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Review of the political state of the USSR
Review of the political state of the USSR in October 1928
Top secret
ʺʺ November 1928
Moscow city
At the same time, an overview of the political state of the USSR for October 1928 is being transmitted. The review was compiled on the basis of data from the Information and Secret departments of the OGPU.
This survey, in view of its top‐secret nature, should be kept on par with the code. Making copies and making extracts is not allowed in any case.
The PP of the OGPU and the heads of the provincial and regional departments of the OGPU can give an overview for reading to the secretaries of the regional committees, provincial committees, regional committees and the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).
When reviewing 6 applications.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Alekseev
WORKERS
Food difficulties
In October (especially at the end of the month), the supply situation (as compared to September) improved in a number of industrial regions (Moscow, Leningrad, Tula, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo‐
Voznesenskaya province). In the last days of October, the cooperative population received wheat flour, butter, eggs and other products. Improvement in the supply of working areas was also due to an increase in the delivery of bread and an improvement in the organizational setting of the supply business (timely delivery of bread from bakeries, expansion of the trade network in some areas, preliminary weighing of products, introduction of a rationing system in certain areas, for example, in Maikop). However, in most regions the food supply situation has not improved (West, Central Chernozem region, Sredne‐Volzhsky region, Ukraine, North Caucasus, some districts of Leningrad region, Vladimir province). In early October, in Smolensk, the queues for bread in bakeries supplying the uncooperative population reached 1,000 people. Long queues in the cities of the North Caucasus (Makhachkala — 350 people, the Zavodskoy District and the Old Fields of Grozneft — 400‐500 people).
Workersʹ dissatisfaction is caused by the deterioration in the quality of bread and in certain regions of potatoes and other vegetables (Moscow, Leningrad, Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, Tver provinces, Stalin and Odessa factories, mines in the Artyomovsk district, Kiev and Tula factories). The workers point out that the bread is sold poorly baked, with surrogates.
The workers of the Tula metal works on October 3 threw away the bread they had bought. At a meeting of workers in the sawtooth workshop of the Arms Factory, during a conversation on the issue of grain supply, workers, throwing raw rolls on the presidium table, shouted: ʺLet Barinov (Chairman of the Central Committee of the Central Committee) eat them himselfʺ, ʺThe Metalworkersʹ Union must achieve an end to this outrage.ʺ The workers sent a delegate with rolls to the Central Regional Committee to find out the reasons for the poor quality of the bread.
Among the workers of the equipment, mechanical and blacksmith workshops of the Tula Cartridge Plant, such conversations were noted in connection with the poor quality of bread and vegetables: “In the Central Recreation Center, it was a total disgrace, the harvested cabbage and potatoes turned out to be completely unusable, frozen and half rotten. They lived to the point that instead of bread they began to give us pork mush, which they used to throw into the cesspool; will such bagpipes with bread continue in winter. What does the government look at, why does it not take care of us, workers”?
In Stalinʹs factories, there were several cases of sending walkers from groups of workers to harvest potatoes in addition to cooperation.
In a number of enterprises, workers are discussing the need for an increase in high prices (Yugostal factories, Tula military factories, Leningrad enterprises, etc.). From the workers of the factory to them. Khalturin (Leningrad), RKK received a large number of individual and collective applications to increase prices, the applications were motivated by the lack of food and the high cost. The workers of the Odessa jute factory said to the director: “We earn a penny, but prices in the bazaar are growing and we have nothing to live on.
The surcharge occurs once a year, and prices change several times. We need to give a premium for high prices. ʺ
Due to food difficulties, there were strikes at individual enterprises. In the Far East ‐ a strike on October 19 by 250 workers engaged in earthworks in the eastern region of the Voktechnostroy post on Egersheld; the strike on October 11 by 129 workers of the Utesny mine (Nikolaevsky district); a six‐day strike from October 3, 200 horse carriers serving the Theological coal mines (Urals); the strike on October 3 of 80 loaders of Sibgruz, engaged in loading and unloading operations at the Soyuzkhleb mill in Tomsk; a strike on October 2 of 25 workers of the 1st Tsentromalit plant in the Borovichi district of the LVO (workers left an hour before the end of the work with the words: ʺWe will not work hungryʺ); absenteeism of workers engaged in logging at the Pshish junction (Maykop district, October 16).
The mood of workers in most enterprises in areas where food difficulties have not abated is diminished. The workersʹ meetings held in October on the supply issue were stormy, the workers sharply criticized the activities and leadership of the cooperatives. Some attacks against the policy of the party and the Soviet government were noted.
In a number of cases, workers at meetings demanded that they be equalized with regard to food supplies with Moscow and Leningrad. The bush conference of the workers of the Tula Cartridge Plant (October 23) adopted a resolution: ʺTo propose to the gubernia trade council at all costs to ensure that the supply of all kinds of goods to the urban population of Tula was on a par with the supply of the cities of Moscow and Leningrad.ʺ
At the Cardboard Wood‐Mass Plant named after Aerov (Leningrad
District), two machinists (non‐party) convened, in addition to trade and party organizations, a meeting of workers, which decided to stop work if the supply of bread was not improved.
The mood of the workers was especially sharply revealed at a meeting on October 14 of the expanded plenum of the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk City Council with the participation of representatives of the factories, convened in accordance with a resolution of the provincial committee. The meeting was stormy. During the reports of the secretary of the provincial committee and a member of the board of the NKTorg, shouts were heard from the seats: ʺEnough fooling aroundʺ, ʺwill lieʺ, ʺdo not entangleʺ, etc. The meeting applauded everyone who harshly criticized the activities of the board of cooperatives, as well as the policy of the Soviet government on the issue of procurement and supply. The plenum decided to create a special commission of representatives of the city council, trade unions and all enterprises of the city to regulate the distribution of products. The EPO is currently implementing a number of measures to improve the food supply for workers.
It should be noted that individual workers, members of the CPSU, succumb to the influence of the unhealthy moods of the most backward groups of workers and oppose the leadership of the cooperatives on an equal basis with non‐party people. “The Central Central Committee, which has neither bread, nor butter, nor flour, needs to be dispersed. In addition, they are not adapted to anything, how to rip off the workersʹ shares” (Tula). “Hunger is approaching us from all sides. We need to wait for a mutiny, otherwise we will have a rationing system and a famine similar to 1919” (Ivanovo‐Voznesenskaya province).
There have been isolated cases of talk about leaving the party. Characteristic in this respect is the statement of a worker, a member of the CPSU since 1920: “My wife ate me, even if you don’t go home. He swears that he has to stand in queues and says: ʺHere you Communists have brought you to what extent you have nothing to eat.ʺ If this continues, we will have to leave the party” (has a family of
7).
The worker of the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk congregation, the candidate of the All‐Union Communist Party, Potemkin, stood in line for an hour and did not receive bread, in front of the non‐party workers tore up his candidate card, saying: ʺWhy am I, a fool, enrolled in the party.ʺ
Strikes and conflicts at enterprises
[Metalworkers]
Workersʹ dissatisfaction with wage cuts. In October, most conflicts and strikes in the metal industry were caused by lower wages and affected groups of workers on average from 20 to 100 people (13 strikes with 877 participants versus 8 with 238 participants in September). The decline in most cases was illegal.
At the plant them. Marty (Leningrad), the discontent of the workers of the galvanizing shop is caused by an arbitrary reduction in TNB prices to 20‐50%. The prices for parse iron were reduced twice (up to 45%) within 3 months. The workers filed collective applications demanding the cancellation of the reduction order. There was a sharp hostility towards the factory committee, who told the workers: ʺIf you are unhappy, contact the Union.ʺ
In some cases, workersʹ dissatisfaction is explained by the arbitrary reduction of prices by the TNB and the delay in resolving the issue of norms and prices by trade union organizations.
At the Stalin plant (Ukraine), the discontent of the workers of the blast furnace shop (the latter had their wages reduced by 20‐25%) was used by an anti‐Soviet group (it includes several former Mensheviks). This group at the meeting passed its resolution (was adopted by a majority of 35 to 25 votes), demanding a reduction in norms, payment of 25% since 1926, etc. Due to the unpreparedness of the factory organizations, the resolution of the presidium was defeated.
After the strike in the foundry of the Kaslinsky plant (Ural), the mood of the workers remains tense. There are tendencies towards the secondary termination of work. This is due to the failure to fulfill the promise given to the refueling complex after the strike to revise the norms and prices (about a month has passed). Among the workers, conversations were noted: ʺApparently, we will again have to call the commission from the district and have a stronger talk, otherwise there is little sense.ʺ
Workersʹ dissatisfaction with shortfalls and delayed wages. At a number of enterprises (mainly in the Ural region), workers were seriously dissatisfied with the delay in wages (Ust‐Katavsky plant of the Zlatoust district, Lysvensky plant of the Perm district, VerkhneTurinsky plant, Nadezhdinsky plant). Discontent in some of these factories is exacerbated by the systematic cheating of workers when paying wages.
A strike on the basis of delayed wages for 3 days took place at the
Leningrad plant ʺBolshevikʺ. 350 people went on strike for two hours.
Textile workers
In October, a tense mood was noted among the workers of a number of large textile factories. The main reasons for worker dissatisfaction are: 1) a decrease in wages due to technical shortcomings (deterioration in the quality of raw materials and yarn, etc.), 2) a reduction in workers and a transition to a shorter working week due to a lack of raw materials (linen factories) and 3) transition to a dense work.
There were 9 strikes in October with 629 participants versus 2 strikes with 50 participants in September.
Strikes and conflicts due to increased waste and various production shortcomings. In October, most of the strikes and conflicts at textile enterprises were caused by a decrease in wages (from 9 to 20 rubles per month) due to poor quality raw materials and production shortcomings (4 strikes at Leningrad factories, 4 strikes at Moscow factories, 1 strike in Ivanovo Voznesenskaya lip.).
Attention is drawn to the fermentation of weavers at the ʺRabotnitsaʺ factory in Leningrad, where during October there were 2 partial strikes.
On October 10, a group of weavers (70 people) went on strike due to a decrease in wages to 9 rubles. per month. The weavers got down to work after promising to pay them extra for the defect. At the general meeting of the weavers of the 2nd shift (there were 350 people), the Komsomol member (a former student of the FZU) spoke out especially sharply, who organized the youth even before the opening of the meeting. The Komsomol member, threatening with a strike, demanded a revision of all prices, immediate additional payment for shortfalls in average earnings, improvement of the quality of raw materials, etc. Representatives of the administration and the factory committee were not allowed to speak.
On October 17, the workers, dissatisfied with the 5% additional payment for the defect, under the influence of agitation, a group of workers again stopped work (200 weavers were not working).
Workersʹ dissatisfaction with the transition to a packed job. Longterm dissatisfaction with the tightening of the working day was noted among the main groups of workers in a number of factories of the
Klintsovsky Trust (Leninskaya, Troitskaya and
Glukhovskaya). Conflicts on the same basis took place at the factories
ʺKrasny Perekopʺ (Yaroslavl Gubernia) and ʺKrasnoe Echoʺ (Vladimir Gubernia). The exacerbation of discontent is facilitated by the weak explanation of measures to tighten the work on the part of the factory organizations. Some of the party members are also gripped by discontent.
At the Lenin factory, thanks to the weakness of the factory committee and the cell, a group of anti‐Soviet people exploits dissatisfaction with the compaction of work. Under the influence of this group, the weavers demanded the convocation of the weavers of all the Klintsovo factories. The same group seeks to subordinate the spinners and pieters to its influence. She is campaigning for the convocation of a meeting of spinners of the Lenin and Glukhov factories. The innovation is poorly explained, and some of the party members are covered with discontent. Particularly acute dissatisfaction was noted at the Glukhovsky factory among spinners in connection with the transition to a complete system (earnings decreased by 40%). The transition was carried out by administrative means. The workersʹ suggestions at production meetings were not taken into account. Out of dissatisfaction with the transition to the new system, on 9 October, an attempt was made to stop the machines in the spinning department.
A group of bank broshnits (30 people) did not work for 30 minutes at the factory ʺKrasny Perekopʺ due to the compaction.
Dissatisfaction with the transition to a shorter working week. The transition to a shorter working week was noted at linen factories and was caused by a shortage of raw materials. As a result of the transition to a reduced working week in some factories, staff reductions were carried out, accompanied by serious discontent from the workers
(factory named after Lenin, Kostroma).
At the Flax Spinning Weaving Factory named after Lenin (Urals) in connection with the reduction of staff among the workers, there was discontent directed against the administration: ʺThey failed to provide the factory with raw materials, now the workers are thrown out of the gates by winterʺ (during the layoff, cases of deliberate sabotage were noted). Due to the abnormalities that took place during the layoff, there were threats against the administration (one worker threatened the director with murder).
Miners
In October, there were several large and long strikes in the mining industry (a total of 7 strikes with 797 participants and a loss of 4518 man‐days, in September ‐ 10 strikes with 761 participants and 1062 lost man‐days).
A major strike in the Bakalskie mines in the Urals began on 15 October in connection with the introduction of a division of labor, which led to lower wages for some groups of workers. Individual members of the AUCP and Komsomol took part in the strike. At the Komsomol meeting, the bureauʹs resolution on the active participation of Komsomol members in the implementation of this event was rejected. At the beginning, 350 workers took part in the strike, after a few hours, about 50% started work, the rest did not work until the end of the month. 190 people quit their jobs.
Seasonal workers
For seasonal workers, October gives a slight increase in the number of strikes and participants (34 strikes with 3343 participants versus 32 strikes with 2718 participants in September). The number of strikes increased significantly due to dissatisfaction with the level of existing wages (23 against 14 in September). In some cases, the strikes occurred as a result of the desire of seasonal workers to leave for the countryside at the end of the season. The vast majority of strikes were short‐lived (3458 man‐days were lost in total). Strikes with a significant number of participants (from 275 to 500) are observed at construction works in Ukraine.
At the Bryansk Power Plant, due to a delay in the payment of wages, the payment of incomplete wages and arbitrariness on the part of the junior administrative and technical personnel, 3 strikes took place during October, involving 200 participants. On October 4, a group of excavators (70 people) went on strike. On October 19, a group of concrete workers (60 people) went on strike in connection with an incorrect measurement of the worked‐out volume of land. The wrong measurement was carried out by the foremen in order to force the concrete workers to leave the building and make room for the foremanʹs fellow countrymen to be laid off. To end the strike, the administration called the police, which the workers tried to beat.
On October 24, two groups of workers (48 carpenters and 36 pavement workers) went on strike due to non‐payment of wages for two months (September and October). On October 26, the strikers were dismissed, and others were taken in their place.
Workersʹ mood in connection with the upcoming renegotiation of collective agreements
At a number of enterprises, mainly at the metal plants of Ukraine, in connection with the forthcoming renegotiation of the collective agreement, there are tendencies to achieve an increase in wages under the new collective agreement. Groups of workers are filing applications demanding higher prices and lower rates, and the demands put forward are in most cases motivated by rising prices.
At the Dnepropetrovsk plant (Dnepropetrovsk), workers went on an ʺItalianʺ strike in order to get higher prices. A group of workers in the refractory shop (18 people) filed an application with the KRK, demanding an increase in prices and a decrease in norms. In order to put pressure on the administration, this group was ʺItalian,ʺ one party member took part in the ʺItalianʺ. At the Mariupol plant ʺAʺ (Yugostal), a group of workers in a brick shop intends to apply for a one‐grade salary increase.
In some cases, the opposition is trying to use the discontent of the workers. In Moscow, the oppositionist at the Machine‐Building Plant. Ilyich (Mashinotrest) made a number of proposals to the FZK, where, along with minor remarks, there are clauses that dramatically change the nature of the collective agreement. Here are some of these suggestions:
1) Abolish the existing tariff guide for determining the qualifications of workers and introduce such an assessment of qualifications with the definition of tariff categories, which took place in the 1926 collective agreement.
2) Increase the wages of backward groups of workers by reducing the wages of highly skilled workers, administrative and technical personnel and office workers.
3) With regard to the internal regulations, note the previously existing procedure for agreeing these rules with the Union and their approval by the labor inspector. The labor inspectorate will only have the right to supervise the implementation of internal regulations.
4) Establish a vacation for workers for 3 weeks, for hazardous work ‐ 1 ʹ/ 2 months, for administrative and technical personnel and employees ‐ 3 weeks.
Across Ukraine, a former Komsomol member (oppositionist) working at the Dnepropetrovsk plant agitated among groups of workers to hand over to him all available materials on the new treaty, promising to ʺseek to improve their material situation.ʺ
The issue of raising wages in connection with the forthcoming renegotiation of the collective agreement was intensively discussed among the workers of the Leningrad tram depots. Leningrad tramways intend to put forward demands for equalizing their earnings with the earnings of Moscow tramsmen (the latterʹs earnings are much higher). The workers associate their demand with the rise in prices for essential products and an increase in rent. Discontent among conductors and carriage drivers is especially acute: ʺIf our salaries are not equal to Moscow, the parks will go on strike.ʺ
The mood of the unemployed
A significant increase in recent years in the number of unemployed at labor exchanges of the Union, caused by the end of public and seasonal work (in Leningrad on August 1 there were 140,965 unemployed, and on October 25 ‐ 166,562; in Moscow ‐ on August 1 there were 223,549 unemployed, and on October 1 ‐ 241,675 unemployed), led to increased discontent among the unemployed.
In some cases (Nizhny Novgorod), an increase in the number of unemployed was caused by a reduction in production (Pervomaisky plant) and the conservation of individual plants (Vilsky plant and Wire plant ‐ due to a fire). The lack of prospects for the majority of the unemployed to get a job in an organized manner, through BT, gives rise to talk about the need to liquidate labor exchanges and provide the unemployed with the right to independently look for work (Leningrad, Ukraine, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow).
In Leningrad and Moscow, unemployed discontent intensified in connection with the introduction of a new procedure for the work of labor exchanges (in the morning hours, only sending to work and other operations after 12.30 pm). Unemployed people who come to check in and register are forced to wait for several hours on the street for admission to the exchanges. The mood of the unemployed is very negatively affected by the rude treatment of them by the employees of labor exchanges (Moscow, Leningrad), sometimes reaching the level of direct mockery. So, in Moscow, the following case took place: the exchange registrar took the documents from an unemployed woman who refused to be sent to work as a cleaner, and offered her to get the documents back through the police. When she, together with a group of unemployed, demanded to return the documents, the registrar told them: ʺYou can go to Tsvetnoy Boulevardʺ 302... As a result, some unemployed women campaigned for the organization of a delegation to the Moscow City Council with a complaint about the actions of the registrar (the registrar was removed from work).
During the month of October, a number of abuse of office by employees of labor exchanges (Dnepropetrovsk exchange) was discovered.
Discontent of the unemployed in a number of cases takes the form of active manifestations.
At the meetings of the unemployed (food workers, chemists, textile workers, metalworkers, Narpit) taking place in Moscow in the second half of October, devoted to the discussion of the reporting reports of the government departments of the Unions, a number of sharp statements against the trade unions were recorded. At most meetings (food workers, textile workers, metalworkers, Narpit), some unemployed people proposed resolutions to declare the work of the Unionʹs office departments unsatisfactory. At a meeting of textile workers, this proposal was motivated by considerations of an obviously anti‐Soviet nature. As a result of these speeches, the meeting of unemployed food industry workers recognized the work of the Unionʹs department as unsatisfactory, and the meeting of unemployed members of the Narpit Union refused to characterize the work of the Unionʹs department, deciding to take note of the report. Opposition demonstrations took place at meetings of metalworkers and textile workers,
At Ukrainian labor exchanges (Kharkovsky, Zinovievsky, Kherson districts) there were calls for the organization of demonstrations. At a meeting convened at the request of the unemployed by the Zinoviev Labor Exchange, some unemployed made proposals to organize a commission to inspect factories and factories in the district to identify cases of protectionism when hiring.
The demobilization of 1904 [born] significantly increased the cadres of unemployed demobilized soldiers of the rank and file and commanding staff (in Leningrad on October 1, there were 320 people, and on October 25 ‐ 2400 people, in Lugansk ‐ on October 1 ‐ 34 people, and on October 30 ‐ 360 people ). The lack of the possibility of a quick job placement causes sharp discontent among the demobilized (labor exchanges of Ukraine and Leningrad). Dissatisfaction is aggravated by the failure of local authorities to provide housing for the demobilized (Rykovo, Artyomovsk District).
Among the demobilized, some talk about organizing demonstrations demanding work is beginning to be noted. At their request, meetings of the demobilized were convened to discuss issues related to sending them to work (Zinovievsk, Lugansk).
There have been cases of sending demobilized delegations to the Soviet agencies with the demand for work (in Kharkov ‐ to the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Labor, in Nikolaev ‐ to the regional executive committee, in Mariupol ‐ to the RCI).
PEASANTRY
Food difficulties in the village
Ukraine. In the southern steppe districts of the Ukrainian SSR (Odessa, Nikolaevsky, Melitopol, Zinovievsky [districts], AMSSR, Kherson [district]), the food situation in October again aggravated.
The delivery of bread is insufficient. Bread is given to the poor in limited quantities (ʺstarvation rationsʺ). The number of households in need of food assistance is increasing every month.
For example, in the Odessa district in a number of villages (the village of Mayaki, Mariental, Lusdorf, etc.), many poor households are literally starving. In the Anatolyevsk village council, several cases of acute gastric diseases caused by eating surrogates have been registered. The situation is the same in other districts. In with. Sodshevka of the Zinovievsky District The 173rd starving poor households are given “hunger rations” of 2‐3 pounds of bread per eater per week. In the Dubasovsky district of the AMSSR, the peasants have enough grain for only 1/2 month, and in Ananievsky, for 1 month. The situation is similar in the Kryvyi Rih District.
In the AM SSR, the number of enslaving deals between the poor and the kulaks increased. The kulaks, taking advantage of hunger, buy up property and even land from the poor for a pittance (the village of Grigoriopol, the village of Serada).
Those in need of bread in the Odessa and Zinovievsky districts come in groups to the village councils and VICs demanding bread. In the Kherson and Odessa districts, migration tendencies were noted among the starving population (to the Urals, Don, Siberia). In some villages, peasants in large groups leave for work. In Odessa, Zinovievsky and Nikolaevsky districts there is a massive sale of livestock.
In with. Popovka of the Odessa District 60 heads of 100 pedigree cattle are sold; in Ovidiopol there is a massive sale of horses, prices for them from 200 rubles. fell to 15‐20 rubles; 10 carriages of horses were removed from the Ustinovsky district of the Zinovievsky district in one week.
Among the poor and middle peasants, there is an increase in anti‐urban sentiments. Kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements, using the discontent of the poor, are conducting anti‐Soviet and insurrectionary agitation among them:
“How long will we wait, we need to arm ourselves, we need to rebel” (kulaks from the village of Ganeino, Zinovievsky district), “down with Soviet power, it robbed us, we are hungry, our poor peasants are starving” (Konstantinovka village in the same district).
North Caucasus. The situation with grain supply in the Stavropol and Maikop districts is unsatisfactory. The number of poor people in these districts seeking food aid from the village councils and KKOVs is increasing.
In the Stavropol District, in a number of settlements of the Divensky District, facts are already being recorded when the population, for a lack of flour, is consuming makuha 303 and other surrogates for food. In Petrovsky and other districts, in recent years, due to a shortage of flour, bread is given exclusively to members of trade unions and seedless.
Among part of the poor, on the basis of industrial difficulties, depressive, panic moods are noted. In the Stavropol and Armavir districts, conversations were recorded among the poor about the need to ʺstop speculating in breadʺ, close the private market and stop exporting bread from the region.
LWO consuming band. Despite some improvement in the food situation due to the increased import of grain, it remains tense in rural areas. Providing bread to those in need is not enough. The kulaks, using difficulties, conduct pogrom agitation (ʺThe people are fools, they would have gathered and organized, but would have passed all the bastards of the communistsʺ ‐ Pskov district) and agitation for the expansion of private trade, as well as for the failure to deliver flax.
In the Pskov and Lodeino‐Polsky districts, 2 cases of distribution of anti‐Soviet leaflets on the basis of a food crisis were registered (see Appendix [No. 4]).
Kostroma lips. The beginning of October was characterized by significant food stress. The population of a number of districts was engaged in sacking (trips to the Samara and Nizhny Novgorod provinces and the TSSR for bread). The food delivery plan for October 20 for wheat flour was fulfilled by only 20%, and for rye flour ‐ by 15%.
All this aroused sharp discontent among the underpowered strata of the peasantry, especially in the handicraft regions (Kostroma u.).
At a general meeting in the village. Red Kostroma district the poor man who spoke said: ʺOn the eleventh anniversary of the October Revolution, instead of a demonstration with red flags, we will come out with banners and slogans:ʺ Give me bread. ʺ
Cases of peasantsʹ refusal to hand over potatoes before the supply of bread to those in need were recorded (Shungenskaya Vol.).
Anxious moods sometimes captured the workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus. On October 2, the representative of the village council Bolshiye Soli sent a telegram to the chairman of the State Electoral Commission with the following content: “I ask, on behalf of trade organizations and the population of the village. B. Salts of bread. To live on 3 kilograms almost 3 weeks ‐ after all, this is a hunger ration. Hear the voice of the hungry. Repeatedly they addressed you ‐ and silence. Have pity on the children, do not condemn a thousand people to the horrors of malnutrition. Big Salts, after all, do not have a peasant farm and it depends on you to stop bullying workers and children. Is it really necessary to turn to the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee for help?
At the end of October, the situation improved somewhat in connection with the intensification of the planned delivery of grain and the delivery of it by the procurers of potatoes.
Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kaluga and Ryazan provinces. In the Kaluga, Yaroslavl and Ryazan provinces, a significant part of the population feeds on bread surrogates, moreover, in the Ryazan province. bread mixed with surrogates is sold even in the markets. In the Yaroslavl province. on the basis of eating surrogates, acute intestinal diseases were observed, which ended in death, especially among children (Breitovskaya vol., Mologsky district); up to 70 peasants with acute intestinal diseases stayed in the Voskresenskaya Volbolnitsa.
The price of rye flour on the private market has increased greatly (in some areas of Vladimir Gubernia the price ranges from 8 to 12 rubles a pood, in Ryazan Gubernia from 3 rubles 60 kopecks to 6 rubles, etc.). In the Yaroslavl province. (Poshekhonye‐Volodarsk) begging increased.
Bagging takes wide sizes. From the Yaroslavl province. to the Volga provinces, from the rural areas of the Vladimir province. whole groups of peasants are heading for the city of Moscow and Vladimir for bread. From Kaluga lips. large groups of peasants are sent daily for baked bread to the cities, mainly to Moscow. In the Yaroslavl province. some villages sent their representatives to the fertile regions to buy grain (Popovka village, Yaroslavl district). In the Vladimir province. the population of a number of villages sent delegations to uyezd and provincial organizations demanding bread. Due to the rise in price and lack of grain, the underpowered strata of the peasantry in a number of districts of Kaluga province. sell livestock.
In the Yaroslavl province. enslaving deals became more frequent.
Widespread dissatisfaction is caused by the introduction of a garnets fee for grinding. In the Yaroslavl province. there have been cases of manual grinding of bread in primitive mills.
Difficulties are caused everywhere by the strengthening of anti‐urban sentiments among the poor and middle peasant strata of the peasantry.
These sentiments are intensely inflamed by anti‐Soviet elements and kulaks agitating that ʺthe food crisis will not get rid of until the power changes,ʺ until ʺfreedom is declared to the private trader,ʺ etc.
Grain procurement
Grain procurement progress. In October, grain procurements in the
Central Black Earth Region, the North Volga Region, the NizhneVolzhsky Territory and the Ukraine decreased compared to September (in the North‐Eastern Military District the October grain procurement plan was fulfilled only in the amount of 92.7%, in the Nizhne‐Volzhsky Region ‐ 99.2%, in the Ukraine ‐ 56 ,1%). The previous level of procurement remained only in the SKK, in the Urals and Siberia, although there, despite the successful implementation of grain procurement plans (Urals ‐ 15.8.9%, Siberia ‐ 174.4%, SKK ‐ 94% versus
92.5% in September), from the second half of October grain procurements begin to decline. Harvesting at the SCC is mainly due to oil crops (sunflower) with a decrease in the harvest of wheat and barley. In the NWO, harvesting also takes place at the expense of harvesting late crops (barley, oats, lentils). The main reasons that negatively affect the successful course of grain procurement are:
1) a sharp gap between market and procurement prices due to the intensified activity of the private trader and the influx of bagmen (SKK, NVK, SVO, Ukraine);
2) a decrease in the receipt of grain due to the expiration of the first term of payments of the unified agricultural tax, which has stimulated the export of grain so far;
3) insufficient delivery of manufactured goods (especially manufactory, iron, leather goods) to procurement regions;
4) a weak supply of contracted and purchased on the growing grain, which is observed everywhere in the main procurement regions.
5) the onset of autumn thaw;
6) insufficient activity of the procurement apparatus in grain procurements, whose employees still do not show sufficient flexibility, waiting for the flow of grain ʺby gravityʺ and
7) refraining from summoning grain surpluses to state producers on the part of the kulak‐prosperous elite of the village, grinding grain into flour and speculating with it.
Weak supply of bread by contract. In all procurement regions, the contracted and purchased on the vine comes slowly. Out of the total amount of grain contracted by various organizations ‐ 318,822 tons ‐ NWK received only 30.8% as of October 5. According to the SKK, as of November 1, contracts for the contracting of bread have been implemented at a rate of 59%. Contracted bread is also delivered extremely slowly through the Central Black Earth Region. In the Tambov Okrug, Soyuzkhleb procured only 48% of the grain purchased on the vine, and Consumer Union only in the amount of 14%. In the Borisoglebsk district, only 34.9% of the grain purchased on the vine have been procured by all procurers. Collective and state farms have fulfilled their contractual agreements in the amount of only 31%. The same is observed in the NWO, the Urals and Ukraine.
The main reason for the weak supply of contracted grain is the existing price gap between fixed procurement prices and the prices of the private market, due to which there is a tendency among some of the peasantry to return the advances received in cash or secondary crops, pay a penalty and sell the contracted grain on the private market. So, in Zaporozhye, Lubensky, Priluksky and other districts (Ukraine), peasants refuse to hand over the contracted grain, preferring to pay a penalty in the amount of 30% of the cost of the grain sold. In the Grushevsky and Aleksandrovsky districts of the Artyomovsky district, there is a massive violation of contracting agreements. Refusing to hand over the contracted grain, the peasants declare: “It is more profitable for us to pay 30% of the penalty and sell grain on the private market at a price of 2 rubles. 50 kopecks for a pood, than to hand over to the state for 1 ruble. 30 kopecks. ʺ
There have been registered cases of collective and state farms refusing to fulfill contracts and selling contracted grain to outsiders and even to private traders (SVO, NVK, Ural). State farm No. 188 (Volsk district, NVK), which sold 2760 centners of grain to Soyuzkhleb and received an advance payment accordingly, handed over to Soyuzkhleb only 739 centners on account of the contracted one, stating that he had no more surplus, at the same time the state farm sold 1,500 rubles. Cherkasy winery. In the same district, agricultural cartels and sowing associations in the Poselsky district (agricultural cartels ʺLebedʺ, ʺSoyuzʺ, ʺNecessityʺ and others in the village of Samodurovka) donate wheat to be delivered under contract not with their own grain, but purchased from the population and only for that amount , which was received upon contracting in the form of an advance, motivating this with a lack of bread at that time, how these agricultural partnerships grind their surplus into flour and sell it on the private market. In the village Polovinsky, Uvelsky district (Troitsky district, Ural), the artel for joint cultivation of land ʺSmelyʺ has not yet fulfilled its obligations to deliver the contracted grain while it sold part of its surplus to a private trader.
A number of technical errors and shortcomings made by grain procurement organizations when concluding contracts (planlessness, contracting of the same crops by several procurers, contracting nonexistent crops, etc.) also has a known effect on the weak supply of contracted grain. In a number of districts of the JCC, mainly in Armavir, the district procurement organizations, concluding agreements with grass‐roots procurers and giving them advances, subsequently did not check the fulfillment of the obligations of the grass‐roots procurers in the contracting of peasant grain. The latter sometimes concluded contracts with peasants and agricultural associations not for the entire amount of the obligation, and the remaining money was used for other purposes. In the same district, in a number of villages, collective farms that do not have winter crops concluded contracts for 500‐1000 poods or more.
The gap between market and procurement prices. The existing sharp gap between market and procurement prices in places completely paralyzed grain procurement, since the peasants, holders of grain surpluses, mainly wealthy kulaks, did not hand over their surplus to state producers, preferring to sell grain on the private market. The market price of wheat in grain in the grain procurement areas reached 2‐3 rubles. (Ukraine, TsChO, SVO, NVK, Ural), wheat flour up to 4‐5 rubles. and in some places up to 6‐7 rubles. (SKK, SVO, Ukraine).
The activity of a private trader and bagmen. The disproportions in prices are promoted by the active activity of a private buyer and a bagman, whose influx into grain‐procurement regions (TsChO, NVK, SVO, SKK) does not stop. Private traders and bagmen continue to withdraw large quantities of bread from the grain market.
In the Volsky district (NVK), in the first two five‐day days in October, private traders and bagmen removed from the market up to 12,000 rubles. bread at a price of 4‐5 rubles. for a pood. In the Leninsky and Dubovsky Districts of the Stalingrad District (NVK), there is an influx of private buyers who buy bread in batches of 300‐400 poods at prices significantly exceeding procurement prices, and exporting it to the cities of Astrakhan and Stalingrad. In with. Abdulino of the Buguruslansky District (SVO) has recently removed 80‐90% of the exported flour from the bread bazaar by the bagmen (visiting peasants). In connection with the growing difference in prices between grain and flour, in a number of regions of the NWO (Samara District) and NVK (Volsky District), grain exports decreased and the amount of flour to the market increased.
Bread speculation. Due to the growing price of flour among the peasantry, mainly the well‐to‐do kulak part of it, speculation in bread, the purchase of bread, the grinding of grain for flour and its sale on the private market (SVO, NVK, SKK) are increasing. For example, in the Taganrog and Stavropol districts (SKK), wealthy peasants export flour outside the region to nearby cities and industrial centers (Kalmyk region, Ukraine). In the Taganrog District, residents of entire farmsteads (Tavrichesky farm, Bishlerovka colony) are all engaged in grinding grain for flour and selling it on the private market. In the Oryol, Zolotarevsky and Semikarakorsky village councils (Donskoy district), the well‐to‐do export grain for grinding to neighboring areas, and from there they transport it for sale to the Shakhtinsko‐Donetsk district. In stts. Kanevskoy (Kuban District) there is a massive influx of peasants from other villages and districts, buying up and taking away up to 100 poods grains daily.
Bread speculation by the kulaks and the well‐to‐do is also observed in the Volsk District and the ASSRNP (NVK), the Tambov and Kozlovsky Districts (TsChO) and the Penza District (SVO).
Railwaymen and their families are also engaged in speculation in bread, bringing bread from the southern regions of the NEC and selling it at the bazaars of Tambov and Kozlov and other cities at speculative prices. Speculation in flour by railroad workers causes discontent among industrial workers and the needy urban and rural population: ʺRailroad workers had and have an advantage over industrial workers ‐ they eat white bread, and even speculate in bread, and we have not seen white flour since springʺ ( Tambov District). “Why does the government not take any measures against grain buyers, especially in relation to railway workers who openly speculate in bread and inflate prices, since the transportation of flour costs them free” (Penza District). Speculation in bread by railroad workers is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Insufficient supply of procurement areas with manufactured goods. The delivery of manufactured goods (especially manufactory, iron and leather goods) to procurement regions is insufficient, which noticeably affects the rate of procurement. In some areas of the Central Black Earth Region, the NWK and the Urals, due to the lack of industrial goods necessary for the peasantry, a significant decrease in grain procurement is observed. In the Stalingrad district (NWK), there were cases when peasants who brought bread, having learned that there were no goods, took it back. In Siberia, the grassroots procurement and cooperative network is supplied with manufactured goods by approximately 30‐40% in relation to needs. For example, in the Irkutsk District, the requests of grassroots organizations for manufactured goods are satisfied less than 50%, and for woolen goods ‐ only 20%. In the Barabinsk District, all the lower procurement organizations, especially the lower network of consumersʹ societies, experience an acute shortage of manufactured goods (Siberia).
Almost in all the villages of the Maikop district, there is a shortage of popular goods, leather, manufactory, etc., the demand for which has greatly increased (SKK).
There is an acute shortage of roofing iron and leather goods, for which there is a great demand, in the Belgorod District (TsChO). There is also no manufactory. In cooperatives, sl. Manino, Kalachevsky District, Rossoshansky District, there are no scarce manufactured goods, due to which the supply of bread to state posts is weak. There are no leather goods, especially yuft, for 4 months already.
In the Kletovsky district of the Stalingrad district (NWK), the progress of grain procurements is hampered by the absence of a manufactory in cooperatives. Cossacks who brought up to 500 poods bread to the bunker, they refused to hand it over, citing the lack of
manufactory. Such facts are not isolated.
The same is observed in all procurement areas.
Shortcomings in the supply of manufactured goods are used by the kulaks and the well‐to‐do to agitate against handing over grain surpluses to state producers and for exporting them to the private market: “There is no need to export bread, there are no goods in the consumer society, but we, peasants, do not need money” (TsCHO)
In the Central Black Earth District, NVK and SKK, there are isolated cases of speculation in manufactories and other manufactured goods.
For example, in the Volsk district (NWK), there have been cases of a private trader with goods appearing on the grain market who sold them to peasants at speculative prices. In the procurement areas of the Tambov and Kursk Districts (TsChO), private traders and kulaks are engaged in a natural exchange of manufactory for bread. Buying up grain and flour from the peasants, they hand them over to procurement organizations, receive a manufactory, which is then exchanged for grain.
In the Maikop district (SKK), there were cases when workers, having bought goods with membership cards, and townspeople, having bought up manufactory and leather goods in the city, sold them to peasants at higher prices or exchanged for flour in the nearest villages.
When cooperative and procurement organizations receive new consignments of manufactured goods, huge queues are created, which are sometimes established from the night.
Abnormalities in the release and distribution of manufactured goods available in consumer cooperation (some consumer societies give out the received goods only to shareholder members, others only to grain donors, and still others ‐ to all for cash) cause complaints among peasants who donate bread and shareholders of consumer societies that “the state one, but the orders are different. ʺ
Difficulties in the export of harvested grain. A serious hindrance to the successful progress of grain procurements in a number of regions (SVO, NVK, Ural, Siberia) is the untimely shipment of harvested grain from station and deep procurement points. Bread accumulates and, in the absence of a sufficient amount of containers and storage facilities, is piled up in the open air and often deteriorates. The latter circumstance forced individual procurers (Orenburg district, SVO) to artificially reduce the procurement.
Particularly acute is the issue with the shipment of harvested grain in Siberia, where due to insufficient preparedness of the Siberian railway. and water transport at the station points, at the quays and in the deepest points, significant reserves of grain have accumulated.
Defects in the work of the procurement apparatus. The previously noted shortcomings in the work of the grassroots procurement apparatus (competition, untimely financing of the grassroots procurement network, passive and negligent attitude of procurers to their duties, etc.) continue to take place and especially affected during the intensified deployment of grain procurements, when the grain procurement apparatus did not show sufficient flexibility and turned out to be insufficiently prepared for grain operations.
It should be noted that the increased supply of grain in September for a number of procurers (SVO, NVK, Siberia), who were expecting a weaker supply, was so unexpected that the procurers engaged exclusively in organizing grain reception, without taking any organizational measures to ensure and preserve the existing the rate of workpieces.
Competition. The unhealthy relationship between procurers, which manifested itself mainly in the struggle around permits, continues now. In accepting grain from peasants who donate grain on vouchers to credit and cooperative organizations, the workers of Soyuzkhleb create a lot of obstacles: red tape is created ‐ grain is accepted last or not at all, peasants are sent from one region to another, etc. All these abnormalities cause dissatisfaction with suppliers, who often refuse to hand over surpluses to state producers, take them back or sell them to a private trader.
In the town of Kamen, Kamensky District, Koophleb had a large supply of bread, both with and without vouchers. During the reception, it was announced that Koophleb would not accept bread on vouchers, sending delivery agents on vouchers to the Soyuzkhleb barns. The peasants categorically refused this, and after they threatened to ʺkill all the weighersʺ and summoned the chairman of the regional administration to the barn, Koopkhleb accepted bread from them.
A similar situation is observed in a number of other procurement regions of the Union.
In the NEC and Siberia, in pursuit of a large amount of procured grain, Soyuzkhleb accepted grain on vouchers for cooperation, which went to the expense of contracting, canceled vouchers and credited bread as handed over on a free dump, thereby disrupting the implementation of contracts.
Interruptions in the supply of funds. Insufficient and untimely supply of funds to the grassroots procurement network in the presence of an increased supply of grain puts it in a difficult position. To pay for the poured grain, procurers often borrow money from local coorganizations, accept on credit, sometimes delaying the payment by a week or more. The NVK and SVO recorded the facts of the removal of grain by the peasants due to the lack of money from the procurers.
Other abnormalities in the work of the procurement apparatus. In addition, the work of the procurement apparatus does not get rid of the red tape in receiving grain, due to which queues are formed at elevators and unloading points and the suppliers are forced to stand idle for hours and days, sometimes in the rain and snow, waiting for the reception of bread (NVK, SVO). In NVK, SVO, Siberia and in the Urals, there are abuses (shortcuts, weighting of suppliers, incorrect identification of nature, etc.) by workers of the procurement apparatus, which causes complaints from suppliers. All this is further aggravated by the rude attitude towards the suppliers.
In with. In Malodubrovinsky, Kurgan District (Ural), peasants organized a collective delivery of grain in the amount of 600 poods, which was brought to the Soyuzkhleb elevator at the station. Bargashi. The weigher determined the amount of bread at 550 poods A dispute broke out between the peasants and the weighers, the chairman of the RIK and the head of the police were summoned. Despite the fact that the bread had already been loaded into the carriage, the carriage was hung down and there were an extra 50 poods in it. of bread.
The mood of the workers of the grass‐roots procurement
apparatus. In the NVK, TsChO, the Urals and Siberia, isolated cases of the use of methods of administrative pressure and intimidation of peasants were recorded by the fact that ʺsearches will soon be carried out and the bread found will be taken awayʺ (Balashovsky Okrug ‐ NVK, Troitsky Okrug ‐ Ural).
At a meeting of the village council, the Magnitsky Regional Commissioner for Grain Procurement (Troitsky District, Ural) suggested ʺexplaining to the population about the need to hand over bread to the cooperatives and indicating that those who bring bread to the private market will be subject to individual tax.ʺ
The chairman of the Botkinsky RIK (Sarapulsky district, Ural) at the expanded plenum of the RIK made a proposal: ʺTo take into account all the bread from the peasants who do not want to take their grain to the warehouses of state producers, to draw up acts and send it to the RIK.ʺ
Everywhere the kulak‐prosperous part of the village continues to actively oppose the grain procurements being carried out by not exporting their surplus, speculating in bread and agitating among the rest of the peasantry ‐ to refrain from surrendering the surplus to the state and selling it on the private market. Using the difficulties in supplying the village with manufactured goods and grain supply to those in need of the lean regions of the SKK and Ukraine, the kulaks urge ʺto unite and prohibit the authorities from exporting grain from the villagesʺ (Maikop district, SKK), as well as ʺdrive all workers who run into the village and deceive the peasants.ʺ (Artyomovskiy district, Ukraine).
Fist s. Obsharovki (Syzran District, SVO) part of their surplus ‐ 500 poods ‐ ground in a mill and sold with flour on the private market. Fists with. Bogdanovka (Samara District) sells all their surpluses in private markets. Wealthy with. Gorbunov (Syzran district) grind grain into flour and immediately sell it to buyers in carts at the mill.
The kulaks and the well‐to‐do in the Volsk, Balashov and Saratov districts of the NVK, having significant reserves of bread (from 15003000 poods), hand over a small amount to the state producers (100‐200 poods), and the rest is partially ground into flour and sold at speculative prices. some are held back in anticipation of a rise in prices. The kulaks and the well‐to‐do in Barnaul and Rubtsovsky and other districts of Siberia do not hand over their surpluses to the state, partially selling them on the private market and holding them in anticipation of a rise in prices: “Although we have stocks of bread, we will refrain from surrendering. We are confident that the authorities will have to add prices as soon as the ardor of the middle and poor, who are now surrendering their surplus, has cooled. ʺ
The same is observed in most procurement areas.
Agricultural tax
Tax receipt progress. The rate of receipt of agricultural tax in October in almost all regions of the Union has increased significantly, especially in a number of districts of Siberia, SKK, SVO, NVK, etc. errors in retaxation, as well as the use of repressions in a number of regions in relation to malicious defaulters (a number of districts of Ukraine, the North Caucasus, etc.).
The successful receipt of the agricultural tax is significantly hampered by the slow consideration of complaints and applications by the tax commissions on the reduction of the agricultural tax. In a number of districts of Armavir, Salsky and Maikop districts, there are still facts of non‐consideration of complaints and applications for natural disasters.
As before, the main payers of the agricultural tax are still the middle peasants and the low‐power strata of the village, while the well‐to‐do top of the village partly continues to take a wait‐and‐see attitude, hoping for a tax reduction.
In a number of cases, the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, not being satisfied with the decision of the regional tax commissions, file complaints with the higher authorities, refraining so far from paying the tax (TsCHO).
A significant number of cases were registered in the CCM when the class principle was not [been] observed in the inventory of defaultersʹ property. In the Ust‐Labinsk district, the majority of the described farms turned out to be middle, low‐power and poor, and only a small percentage of well‐to‐do and kulaks. So, on stts. On October 1 and 2, Ladozhnoy produced 212 inventories of the first‐term debtorsʹ farms, of which 15 well‐to‐do, 100 middle peasants, 27 low‐power and 70 poor peasants, and out of 70 poor farms, there are 59 horseless. A similar situation took place in the villages of Vostochnaya and NovoLabinskaya. In stts. Ladoga from a poor man, a red partisan with arrears of 14 rubles. 80 kopecks, due to the lack of inventory on the farm, the hut is described. Such facts also took place in other villages.
It should be noted that in the indicated area the population was not previously informed about the inventories of property, not a single meeting was held with the poor and there was no leadership in this matter either from local or regional workers.
In Maykop, Kuban and other districts, there were cases of property inventories among the poor who did not pay tax in the amount of less than one ruble.
Correction by tax commissions of errors on re‐taxation and fines. The work carried out by the tax commissions to check the initial taxation and review complaints continues to reveal numerous cases of overtaxation of middle and low‐power farms, illegal involvement in individual taxation, large excesses in the fine policy (Siberia). As a rule, mistakes made during the initial taxation of tax commissions are corrected. So, in Rybinsk parish. Yaroslavl province. of the 312 farms initially attracted to individual taxation, the tax commission at its first only three meetings has already exempted 259 farms from individual taxation. In the Balakhtinsky District of the Krasnoyarsk District, 340 of the individually taxed farms have been freed 340. In the Sargatsky District of the Omsk District, the taxation has been removed from 640 farms out of the individual taxation of 640 farms, and so on.
Also significant in Siberia is the size of the addition of fines by tax commissions from middle and poor farms for sheltering taxable objects.
According to incomplete data, on October 5, fines for sheltering taxable objects were added from 4644 farms in the amount of 186,441 rubles. (initially, 24,964 farms were fined in the amount of 1,141,951 rubles).
Along with this, the tax commissions, in their work on checking taxation and profitability, revealed numerous cases of significant under‐taxation of wealthy kulak farms, non‐involvement of the latter in individual taxation, and underestimation of non‐agricultural earnings.
Meat merchant der. Konyshevo, Yaroslavl province. taxed in the amount of 6 rubles, the other merchant did not take into account the income from trade at all.
Prosperous village Chevanino is taxed only 8 rubles, and another wellto‐do s. Ilyinsky ‐ 6 rubles.
In with. Nightingales of the Kuznetsk District (SVO) kulaks soldered members of the tax commission, as a result of which one kulak, having 2 threshing machines, a winnowing machine, a seeder and cattle, was imposed on 68 kopecks, and the other kulak at 50 kopecks.
In Krasnoyarsk, Kamensk and other districts of Siberia, a number of kulak farms are not involved in individual taxation.
In the Rubtsovsky Okrug, of the 7% of kulak farms in the Okrug, only 1.34% are individually taxed.
In the Barnaul district in the Chumysh district, previously unaccounted for income from non‐agricultural earnings in the amount of 40,000 rubles was revealed.
Excessive reduction in agricultural tax to wealthy and kulak farms. Correcting mistakes in the form of over‐taxation and undertaxation, the volost and district tax commissions, however, in a number of cases made new mistakes, expressed mainly in the excessive provision of discounts and benefits on agricultural tax to wealthy and kulak farms, the removal of individual taxation from a number of kulak farms, etc. .d. A number of cases of almost complete exemption of individual wealthy and kulak farms from agricultural taxes or taxation of them on a par with middle and low‐power farms have been registered.
The Kadyi Volost Tax Commission of Ivanovo‐Voznesensk Gubernia, giving discounts on agricultural tax to the wealthy, refuses them to lowpower farms. In the Grigorievsky district of the Makaryevsky district. and in the Tula region of Yuryev‐Polsky u. members of tax commissions reduce agricultural tax to their relatives. In Semyonovskaya parish. Vilugsky u. the commission, not providing sufficient discounts to middle peasant farms, threw off 50% of the tax to local priests, handicraftsmen and traders. The middle peasants demand the abolition of the decision of this commission and the creation of a new one, without the participation of alien elements.
The Sverdlovsk Volkomissia of the Yaroslavl province, despite the protest of the village council, reduced the tax to the former landowner from 100 rubles. up to 16 rubles. (has a brick factory and a roll‐felted workshop). In the village. Steepness of the Kalinin parish. the farms of two traders are brought under a non‐taxable minimum and are completely exempt from tax.
The Ekaterininskaya District Tax Commission of the Saratov District, at the request of a number of well‐to‐do people, charged them up to 5070% of the tax on non‐agricultural earnings, and 7 well‐to‐do people who have the most powerful farms in the region are exempt from individual taxation.
In with. As a result of the provision of discounts for low income, many kulaks are almost completely exempted from taxes for the camel in the Zinovievsky district. In the Bogodarovsky village council of the Bobrinets district, prosperous and kulak farms received tax discounts from 50 to 60%, significantly lower discounts were received by middle farms.
Cases of an excessive reduction of the agricultural tax to wealthy and kulak farms often cause discontent and criticism from the poor and part of the middle peasantry. “Here, they say, is an attack on a kulak, but it turns out that they attacked and then retreated. Throughout the century the communists have been aiming to hit the fist, but it turns out that they are beating the middle peasant and the poor peasant” (poor peasants of the Yekaterininsky district of the Saratov district).
“First, RIK put pressure on his fist, his fist bristled. The RIC chickened out and letʹs wag its tail ‐ to review non‐agricultural income and reduce the amount of tax. Now everyone understood that cowards are in power. In my opinion, once you have taken it, you must not weaken it to the end” (middle peasants from Setavki, Biysk District).
Counteraction of the kulaks to the tax campaign
The growth of the ʺwalker movementʺ. The month under review is characterized by the growth in a number of regions (especially in the Ukraine and the North Caucasus) of the ʺwalking movementʺ, almost everywhere led and organized by the kulak‐wealthy strata and antiSoviet elements in the countryside.
The sending of walkers and delegations to the center in a significant number of cases was preceded by illegal kulak meetings, at which tax issues were discussed, candidates for delegate walkers to the center were outlined in order to hold them at general meetings, and money was collected for the travel of delegates (a number of districts of Ukraine , North Caucasus, etc.). To draw up all the necessary documents and receive advice and information on how to operate in the center, the kulak delegates‐walkers often contacted on the ground with underground lawyers, former white officers, etc., who drew up statements, complaints and gave them the necessary instructions (Shepetovsky, Stavropol, Kuznetsk and other districts).
Simultaneously with the deployment of work on organizing a mass appeal and sending walkers to the center, the kulaks are intensifying agitation for refraining from paying taxes until the delegates return from the center and until the results of the appeal are clarified, as a result of which, at the beginning of the month, a number of cases of slowing down the rate of delivery of agricultural tax were noted (Ukraine , Salsky, Stavropol, Armavir and other districts).
Special attention is drawn to the facts of the arrangement by the kulaks and the well‐to‐do, individually taxed, of illegal volost congresses and conferences to discuss the issue of appealing the agricultural tax and other ways of countering the collection of the agricultural tax (see Appendix [No. 2]).
It is necessary to note the assistance provided in some cases by representatives of local authorities and rural organizations to the kulaks with regard to supplying them with all kinds of, sometimes false, information about the amount of their income and side earnings. In this regard, the case that took place in the Kamennobrodsky district of the Armavir district should be noted, where in one of the villages a group of kulaks and the wealthy, using contacts with the deputy chairman of the village council and the chairman of the local committee of agricultural workers, received false information about the dead crops and the amount of non‐agricultural income and sent walkers to Moscow, who returned with a resolution of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Finance and the KraiFU on an urgent revision of the taxation. Before the departure of the delegates and after their return, drinking parties were arranged,
Resistance to inventories and appeals against tax payments. In connection with the increased pressure in the second half of October on the debtors of the first term, after the final approval of the amounts of tax and the provision of discounts and benefits, a number of cases of resistance to inventories and the seizure of property on the part of defaulters of the kulaks and the well‐to‐do who expel members of the commissions from their yards, leave for the whole day in the steppe, they hide agricultural implements, etc. (a number of districts of the North Caucasus).
In a number of regions of Ukraine and the North Caucasus, facts have been noted when kulaks deliberately do not pay taxes, allowing property to be described and seized (buying it back at auction) in order to use it for anti‐Soviet agitation and cause discontent among the population. Similar facts have been noted for a number of districts in the North Caucasus. There are facts when the confiscated property by the kulaks and the wealthy was arbitrarily taken from the village councils.
The increased pressure on non‐payers also caused an increase in agitation on the part of the kulaks with calls for an uprising and organized non‐payment of the agricultural tax (see Appendix [No. 2]).
Autumn sowing campaign
Results of the campaign and its shortcomings. The ended autumn sowing campaign revealed a number of shortcomings that adversely affected the results of the campaign. The main shortcomings of the campaign are: insufficient preparation of the grass‐roots soviet for the campaign, abnormalities in the field of seed and machine supply and the import of mineral fertilizers, poor assistance to the poor, etc. These shortcomings led to the undersowing of the winter wedge in a number of regions of the Union, mainly by poor and middle peasants (Ryazan, Tver provinces, Rossoshansk district of the Central Black Earth region, most of the districts of the North Caucasus, and some districts of the Northwest). So, in the North Caucasus, the winter sowing wedge
against 1927‐1928, according to the plan, should be increased by 8.9%, while in fact, despite the favorable weather in October, undersowing against the area of last year has reached quite significant proportions in some districts. An approximately similar situation is noted in a number of places in the North‐West, where the main reasons for undersowing, in addition to those indicated, are: industrial difficulties, late removal of spring crops and insufficient attention of the relevant organizations to supply the population with crops, agricultural implements, etc.
And in a number of regions of the Union, due to unfavorable weather in October, the appearance of pests was noted, mainly a slug, which damaged part of the winter wedge. The most affected are Vladimirskaya, Smolensk and Kaluga. In the last two provinces, up to 12,000 hectares of land have been damaged by slugs. In some villages of the Vladimir province. slug damaged up to 100% of the crop area.
Abnormalities in the seed and machine supply and the delivery of mineral fertilizers. The supply of the population with semsud, agricultural machinery and implements and mineral fertilizers for the current sowing campaign, due to the inattentive attitude of local authorities, was far from satisfactory. The population in a number of places was not satisfied with the sufficient quantity of seeds. Often, the kulaks used the lack of seeds in low‐power middle‐peasant and poor farms for speculative purposes, selling their stocks of seeds at a very high price and for working off.
In the village. Mashenino of the Velikie Luki District (North‐West) is prosperous, taking advantage of the lack of seeds among the lowpowered middle peasants and the poor, for each pood of rye they let him work for three days.
A similar phenomenon was noted in the village. Nehpoila, Villitskiy district of the AKSSR, where the poor, who did not have seeds, received 2 poods of rye for work with the wealthy for a week for a fee of 2 rubles. for a pood.
At the same time, there are numerous cases of delivery to the site of poor‐quality seeds and machines, often completely unsuitable for consumption (without some parts or with parts from other machines). The situation is approximately the same with the delivery of mineral fertilizers, which were often delivered to places with a great delay, when sowing in most cases had already ended (North‐
West). Along with this, it is necessary to note the numerous cases of the distortion of the class line in the distribution of crops, agricultural equipment and mineral fertilizers, which often fell into the hands of the kulaks and the wealthy, and the requests of the poor in some cases remained unsatisfied. In a number of places in Terskiy, Salskiy, Stavropolʹskiy and other districts, the poor appear to KKOV and village councils almost every day, demanding the issuance of seeds, stating that otherwise the winter wedge will not be sown. Along with this, it should be noted that due to the inattentive attitude of the grassroots Soviet apparatus and KKOV to the issue of helping the poor (loans, attaching horses, etc.), the latter often did not sow its winter wedge at all.
In with. Abrasimovo, Bogucharsky District, Rossoshansky District, local authorities did not provide any assistance to the poor during the sowing campaign, the attachment of horses to horseless ones was not made, loans for hiring draft power were also not released. As a result, the winter wedge remained unseeded for most of the poor farms.
Anti‐Soviet manifestations
Groupings. In October, 51 cases of creation of kulak‐prosperous and anti‐Soviet groups were registered in the Union, 22 of them in Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of groups were created with the aim of opposing the tax campaign (19 facts). Attention is drawn to the groupings created on the basis of dissatisfaction with the individual taxation of agricultural taxes.
The members of the groups, in addition to disrupting meetings, the work of tax commissions, terrorizing the workers of the grassroots apparatus, illegally gathered congresses, meetings (Siberia, CCM), at which they chose walkers to the center, the latter were instructed to file applications‐complaints about improper actions of representatives of local authorities with a petition for the revision of the taxation of kulakwealthy farms with agricultural tax for 1928‐1929.
Leaflets. In the Union, 24 facts of distribution of counter‐revolutionary leaflets were registered, of which 3 with a call for the overthrow of Soviet power, 5 on the basis of industrial difficulties, 3 anti‐tax ones, 2 Petliura‐chauvinistic ones (Umansky, Zinovievsky districts). Typical are leaflets distributed by a group of kulak youth in the Khopersky district (NVK), terrorizing workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus and activists of the poor (the group has been liquidated) (see Appendices [No. 3‐4]).
Cross unions. 54 cases of agitation for the creation of the Constitutional Court were registered in the Union, of which 13 facts fall on the central provinces.
Terror. In October, 31 murders were registered in the Union, 58 wounds and beatings, 79 arson cases, a total of 256 cases.
The regions most affected by terror are: Ukraine (45), Siberia (26), Center (24), Ural (15). Terror is directed mainly against the workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus (127 facts) and activists of the poor (42).
Noteworthy [are] facts of manifestation of mass terror, such as raids on village councils, reading rooms, dispersal of meetings, etc. (in Ukraine, Siberia and the Central Black Earth District, 5 raids were registered in October).
Group performances. 11 group performances in the Union were registered (in Ukraine ‐ 6, in Siberia ‐ 1, central provinces ‐ 4), of which due to difficulties ‐ 4 with the number of speakers from 30 to 50 people, in connection with the selection of illegally cut wood ‐ 1 (participated up to 200 people), the rest on the basis of land management and nonpayment of money by cooperation for the raw materials handed over (30‐40 people participated).
Of the registered facts, the speech in the village of. Bulanikha of the Biysk district, where peasants, at the instigation of kulaks and hooligans, beat up the agricultural workers who were writing off the timber they had cut without permission. The initiators of the beating were arrested, as a result of which a crowd of peasants of up to 200 people came to the village council, made a riot, demanding the release of those arrested. The latter were released at night by the participants in the performance.
EASTERN NATIONAL REPUBLICS AND AUTONOMOUS AREAS
UZBEKISTAN
Cotton marketing campaign. In the main cotton regions, the yield of the sowing tithe is determined on average at 73 poods (Fergana). A decrease in productivity was noted in the Khorezm district due to unfavorable weather. In a number of districts there are significant interruptions in the supply of grain to cotton growers. Bids of cotton partnerships for revenduk 304 and sacks are satisfied in some places with a great delay or only partially.
Interruptions were also noted in the organization of transport. Cotton partnerships have not contracted the required number of cart and camels (Samarkand, Fergana districts). The preparation of the storage facilities took place with a number of major shortcomings, sheds for storing raw cotton were built in many cases with a great delay, in most partnerships there is an acute shortage of roofing iron for finishing sheds.
Tax campaign. For all districts in October, the taxation of the current year was revised and a reduction fund was established. In some cases, local authorities attempted to exaggerate in the implementation of the centerʹs directives.
In the Kashka‐Darya district, a proposal was made to exempt cattle breeders who maintain up to 15 rural workers or have a permanent worker, a mill and an oil mill from individual taxation. These proposals were rejected.
Cases of administrative pressure and unjustified forced collection of taxes during the reporting period decreased significantly. In most districts, the agricultural tax is received satisfactorily, and in some cases the receipt by the first term exceeds the task (Fergana, Bukhara,
Khojent, Samarkand district). Weak tax receipts are noted in the Zeravshan, Surkhan‐Darya and Andijan districts. In the latter, the slowdown in tax receipts was caused by interruptions in the acceptance of cotton.
The baysko‐prosperous elements are carrying on intensified anti‐tax agitation almost everywhere. A case was registered of convening a meeting of anti‐Soviet elements to discuss the issue of countering the campaign (Kashka‐Darya district). Negative sentiment in connection with the tax campaign among the middle peasants in October continued to be noted in a slightly reduced size.
Grain procurement. The October grain procurement plan was fulfilled only by 40‐50%. The slowdown in the rate of procurement led to an increase in administrative pressure: drawing up protocols on the middle peasants, threats, forcible confiscation of grain, etc. Cases of weighing and cheating farmers continue to be noted (Kashka‐Darinsky district).
Private traders in a number of districts and in old cities continue to procure a significant amount of grain (Samarkand, Kashka‐Darya, etc.). Bajstvo, merchants and the Muslim community, urging farmers not to hand over grain to state and cooperative bodies, spread rumors about war, the fall of Soviet power, etc. (Samarkand, Zeravshan, Kashka‐Darya, Syr‐Darya). Among the poor and middle peasant masses of dehkans, there is discontent with low prices for bread (Samarkand) and forced contracting (Kashka‐Darya).
Land‐water relations. The seizures of land from poor peasants and farm laborers endowed with the land reform continue to be observed. In some places, the seizure is accompanied by threats to the poor, beatings and, in isolated cases, their murder.
Bai of the Ak‐Kurgan kishlak of the Assakinsky district of the Andijan district beat up a farm laborer who refused to return the land alienated by the zemreform to him.
In the Margelan region of the Fergana district, a newly endowed poor man was killed by a former basmach. A chairiker was killed in the village of Tash N., Chirchik district, Tashkent district, who was revealing taxation objects hidden by local buyers.
In the Kashka‐Darya district, in connection with the upcoming land management work, the poor are strenuously demanding the acceleration of land management. The Guzar regional commission received 160 applications from farm laborers and tearikers demanding the allotment of land and equipment. In the town of Shakhrisyabz, farm laborers from the 4th quarter staged a demonstration demanding land reform.
A similar demonstration took place in the village. Kosh‐Tepe, Guzar region, and the demonstrators shouted: ʺDown with the landlords, take the land from the bais and ishans.ʺ Baystvo, former emirchikov and the Muslim clergy are conducting intensified agitation against land management, at the same time resorting to fragmentation and liquidation of their farms. Most of the prominent representatives of the clergy of the Guzar region are going to liquidate the farms and leave.
TURKMENISTAN
Anti‐Soviet manifestations. Along with the growing activity of the bayism and the clergy, expressed mainly in broad anti‐Soviet agitation and in the spread of rumors about the war, cases of murder and preparation of terror of activists have been registered.
In the Burdalyk district of the Chardzhui district, an activist‐teacher was killed by the proteges of the beys. The bai of the Ilyalinsky district are preparing the murder of a local Komsomol activist.
Emigration to Persia and Afghanistan. Among the 305 Baluchis in the Sarakh region, the desire to emigrate to Persia increased. The motives for emigration are put forward by the difficult financial situation and ignorance of the interests of the Baloch people by local workers. During October 30 Baloch wagons migrated to Persia under the cover of armed Persian Cossacks 306. The urge to relocate to Afghanistan is noted among the Turkmens of the Takhta‐Bazar region. The motives are the dissatisfaction with over‐taxation.
Drafting into the army. On the whole, the campaign to recruit the Turkmen to the Red Army was much more successful than the previous one. Almost in all districts there were voluntary admissions to the army (in the Takhtinsky district ‐ 151 people, in the Bakhardensky ‐ 25, in the Ilyalinsky ‐ 47 people, etc.).
Along with this, the intensified agitation against conscription by the bayism and the Muslim community led to a number of cases of desertion and flight: 12 people deserted from the Kerkinsky district to emigrate to Afghanistan, 27 cases of emigration to Afghanistan and 37 cases of draft evasion in the Tashauz district were registered. ...
Tax campaign. Everywhere, there are numerous applications from farmers with complaints about the severity of the tax. In the Burdalyk region of the Chardzhui district, 400 complaints were received. Bayskoprosperous farms in some cases wind up farms and move to cities (Geok‐Tepinsky district).
Land issue. The campaign to consolidate the results of the land and water reform is accompanied by a number of excesses in relation to the middle peasants, in some places there is a massive deprivation of land for the middle peasants (aul Ashgabat). The Bayram‐Ali district commission for consolidating the land reform took away land from 87 farms, most of them poor. In the Kaakhki region, where the land reform was not actually carried out, the commission decided to deprive 107 farms of land and water, followed by the eviction of the owners, most of the latter being subject to eviction.
KAZAKSTAN
Bai property confiscation campaign
Campaign progress. The campaign to confiscate Bai property is basically ending. Distribution of livestock, eviction of bays and identification of hidden livestock is taking place in all districts. As of October 25, 108,459 heads were confiscated in terms of cattle versus the estimated number of 19,637 heads (see the attached table for separate districts). Failure to comply with the plan is mainly due to the activities of the bays, who managed to sell and hide part of the livestock before the seizure.
Counteraction to the campaign. Atkaminer‐Bai elements continue to vigorously oppose the campaign. In aul No. 16 of the Chayanovsky district of the Syr‐Darya district, a poor man, an activist who opposed the baystva, was brutally killed. Cases of beating of the poor and terrorizing the confiscation commissioners by bays (Alma‐Ata, Kustanai and other districts) have been registered. In the Chizhinsky district of the Urals district, one of the evicted bai, with the assistance of the chairman of the village council, advocated the poor and achieved the convocation of a meeting to petition to release the property of the said bai from confiscation, as a result of which a corresponding statement was fabricated on behalf of the poor. Similar cases were registered in the Syr‐Darya and Semipalatinsk districts. In order to avoid eviction, bai in some cases, under the guise of divorce, leave their wives in place.
Sovapparat. In some cases, the commissions for the confiscation of Bai property are inactive. No measures are taken to identify livestock. In connection with the negligence and inaction of the workers of the Soviet apparatus, the organization of collective farms is delayed. In a number of districts, there is no awareness campaign on this issue. Along with this, a number of abuses by the workers of the grassroots apparatus were noted: the appropriation of confiscated livestock, assistance to the bays in fabricating false statements on behalf of the poor with a request to return the confiscated property to the bays, the distribution of confiscated livestock among relatives, bays, mullahs, the distribution of livestock and the organization of artels by genus, and etc. In some cases, individual communists provide support to the bayam.
The attitude of the poor towards confiscation. The distribution of confiscated livestock, the eviction of the beys and the identification of hidden livestock takes place with the active participation of the broad masses of the poor. However, in some cases, under the influence of the Bai agitation, cases of the protection of the Bays by the poor were noted.
In the Chingistay region of the Semipalatinsk district, when seizing
Baysky cattle, the poor refused to take part in capturing herds, for which reason they had to hire special persons.
Grain procurement
Grain procurement progress. In October, there was a decrease in the rate of procurement. The main reasons for the drop in the rate of harvesting in some districts are the abundance of rain, not threshing of grain by peasants, damage to roads and the employment of peasants with field work for plowing the winter wedge (Akmola, Ural and Aktobe districts). In other districts, the successful progress of procurement is hampered by interruptions in the supply of manufactured goods and weak advance payments by grass‐roots procurement organizations.
The condition of the storage facilities. In all districts there is an acute issue with storage facilities for grain storage. The situation is greatly aggravated by the delay in the construction of new elevators and warehouses scheduled for construction. The repair of existing storage facilities is also poorly carried out.
In the Semipalatinsk district, due to the lack of warehouses, every free room is loaded with grain, even baths.
Delay in the export of harvested grain. The delay in the export of the prepared grain strongly affects the rate of procurement. The shipment of harvested grain from deep‐lying points is very slow due to the lack of transport and packaging. In the deep and near‐station points, the warehouses of the procurers are loaded with grain. The timely dispatch of grain cargo is also delayed by the failure of the railway administration to provide the required number of wagons. In some areas, peasants refuse to bring grain from deep‐lying checkpoints in connection with field work. There were registered cases of loadersʹ strikes in the midst of loading, demanding an increase in wages (Aktobe, Kustanai districts).
Lack of manufactured goods. There is a shortage of manufactured goods in a number of regions. In many cooperatives there are no: manufacture, leather goods, glass, roofing iron, etc. In the Kustanai district, in connection with the October fair, the peasantry threw out about half a million poods of bread in just five days, which caused a huge demand for manufactured goods. The absence of the latter aroused strong discontent among the peasants. In the Syr‐Darya district, despite the perceived shortage of scarce goods, individual cooperative organizations supply private traders with these goods.
Shortcomings of the procurement apparatus. The competition between the planned procurers does not stop, and in some regions it even intensifies: a number of factors of the increase in procurement prices, open agitation among suppliers for boycotting other procurers, etc. have been noted. In some cases, the consumer cooperation releases manufactured goods only to those who donate bread to the cooperation points. Demoralizing moods are noted among individual workers of the procurement apparatus (Syr‐Darya district).
The role of private traders. In a number of regions, the lively activity of private traders continues. In the Kustanai Okrug, there is an influx of bagmen (mainly railroad workers) and small speculators who drive up grain prices. In the Urals District, bread brought to the Ural market is being strenuously bought up by private traders and non‐patent speculators, who increase bread prices (by 30‐40 kopecks above the limit prices). The activities of private traders disorganized the grain market to such an extent that procurements were significantly reduced, while the supply of grain, in connection with rumors about buying it at an increased price, increased, reaching at times up to 2000 poods in a day.
Tax campaign
Campaign progress. Prior to the issuance of government directives on reducing the total amount of agricultural tax, the total amount of tax payments according to the accounting data for taxable objects, without discounts and legal benefits, was approximately determined by the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars of the KSSR at 26 million rubles. Discounts and benefits were projected at 3 million rubles. Such an increase in tax payments (in the previous campaign, 14 million were planned, 11 million were collected, the shortfall in the amount of 3 million rubles refers to discounts, benefits, etc.), in addition to the general rise and strengthening of the peasant economy, attracting nonagricultural incomes and individual taxation unearned and exploitative farms, was to a large extent the result of the identification of massive shelters of tax facilities and less, compared to last year, in a number of areas affected by natural disasters. In this regard, government directives in their application to a number of districts and districts needed significant adjustments. Proceeding from this, the Kazakstan Council of Peopleʹs Commissars put before the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars of the RSFSR the issue of amending the directives of the Union Council of Peopleʹs Commissars, putting forward a number of practical proposals. SNK and NKF RSFSR, having considered this issue, made significant changes in their initial directives on reducing the total amount of tax. At present, based on taking into account all these data, it is planned to roughly reach 18‐18.5 million rubles by the actual receipt. they made significant changes to their original directives on reducing the total tax amount. At present, based on taking into account all these data, it is planned to roughly reach 18‐18.5 million rubles by the actual receipt. they made significant changes to their original directives on reducing the total tax amount. At present, based on taking into account all these data, it is planned to roughly reach 18‐18.5 million rubles by the actual receipt.
Kinks for individual taxation. Inspection of the work on individual taxation revealed a number of excesses committed by local authorities not only with respect to well‐to‐do farms, but also in many cases with respect to middle peasants. In some districts, dozens of complaints were received about the illegal taxation of the middle peasants on an individual basis. In a number of cases, the tax commissions are dealing with complaints very slowly, causing complaints from the applicants.
Other shortcomings in the work of the Soviet tax apparatus. Along with excesses in individual taxation, numerous cases of abuse and distortion of the class line by workers of the grassroots soviet were registered: bribes for assistance in sheltering objects of taxation by bajs, re‐taxation of the poor and middle peasants at the expense of bays and kulaks, etc.
In some places, there is a contamination of the volost commissions to identify hidden objects of taxation by Baysko‐kulak elements, leading the line corresponding to their interests.
Activity of the kulaks and bays. Not limiting themselves to widespread anti‐tax and anti‐Soviet agitation, kulaks and bai terrorize local workers in places, threatening them with murder and uprising (Syr‐Darya, Akmola okrug). At the same time, kulaks and bai are campaigning for the closure of farms, they widely practice sheltering objects of taxation and distributing livestock among relatives and the poor.
The conscription of the Cossacks into the army
Baysko‐Aksakal elements and representatives of the Muslim spiritual community continue to provide organized opposition to the campaign to conscript Cossack youth into the army. At the Baysko‐Aksakal meetings, resolutions are passed against the draft (Syr‐Darya, Aktobe okrugs). Along with intensified anti‐conscription campaigning and spreading rumors about an imminent war, the bai are actively conducting anti‐Soviet agitation. At the same time, the bai widely practice sheltering from the call of their sons. In a number of cases, the shelter is carried out with the assistance of workers from the grassroots Soviet apparatus. The lack of an appropriate explanatory campaign in places caused discontent and panic among a part of the Cossack population. The attitude to the appeal of the poor and middle peasant youth is mostly positive.
DAGESTAN
Re‐election of the Soviets in Dagestan. The campaign for the reelection of the Soviets in Dagestan received extremely insufficient attention from the local Soviet and party bodies. As a result, the election commissions and the re‐election commissioners got such workers who not only allowed to participate in the re‐election of persons subject to deprivation of their electoral rights, but also failed the candidacies put forward by the cell and the poor.
Commissioner for re‐election of the Soviets in the village. The head of the land department, a member of the kulak group, was appointed Tindal of the Chamyalak section of the Andean District.
In with. Untsukul of the Avar district, the delegate, without any explanation, proposed a list of candidates, as a result of which the assembly spoke out against the list. Instead, the meeting put forward a list of candidates mainly from the well‐to‐do kulak strata of the population, who were elected to the Soviet.
Attention is also drawn to the unfortunate timing of the re‐election of the Soviets: the height of agricultural work and departure to out‐oftown trades, which largely influenced the number of participants in the elections.
In the Samur district, the number of voters decreased by 6.2%, in the Avar district by 7.9%.
The shortcomings of the Soviet and party bodies were widely exploited by the kulaks, the Muslim clergy and other anti‐Soviet elements, who, blocking, offered every possible opposition to the candidates of the poor and the communist party, energetically nominating their supporters to the Soviets. The kulaks especially actively opposed the advancement of women to the Soviets. In cases where the kulak groups in a bloc with Muslim religion did not achieve their goals, they practiced collecting signatures and filed statements about the incorrectness of the elections.
As a result of the shortcomings of the Soviet and party organs and the activity of the kulaks, musdukhovens and other anti‐Soviet elements, a number of village councils, according to available incomplete data, turned out to be clogged with kulaks and their supporters.
NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS
Political mood in connection with the transfer of the city of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia, the city of Grozny and the Sunzhensky district ‐ Chechnya
The resolution on the liquidation of the Grozny district and the merger of the city of Grozny and the Sunzhensky district with Chechnya and the transfer of the city of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia aroused great interest from the mountain and Russian‐Cossack population. For individual national regions, these sentiments are as follows.
Ossetia
Peasantry. The bulk of the Ossetian peasantry met the issue of transferring the city of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia with a sense of satisfaction (“even so, we Ossetians defeated the Ingush”). At the same time, the poor and middle peasants express their fear of the inevitable aggravation of antagonism between the Ossetians and the Ingush and the intensification of banditry by the Ingush.
Kulaks. The kulaks and the well‐to‐do are expressing special enthusiasm, fully sharing the sentiments of the nationalist intelligentsia in matters of the merger of North Ossetia with South Ossetia and with Mozdok Ossetians, and rapprochement with Transcaucasia.
National intelligentsia. The news of the transfer of the city of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia caused an extraordinary stir among the national intelligentsia, especially its chauvinist part. The transfer of the city was celebrated by the national intelligentsia by organizing special evenings in their homes ‐ dinners and banquets in honor of ʺa great event for Ossetia.ʺ Representatives of the Ossetian intelligentsia, who met in offices and on the streets, brought congratulations to each other, expressing “admiration” and “gratitude” to the workers of the regional leadership for their successes in the policy of promoting national interests. At the same time, the national intelligentsia is much more lively discussing and prejudging the prospects and further steps of national development, conducting frank propaganda of the idea of ʺGreat Ossetiaʺ by joining South Ossetia (Transcaucasia) and Mozdok to North Ossetia.
The issue of the need to initiate a petition to rename Vladikavkaz to the city of Iron is widely discussed (the Ironians are the main Ossetian tribe). A group of Ossetian professors from Vladikavkaz universities have already begun to promote a plan for reorganizing universities, pursuing the idea of forming a ʺUniversity of Ossetiaʺ. There is a lot of talk in general about the need for Ossetianization of the city.
Along with this, the wave of unanimous protest of Ingushetia against the transfer of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia, the fighting sentiments of the Ingush, expressing their readiness, “if necessary, to fight the kr. Ossetia ”(see below), and rumors that the Ingush delegation in Moscow is seeking a postponement of this decision on Vladikavkaz causes serious concern among the Ossetian intelligentsia, fearing that Ingushetia will delay the approval of the question of Vladikavkaz.
Employees. The transfer of the city of Vladikavkaz intensified antagonism towards the Ingush and Russophobic sentiments among the Ossetian employees and demands not to delay the Ossetianization of the city, and “not to reckon with the Ingush”.
Workers. The mood of the Ossetian workers is also under the influence of the nationalist intelligentsia. A healthy assessment is rare among Ossetian workers, and in these cases they mostly express fears: ʺWill Ossetia cope with Vladikavkaz and will Vladikavkaz stop in its economic and cultural developmentʺ (Alagir plant).
INGUSHETIA
National leadership. The national leadership of the region, considering the regional decision ʺinfringing upon the vital national interests of Ingushetiaʺ, ʺan insult to the revolutionary feelings of the Ingush people,ʺ a sharply negative position, taking the lead in a protest movement that embraced all strata of the Ingush population and appealing to the center for canceling the decision of the regional committee of the All‐Union Communist Party.
National intelligentsia. All the former big commercial bourgeoisie in the city, the serving intelligentsia, the cadres of former responsible workers, rejected from the leadership, and other representatives of the national intelligentsia, the news of the transfer of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia was extremely hostile. Pointing to the Cossack dominance in the region, the national intelligentsia unanimously ascribes the blame to the existing regional leadership, ʺits short‐sightedness and criminal inactionʺ in the struggle for the city. Along with this, the national intelligentsia, approving the energy of the regional leadership in the struggle to overturn the decision of the region, insists on taking a decisive position, recommending not to stop before extreme measures in this case and demand that Moscow immediately separate Ingushetia from the regional union.
Representatives of the national intelligentsia say that in the event of the final transfer of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia, ʺan armed clash with the Ossetians will be inevitable and hardly anyone will be able to prevent it.ʺ
It is noteworthy that the Ingush intelligentsia, which until now has been intensively cultivating the idea of unification with Chechnya and ʺcreating a single nationʺ, currently in its majority believes that this issue should be postponed for a long time. This opinion of the overwhelming majority of the Ingush intelligentsia does not prevent, however, the leaders of the Ingush intelligentsia (who at one time stood at the leadership and rely on the kulak‐religious elite of the aul) to probe the sentiments in both regions in this direction, to look for and recruit supporters of the unification of these two regions.
Peasantry. Rumors about the transfer of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia caused a massive protest among all strata of the Ingush aul. In many auls, spontaneous gatherings took place, choosing walkers to the district centers for information and making sharp protests against the decision of the region. In a number of cases, money was collected to send the walkers directly to Moscow. The transfer of Vladikavkaz is called ʺa blood grievance against the Ingush.ʺ In this regard, there is an increase in antagonism towards the Ossetians.
“We must collect weapons and go beat the Ossetians” ‐ frequent exclamations in private conversations and at gatherings.
Kulak wealthy elements. These sentiments and antagonism towards the Ossetians are supported in every possible way by the kulakprosperous elements of the aul, who intensified the anti‐Soviet agitation and prove that ʺthe Soviet government is no better than the tsarist and is pursuing the same policy of oppressing the mountaineers.ʺ Along with this, these elements resort to compromising the national leadership, accusing it of “betraying the interests of Ingushetia”.
VLADIKAVKAZKY DISTRICT
Workers. A significant majority of workers are against the transfer of Vladikavkaz to Ossetia, and opinions are expressed that the Ossetians will ʺsqueezeʺ the Russians, ʺthrow them out into the streetʺ, ʺdestroy productionʺ, etc.
Employees. The fact that Vladikavkaz was handed over to Ossetia, the nationalist sentiments of the Ossetian intelligentsia and the statements of the Ossetian leadership about the Ossetianization of the administrative apparatus are extremely irritating for the Russian employees of Vladikavkaz, who express their sharp dissatisfaction with the decision of the region. Some of the employees, connected with the presence of real estate, are trying, however, to come to terms with the situation and even talk about the need to study ʺthe accursed Ossetian language, otherwise it will be bad.ʺ
National men. Among the cityʹs national minorities (Persians, Armenians, Greeks, etc.), there are also fears of ʺOssetian dominanceʺ. The exception is the Georgian colony, which is very sympathetic to the aspirations of the Ossetian national intelligentsia. These sentiments, however, are characteristic of the upper part of the Georgian colony. Among Georgians, handicraftsmen and artisans have an opinion about the city similar to that of Russians.
SUNZHENSKY DISTRICT
Cossacks. For the most part, the Cossacks approve of the decision to annex the Sunzhensky District to Chechnya, especially with the transition to the last city of Grozny (“the city will not give us offense”). Along with this, part of the Cossacks, including some middle peasants and poor peasants, are afraid that with the annexation of Sunzha to Chechnya, the Chechens will take their lands, they will be evicted, or, at best, there will be no improvement in their lives and instead of the Russians, Chechens will become the head of the district authorities. ... The Cossacks stts. Terskoy with his farmsteads, which should go to the Tersk district.
Representatives of all strata of the Cossacks stts. Terskoy is almost equally negative about the transition of the village to the Tersky district. The main reason is the fear of an increase in the size of their agricultural tax, the rates of which in the Tersk District are much higher than in the Sunzhensky. In connection with this, the Cossacks stts. Terskoy express a desire to join the Chechob region, while remaining a part of the Sunzhensky district, or to become part of the Nadterechny district of Chechnya. The Cossacks are Hut. N. Bekovichi, agreeing with the opinion of the Tertsi, considers for himself, however, the most expedient to join the Kabardino‐Balkarian region.
Chechnya
Peasantry. In contrast to Ingushetia and Ossetia, information about the merger with Grozny and Sunzha has not yet received significant distribution among the Chechen peasantry. However, the unification is welcomed and a number of questions are asked: ʺWill the tax be reduced at the expense of Grozneftʹs revenues?ʺ
National intelligentsia. The regionʹs decisions to transfer the city of Grozny and the Sunzhensky District to Chechnya caused a strong upsurge in the mood among the national intelligentsia and a number of judgments about the prospects for Chechnya. The lack of cadres of national workers gives hope to all that part of the national intelligentsia, which at one time was removed from leadership, to return to power again. Active steps in this direction, however, were not noted, with the exception of agitation about the need to ensure national control over the regional leadership in order to avoid ʺRussian dominanceʺ. The question of uniting Chechnya with Ingushetia is meeting with fewer supporters among the national intelligentsia. Instead, talk is intensifying about the timeliness of raising the question of joining Chechnyaʹs Khasav‐Yurt district of Dagestan, adjacent to Chechnya and largely populated by Chechens.
The population of Grozny. The Russian workers, who initially protested against the unification out of fear of Chechenization of industry, after an explanatory campaign, are positive about the decision of the region. Along with this, there is talk of ʺpossible infringementʺ of Russian interests and the aggravation of interethnic relations. Russian employees, who reckon with the possibility of new reductions, with the inevitable Chechenization of Russian institutions, are dissatisfied with the decision of the region.
Chechen employees of regional institutions, in turn, are afraid of an influx of strong and literate Russian workers into the united institutions.
Traders, artisans, handicraftsmen, nationalists assess the unification as a deterioration in their position under the “command” of the Chechens, speaking out extremely hostile towards the latter.
ARMENIA
Agitation of the kulaks and former beks for resettlement to Azerbaijan. In a number of Turkic villages of Echmiadzin, Erivan and Daralagez districts, kulaks and former beks continue to vigorously campaign for the resettlement of Turks from Armenia to Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Territory. In most cases, the agitators refer to “the restriction of the freedom of the Turks, less privileges for the Turks” in comparison with the Armenians, thus exacerbating the national antagonism towards the Armenians. The former beks convened a special meeting on the issue of resettlement to Azerbaijan (Daralagez district, Chiva village). The agitation of the kulaks and former beks often exerts its influence, finding a response especially among the kulak‐wealthy elements. Cases were noted when, under the influence of this agitation, the Turks abstain from sowing, collect money, send representatives to Azerbaijan to find a suitable place for resettlement, etc.
Dashnak activity. Together with the kulaks, the former Dashnaks continue to carry out systematic work to disrupt certain measures of the Soviet government (tax, land management, collective farms, etc.), while inciting the population against the communists and village activists. There were registered cases of convening illegal meetings of Dashnaks, at which issues of using the slogan of self‐criticism as a means of struggle against Soviet and party workers were discussed (Leninakansky district). The activity of the Dashsomol is noted, uniting around itself the sons of the kulak‐prosperous elements, the relatives of the Dashnaks, the expelled Komsomol members and other people dissatisfied with the authorities and the Communist Party (Echmiadzinsky u.).
Tax campaign. The work of tax commissions is accompanied by a number of significant shortcomings that contribute to the underestimation and concealment of taxable objects, re‐taxation of middle peasant farms, etc. In some places, the workers of the Soviet and tax apparatus clearly supported the kulaks and the wealthy. The latter is especially the case with individual taxation, as a result of which in some places the middle peasant farms were taxed several times more than the kulak farms. On this basis, the discontent of the middle peasants took place.
In with. M. Karakalis of the 1st section of Leninʹs Kansky district. there are about 70 kulak farms, and only 5 farms are subject to individual tax. In with. Karabulag of the Abaran section of the Etchmiadzinsky district the chairman of the village council deliberately imposed an individual tax on three middle peasants, freeing them from this wellknown kulak in the village.
The increase in taxation of the kulaks significantly revived the antiSoviet activity of the latter. Not limiting themselves to concealing taxation, intensified by anti‐Soviet and anti‐tax agitation, kulaks and well‐to‐do places resort to threats to Soviet tax workers. Cases have been registered that the poor were attracted to their side by fists by drinking and treating them and setting them on local Soviet and party workers.
GEORGIA
The bakery crisis. In a number of regions, an acute crisis in bread products continues to be felt, causing strong discontent among the population. In some places, the population does not even have corn for food. In this regard, there is a tendency among the poor and middle peasants to sell their property in order to purchase bread.
In the Ozurgeti district there are families who have not had cornbread for weeks. In Nygomaret, the poor eat fruit.
The bakery crisis caused a rise in corn prices and speculation in bread.
In a number of districts of Ajaristan, a pood of corn reaches 7‐8 rubles. In Ozurgeti district kulaks and traders buy corn for 8 rubles and sell it for 10 rubles.
The issue of bread is especially acute in Dusheti district. The population of a number of regions (Passanauri, Mleta, Kobi, Hessuretia) feeds exclusively on imported bread from the North Caucasus. The shortage of grain in the cities, largely due to the export of grain to the countryside, causes long queues.
In the city of Luxembourg Borchalinsky u. due to the lack of bread, long queues are formed at bakeries. A similar phenomenon takes place in the cities of Borjomi, Shahumyan, Dushete, Batum, etc.
CRIMEA
A campaign to evict former landowners. The eviction of the former landowners continues to be accompanied by the opposition of the kulak‐wealthy elements, using all kinds of meetings or calling special meetings to agitate against the eviction. The main motives in agitation against the eviction are put forward: ʺthere will be no bread, there will be no one to pay the tax, after the landowners they will take the land from all the peasantsʺ, etc. Attempts by the evicted themselves to appeal to the masses in most cases do not succeed, only in isolated cases the former landowners achieve the drafting of worldly sentences of ʺpovertyʺ. The poor in the mass actively advocate the eviction of former landowners. In some cases, groups of poor people, without waiting for the formalization of cases for the eviction of former landowners, are organized in artels, settling on the lands of the landowners not yet evicted (Sevastopol District).
Isolated facts of assistance of grassroots Soviet workers to former landowners have been registered.
The chairman of the Akmachinsky village council of the Bakhchisarai district refused to sign the protocol of the plenum of the village council, at which the poor, against his will, decided to evict the former landowners. The secretary of the VKP (b) cell spoke in defense of the former landowners.
Tax campaign. Most of the complaints received about over‐taxation fall on the share of individually taxed ones. To review the re‐taxation cases, a regional commission left the site. A significant part of the middle peasants expresses strong dissatisfaction with overtaxation. Accounting for the economy [by] profitability without calculating the number of eaters causes especially strong discontent. In some places, the re‐taxation affected almost the entire population of individual villages.
In the Maryevsky village council of the Kerch district, out of 172 farms, only 15 are properly taxed. With the arrival of the prosecutor, the middle peasants and the poor of the village convened a meeting at which they made complaints about over‐taxation.
A number of middle and poor peasants are forced to sell livestock to pay tax (Bakhchisarai, Dzhankoy districts). Along with the widespread re‐taxation, there were isolated cases of patronage of the kulaks by local workers.
The chairman of the Bogatyr village council of the Bakhchisarai district coordinates all his activities with the wealthy and the kulaks, hiding the non‐agricultural income of the latter from taxation. Similar phenomena took place in the Albat village council and a number of other villages.
Churchmen
The activity of the churchmen is increasing both in the struggle against godlessness and in the desire to interest believers in the church. The facts of the construction of new churches (Siberia, Ukraine, the Stalingrad district and Yaroslavl province), the phenomena of all kinds of miracles ‐ [such] as healing from diseases (Moscow, Kazan), the renewal of icons (14 cases in the Tersky district, 50 cases in the Kamensky district and isolated cases in Poltava). Along with this, the clergy pay special attention to the processing of believers from among the workers.
In the cities of Serpukhov, Orekhovo‐Zuev, Moscow Province, Sormovo, Nizhny Novgorod Province. a large number of textile workers are under the influence of the priests, in Moscow the churchmen, with the help of the believers of the workers of the former Trekhgornaya convent, succeeded in ruining the decision of the meeting to take the church under the club. Nuns living on the farm of the former Nikitsky Monastery (near Moscow, 40 people) are working among the workers of the Krasnaya Polyana factory. For anti‐Soviet agitation, the clergy use rituals of worship, reading them anti‐Soviet prayers, remembering the “imprisoned churchmen,” “innocently convicted by the authorities,” “the shot of the royal family” (Moscow, Blagoveshchensk, Stalingrad, Vladivostok).
The taxes on worshipers were used by the churchmen for agitation among the peasantry against the Soviet regime. To this end, the priests tried to organize ʺpriestʹs strikesʺ (Siberia, Kazan province).
In the Biysk district, 20 priests decided to go on strike, closing churches.
Attempts to challenge believers to excesses have become more frequent. At the Pervomayskoye state farm (Moscow Gubernia), the priests called a gathering of believers and announced that the state farmers were seeking to close the church. In Tagil (Urals), churchmen propagated a strike among workers to protest the alleged closure of churches. In the Yaroslavl province. the crowd of believers did not allow the demolition of the priestʹs house and his eviction. In the Chuvash Republic, when installing an antenna for a radio on the bell tower, the churchmen gathered a crowd of up to 200 people, which stopped the installation. In with. Mangush (Crimea) the commission for closing the church was thrown with stones and the closure failed. A pioneer detachment was beaten in the Irkutsk District. In the Vladimir province. the clergy, with the help of the peasants, did not allow workers into the meeting hall of the non‐party workersʹ conference. The peasants were provoked by
Cultists
The activity of evangelists is mainly reduced to the desire to increase the number of members and improve their financial situation. In the Tula province. communities of evangelical Christians increased from 638 people to 684 (out of 46 newly enrolled people ‐ 32 women). A circular was sent to ALL of the local district offices of Evangelical Christians, recommending voluntarily collecting 1 ruble from each member. per month. Of all funds raised, 20% should be allocated monthly by ALL, the rest remains for the needs of the local district EX departments. In addition, it is recommended to periodically arrange meetings of members, attracting interested outsiders, during which fundraising is carried out. The Kiev ʺcommunity of the Baptist sisterhoodʺ purchased 600 rubles. fixed capital in the following way: members of the society handed over to the head of the sisterhood their workerʹs membership books, which were used to buy scarce goods, most of them from manufactories. The sectarians at labor meetings sewed clothes from the manufactory, selling the latter to members of the community at meetings‐bazaars specially arranged for this purpose.
To expand their influence, evangelicals set up special detachments to visit the surrounding villages and villages. The detachments, periodically leaving for the villages, arrange meetings with the invitation of the peasants. At general meetings of community members, in addition to reading the Gospel and the Bible, leaders make reports on the topic “A member of the church and his duties,” etc. Also, at the meetings, staged religious content is arranged. Since October, some communities have begun to conduct circle work for the study of the Bible (Tula province).
Regarding the relationship between evangelists and Baptists, it is necessary to note the growth of the former at the expense of the latter, which is especially observed in the DCK, where entire communities have recently been transferred to evangelists. There were absolutely no evangelists in the Amur District; at this time, they have up to 25 congregations and groups organized exclusively at the expense of the Baptists. The main factors causing the withdrawal of Baptists to evangelicals were: recognition of military service by Baptists of earlier Evangelical Christians and the introduction of innovations by Baptists, such as allowing their members to visit cinema and theaters, etc., which alienated the most reactionary, fanatical element from the Baptists than used by evangelists; in particular, in Ukraine the appeal ʺThe Tragedy of Baptismʺ is being disseminated among the evangelical communities in order to familiarize the lower members of the Baptist sect with its content (see Appendix [No. 5]).
Recently, Baptist preachers have been predicting the end of the world under the slogan ʺThe Last Days Has Comeʺ to recruit new members in their sermons. In processing the audience, preachers are not shy about methods.
In Odessa, a Baptist preacher said at an extensive meeting: “People are building trade unions on earth, we are building a union in heaven. In unions on earth, the unemployed stand in lines, they suffer, suffer and generally drag out a miserable existence, we in our union will not stand in lines. To calm people down, the authorities arrange rest houses, but there is no real rest there. You can rest and calm down only with us. ʺ
In Ukraine, many preachers say that the government is sucking the juice from the peasants and making them starve. This yearʹs crop failure is widely used to promote the end of the world.
In the Kostroma province. there is a revival of the activity of the teetotal sect, which distributed the religious and mystical content of the leaflet ʺWhat awaits the universe and humanity.ʺ
In the Ukrainian SSR, in a number of villages in the Vinnitsa district, a new sect was discovered, whose members call themselves praying mantises, they arrange secret meetings in the villages, kulaks lead the sect. Praying mantises treat Soviet power negatively, calling it the power of the antichrist, stating that children born under Soviet power are children of the antichrist, therefore it is impossible to marry and have children, and also it is impossible to recognize any registrations.
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Trilisser
Deputy Head of SOU OGPU Deribas
Head of the Information Department of the OGPU Alekseev
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX No. 2 to the October 1928 review
AGRICULTURAL TAX
1. Perversion of the class line and other shortcomings when checking taxation
Yaroslavl province. In the Telitsinsky village council, with the assistance of the chairman of the village council, the psalmist of the local church was included in the list of the poor and taxed only 7 rubles. 50 kopecks, kulak‐miller der. Plavtunovo Yaroslavsky u. taxed in the amount of 170 rubles, while the profitability of the farm and the mill, this amount could be painlessly doubled. Prosperous village Nazaryevo Ilyinsky Vol. has an increase in tax compared to last year by only 1 rub. 54 kopecks Prosperous village Novodubnoye made a fictitious division, which the tax commission did not take into account, and at present both farms pay only 59‐60 rubles, while one farm would be subject to taxation in the amount of 90‐100 rubles. Pop with. Lavrentʹevo is taxed at only 22 rubles. and is not involved in individual taxation. Meat merchant der. Kopyshevo is taxed at the rate of 6 rubles. Another meat merchant has completely neglected the income from the trade. Prosperous village Chevanino is taxed only 8 rubles, and another well‐to‐do s. Ilyinsky at 6 rubles.
Some of the VIKs did not fully use the fund allocated to them to free the poor from agricultural tax, which is mainly due to the weak work to identify the poor. In the area of one village council of Narskaya vol. Yaroslavsky u. 100 poor farms were identified as subject to tax exemption, while only 20 farms were exempted. In Prechistenskaya Vol. Danilovsky u. out of 1447 poor households, 1360 were freed, at the same time in the volost there is a remainder of the fund in the amount of 1837 rubles. In Seredskaya Vol. out of the existing 1,448 poor households, 1101 were vacated at a time when there is a fund balance of 4485 rubles. 48 kopecks. In Zakobyakinskaya Vol. identified 1435 poor households, vacated 1271, there is a balance of 400 rubles.
Tambov district. In with. Kruttso Zemetchinsky district received a discount fund in the amount of 400 rubles. was used to reduce the tax to wealthy and middle peasants who could pay the tax, while no discounts were given to the poor.
Rossoshansky District (SVO). In sl. Former foreman 307, deprived of electoral rights, took part in the commission for the distribution of benefits and discounts in Taloye Kantemirovsky district, as a result of which most of the discounts were provided to the kulaks and the wealthy.
Sunzha District. In stts. The Trinity Tax Commission, headed by the chairman of the village council, provided discounts of 50% to the amount of the initial taxation, not taking into account the capacity of each farm separately. The chairman of the village council himself, having a strong farm, received a 55% discount.
Tersk district. In with. In Novozavedensky, the poor describe their property for non‐payment of taxes and insurance. It is not uncommon for the poor peasants to describe part of the available grain, despite the fact that even all the grain will not be enough until the next harvest. In this regard, mass discontent of the middle peasants and the poor is noted: “You don’t understand what the authorities are doing, they help, give out contracts, or they describe, they don’t take into account anything and completely ruins our farms”.
Don district. In the S.‐Minsk region, in connection with the provision of discounts to the wealthy and the kulaks, there is a massive discontent of the poor: ʺLocal workers want to ruin us, whoever is richer ‐ everything, and we, the poor, die.ʺ
Kuban District. In stts. Thanks to friendship with the head of the tax department of the district federal district, four wealthy people from Novo‐Pokrovskaya are taxed only in the amount of about 300 rubles, when this year they have harvested about 7,000 poods of bread alone. In the hut. The Artashikovsky Regional Criminal Commission sent a tax collector, who, upon arriving at the place, got drunk, began to threaten the farmers with arrests, calling them bandits, etc. Those who tried to point out the inaccuracy of his actions were threatened by the authorized person with the sale of the property.
Armavir district. In with. Piskunovek, the chairman of the village council is systematically drunk with his kulaks. At the car ownerʹs kulak, he got drunk the whole night together with the former landowner and, for the booze, offered the kulak to apply for a tax cut, promising to support him. As a result of the yakshaya of the chairman of the village council with kulaks, the latter do not pay taxes.
Votskaya obl. In Balezin parish. Glazovsky u. 10% of the poor in the parish, i.e. 147 farms without a horse or a cow were not exempt from the tax. Poor fund in the amount of 2317 rubles. was hit by the head of the tax department with the assistance of the chairman of the VIK and was repaid only after the categorical request of the surveyor from the district. In addition, 265 complaints from low‐power farms were not considered by the VIC for 2 months. On the other hand, the volost did not apply a percentage increase to 40 well‐to‐do farms, and not a single inventory of property was applied to the well‐to‐do top of the village who did not pay taxes on time. Volispokom did not take any measures to increase tax receipts. By the start of the survey (October 16), the tax revenue was 18%, while after pressuring this percentage increased to 25.
In Pudem parish. This county also revealed a massive under‐taxation of non‐agricultural earnings, which, according to rough estimates, amount to 500 thousand rubles.
In Ukanskaya Vol. of the same county, the tax commission granted tax discounts to priests, despite the existing order to impose taxes on all priestsʹ households on an individual basis.
In Poninsky parish. The VIC does not take any repressive measures in relation to wealthy tax evaders.
In Mozhginsky district tax from individually assessed incomes is weak. VICs do nothing to increase tax revenue.
Trinity District. At the plenum of the Uvelsky District Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), a representative of the regional executive committee made a report on the revision of the agricultural tax figures towards their reduction. At the same time, approximate figures were indicated for individual village councils. The secretary of the Christmas cell of the CPSU (b), who was present at the plenum, upon arrival at the place, said that 22,000 rubles were paid from the population of the Christmas village council. and from the population of Klyuchevskoy village council ‐ 6,200 rubles, while the entire amount of tax for the entire Christmas village council is 26,100 rubles, and for Klyuchevskoy ‐ 9,300 rubles. After such an explanation, the secretary of the village council stopped accepting the agricultural tax. On October 5, the specified secretary of the cell, he is also authorized by the RIK, at a meeting in the village. Klyuchevskoy said: “I brought a discount of 6,300 rubles. to the village ʺ. On the same day, a meeting of the tax commission was convened with representatives from the village council, on which the amount of the tax reduction was distributed among the farms. A hastily prepared list of tax cuts was announced to the population, which, having learned about the discounts up to 60‐65%, threw themselves into drunkenness. The kulaks began to solder the commission in order to achieve a greater tax cut. As a result, the work on collecting agricultural tax was suspended. The population remained confident that the discounts announced by the tax commission are actual.
Siberia. The collection of fines from the population for sheltering taxable objects is extremely slow, the number of farms exempted from the fine is very small, and a large number of poor and middle peasant farms have not yet been exempted from the fine. So, in the Biysk district, the fined poor and middle peasants are 55.6%, and in the Khakassky district ‐ 77% in relation to the total number of fined farms, while the average percentage of the addition of fines in Siberia is 18.8% to the total number of fined.
Rubtsovsky district. In 6 village councils of the Kolyvan RIK, 22 farms with unearned income (leather breeders, millers, forest sellers, etc.) were not involved in individual taxation.
In with. Akimovsky, Kurvinsky district, the secretary of the VKP (b) cell and other party members, when identifying farms subject to individual taxation, said: ʺThere are no farms with unearned income in our village.ʺ The inspection revealed several farms of the members of the CPSU (b), suitable for individual taxation.
In with. Ozerno‐Kuznetsovsky of the Uglovsky district, the secretary of the cell to the question of the secretary of the district committee ‐ how many kulaks there are in the village ‐ replied: ʺThe cell has not yet dealt with this issue.ʺ Similar facts took place in other regions. As a result, only 1.34% of the total number of farms in the district turned out to be individual, while in the district there are up to 7% of kulak farms.
2. Opposing the kulaks to the tax campaign
ʺWalking movementʺ
Armavir district. On October 20, in the Kamenno‐Brodsky District, the kulaks and the wealthy have recently intensified their tendency to send walkers to the center with petitions to reduce the agricultural tax and complaints against the local authorities, in every possible way postponing the delivery of the tax. Thus, a group of kulaks and wealthy stts. Rozhdestvenskaya, organizing herself to send her delegates to Moscow with a petition for discounts, took advantage of the illness of the chairman of the village council and managed to get a certificate from the deputy chairman of the village council (a member of the CPSU who maintains constant contact with the kulak‐wealthy element) a certificate in which the social status of the applicants is deliberately hushed up. At the same time, the deputy chairman of the village council issued a certificate to the kulaks‐machine‐owners about the allegedly lost crops and the need to provide them with benefits and discounts. This group of kulaks and the well‐to‐do also managed to obtain a certificate from the chairman of the local committee of agricultural workers, which diminished their income from nonagricultural earnings by several times. Before sending delegates to Moscow, the group, having invited a Komsomol member, arranged a drinking bout in the apartment of one of this group, which lasted the whole night. During the binge, the kulaks‐machine‐owners and former bandits, pumping the deputy chairman of the village council and the chairman of agricultural workers, shouted: “Long live our government. We drink to the health of our future rulers of the village. Long live Dedushkin (the surname of the deputy chairman of the village council), who defends our interests. ʺ Upon the return of the delegates from Moscow, who brought from the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Finance, a proposal to the regional financial administration to urgently revise the tax sheets, On October 10, the whole group gathered again in the house of one of the kulaks‐machine‐owners, having arranged a second drinking bout. The former bandits and former officers who were present at the drink said: “If we all stood up together like this, then Soviet power would not be scary. They think to strangle us with taxes, but we know where the way out is. ʺ ʺRe‐elections of the village council are being prepared soon, we need to choose our reliable villagers at all costs, we have middle peasants who are with us and for us.ʺ
At the same time, a group of kulaks and well‐to‐do sts. Sengileevskaya sent her delegates to Rostov, where the regional financial administration granted discounts to three kulaks.
The poor and middle peasants, greatly depressed by the successes of the kulaks, are also trying to send their delegates to the center, saying: ʺThe authorities are doing it wrong, why is this so ‐ the kulaks pay less than the middle peasants.ʺ On the part of the poor and middle peasants of the villages of Kamenno‐Brodskaya and Sengileevskaya, the following statements were noted: ʺIs this the power, is this right, I, the poor man, lost all the bread and I was not given a discount, but the kulak did not die and was given it.ʺ ʺThe authorities rob the poor and middle peasants, but protect the kulaks.ʺ
The kulaks who received the discount, in turn, among the poor and middle peasants say: “Now look who the power stands for ‐ for the poor or for us, the wealthy; everyone says the poor government, hereʹs the poor one for you, the communists never had the truth and will never have it. ʺ
Rumors of discounts quickly spread to other villages, where groups of kulaks and wealthy people are urgently working to prepare public opinion to send walkers to the center.
In stts. Novo‐Maryevskaya group of kulaks and former bandits are recruiting those who are dissatisfied with the tax. Similar groups are organized in the villages of Filimonovskaya, Sengileevskaya, which are intensified campaigning for the failure to pay the tax until the required discounts and benefits are provided.
In stts. Konstantinovskaya, Kurganovsky District, kulaks, deprived of electoral rights and taxed on an individual basis, among 60 farms, decided not to pay the tax yet and in an organized manner petition the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee to reduce it. The leaders of the group, 8 people, came to the village council and said that they would not pay the tax ahead of schedule because it was calculated incorrectly: ʺThey are pressing us, and we will go to Moscow to complain.ʺ
Kuznetsk district. In the Prokopyevsky district, the well‐to‐do and kulaks, individually taxed among 9 people, despite the notification they received that the individual tax would be cut by 40%, decided at their meeting to send two delegates to Moscow with a complaint about improper taxation. This group selects like‐minded people from other villages and hired a special underground lawyer who must draw up and collect all the necessary papers and indicate how to proceed.
Biysk district. Fists with. Verkh‐Vekhtemir, having collected 150 rubles. money delegated the kulak to Moscow with a complaint about improper taxation. Together with him, another delegate from the kulaks of der. Novikovo.
Rubtsovsky district. In with. Shadrukh, a group of kulaks, individually taxed, with the participation of some middle peasants, elected two delegates of the kulaks, who left for Moscow with a petition to lift the individual taxation.
3. Kulak congresses and conferences
Salsky district. On the hut. In Pogranichny Zavetinsky District, kulaks who have fallen under individual taxation are spreading rumors that the peasants who have sent delegates to Moscow are taxed by more than 50%. Similar rumors spread throughout other village councils and districts. As a result of these rumors in the hoot. Border guard of the Chernyshevsky village council in the courtyard of one of the kulaks held a meeting of individually taxed about 60 people, which was attended by representatives from 9 village councils. The main initiators in convening such a meeting were the former guard 308 hoot. Civilian and one of the kulaks conducting anti‐Soviet agitation. At the meeting, two representatives from the Hut were elected to be sent to Moscow. Treasured and two with hut. Border. One of the delegates gave instructions to whom and what kind of information to prepare and urged to collect the main complaints from the poor. The next day, he spent a long time persuading the poor Hut. Proudnikov so that she would complain to him that she has sick cattle. One of the middle peasants was subjected to the same treatment, to whom the kulaks proved that the chairman and secretary of the village council (party members) were worthless people, that the commission that came to the Dubrovsky district had arrested ʺhalf of the workers and added up the tax, which we must strive for.ʺ
Rubtsovsky district. In with. An illegal kulak meeting was held in Krasnoyarsk, Pospelikhinsky district, which was attended by up to 30 people from the villages of Polomoshchny Pospelikhinsky district and Durnev, Rubtsovsky district. The meeting discussed the issue of the improper conduct of individual taxation and the following resolution was adopted: ʺDo not pay agricultural tax, persistently demand documents from the village councils, on the basis of which the village council taxed, and, having received them, go with a complaint to Moscow on illegal taxation on an individual basis.ʺ The meeting was attended by some disenfranchised, a local teacher and a newly appointed teacher (former chairman of the district court), and a member of the CPSU (b) was active at the meeting and was unanimously elected as a delegate to Moscow. To cover the costs, it was decided to collect 18 rubles. from each participant in the meeting.
Barnaul district. In the village. Ivanovka, Verkhne‐Chumyshsky region, a congress of representatives of kulaks from the villages of SredneKrasilnikovo, Novo‐Pushino, Novo‐Ozernoe, Ust‐Borovlyanka of the Verkhne‐Chumyshsky region took place on the issue of agricultural tax. At the congress, delegates to Moscow were elected, and it was decided to cover the travel expenses by collecting 5 rubles. from everyone interested in sending a delegation to the farm. The congress also discussed the need to take measures against individual taxation, which ʺbrings complete collapse of the peasant economy.ʺ
Krasnoyarsk District. In with. Sukhobuzima, on the initiative of the well‐to‐do, individually taxed (later RIK lifted the individual taxation from him), a meeting of wealthy and kulaks on the agricultural tax was convened, which was attended by delegates from three villages: M. Balchug, p. Tolstomyskiy and s. Khloptunovo. After the meeting, the delegates dispersed to the surrounding villages and started agitation for sending delegates to Moscow, for which a number of meetings were held in the villages of Shalo, Shestakovo, Shoshkino, Podopki, Irkutskoe and Sheptunovo. As a result of these meetings, the initiator and leader of this movement ‐ the aforementioned well‐to‐do was elected a delegate to Moscow.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
ANNEX No. 3 to the October 1928 review.
GROUPING OF KULAK YOUTH
Khopersky District (NVK). On the hut. In Krivovsky, Nekhaevsky district, a group of kulak youth was identified, distributing anti‐Soviet leaflets directed against local Komsomol members, workers of the village council and activists of the Cossack poor. Leaflets were scattered around the streets and posted on fences. With the advent of leaflets, hooliganism began to develop on the farm. The content of the most typical leaflets distributed are as follows 309:
1. ʺHooligan Internationalʺ (to the motive ʺGet up, branded with a curseʺ)
Get up, branded with a curse,
Get up, cursed member of the Council,
Beautiful Grisha Ivanov,
We boil with the courage of a cadet
And the hooliganism of the Cossacks.
We will destroy the entire garden and vegetable garden, We will destroy all the cabbage, we
will revive the former glory in a friendly hooligan system.
This is not the last
And not our first step (chorus 2 times). Tremble, all poor people,
We are your class enemy.
Only we, the rich owners,
Have the right to robbery, And the proletarian rascal
Was and will be only a slave.
And know that
we will sweep you off the face of the earth with merciless revenge, And our whole life will be a joy,
And your lot is to crawl in the dust.
(Chorus: This is not the last, etc.)
We have composed this hymn ... ʺ.
2. ʺList of hooligan cases
1. We cut the cabbage at Ivan Yegorovich and Andrey Ivanovich, knocked down the castle at the windmill.
2. They broke the Subbotinsʹ hives and put the frame in the Council.
3. Put tar on the gate.
4...................................
5. Threw a note to the Subbotins.
6. Threw another note to Abram and knocked down another lock at the windmill.
7. They cut the cabbage from Stepan and Krayushkina and threw a note to them, took out the core from Ivan Yegorovich and stuck it on Friday with Mazin, and took out the core from Khomyakov, put a seal on the lock and much more, you canʹt read everything.
Chairman of the Razgrom hooligan organization
Ivan Glushkov.
Secretary of the Razgrom hooligan organization
M. Popov ʺ.
Terrorizing the population, a group of hooligans distributed leaflets renaming the persons to be destroyed.
ʺPersons to be destroyed
1) Bear Ulasov,
2) Abram ‐ the whole family,
3) Ivan Timofeevich ‐ the whole family,
4) Vaska Pilyunin,
5) Nazin Petka,
6) Zakharov ‐ the whole family,
7) Timofey Vasiliev ‐ the whole family,
8) Sergey ‐ the whole family,
9) Mazin ‐ the whole family,
10) Ivan Filippovich ‐ the whole family,
11) Ivan Semyonov ‐ the whole family,
12) Zemlyanukhin and Nick [olay] Grigoriev].
All the above‐mentioned persons were sentenced to death at a meeting of the underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ.
Head of the underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ
(signature)
Pom. chief ‐ I. Glushkov.
Anyone who finds this list must give it to someone and it will be burned. ʺ
“We hereby inform the citizens of the Hut. Krivovsky, that a decisive moment is coming. Our underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ has developed and strengthened so much that it can begin to take decisive action; we have finally worked out a plan for the uprising and, taking into account the specific situation, we are preparing an armed uprising with the aim of capturing Krivoy and cleansing it of the red bastard; at the same time, an uprising will break out on [the farmsteads of] Nekaevka, Lyubochakh, Sukovsky, Horoshenky and Upornikov, since in these farms we have a perfectly created organization. After that, having formed a shock squadron, we will seize Tamanka and a number of other villages and move to Voronezh province, where, as we know, the population is dissatisfied with the Soviet regime and will support our action. After that, having organized good fighting detachments, we will lead an offensive on the Don Region, the Kuban and the Crimea in order to break through to the Black Sea and seize the Black Sea coast, where we will have good communication with abroad, where England will land a landing force to help us and supply us with weapons and uniforms. Having established a solid base in Crimea, we will move our army to Moscow and rid Russia of the red bastards, convicts, degenerates and bandits.
Head of the underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ (signature).
Pom. chief I. Glushkov ʺ.
ʺTelegram. Paris. 27th of June. Organization ʺTerror ‐ Individualʺ. You promised to send troops. If they come for him to the Black Sea. Bye. I wish you ... Poincaré. Doctor Nikolay Meshkov ʺ.
ʺTelegram. Berlin. 4th of July. Organization ʺTerror ‐ Individualʺ. On behalf of the German peoples on their way to you. As soon as you arrive at the Black Sea, we will capture you (to Berlin) Hindenburg. Doctor Nikolay Meshkov ʺ.
ʺAnnouncement. Everyone, everyone, everyone.
We hereby inform the citizens of the Hut. Krivovsky, that from
November 1, 1928, KTHO 310 will start publishing the newspaper ʺHooliganskaya Pravdaʺ and the magazine ʺX ... on vegetable oilʺ, which will cover the life and customs of hooligans. The best literary hooligan forces are recruited to participate in the newspaper and magazine.
Terms of subscription to the weekly newspaper ʺHooliganskaya Pravdaʺ:
For 1 month ‐ 15 kopecks. For 3 months ‐ 40 kopecks.
For 6 months ‐ 80 kopecks.
For a year ‐ 1 rub. 55 kopecks
To the newspaper ʺHooliganskaya Pravdaʺ with the attachment to it of the monthly illustrated satirist magazine ʺX ... in vegetable oilʺ.
For 1 month — 25 kopecks.
For 3 months ‐ 70 kopecks.
For 6 months ‐ 1 rub. 40 kopecks.
For a year ‐ 2 rubles. 70 kopecks.
Separately for a magazine without a newspaper, subscription is not accepted. Ostriev will edit the newspaper and Shakhtar magazine. Subscription and money must be handed over to the hooligan postman Viktor Mischarev. All subscribers of the newspaper, as it goes out of print, will be thrown up by the hulpochman Mishcharev Viktor. Donʹt be late with your subscription. Newspaper and magazine will give you interesting and entertaining reading material. Ostriev ʺ.
(On the back). ʺIs free. A story about Abram‐Sych and the terrorist executioner. (The third edition, the first and the second were completely sold out).
Owl, how are you, the
Rat did not give birth again?
You planted, Owl, cabbage,
But the place is empty. All your cabbage was chopped by me alone. You ran, Sych, to the Council,
And there is no chairman,
Here, with frustration and sadness,
All the rat cubs got angry
And gnawed at the rest of the
Koceryzhka and the ends.
All the neighbors hah‐ha‐hee‐hee. The owl will jump to Davidikha, He saw the hohlen Yashka
And how he grabbed the shirt,
Then he threw it on the floor , Who did you chop the cabbage with ...
Poor Yashka shook all over
And immediately blew away from fear,
That is, from sin
Three huge cats.
I didnʹt chop the cabbage,
Vitka did this all.
At this time I was lying
And dying with laughter.
Well, you stupid, Owl,
Do not poke your finger with your finger, You have spawned a lot of children,
And now you scold God,
That you have nothing to feed them,
Hey, Owl, we will cripple them.
Letʹs strangle all the rats,
Like kittens or puppies.
Owl, youʹre worn out.
Do you remember how he was running around with the gang, and its thirtieth department
And shod and dressed us. And
no one broke your hands for these things. And now you
peck from hunger ... Kolabuhi. Foul owl, beware
And save yourself in advance,
Fly away to the forest sooner, Until I climbed up to you.
The owl will not be laughing, As I start to have fun with him, I will grab him by the leg,
Yes, I will fuck about the road,
And the rats without difficulty
I will kill everyone then.
I will now write about the case.
I lived in the thirtieth department,
And now I live in Crooked,
I am engaged in robbery.
I am the one you robbed. ʺ
Composed by Demyan Bedny ‐ malevolent bully 311.
I would still write so much, but not enough paper.
Goodbye. A harmful creature.
Edition of the CTHO. Executive editor Ostriev.
Krivovskaya exemplary underground printing house ʺHooligan Starʺ.
Circulation 7 copies.
Transfer to the Ostriev Council.
ʺArchibestia
This is a well‐known personality
Paradoskalist‐terrorist
Ostriev,
Ultra‐parasite,
Krivovsky legendary hero, Who worked tirelessly at night at times ‐
Echidic and harmful creature. Puffed up and dreamed of Shaking the foundations of the universe, The colossal fool of
All times and peoples ...
Scourge of gardens and vegetable gardens,
Watermelon pest and even ...
Winner bees.
Well, in a word, an antisocial type.
The charm of adventure,
The scent of fierce battles ‐
That is for our nature
Sweeter than life and prayers ... Communism of the coming days does not serve us as an ideal
.
Letʹs not go under the scarlet flag, We are ruled by alien ideas.
Under the chord of bravura songs We will go to the bloody battle, The space of the planet is small for us, We will break the earthly ball ...
The pogrom terrorist platoon
In the moonlit night, into the blue fog
Will crush the Krivovsky farm,
We stand up for the hooligan hooligan. We do not like to penetrate into the darkness of centuries with an inquiring eye
,
We live in instant fate,
Hooligans‐terrorists are a host ...
Composed by Ostriev ‐ a hooligan poet.
Whether he really exists or not ...
Maybe Ostriev is just a legend and a myth.
Who will solve this dilemma ...
If you, the most disgusting scoundrel, do not hand over this declaration of human and civil rights to the village council, we will turn over your smithy to an auto‐da‐fe 312 (ie, burned). ʺ
* * *
“If you don’t weaken your brother’s mavo, I will burn the whole farm. M. Golovachev ... your mother.
(On the back). Ivan Misharev was set on fire because he took away the rifles from Glushkov, and Bogucharova was burned for putting our best bully Nosov in prison. ʺ
* * *
“Koval. Take this correspondence to the village council immediately, otherwise we will set fire to the hay barn. Ostriev.
If you don’t justify your brother’s mavo, I’ll burn the whole farm, as I burned Bogucharova. Mikhail Golovachev.
(On the back). If you do not free our valiant hooligans Miner (Viktor, Yakov and Ivan), Rykov, Bukharin, Voroshilov will be shot,
Stalin and Kalinin. Mikhail Golovachev. Ostriev ʺ.
* * *
“If you, damn fatbelly, ... your mother of three gods, do not give this piece of paper to the village council, then we will burn your smithy, and we will shoot you.
On someone elseʹs ... P. and R. You will not throw a bridle,
Hangs, like a tallow candle,
Hangs and will never rise.
M.G. An ... y, ay ... wa
Sexual anomaly,
Guess
Who it is.
A. A.
On the back. A regional conference of the underground organization
ʺRed Roosterʺ under the chairmanship of Ostriev was held here.
What is certified by signature and seal?
Head of the RPOKP 313 Ostriev. Immoral cattle.
For lack of space on the paper, the seal was stuck to the forge ‐
Ostriev. ʺ
* * *
“Dear Grigory Semyonovich. Donʹt be angry with us. After all, we were joking. We were just having fun. Itʹs not a problem that we chopped your cabbage. In the fall, you can buy at least a hundred at the bazaar. We will soon turn over your hut, we will set fire to bread and work out something else, but this is not out of malice, but just as a joke. With greetings Hooligan. Long memory from hooligans to dear Grisha.
* * *
ʺInformation sheet number 10
Pathetic mean cowards.
You think that you will protect yourself from us with your stupid patrols, covert or overt. After all, we follow all of you day and night and know all your actions and attempts. You think we are afraid. When there are two sluts sitting somewhere under the fence, we could destroy them every minute. But this is not yet included in our calculations. At any moment we could carry out our threats and burn the farm, but the time has not yet come because we are led by the center of our organization, which is located in Zaroshenkovo. Our center is now busy with organizing combat squads, with the help of which we will seize the district militia on Nekhaev and destroy it. And for your Krivovsky khutorishko, five well‐armed men will be enough, who will kill and burn the entire farm. And as soon as we receive the corresponding directives from our center, so we will immediately destroy the whole farm. Long live the regional underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ. Long live the Krivov terrorist district hooligan organization.
Deputy head of the regional underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ
P. Murovin. Pom. chief I. Glushkov. 12th of Augustʺ.
* * *
ʺInternational
Throw, Leninists,
Your godless laws into the seas,
Go to defend shoulder straps, Native father‐king. And if someone does not stop holding the ticket L. Ka 314 in his hands, He will not immediately be here,
Like animals we will torment the victim.
This is our last
Cossack‐Chilikin call,
With a revolver in hand,
Be ready for the Leninists.
Great fellows. We came to you then to decide on you. We arrived at your place on the night of September 25, we know that you have no weapons. We are writing to you so that you say goodbye to your family, we will remove, cut and hang the glorious pirishlyak and after the trail of Lubinishchen and everything else. Chilikinians ʺ.
* * *
“For our comrades Semyon and Mikhail
Let us give you the heat with fervor,
You will know the Soviet b ...
How will we pin you in front and behind.
As we begin, you rams,
Inflict mortal wounds.
We will crush the entire Krivoy farm,
Despite your plaintive howl,
We will ignite the party crows from all four sides.
For you, Krivovskoy Kovalishka,
There will be a true cover.
For the fact that you betrayed our comrades,
We will kill a hundred of your communists,
And you, gray gelding,
Pious Timosha,
For the fact that your Andrey
Appoints patrols,
We will brutally smash you,
All the threshing floor and the apiary will be carried away
Until you, shy
You cannot drive Andrey out of the house.
Know, Soviet devils,
We are not afraid of either God or death,
We are from the southern steppes
To the Murmansk snows
We will smash all enemies to smithereens.
(The end)
All this was written by a terrorist, trembling fierce enemy‐communist Zalupka. ʺ
* * *
ʺInformation sheet number 1
I order all Hut citizens. Krivoy, who are members of Aviakhim, MOPR 315, Komsomol, VKP (b) and similar organizations, should immediately be discharged from them, otherwise we will kill. All nonparty citizens should not go to backgammon in the evening, as we will throw bombs there. Nobody has to pay tax and insurance, and whoever pays, we will set on fire. Investigation, the GPU and the police so that they do not show themselves to the farm, otherwise they will feel bad. Koval, Abram Sych, Mazin, Ivan the jerk ‐ a merciless death. Death and death to communists, priests, kulaks, poor people, tsars, etc. Long live terror. The head of the Ostriev underground organization. ʺ
* * *
ʺInformation sheet number 20
We hereby inform the citizens of the Hut. Krivovsky, that Ostriev, as we wrote earlier, engaged in the manufacture of devices with a spontaneously igniting mechanism, has finished his work, so now we can put our plan into execution, i.e. set fire to the farm from all sides. Mezhenin is outlawed and will be destroyed no matter what, the performers must not fulfill their duties, the citizens must not pay tax ‐ otherwise we will wipe it off the face of the earth. Head of the regional underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ. The head of the Kriv [ovskih] ter [rorists] hoolig [anov] miner Ostriev.
If you, fat‐bellied beast Ivan Filippovich, do not hand over all this correspondence to the Soviet, we will shoot you. ʺ
* * *
“Citizens of the Hut. Krivovsky, we call you for endurance and calmness. If any citizen notices any of our members of the underground organization ʺRed Roosterʺ, as well as members of the local Krivov terrorist hooligan organization in anti‐Soviet actions, then we order be silent and not inform the Council. Persons who will report will be subjected to the most severe repressions, as has already been observed: unacceptable phenomena when Abram reported on some people that they were chopping cabbage at his place, and Ivan Filippovich reported that he saw one of our members as he beat windows in the Council, we will not give them a descent for this. We are led by an experienced conspirator, and we have our own scout and our own patrols, and we follow your every step. In the Komsomol you have a person who gives us all your secrets, all citizens should take a passive position in relation to our organizations. We are well armed, we have shotguns, rifles, guns and knives, and we will destroy everyone who tries to stand in our
way. If any our members gets caught and starts to betray us, then we will shoot him in the forehead for this. ʺ
* * *
“Bastards, despicable, red devils, you will not confuse us with the ghost of death,
Revenge and anger burn hearts,
We will fight to the end.
We are not frightened by a bayonet or bullets,
We did not bend our heads to anyone.
We are made to fight and fight,
We cannot stand cowardly howls.
A quarrel does not start in our ranks,
We walk together under the banner of terror.
We are all glad to lie in a bloody battle,
And we will not ask the enemies for mercy.
There is no such power in the beautiful world,
What could seem terrible to us. Walk briskly, walk more cheerfully, we look boldly into the future.
He wrote a cabbage pest
Damned insect.
The leaflets began to be distributed in June 1928.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 4 to the October 1928 review
SHEETS
Uman district. October 1 of this year on the road between the villages of
Nesterovka and Sokolovka of the Menkovsky district, a counterrevolutionary leaflet ʺZaklik of the Ukrainian revolutionary splitʺ 316 was nailed on a telegraph pole.
ʺZaklik. To all the people of Ukrainsky, Ukrainska is revolutionary, it is nationally democratic to commit to all the thunders of Ukraine. Take a look at your life ‐ you don’t go on a diet in captivity, you cannot say a word of the wildest, you cannot sell the one that you did it with your own hands. Without blame, without trial, they throw you into the DOPR and torment you there with need and hunger, but you will not find a lie to the council. Everything, sho Vi, is a heavy prat, you are forcibly taken away from you for cynicism and taken away from Moscow in order to profit from our good. Go hungry for Ukraine through a nervous harvest, and through robbery to the people by our district ‐ Radyanskoy Vladyka, which we did not choose and we don’t know. You are not allowed to develop your domination, to suffocate with non‐human taxes, but for those taxes, you pay, you take the impersonality of servicemen, that commissar, in the blessing of the tsilkom obscene and mayzhe no righteousness of the corysty people. Schools, likarni, paths ‐ run up and down the people with their kosht and utter them. It is such a road that the villagers are almost inaccessible. Vlada Radyanska gave us land, and even the stilts paid for it, but the land is not worth that long and we pay. The Kammunist party took control of the economy in us for a help line, like the whole people until death, our rulership is ruined, fishing is scarce, the people are squalid, hundreds of thousands of unemployed people in the cities are swollen with hunger, people do not conceal indistinct rights , but about ʺfreedom, lingering, that fraternizationʺ ‐ is dumb and sensitive; look back at yourself ‐ do not give yourself, your edge, to potagu. Unite at the revolutionary split and, with a throw in your hands, get up and nish the enemy.
Fight ‐ fight ... All to fight against the Communist Party, against the fraudulent Radiansky district, the robber ‐ Moscow. For painting a share, for a human life, for a vile independent Ukraine. Do not be discouraged, but hope for a breakthrough ‐ already in Ukraine the boyovy vanguard ʺUkrainian Revolutionary Splitʺ. The yak should be widened and spread apart for a skin hour and led forward at the borotuya. High is alive Ukraine is independent. Hai is alive Ukrainian revolution split. Huy is alive peremoga. ʺ
Zinovievsky district. In the village. Egorovka Voznesensky village council, Khmelevsky district, an anti‐Soviet leaflet with the following content was found: 317:
“Comrades. 10 rocky ionue sovlast, yaku won reproach. To rob us, death is waiting for us. Drive katsaps and communists with goods. Be prepared for the destruction of a vile Ukraine. ʺ
At the end the leaflet number 5 and date 5 are written, the month is not set 1928.
Mordovian district. October 18 in the village. A leaflet written in pencil was found on the door of the reading room in Pudovka Elnikovsky district. The content of the leaflet is as follows:
ʺAnnouncement. Down with Soviet power. We donʹt need the USSR, down with the USSR. The Soviet power brought the peasant to the grave. Cooperation is a rip‐off, if it would have failed. The Soviet government has already stuffed half of the peasant into a sack. Down with the USSR. We need an imperialist power, as in England.
Down with Soviet power. ʺ
Pskov District. On October 12 this year, in the Pirkhovsky district, a leaflet was found thrown onto the pavement of the market square.
The content of the leaflet is as follows:
“Down with Leninism, long live tsarism. Hooray. Give the king, freedom and bread. Comrades, thatʹs enough, they believed. Will be. Hoorayʺ.
Salsky district. In with. Romanovka V.‐Nikolaevsky area two Komsomol members received an anonymous letter with the following content:
“Dear comrades. Since I am currently in contradiction with the Soviet government, I ask you to leave the Komsomol. Nikolai Tkachev is the first to be discharged, Nikolai Olkhovsky is the second, Ivan Shentsov is the third, be sure to check out before November 1, if you do not submit an application for discharge from the Komsomol, then on November 2 you will be shot within Romanovka, maybe we will take you further. He who knows you wrote and regrets you that you, as young people, will perish like flies. 4th Ivan Pastukhov, sign out, you bastard, otherwise you will die like a fly, do you really think that the Soviet regime is in your favor, because it ripped your skin off your father with a tax? Secretary (signature illegible). Chairman (illegible signature). Mountains. Salsk. An appeal was found there:
“Dear citizens, Soviet power is growing every day. You sleep and will sleep until you are completely ripped off. Rise up, make clashes with your henchmen, by this you will strengthen not Soviet power, but our gang that exists in the village. Romanovsky. Do not look at the insolence of your enemies and act 100%, if someone is imprisoned, then we will try to remove that comrade in 24 minutes. Us in the village. There are many hutuns in Romanovskoye, and there are dozens of people in the Auto Region. In every city, there are dozens of such counters as we are ready at any time. Think about it, citizens, and you will see for yourself that the Soviet government is the worst enemy for all of us, therefore we must not spare those loyal to the Soviet government, beat the bastards at every step. ʺ
“Dear youth, do not succumb to your enemies, do not enter their circles, for whoever enters there will perish like a fly, it will be soon. You will see how we will deal with them, enter our circles and act with us, and then we will sooner be able to defeat those people who block our way” (the signature is illegible). ʺPlease, read it, tell your neighbor.ʺ
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 5 to the October 1928 review
Appeal ʺThe Tragedy of Russian Baptismʺ
The Baptists of the USSR are going through a big crisis in their relations with foreign Baptists and especially the World Baptist Union. Most Russian Baptists believe that co‐religionists abroad preach the same preaching as they do in Russia. In reality, Baptists abroad have split into two camps — modernists and fundamentalists. The first stream was joined by most of the Baptists and the largest financial forces. Modernists smoke, drink, visit theaters and in their sermons agree to the point that there was no resurrection of Christ and there will be no coming, that Darwinʹs theory 318 or rather the Bible. According to the teachings of modernists, baptism is not necessary not only for children, but also for adults. The fundamentalists, uniting the poorest elements, split from the modernists and organized their own union in North America. Thus, the World Union is in the hands of modernists who have departed from the basic principles of Baptist teachings. Baptist leaders in the USSR need to either deviate from the principles faith, or break ties with modernists and, thus, refuse financial assistance from abroad. They will not do this and, apparently, will choose the third path, since they will continue to communicate with the leaders of the World Union, but to simple “brothers” in Russia they say that everything is fine, there are no modernists, that is, actually turn their backs on the fundamentalists.
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov
APPENDIX 6 to the October 1928 review
KAZAKSTAN, About the confiscation of the bachelor
Information on the course of the confiscation of Bai farms as of October
25, 1928 by districts is drawn in the following form:
County name
Number farms
of
It was supposed withdraw livestock
to
Seized heads cattle
of
Total
Average farm
per
Aktobe
56
26320
14839
264
Syr‐Darinsky
62
43368
17186
277
Kustanai
26
11165
7181
276
Akmola
‐
‐
‐
‐
Petropavlovsk
34
9241
5735
168
Ural
40
16880
8395
209
Alma‐Ata
51
21981
17349
340
Guryevsky
21
7854
5883
280
Pavlodar
27
6669
6188
229
Karkaralinsky
35
18970
9659
276
Semipalatinsk
29
13681
4400
142
Kyzyl‐
Ordynsky
33
19498
10739
325
Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU Kucherov