashtarak, proclamations (about 10) were found with the following content: “Down with all the Bolsheviks‐nepman, long live the opposition branch of the party. Long live those people who are persecuted by the communist kulaks for belonging to the opposition. People, before the gendarmes were your terror, and now the Chekists, down with the Cheka with all the Chekists. Workers, peasants, free yourself from communist capitalism. Working people, fight for your interests. Bolsheviknepman, you will stop robbing and fattening. People, we, the oppositionists, are fighting against the communist kulaks in defense of your interests. The people, Trotsky and Zinoviev are your defenders, defend them selflessly. ʺ

60. In the same district, on December 30, 1927, in different places of the city of Vagharshapat, 12 proclamations of the following content were pasted up:

ʺDown with Rykov and his squad, shame on them, donʹt care about this squad.ʺ

ʺDown with Lenin, long live dashism, donʹt give a damn about

Leninism.ʺ

ʺLong live dashism, down with Lenin, long live dashism always.ʺ

“Long live world imperialism, long live dashism. Letʹs wish you even more strength, down with Lenin. ʺ

“Long live Sahak Stepanosyan and his staff, donʹt give a damn about these impudent communists. Hurray dashism. ʺ

ʺLong live dashism.ʺ Caricature: ʺComrade Rykov indignant, shame on you, do not care about your indignant face.ʺ

ʺCommunists, know that in 1928 you will not be in your places.ʺ

Caricature: “Comrade Chicherin is tired of the country (one word is torn off), there is not enough bread for him; you are ashamed of the insatiable son of a bitch, enough, how much he sucked blood from the poor people. ʺ

Cotton growers’ discontent

AZERBAIJAN

61. Gandzhinsky u. In the city of Ganja, at Cotton Plant No. 18, cotton growers are given money from two oʹclock in the afternoon, as a result of which the payment is delayed until the night. The peasants are forced to either set out on their way back at night, risking being robbed, or spend the night in the city, which entails costs of 3‐4 rubles. In this regard, one can hear conversations among cotton growers: “We have been busy with cotton for several months, and now we have to suffer with the change. We will stop sowing cotton from next year.”

62. Agdam district in with. Jamili, a poor cotton grower, told a group of villagers: “It is better to sow wheat or barley instead of cotton. Wheat costs 3 rubles. pood, cotton from us is also accepted for 3 rubles. per pood, and in addition we have to wait for days until we get paid. In addition, we have to incur large expenses for housing, food and feed for the horses, for the days spent in the city. ʺ

63. In the village. Kebirli of the same county, a poor man turned to the chairman of a credit partnership with a request to give him bardans (bags). The latter, in addition to scolding the poor man, pushed him so that the poor man hit his head against the wall. Outraged by the action of the chairman of the credit partnership, the poor man, turning to the chairman of the DIK, who was standing there, said: “We have been waiting for weeks in the yard to get bardans, and as a result we are insulted and beaten”. The cotton growers standing in the yard also expressed their discontent: “The Soviet government is deceiving us. Forces to sow cotton, but does not give bags in time. Our cotton is going to waste. ʺ

CRIMEA

Agitation for the Cross Unions

64. Simferopol region, village. Kilburun. In a conversation with a group of peasants of up to 25 people, a local Baptist priest, agitating for the need to create a Constitutional Court, said that “peasant labor is absolutely not valued in comparison with the assessment of a worker’s labor; for a pood of potatoes, you can buy only two arshins of chintz; this happens because the peasantry is not organized into a union. ʺ

65. Karasubazar region, village. Novo‐Tsaritsyno. At the meeting of peasants that was taking place, the middle peasants spoke out with agitation for the cross unions, saying that workers and employees have trade unions to defend their interests, and the peasants have nothing. ʺIf,ʺ said the speakers, ʺthe peasants are organized into a union, then no one can do anything to them.ʺ

66. Simferopol district, der. Old Leza. During the re‐election consumer society, the meeting was made by the well‐to‐do and kulaks, campaigning for the cross unions as a means of protecting the interests of the peasants.

TATARIA

Perversions of the grain procurement directives

67. Kazan district, p. B. Boars. Peasants with. The wild boars were purchased in the village. Bottles of the Chistopol canton for personal consumption 60 poods buckwheat, but when transporting it through the village. Kurkuli by the local executive committee, this buckwheat was taken from the peasants free of charge on the basis of ʺlocal ordersʺ and handed over to the bulk point of the Selkredsoyuz.

68. Sviyazhsky canton. In calves at the bazaar, the forced filling of bread is used, taken from the peasants who came to the bazaar with bread.

69. Bugulma canton, p. Almetyevo. In the village, the police cordoned off the bazaar, and the police forcibly confiscated grain from the peasants who were there and forced the peasants to pour grain into the barns of the cooperatives.

CHUVASHIA

Mood due to lack of manufactured goods

70. Kapash district, with. Yansikhovo‐Norvashi. The poor and middle peasants express considerable dissatisfaction with the lack of manufacturing in the cooperative, explaining this by the alleged impending war.

BURYAT‐MONGOLIA

Dissatisfaction with commodity difficulties

71. V. Udinsky district, p. Nagykino. Residents of the middle peasant village are unhappy with the shortage of goods, especially manufactory, explaining this with the upcoming war.

72.S. Kuytun. The poor and middle peasants are dissatisfied with the lack of goods in the cooperation and the increased prices for these goods from private traders.

Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov