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Review of the political state of the USSR in December 1929

Top secret

January 23, 1930

Moscow city

At the same time, an overview of the political state of the USSR for the month of December 1929 is being transmitted. The review is compiled on the basis of data from the Information Department 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 regional and subdivisions of the OGPU can give an overview for reading to the secretaries of the regional committees, district and regional committees and the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

When reviewing 5 applications and a table.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU

Berry*

Pom. Head of the Information Department of the OGPU

Zaporozhets

Note:

* Berriesʹ signature in the document is crossed out.

[Workers]

Supply of industrial districts and cities

In the reporting month, the supply of industrial districts and the working population of cities with basic foodstuffs (bread and meat) was carried out according to firm norms and, in general, it can be considered regulated. The supply of vegetables (mainly potatoes and cabbage) is also generally satisfactory.

In November‐December, workers and employees of transport (Siberia and the Far Eastern Region) were supplied unsatisfactorily with bread. The previously existing norms for the supply of bread (16 kg of flour for workers and 12 kg for employees and dependents) in November were reduced to 12 kg for workers and 10 kg for employees, and 6‐8 kg for dependents per month (due to a reduction in the supply of bread products for transport) ... The labor productivity of workers has decreased, the supply of steam locomotives to the trains is carried out with a delay, and the release of steam locomotives from repair is also out of time.

In a number of the largest industrial districts, there were serious interruptions in fish, herring, sausage, cheese, sugar, makhorka and cheap varieties of cigarettes and confectionery (Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Kostroma, Nizhny, Shuisky, Moscow district). In Moscow there were also interruptions in the supply of fish, sausages and confectionery (in the second half of December only expensive sweets were on sale). Recently, horse sausage and meat have gone on sale; special shops open for the sale of horsemeat are currently being phased out due to the low demand for this product.

The supply of even the largest industrial districts with basic consumer goods ‐ felted and leather shoes, galoshes, seasonal manufactures, threads (Ivanovo industrial region, Nizhny Novgorod region, Rostov, Grozny, Vladivostok, Samara, Krasnodar) is completely insufficient.

In Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, at the end of December, the queues for galoshes reached 600‐800 people, in one of the shops on December 25 there was a queue of 1500 people. In Yaroslavl, on December 4, the queue for galoshes reached 500 people ³⁸². There were scandals and fights in the queue, and the police were called to stop them. In cooperation, some numbers of galoshes were not available for several months, and at the same time a large batch of galoshes appeared on the private market, sold at increased prices (with a 100% cape). In Baku, up to 300 people are queuing for a manufactory, woolen clothes and threads.

On December 16, riots broke out at one store in Vyatka due to an acute shortage of leather shoes and their improper distribution ³⁸³. A crowd of women of about 1000 people rushed into the store, smashed the windows. To restore order, the police had to be called. One of the mounted militiamen (a detachment of mounted militia was called to the place) had a horse reared up and one of the women in the crowd was crumpled, the horse tore its coat with its hoof. This caused a sharp indignation from those standing in line, cries for help and threats: ʺYou need to drag him off the horseʺ, ʺyou have no right to trample us,ʺ ʺshoot, we still die.ʺ

Insufficient supply of scarce manufactured goods for sale and their distribution at enterprises according to special orders arriving in small

quantities causes discontent among workers.

At the plant them. Frunze (Moscow, 2000) one pair of boots was received from the workersʹ cooperative for distribution among the workers.

At the 1st factory of the North Caucasian Shveiprom (Rostov, 700 people), workers, having learned about the receipt of two coupons for stockings, four coupons for boots and one coupon for a knitted shirt, suggested that “the workers should not distribute, but draw up an act and return to EPO ʺ.

Insufficient supplies, coupled with significant price increases in the private market, are causing workers to worry about maintaining real wages. In their speeches, workers point to a significant increase in prices on the private market for food and especially scarce manufactured goods (galoshes, leather and felted shoes, some varieties of manufactories, threads), which ʺwith insufficient supply of workers with cooperation leads to a partial deterioration in the situation of workers.ʺ

“There is nothing in the cooperative, we have to buy from a private owner and pay several times more, but we, the workers, cannot afford it” (Kolchuginsky metal plant, Ivanovo obl.).

ʺThey give little food, you have to buy from a private owner, but he pulls the last skin off the workerʺ (Rostov).

Shortcomings in the work of the cooperatives (poor organization of supplies, late arrival of seasonal goods, mismanagement and inactivity) cause considerable discontent among workers. In a number of cases, in their speeches and private conversations, they point to the need to cleanse the cooperative apparatus.

“Probably, pests have settled on the board of the cooperative and strangle the workers. In the summer they traded in boomazey ³⁸⁴, and now they brought in cambric ³⁸⁵ and various muslin ³⁸⁶. A good product is floated to a private trader, but a worker has nothing” (Maikop).

“We need to take our CCC by the sides, otherwise there is nothing there. The board of the Central Regional Committee does not care about the workers; it sells potatoes at a higher price than that of the peasants, and the bread ration is small” (“Paris Commune”, Kostroma shoe factory, Ivanovo region).

The workers of the Lezhnevskaya factory pointed out that several tens of thousands of cigarettes were spoiled in EPO, herring were sold with the obligatory purchase of bull‐calves unfit for consumption (workers threw away canned food). In total, goods were spoiled for 19 rubles.

ʺCooperative workers donʹt know how to trade.ʺ “The cooperatives are to blame for the interrupted supply of food to the workers, they do not know how to store food, there have been cases when whole wagons of food were thrown into a landfill as worthless” (Krasny Putilovets, Leningrad).

Interruptions in supplies and shortcomings in the work of the cooperatives are widely used by anti‐Soviet elements who agitate in production and in queues against the entire policy of the Party, and especially against the policy of the Party in the countryside.

Workersʹ Attitude to Party Policy in the Countryside

The main cadres of workers fully approve of the Partyʹs decisions to intensify collective farm development and to mobilize 25,000 workers ³⁸⁷ to work in the countryside.

The mobilization in the largest industrial areas caused a significant upsurge in the mood of the workers. Despite the inadequacy of explanatory work (in some enterprises, there is a complete absence), the voluntary registration of workers to work in the countryside gave figures 2‐3 times higher than the planned allocation (Tver, Moscow, Leningrad, Nizhniy).

In Nizhny Novgorod, 800 people were supposed to be mobilized on January 1, but already on December 21, over 2000 volunteers signed up. In Leningrad, on December 18, 8½ thousand volunteers signed up. According to the ʺSkorokhodʺ function, the allotment was given for 100 people, 280 signed up. There were 300 volunteers at the Krasny Putilovets, etc. In Tver there were over 1000 people who volunteered to work in the village, with an allotment for 360 people.

Qualitatively, the composition of volunteers in a number of districts is insufficiently satisfactory: the percentage of skilled workers with significant work experience and social and political experience is low. The bulk of volunteers in some even large industrial areas are lowskilled workers (in Nizhny Novgorod, among the registered workers of high and medium qualifications, only 19% and low qualifications 81%) with little work experience. Among those who signed up were a significant number of politically underdeveloped, lacking the necessary political experience and insufficiently suitable for leadership in the countryside.

The facts of the presence among the volunteers of people who are antiSoviet, socially alien and declassed, as well as truants, drunkards, etc.

Among the volunteers of the machine shop of the shipbuilding department at Krasny Sormovo (Nizhny Novgorod) were: Zharkov ‐ expelled from the CPSU as a Trotskyist, squandered public money; Dubov ‐ negligently refers to production, shows merciless tendencies. At the plant them. Lenin, the worker Filatov signed up ‐ two times convicted of hooliganism. In the Dzerzhinsky district (construction and assembly office), two workers with a kulak economy signed up.

Leningrad.  In the Molodaya Gvardia printing house, worker Fedotov was assigned to work in the countryside, who was recently issued a warning about dismissal for systematic absenteeism and was reprimanded by the factory for disrupting the meeting. Fedotov was removed from the brigade for shirking work. At Krasny Putilovets, the selection committee selected 163 candidates for the following reasons: the presence of a well‐to‐do economy in the countryside, lack of authority among workers, passivity in social work, drunkenness, greed, convictions, expulsion from the CPSU during the purge, connection with an alien element. At the Krasny Triangle plant, four volunteers were expelled from the party for the Trotskyist opposition.

Selmashstroy (SKK). Brought to work in the countryside: 1) a laborer in a mechanical workshop Pankratov with 3 years of production experience, nicknamed ʺpoorʺ in the workshop for lack of any organizational ability; 2) Mukhov ‐ politically undeveloped and unrestrained; 3) Bogdanov ‐ expelled from the CPSU (b) for drunkenness.

Along with the approval by the bulk of the workers of the Partyʹs policy in the countryside, among some of the workers who have recently come to production and have farms in the countryside, there is an insufficient understanding of the Partyʹs policy in the countryside and, on this basis, susceptibility, in some cases, to kulak agitation.

Under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks on the part of these groups of workers, instructions were noted that ʺthey are pressing on all the peasants, offending the peasants, driving themʺ into the collective farms, that the pace of collective farm construction has led to a deterioration in the situation of the peasantry and the entire country.

In some cases, such sentiments are also shown by individual party members: ʺThey completely offend the peasants, they have taken away the grain, now they are demanding a tax in kindʺ (SVO, Guryevsky factory, Krasny Oktyabr).

“There will be no good with this policy. There will be a hunger strike and peasant unrest” (“Krasny Putilovets”, member of the CPSU).

ʺThe peasants have been crushed by taxes, the peasants are starving, the peasants are no longer raising livestockʺ (Leningrad, ʺRed Octoberʺ).

ʺThese collective farms will torture us, they do not give anything, there will be famine with the collective farmsʺ (ʺKrasnoe Sormovoʺ).

ʺCollective farms will not give anything good, they will lead to the fact that they will sow one tithe, only for themselvesʺ (AMO, Moscow).

“It would be better if the peasant was allowed to develop freely without any collective and state farms, then there would be no hunger” (factory named after Radishchev, Leningrad).

These groups of workers regard the mass mobilization in the countryside as sending ʺthousands more freeloadersʺ who ʺin the village will sit on the peasantʹs neckʺ (Leningrad enterprises). There are also indications that those who are reluctant to work go to the village to receive money from the peasants (Krasnoe Sormovo, Nizhniy).

The following fact is characteristic as an indicator of insufficient understanding by individual groups of workers of the essence of collectivization. A worker at Gortramvaya (Rostov‐on‐Don) said that the decision on complete collectivization was greeted with hostility by all strata of the peasantry, among whom rumors spread that after collectivization the peasants would be assigned to a certain job, they would not be released from the village, everyone would receive food in kind. everyone will be dressed in the same uniform; children will be taken to orphanages and parents will be allowed to see them once a week.

The individual kulak and anti‐Soviet elements that exist among the workers are conducting systematic agitation aimed at discrediting the Partyʹs policy in the countryside, especially the development of collective farm development.

Presenting in their speeches the attack on the kulak as pressure on the entire peasantry, agitating against the collective farms, where ʺonly idlers goʺ, the kulak elements in state‐owned enterprises are increasingly switching to clearly insurrectionary and defeatist agitation.

Particularly frequent are the harsh anti‐Soviet actions of individuals among the builders. “The power, as you can see, can only plunder and ruin the peasant economy; life was better under serfdom than now, everything is confiscated, taken away” (Guryev factory, Ignatovskaya factory, SVO).

“They take away the bread from the peasants with rifles. Now life has become worse than in tsarist times ʺ(Leningrad,ʺ Krasny Oktyabr ʺ, Mechanical No. 7, etc.).

“The government has taken on something else. No one can rule the country, there is a riot all around. They did not have long to exist” (Krasny Perekop, Yaroslavl).

“The peasants are forcibly driven into collective farms. Hurry, the war would start, we would hang all these bastards of communists” (the foundry worker, the Borets plant in Moscow, has a well‐to‐do economy).

ʺThe last time is now being taken away, they will soon failʺ (he has a farm with hired labor, the Metallolampa plant in Moscow). A worker who has an agriculture and is engaged in the purchase and sale of poultry: ʺThey take everything from the peasants, they force them to sell the last cow.ʺ ʺThe peasants are going to go on the offensive against Moscowʺ, ʺThey are burning the collective farms, this is how it should be, all the same these collective farms are covered.ʺ

“Socialism is being built on the bones of workers and peasants. The communists are selfish, they starve the people. All of them must be outweighed. Power must be given to those who are able to establish a working life” (Krasnogvardeets, Leningrad).

“The Soviet government strangled the peasants with taxes. Forced to enroll in collectives by force. The communists have brought us to the point that we will have to win our rights by force of arms” (Mosstroy).

“They donʹt allow individual farms to develop. The peasants are patient, but their patience will burst, and they will make a second revolution, then the communists will get it, as the oppressors of the peasants” (Mosstroy).

At the construction of Mosstroy No. 3001, a bricklayer spoke: ʺWe must present an ultimatum to the Soviet government in a resolution, let it provide the peasantry with everything necessary, or ‐ down with collectivization, down with loans.ʺ The meeting was disrupted, the workers rejected a resolution on the collectivization of agriculture.

Attention is drawn to the attitude of individual workers of the Kolomna plant to collectivization. Cases of agitation of workers among the peasants were noted to ʺdrive out from the countryside the speakers who come there on the question of the transition to collectivization, not to go to meetings and not to send women to them.ʺ One worker in the group said: “In the spring of 1930, we will all be in collectives, but this should not be allowed to happen. We need to fight against collectivization, we all need to defend as one our decision not to join the collective. ʺ The statement was supported by a group of workers.

Anti‐Soviet protests at enterprises

At state enterprises in a number of districts (LPO, West, Nizhny Novgorod Territory, SVK), an increase in the activity of the anti‐Soviet element is noted. Particularly harsh performances of the ASE * were noted in connection with the deployment of the collective agreement campaign and the development of the 2nd day of industrialization. The anti‐Soviet element in its speeches makes wide use of the dissatisfaction of groups of workers with food difficulties, rising prices and the weak work of the cooperatives. In raising the issue of food difficulties, the anti‐Soviet element is conducting intensified agitation, which boils down to the fact that the partyʹs wrong policy in the countryside is the source of the difficulty. The anti‐Soviet element spreads rumors among the workers that ʺthe peasants are being forcibly driven into collective farmsʺ, that ʺthe poor are being strangled along with the kulak.ʺ The activity of the anti‐Soviet element in enterprises is manifested in the form of the activities of groups, the distribution of leaflets,

Note:

* Anti‐Soviet element.

Anti‐Soviet groups

An increase in the activity of anti‐Soviet groups is noted in a number of enterprises. An analysis of the composition of the groupings shows that in the main the leading role in the groupings belongs to class alien and declassed elements.

At the plant them. Voroshilov (Leningrad), in the mechanical repair shop the group was headed by a former captain of the tsarist army, a former Menshevik and the son of a district police station ³⁸⁸. At the LSPO bakery, the initiators of the anti‐Soviet protest were a former employee of the St. Petersburg prison administration, the son of a large restaurateur ³⁸⁹ (formerly an officer) and the son of the owner of a bakery.

In a number of cases, the groupings carry out significant preparatory work before performances.

At the EPO Mill (CCM), during its work, the ASE group held meetings on the issue of opposing the new collective agreement. At Khlebozavod No. 4 (Leningrad), before discussing the issue of working off the industrialization day, members of the group bypassed the workers, persuading them to support their protests against labor. At the GOZ (Leningrad), the leader of the group during his work instructed a group of workers: ʺOur task is to add fuel to the fire, to prove by speaking at meetings that the Soviet government does not coordinate its policy with the workers with regard to collective agreements.ʺ

A number of open speeches aimed at disrupting the partyʹs activities were noted. In this respect, the following facts deserve attention.

At the Rumyantsevskaya Cloth Factory (SVK), at a bow evening in the presence of about 200 peasants, one of the ASE said in a speech: “Peasants, admit that red carts are created by force. We workers are forced to work harder and harder, but grain is scarce. It is necessary to demand a change in the partyʹs policy on the peasant question. ʺ

At the Nizhne‐Vyksa plant GOMZs (Nizhny Novgorod Territory), a group of people associated with the village led the agitation in the shops. ʺWith the current food situation, it is necessary to demand an increase in wages.ʺ

It is noteworthy that in some cases the activities of the groups, due to insufficient resistance from local organizations, had partial success. In a number of enterprises, meetings and proposals of local organizations have been disrupted.

At a number of Leningrad factories (Voroshilov Plant, Optical Plant, etc.), ASE groups for a short time thwarted a number of campaigns (elections to the FZK, subscription to a loan, etc.). At the Pesochenskaya faience factory (Bryansk), the ASE group disrupted an evening dedicated to the results of the production plan. ASE performances also had some success in individual shops of Izhevsk plants (Nizhny Novgorod region).

In terms of its composition, forms of activity and a number of sharp anti‐Soviet actions, the group at the Vulkan plant (Leningrad) attracts attention. The group included a former officer, a punisher at Yudenich, had four Georgy ³⁹⁰, a former provocateur, a former nobleman, the son of the Odessa police chief, a kulak who was on trial by the collegium, as well as several Trotskyists. The members of the group were closely bonded, often met in production, arranged meetings in pubs, where they agreed on the time and nature of the performances. The members of the group in the workshops were agitating: “The Soviet government squeezed the workers; it became impossible to live. Any working off, deductions, loans, rip off from all sides. ʺ

“The grain is forcibly taken from the peasants, they are not carrying red carts, but peasant tears. As under military communism, detachments come and take the peasants by the throats. ʺ

The group thwarted the industrialization day; at a flying meeting about the events in India, ³⁹¹ members of the group shouted: ʺWe must protest not against violence in India, but in Russia, the prisons are full, we must create a society to help prisoners not in India, but in Russia.ʺ

Leaflets

The growing activity of the anti‐Soviet element is also reflected in the increase in the number of anti‐Soviet leaflets and anonymous letters found in a number of enterprises. In December, according to incomplete information, only 42 names of leaflets were found (in the Moscow region ‐ 7, in Siberia ‐ 10 and in the Urals ‐ 7). The main content of the leaflets is sharp attacks against the policy of the party in the countryside, against collective farm development, etc. Here are some of the most typical excerpts: “The grain procurements were completed successfully. Everything was taken away from the peasants under the whisk, and the worker was forced to starve” (Nizhny Novgorod

Territory).

“The Soviet government mocks the workers, forcing the workers to starve. The peasants were completely crushed by unbearable extortions” (anonymous letter, SVK).

In some cases, leaflets with threats to the workers of the cooperative were found.

Trotskyist activities

In some Moscow enterprises, in connection with the renegotiation of collective agreements, a certain revival of the activities of the Trotskyists was noted. There were facts of distribution of leafletstheses. The leaflets indicate the deterioration of the position of the working class, the bureaucratization of the professional apparatus, etc. In special theses for garment workers ³⁹², the requirement was put forward to reduce production rates by 25% and to distribute 50% of the profits from socialist competition among workers. The Trotskyistsʹ speeches were not successful among the workers.

Strikes and conflicts at state‐owned enterprises

In December, 19 strikes with 1549 participants were recorded at stateowned enterprises (in November 32 strikes with 1860 participants).

A number of strikes and conflicts took place among textile workers (5 strikes with 304 participants) in connection with lower wages, worsening working conditions, etc. Discontent in some cases was exacerbated by the fact that workers learned about the decline only when they received check books.

The most serious conflicts were noted at the weaving mill No. 2 “Proletarian dictatorship” of the Orekhovo‐Zuevsky district ³⁹³. (150 workers, having learned from their paybooks about the reduction in wages, did not work for 1½ hours.) And at the Krasny Perekop factory (Yaroslavl Okrug, Ivanovo weaving apprentices). Having learned from the checkbooks about the reduction in wages, groups of workers on December 12, stopping their machines, went to the office for an explanation. Some apprentices threatened to refer the case to the prosecutorʹs office.

In the metal industry, attention is drawn to the strike at the plant. Schmidt (Leningrad). On December 21, 310 workers did not work for 2 hours due to delayed wages. The work began after the announcement of the immediate payment of wages.

A significant strike (400 workers stopped work) took place at the construction of Lesbel in the Uzdensky district of the Minsk district. The workersʹ dissatisfaction was caused by illegal actions and rough treatment of foremen (the apparatus on the building was clogged with a socially alien element).

On December 18, 100 workers went on strike in the gold mines of the Kamensky district (Buryat‐Mongolia), dissatisfied with low wages and the failure to provide work clothes.

Delaying the renegotiation of collective agreements

For a number of enterprises in large industrial regions (Nizhny Novgorod Territory, Ivanovo Region, Leningrad and some others), a delay was noted in the renewal of collective agreements due to the inattentive attitude of the higher trade union and economic bodies to the campaign and the conflict of a significant number of clauses of the new collective agreement.

In a number of cases, the higher trade union and economic organizations failed to send in time draft new collective agreements, directives and industrial financial plans.

In the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, the groups of metal plants and woodworking factories of the Kanavinsky District in December have not yet received an industrial financial plan.

In the Ivanovo region the automobile plant (Yaroslavl district) did not receive any directives from Autotrest until the 20th of December. At the Urshelsky glass factory (Vladimirsky district), the draft of a new collective agreement was not sent by the branch department of the Union of Chemists. At the glass factory ʺKrasny Khimikʺ (Vladimirsky district), the project was sent at the end of November, all the explanatory work was crumpled.

On some enterprises, serious disagreements arose between trade unions and economic agencies on a number of points of the new collective agreements. This was especially noted in Leningrad, where for individual enterprises there is a very significant number of disputed points submitted for resolution to arbitration.

At the plant to them. Marty, an agreement between the trade union and the economic bodies has not been reached on 30 points of the new collective agreement.

According to the Krestovsky sawmill them. Kalinin, the agreement was not concluded due to disagreements between the trade union of woodworkers and Sevzaples (deadline ‐ November). The statement of representatives of the Union is characteristic that ʺthere is nothing to hurry with the agreement, since last year it was concluded in March.ʺ

At the factory ʺLenzhetʺ 10 out of 75 points of the collective agreement were accepted, the remaining 65 points remained controversial.

At the Krasny Profintern plant (Vladimirsky district), the lack of agreement between the trade union and the economic agencies on the amount of the wage increase under the new contract resulted in the fact that after the official announcement of the 7% increase to the workers, an order was received from the economic agencies about a 3% increase, with which the chairman of the factory committee did not agree ...

In Grozneft, the inconsistency between the Union of Miners and the management came to light from the very beginning of the campaign.

According to an agreement with the Union of Miners, the Grozneft administration was to submit its conclusion to the draft collective agreement within 3 days and only after that submit the draft for mass discussion. Grozneft, having received the draft on November 2, did not give any conclusion to the Union for two weeks, but put forward its counter‐project and sent it to the enterprises without the knowledge of the Union. At the same time, the Union of Miners, without waiting for the conclusion of Grozneft, printed its draft and also sent it to the localities.

It should be noted that the Union of Miners, having put forward in its project a new wage scale ³⁹⁴ developed by the All‐Union Central Council of Trade Unions, did not take into account that with a wage coefficient of ³⁹⁵ 1.0 to 2.0, the smallest increase in the daily rate (2‐5 kopecks) is received by workers 3 Of the 1st and 4th categories, of which the largest percentage is at Grozneftepromysly.

Grozneft, however, has outlined a reduction in the rate of the 1st category to 1 ruble. 38 kopecks, in order to increase the daily wage of workers of the 3rd category due to this reduction, against which the minersʹ union categorically objects.

In such an uncoordinated form, the draft was submitted for discussion at workersʹ meetings.

Logging

The logging campaign in Sevkrai ³⁹⁶, Leningrad and Ural regions is proceeding at a slow pace, due to serious mistakes of logging organizations.

The task of harvesting by January 1, 1930. 45% of the annual plan was not fulfilled in the most important regions (in Sevkrai, 25.4% were harvested on January 1, 1930, and only 4.2% of the annual task was taken out of the forest, in the Leningrad Region, without the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on December 10, 1929, only 28.2% of the plan was prepared), in the Irbit District of the Ural Region. as of December 20, firewood was procured at the rate of 16% of the quarterly plan).

There are significant abnormalities in the recruitment of labor for logging. The lack of planning in the distribution of recruitment areas, competition between procurement organizations, distortions of the class line, negligence and indiscretion in the recruitment of labor led to an extremely slow rate of recruitment, in some cases the departure of significant parties of lumberjacks to other areas (about 1,500 people from the Komi region left for the Urals) ...

The situation is clearly unsatisfactory with the actual employment of recruited lumberjacks: in Sevkrai, as of December 20, 1929, employment accounted for 44.4% of the total number of recruited lumberjacks; in the Chatkorinsky forestry of the Shadrinsky district, only 20% of the required workforce has started work; the percentage of horse‐drawn lumberjacks on December 20, 1929 was only 12.6% of all horse‐drawn lumberjacks (Sevkrai) 397.

At the same time, the departure of loggers from work is significant: in the Arkhangelsk District, from December 1 to 10, more than 1,000 people left their jobs, in the Nyandomsk District ‐ 3,500 people. In the Kordinsky forestry of the Kungursk district (Ural), out of 470 workers, only 90 people remained. The fact of mass departure from work of Komsomol members (Ivanovo industrial region) was noted.

The departure of lumberjacks from work is mainly caused by major abnormalities in the everyday services of lumberjacks: an unsatisfactory situation with housing, drinking water, medical care, and especially the presence of major shortcomings in the supply of lumberjacks with food and basic necessities (significant underperformance of the delivery plan: 74% of , for groats ‐ 53%, for footwear ‐ 5.4%; delay of goods in the central bases; significant remoteness of distribution points 10‐12 versts from the place of work, poor quality of products). On this basis, a number of conflicts have been registered among loggers.

Due to insufficient food supply in the Shmakovsky district of Dalles, lumberjacks were ill.

Deficiencies in the organization of logging are widely used by the kulaks, who are campaigning in villages and in logging for the disruption of logging.

Abuse by Labor Exchange

In the offices of labor exchanges in a number of districts (Moscow, Ukraine, Nizhny Novgorod Territory, Ivanovo industrial region), major abuses were noted: sending to work for bribes, forgery of documents, protectionism, communication of workers with an alien element, etc.

In a number of cities (Moscow, Kiev, Nizhniy, Murom), the presence of underground labor exchanges was discovered that sent an alien element (traders, speculators, ʺdisenfranchisedʺ, etc.) to work for bribes using forged documents. Black exchanges arose after the deregistration of labor exchanges during the purge of a number of socially alien and not in need of work.

At the Kiev Labor Exchange, at the apartment of the authorized collective of the Comborbez, a group of workers in the laborersʹ section counterfeited the exchange forms, registered and sent to work for bribes. The group sent 60 people to work, including a predominantly foreign element. In the case, 20 employees of the exchange were arrested.

In the case of the Kharkov and Stalin labor exchanges, over 70 people were brought to justice.

Large abuses were also disclosed in the Kanavinskaya and Muromskaya labor exchanges of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, where the head. sections and employees of the exchange systematically get drunk in the company of an alien element, it is practiced sending to work persons removed from the register of the exchange for various services and remuneration. Facts of stealing stock exchange stamps, registration coupons, destruction of registration cards of the unemployed, etc. were noted on the stock exchanges. ... One of the employees of the Nizhny Novgorod Stock Exchange received about 3000 such coupons in a short time.

Village

Mass sale and slaughter

Throughout December, in a number of regions of the Union, there was a massive sale and slaughter of livestock by various layers of the village. The widest slaughter and sale of livestock are observed in the Central Black Earth Region, on the Middle Volga, SKK, Bashkiria, Tatarstan, and Belarus. In some areas, as a result, there was a real threat of a reduction in horse traction and a successful sowing campaign. The main reasons for the slaughter and sale in most of the districts were the rumors widespread by the kulaks about the impending forced seizure of cattle for transfer to collective farms; the desire of some of those entering the newly organized collective farms to sell livestock in advance; lack of feed (North Caucasus, Bashkiria). The prosperous kulak elements of the village, being the initiators of the slaughter and sale of livestock, in some places they seek to create the appearance of ʺself‐dispossessionʺ to facilitate their access to the collective farm. There are the following features in individual areas.

NORTH CAUCASUS

Krayzhivotnovodsoyuz and other cattle suppliers over the past 3 months have fulfilled 70% of the annual target (in the KabardinoBalkarian region, the plan has been fulfilled by 100%). Despite this, procurement continues at an accelerated pace.

In August and September 1929, an average of 53,000 heads were harvested along the edge, and in October‐December, up to 92,000 heads were harvested. The procurement of unplanned organizations also increased significantly, and the slaughter of livestock by the peasantry for salting and selling meat increased. Prices for livestock, and in particular for horses, fell sharply (an average of 30 rubles per horse in a number of districts of the Maikop, Salsk districts and the Kabardino‐

Balkarian region).

From the beginning of December, increased sales of working and productive livestock began to be observed in areas of complete collectivization, as well as in areas preparing for the organization of large collective farms. The squandering of non‐socialized livestock takes place on collective farms, especially when decisions are made about 100% socialization of livestock.

The massive sale of livestock by the middle and poor strata is largely due to the lack of coarse and concentrated feed. In lean areas, 50% of livestock is sold at the expense of middle and poor farms. Sales tendencies among some part of the middle peasantry are mainly the result of intensified agitation by kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements. Part of the middle peasants sells their livestock, motivating this by ʺunwillingness to hand it over to collective farms above the norm.ʺ

CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION

As a result of the massive sale of livestock, some areas were left barren from workers and cattle by more than 60%. In some areas, meat is salted in large quantities for personal use, and horse meat, mainly foals, gets into the salting. Leatherette organizations buy meat for leather at low prices, and among the killed horses there was a significant percentage of able‐bodied and young (Orel, Kursk).

The sale and slaughter of livestock by the main strata of the village is often the result of kulak agitation, especially in areas that are slated to move to complete collectivization.

UKRAINE

The mass character of the slaughter of cattle was noted in Sumy, Berdichev, Chernigov and in a number of other districts as a result of intensified agitation of the kulaks and widespread various provocative rumors. The situation is most unfavorable in the Sumy district, where the slaughter of cattle reaches 75% of the available quantity. Along with the intensified agitation of the kulaks, there is no sufficient explanatory work among the main strata of the countryside.

MIDDLE VOLGA REGION

Mass sale and slaughter of livestock were observed mainly in some areas of the Samara, Syzran, Ulyanovsk and Kuznetsk districts. The main buyers of the livestock sold for a pittance were the Tatars, who sold them in the form of meat or speculated in Nizhny, Kazan. Part of the middle peasantry motivates the sale of livestock by fear of socializing them when joining collective farms. A case was registered when, after a general meeting passed a decision on socializing livestock, members of a collective farm, led by the chairman, slaughtered all livestock (Andreevsky district of the Samara district). The squandering of livestock by the poor and middle peasants in a number of cases is the result of industrial difficulties and a lack of feed.

LOWER VOLGA REGION

Cattle are sold mainly by the kulak‐wealthy elements and by some part of the middle peasantry. In some areas of the Volsky and Astrakhan districts, the loss of large and small livestock is 50% of the total availability of it. The kulaks motivate the sale of livestock by fear of seizing    them      for          failure   to            fulfill     the          tasks      for          grain procurement. Among a part of the middle peasantry, the sale of livestock is caused by the fear of its socialization together with collectivization.

TATARIA

As a result of the agitation of kulak and anti‐Soviet elements, there is a massive sale and slaughter of working and productive livestock, mainly young animals, in a number of regions. The squandering of livestock also takes place on collective farms. The destruction of cattle by the kulaks is conditioned by the desire for ʺself‐dispossessionʺ in order to facilitate their entry into collective farms. The main motive for the sale of livestock by middle peasant groups is the indication that ʺthey will socialize on the collective farm; it will not be mine anyway.ʺ The increased supply of livestock caused a strong decline in prices for it. In the Laptev region, a workhorse is estimated at 25‐30 rubles.

BASHKIRIA

The slaughter and sale of livestock in individual districts takes on a mass character, and the livestock is sold mainly by the kulakprosperous strata of the village, striving for ʺimpoverishmentʺ. The sale of livestock by part of the middle peasantry is caused partly by the desire to stock up on money savings ʺin case of leaving the collective farmʺ and the unwillingness to donate livestock to collective farms above the norm. A significant reason for the sale of livestock, especially for the low‐powered groups of the village, is the lack of feed and food difficulties. In a number of villages, the poor, experiencing grain difficulties and a lack of forage, are forced to slaughter their livestock for food (Argayash canton, Belebey canton, etc.).

The massive importation of livestock to the market caused a significant decrease in prices for it. State and cooperative stockholders do not have time to make purchases. Bashzhivotnovodsoyuz has already fulfilled the annual task of stocking cattle by 150%.

BELARUS

To characterize the size of the sale of livestock, the example of the Rogachevsky district of the Bobruisk district deserves attention (an agro‐industrial plant is being built in the district). As a result of kulak agitation, untimely adoption by local organizations of decisive measures to combat the squandering of livestock by entering collective farms and newly organized collective farms, and the slow pace of socialization of livestock among those entering collective farms, in the area where the combine was established, the sale of livestock has taken on a massive scale over the past two months. In total, according to incomplete data, in the Rogachev district, 1,700 head of cattle were sold in November and December. For the needs of the plant under construction in the spring, 80,000 head of livestock will be needed, but currently, according to statistics, there are only 8‐9 thousand in the region.

Despite the ban on the sale of livestock, the sale of livestock continues illegally, and regulations on the prohibition of the sale of livestock are often violated not only by private speculators‐buyers, but also by agents of various cattle‐procurement organizations (agents of Belmyastorg, various dairy‐livestock associations, etc.). In order to obtain permission from the veterinary assistant to sell livestock, individual middle peasants, members of collective farms, resort to deliberate mutilation of their cows (collective farm ʺBudennovetsʺ). Selling their livestock before joining kolkhozes, kolkhozniks buy all kinds of clothes, footwear, etc., and in some cases drink them on drink.

Resettlement of the kulaks

In a number of districts of the NEC, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan and the Central Black Earth Region, cases of relocation of wealthy kulak farms to other districts and outside the regions were noted. Among the migrants, the main contingent is the restrained in grain procurement.

NORTH CAUCASUS

The resettlement of the kulak‐wealthy elements is observed in almost all districts of the NCC. The widest size of resettlement is noted in the

Kuban, Tersk, Maikop, Donskoy, Salsk and Armavir districts. According to incomplete data, the resettlement movement covered up to 130 points, over 1220 people left. The main contingent of immigrants are kulaks, mostly well‐to‐do (96%), along with this some middle peasants (4%) have moved. Most of the immigrants are exwhites, ex‐bandits, punishers and other anti‐Soviet elements. They move mainly to the Transcaucasia, in particular, to

Mugan ³⁹⁸ (Azerbaijan). Up to 100 people left one Kuban Okrug for Mugan. The other part leaves for other cities and rural areas of the region, preliminarily liquidating their farms. A large number of illegal departures of kulaks from various regions of the Tersky, Salsky, Donskoy districts were registered. The main motives for resettlement are the infringement of the kulaks in grain procurement.

LOWER VOLGA REGION

Kulak‐prosperous elements from separate districts of the NVK are moving to different places of the Union. As of December 1, 664 people left one Balashovsky district, 2000 people left the Cherkassky district of the Volsky district. Kulaks are resettled mainly from areas of complete collectivization, while hiding the place of the new settlement. In some cases, migrating kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements, before leaving, threaten with reprisals against local activists and persistently spread rumors about the emerging political bands. The main motive for the resettlement is the infringement of the kulaks in grain procurement.

CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION

There have been registered individual cases of kulaks leaving the country, restrained in grain procurements. Those leaving do not name the place of their intended settlement. In with. Petropavlovka of the Rossoshansk district, a number of kulaks fined for not delivering grain surpluses fled the village. The kulaks, just like in the NIAC, spread rumors about the emerging political bands.

KAZAKHSTAN

From the Petropavlovsk, Kustanai and Akmola districts, groups of kulak farms are moving to other districts and outside Kazakhstan. From the Kostanay district, some kulak farms move to

Siberia. From s. Pervoglinsky Petropavlovsk district during December 30 kulak farms left.

Grain procurement

As of January 1, 1930 (according to the NKTorg data), the grain procurement plan for all crops in the USSR was fulfilled in the amount of 95.2%; for grain crops ‐ by 99.5% and for food crops ‐ by 91.6%.

In some districts there is a significant overfulfillment of the plan:

Leningrad region. ‐ 700.3% of the plan, IPO ‐ 192%, Western region. ‐ 180.5%, Nizhny Novgorod Territory ‐ 158.7%, BSSR ‐ 142.1%. The lagging Sevkrai also exceeded its plan by 22%. However, the total share of the regions listed above does not exceed 3% of the procurements in the USSR.

The most lagging regions in terms of procurement are the North Caucasus, DVK, Kazakhstan, SVK.

The kinks and twists of the class line continued to be noted throughout December. In some cases, systematic distortions of the class line during grain procurement were the result of contamination of the grassroots co‐apparat with an obviously hostile element. Particularly noteworthy are those identified in the village. The Pakhutins of the Proskurovsky district of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Alekseevsky district of the Buguruslan district of the SVK are facts of a systematic curvature of the class line (for details, see Appendix [No. 1] on excesses in the SCC, see below).

Increased resistance of the kulaks to measures related to grain procurement continues to be noted in December, right up to the regions that have already fulfilled the plan. However, in most regions, the number of terrorist attacks on the basis of grain procurements has significantly decreased.

A decrease was also given by mass demonstrations on the basis of grain procurements (with an almost stable state, and in some places an increase in the number of mass demonstrations on the basis of collectivization and religious). Of the mass demonstrations on the basis of grain procurements, special attention should be paid to the performance in the Sinkovsky region of the Kupyansk district of Ukraine, which covered the population of four villages. The speech was caused by excesses in relation to all layers of a number of villages in the region. The kulak elements used this moment to lead and inspire a performance that lasted for several days (see the special section on mass demonstrations for details).

Along with the active forms of opposition of the kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements to grain procurements, it should be noted that migratory tendencies have intensified in a number of places among the kulaks who are being infringed on grain procurements (see the section ʺResettlement of the kulaksʺ).

The situation in connection with grain procurements in the backward regions is characterized by the following main points.

NORTH CAUCASUS

Workpiece travel

The rate of grain procurement continued to remain extremely weak throughout December. As of January 1, along the edge, the plan was fulfilled by 73.1%, the December plan was fulfilled by 25%. More than 40 million poods remained unprepared. The majority of the districts gave a decrease. Of the national oblasts, Chechnya is the most lagging behind ‐ 29% by January 1, 1930. The grain procurement assistance commissions and local shock brigades, lacking proper leadership, in a number of cases displayed depressive moods. Mass work among the poor and middle peasants is poorly developed everywhere.

Kinks and curvatures

Kinks and distortions continued to be noted and even intensified both in the lagging districts and in those where the plan was close to being fulfilled. In a number of points in the Kuban, Terek and Donskoy District, inventories and seizures of property from poor and middle peasants were carried out. Cases of illegal seizure of grain from middle peasants and their arrests were registered. In some places, when carrying out individual processing, the workers of the komsodov and village councils allowed direct abuse of individual middle peasants (Kuban District, the villages of Chelbasskaya and StaroDerevnyakovskaya). Along with excesses in relation to the middle peasants and the poor peasants, there was a weak pressure on the kulak from some grassroots workers (Donetsk and Kuban districts).

Anti‐Soviet manifestations in connection with grain procurements

Active opposition of the kulaks to grain procurements continued to be noted along with the resettlement movement described above. In places, the fierceness of the kulak takes the form of brutal reprisals against the grain procurement activists.

Fists stts. Krivlyanskoy Donskoy district, after beating an active grain procurement worker (collective farm chairman), threw him into hay and set him on fire.

According to incomplete data, from December 1 to December 20, 30 terrorist attacks in connection with grain procurements and other campaigns were registered in the region (excluding the national regions). The most active opposition to grain procurement was developed by kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements in the national regions of the JCC, especially in Chechnya and Ingushetia (see special section). Along with the armed uprising in flat Chechnya, 7 mass demonstrations were registered in the national regions on the basis of grain procurements in December, of which 5 were in Kabarda.

The revelation of numerous cases of hiding bread in pits by fists causes bitterness of the kulaks. More than 45 holes were uncovered in three districts of the Kuban and two districts of the Stavropol District for 5 days in December.

KAZAKHSTAN

The annual plan of grain procurements (with garnets and milling harvest) for January 1, 1930 was fulfilled by 86.4%, for grain crops by 95.9%. The most lagging districts in terms of implementation of the annual plan are Akmola, Aktobe and Kostanay districts. The weak pace of procurement, along with the general shortcomings of the campaign, was facilitated by the growth of demobilization sentiments among the workers of the grain procurement and grassroots Soviet apparatus.

In the deepest parts of the Semipalatinsk district, there was a large accumulation of grain due to the lack of transport and interruptions in the supply of orders, often due to the fault of the railway administration and procurement bodies. Along with numerous cases of lack of pressure on the kulaks and bai, holders of grain surpluses, facts of gross excesses and distortions of the class line that affected the poor and middle peasants were recorded. The most striking facts of excesses are the spreading of assignments between the middle peasants and the poor who have already fulfilled the plan, searches, inventory, sometimes with the simultaneous removal of grain not only from the kulaks, but also from the middle peasants and the poor. In the Aktobe region, not only surplus was taken away, but also food bread, in connection with which 50% of the population was left without seed materials. In some cases, fines were applied to low‐power farms, followed by the arrest and prosecution of the middle and poor (Akmola district). Cases of gross bullying of individual poor and middle peasants (beating, pouring cold water, locking in cold sheds, etc.) took place in Petropavlovsk, Akmola, Aktobe, Semipalatinsk and Ural districts (see Appendix [No. 2]).

In aul No. 5 of the Khodbinsky district of the Aktobe district, the grain procurement officer arrested one poor man for not delivering bread, put him in a cold barn, as a result of which the poor man died of a cold.

In some places, the most gross excesses were made by authorized RIKs, as well as rural aul communists (Petropavlovsk, Akmola okrugs). Along with excesses in relation to the poor and middle peasants, there were recorded facts of weakening of the kulaks and bays on the part of grassroots workers, a weak punitive policy of the courts when fining and bringing to justice the malicious non‐donors of surpluses (Akmola, Kostanay districts).

Resistance of the kulaks and baysa to the grain procurement campaign

The kulaks and bays everywhere continued to show increased resistance to grain procurements, terrorizing the aul‐village active of procurement      workers                and        provoking           in            some      cases      mass demonstrations. Along with systematic agitation against grain procurements, the kulaks and bais in a number of cases resort to liquidating farms, refusing to surrender grain surpluses.

In Akmola and Ural districts, numerous cases of burying bread in pits with fists and bears were revealed. Noteworthy are the facts of the sale of property and livestock by beys and kulaks and attempts to hide from pressure on collective farms (Ural and Petropavlovsk districts).

In the Urals District, 7 kulak groups were liquidated, which throughout the current grain procurement campaign were working to disrupt the latter. One of the liquidated groups (in the village of Bogdanovka, Zauralskiy district), not limited to activities in its own village, extended its influence to neighboring villages. The group threw out the slogan: ʺNot a pound of bread to the state, whoever will hand over bread ‐ so the punishment is short.ʺ Members of the group repeatedly disrupted meetings on the issue of increasing the pace of grain procurement, beat up activists of the poor, participants in the red carts, incited national antagonism between Russians and Kazakhs, etc.

DVK

The annual grain procurement plan was fulfilled on January 1, 1930 by 78.8%. Throughout December, the rate of procurement steadily decreased. As before, the procurement of forage crops is ahead of food crops. The grass‐roots sovorgs and grain procurement organizations, despite repeated instructions from the regional organizations, show a negligent attitude towards strengthening grain procurements. There are numerous cases of insufficient grain distribution on kulak farms. The grain procurement assistance commissions are often littered with wealthy kulak elements. Along with the protection of the kulak, facts of excesses in relation to the middle and poor are recorded.

On the part of a number of collective farms, there have been clear tendencies to retain grain surpluses. The collective farms fulfilled the annual plan to an insignificant extent (as of December 1, 1929 ‐ 34.8%). There is no firm leadership of the district collective farm centers in the periphery.

Kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements, along with sticking to bread, continue to terrorize rural activists and the most consistent employees of the apparatus. In a number of cases, the kulaks are trying in an organized way to disrupt meetings discussing the control figures for grain procurements. In parallel, various provocative rumors and systematic agitation against the delivery of bread are widely spread.

Interruptions in grain supply

BASHKIRIA

In some volosts of the Belebeevsky canton, as a result of interruptions in grain supply, an acute grain crisis is noted, which is felt mainly by the poor and farm laborers. The Belebeevsky VIC from a number of families received applications for the supply of bread and food (village councils of Kirillovsky, Ismailovsky, Zaovrazhensky, Alekseevsky, Kazakno‐Temakovsky). There have been isolated cases of appeals for food in some state farms and communes.

KAZAKHSTAN

In a number of villages and auls of the Ural and Aktobe districts, due to the lack of their own bread and interruptions in the grain supply, an acute crisis of bread was noted among the poor and agricultural laborers. In the village Sergievsky reported 5 cases of swelling of the poor from malnutrition. In the Pylaevsky village council, some poor people eat surrogates (the Urals District). Lack of bread and other foodstuffs reinforces the trend towards mass slaughter of livestock. In a number of auls, the population is strenuously using meat. Cases of breaking the locks of granaries (Teplovsky district) were registered. In the Slomikhinsky region of the Ural District, those in need of bread plundered 1130 poods. bread from garnets collection.

With a significant shortage of grain among the poor in a number of villages, local organizations do not take decisive measures to soften it. In some villages, the poor turn to their fellow villagers for help. There are cases when collective farmers (Kursk district) applied for bread for help. In some places, those in need of bread use surrogates.

MIDDLE VOLGA REGION

Lack of bread among the poor in the Korovinsky region, where in a number of villages the poor eat quinoa. One case of swelling in a poor manʹs family has been reported. Along with the lack of bread, there is a lack of forage, as a result of which there is an increased mortality of livestock.

Mass demonstrations in November and December

The number of mass demonstrations in the countryside throughout the USSR, including the eastern national republics and regions, in November (89) decreased in comparison with October (133).

December (79 performances) does not give further decline. Taking into account the incompleteness of the information for December, it is necessary to state the stability of the level of mass demonstrations in November and December.

With the stability of the total number of mass demonstrations in November and December, their character has changed significantly.

In November, 45% of the mass demonstrations took place on religious grounds, 33.6% on the basis of grain procurements and 14.5% on collectivization grounds, the rest 6.9%.

In December, the percentage of speeches on religious grounds increased significantly ‐ 58.2%, the number of speeches on the basis of grain procurement decreased by more than half ‐ 12.6%, and the number of speeches on the basis of collectivization increased slightly ‐ 15.2%.

The high level of mass demonstrations on religious grounds in November and its increase in December is explained not only by the intensification of anti‐Soviet activity of the clergy and clericals ³⁹⁹, but to a large extent also by the increased frequency of excesses, distortions and mistakes when closing churches and removing bells.

Particularly indicative in this respect is the Central Black Earth District, where the closure of churches has become widespread, in violation of the established rules and without sufficient preparatory work among the population.

At first, when the churches were closed for grain, the majority of the population of these points, when explaining to them the need to close the church, did not object to this. Then the closure of churches began without any need for them as premises, in places, in the order of competition between the grain procurement commissioners, who, in addition to fulfilling the grain procurement plan, considered it their duty to close the church (Usmansky, Ostrogozhsky and other districts). At the same time, the attitude of the population to the closure of the church was sometimes ignored and outrages were allowed on the part of local workers, which aroused serious discontent among believers: during the re‐equipment of churches, local workers and Komsomol members made hooligan tricks, they built latrines from icons (the village of Kondrovka, Staro‐Oskol district), etc. ...

The kulaks and the clergy used this to organize demonstrations of believers (mostly women) ʺin defense of religionʺ, simultaneously throwing out slogans of struggle against grain procurements, against collectivization, etc.

Of the 29 performances in the Central Black Earth District in November and December 18 were religiously motivated. The mass, campaigning, closure of churches was stopped by a resolution of the regional committee of the All‐Union Communist Party.

(For typical facts of mass demonstrations on religious grounds, see Appendix [No. 5]).

A significant number of speeches on the basis of grain procurements were caused by excesses and distortions in bringing the grain procurement plan to the courtyard, during the repression of grain donors, when the poor and middle peasant strata were hurt. Typical in this respect is the mass demonstration in the Kupyansk District in Ukraine, which covered 4 villages and was persistent and protracted. The performance was caused by the excesses of the working team, which, in excess of the fulfilled plan, produced blanks in the Senkovsky district. The riots that first broke out in one village quickly spread to neighboring villages. The kulaks and anti‐Soviet elements took the lead in this protest, having seriously opposed the workers who left to liquidate the protest (for details, see Appendix [No. 5]).

Women                 predominate       among the          participants        in            mass demonstrations. In 136 mass demonstrations, the composition and number of participants in which were established in 104 cases (76.5%), women predominated among the participants. With the total number of participants in mass demonstrations in November ‐ 16,055 people and in December ‐ 13,605 people (including the eastern‐national regions), the following districts attract attention with the highest average mass participation of one performance: Tatarstan, NVK, Ukrainian SSR, Central Chernobyl region, SVK, BSSR.

Of the largest performances, it should be noted:

In the Central Black Earth District: in November ‐ performance on the basis of grain procurements in the Lgov District ‐ 800 people, the same in the Staro‐Oskol District ‐ 500 people, on the religious basis in the Rossosh District ‐ 600 people and in the Ostrogozhsky District ‐ 500 people.

In the Ukrainian SSR: in December ‐ in the Kupyansk District, 1,000 people performed on the basis of excesses in grain procurement, four villages of the Senkovsky District were covered.

In the NVK: in November ‐ performance on a religious basis in the Balashov district ‐ 600 people, in December ‐ on the same basis in the Volsky district ‐ 500 people and the Stalingrad district ‐ 600 people, on the basis of collectivization in the Volsky district ‐ 500 people.

In the SVK: in December ‐ performance on a religious basis in the Samara District ‐ 350 people, in November ‐ the same in the Mordovian Autonomous District ‐ 500 people.

In the BSSR: in November on religious grounds in the Vitebsk district ‐ 500 people.

In the Nizhny Novgorod Territory: in November, on the same basis, in the Marvin District ‐ 300 people.

In the Moscow industrial region: in December, on the same soil in the Tula district ‐ one 300 and the other ‐ 400 people.

In Kazakhstan: in November ‐ an armed uprising in the Kustanai district ‐ 500 people (see separate section on Kazakhstan).

In Tataria: in December ‐ performance on a religious basis in the Orsk canton ‐ 800 people.

In Bashkiria: in December ‐ performance on a religious basis in the Ufa canton ‐ 1,000 people.

The largest number of mass demonstrations in November and December we have in the Central Black Region ‐ 29, in the SVK ‐ 21, in Tataria ‐ 21, in the NVK ‐ 19, in the autonomous republics and regions of the CCC ‐ 18, including in Chechnya ‐ 7, in the MPO ‐ 11, in the CCM (without national regions) ‐ 7.

(For facts and tables of mass demonstrations, see Appendices [No. 3,4]).

 The political state of the national regions of the CCM

Chechnya

Counterrevolutionary action in flat Chechnya

By the initial period of the measures carried out in Chechnya to confiscate weapons and the counter‐revolutionary bandit element, there was an increase in the activity of the kulak‐anti‐Soviet element in flat Chechnya (see reviews for October and November 1929).

Operational disarmament activities were mainly concentrated in the mountainous part of Chechnya, which is most saturated with weapons. In parallel with this, the strongest pressure against the kulakprosperous strata was applied in the flat (field) regions of Chechnya, thereby provoking active opposition from the oppressed tops of the aul.

The actions of the kulaks were in the main direction of opposing grain procurements. The excesses that took place during the grain procurement, tax and other campaigns were widely used by the kulakmule elements for agitation among the main strata of the aul.

Back in October‐November, in the villages of Goity, Bachi‐Yurt and in others, a number of kulaksʹ actions, terrorist attacks against activists and mass demonstrations provoked by kulak‐mule elements were recorded. By the end of November and in early December, there was a further revival of anti‐Soviet activity in flat Chechnya, which resulted in a counter‐revolutionary armed uprising led by the former Minister of War of the Uzun‐Khadzhi‐Shita government Istamulov.

On December 7, two teips of ⁴⁰⁰ aul of Goity, under the leadership of the son of Sheikh Khadzhiev, locked themselves in their quarters, setting up armed guards.

December 8 in the village. The shawls were disarmed by the police on the basis of the inventory of the kulaksʹ property.

Istamulov      tried          to           establish contact with         the       bandit‐

counterrevolutionary elements of the neighboring villages in order to organize a wider armed uprising. In the auls of Avtury, Tsentoroi, Tsatsan‐Yurt, Germenchik, Gendyrgen, Starye and Nizhnie Atagi, adjacent to the place of performance, a tense and expectant atmosphere was created.

By the operational measures carried out from December 9 to 13, the demonstration was basically liquidated, 220 people were arrested in Shaly and 144 in Goyty. The leaders of the Shali and Goit protests, Istamulov, Khadzhiev and Kuriev, fled.

Despite the elimination of the demonstration in Goity and Shaly, the situation in Chechnya continued to remain tense throughout December. Kulak anti‐Soviet elements continued intensified rebel agitation and the spread of provocative rumors, calls for the organization of gangs and attempts to create anti‐Soviet groups (the villages of Dyshne‐Vedeno, Ali‐Yurt, Beno‐Yurt, Mesker‐Yurt, etc.). At the same time, agitation against grain procurements is being conducted more and more vigorously. On this basis, already in late December, terrorist attacks and cases of active opposition to the seizure of grain surpluses were recorded (the villages of Avtury, Shali, Aslambekovskoye, V. Gaur, Berdekel, Urus‐Martan). Among the rumors spread, a certain desire of the kulaks to create around Istamulovʹs personality an aura of ʺa national hero, a fighter for the liberation of Chechnya from Russian dominationʺ occupies a significant place.

Despite the incessant and more and more intensifying activity of the kulaks, in the mood of the main strata of the aul there has been a certain change for the better. In a number of villages, the poor and middle peasantsʹ assemblies made decisions not to let the hiding bandits in, to help extradite them to the authorities, to continue grain procurement, etc.

The events in Goyty and Shalyi caused a generally negative attitude among the workers and urban population of the region. Some unhealthy sentiments boiled down to the fact that, resolutely opposing the Goitin and Shali events, an insignificant part of the Russian workers spoke in favor of ʺreprisals against all Chechens who beat the Russians and rise up because the authorities care too much about them.ʺ As a result of the explanatory work carried out among the Chechen workers, some of the hesitations that took place in the first days of the protest almost       stopped. In          the statements           of            the          Chechen               workers, condemnation of the demonstration in Shaly and Goyty begins to prevail.

INGUSHETIA

Activity of kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements

The pressure exerted on the kulaks in the course of the current economic campaigns, which is essentially the first most tangible blow to the Ingush kulak, caused its extraordinary anger and resistance, which was expressed primarily in a series of terrorist acts against representatives of the grassroots government of the poor and rural activists. So, from October 1 to December 25, 1929, according to incomplete data, 21 terrorist attacks were registered, of which 19 or 90% were committed on the basis of grain procurements, while from January 1 to October 1, 20 terrorist attacks took place, of which only 35 % on the basis of grain procurements. The most unfavorable in this respect are Nazran and Prigorodny districts. The greatly increased resistance of the kulaks is also determined by the facts of active armed resistance of the kulaks when confiscated property is confiscated from them. during searches and arrests, the departure of kulaks from auls in order to avoid reprisals or their transition to an illegal position in their own auls. The latter phenomenon is especially widespread among the kulaks, who are condemned in absentia by the courts as malicious nondonors of grain.

However, the central place in the intensified activity of the kulaks continues to be occupied by the proven method of the kulakʹs influence on the broad masses of the population ‐ khabar (rumors and rumors), which are clearly provocative in nature and are used to arouse discontent with the Soviet regime and insurgency among the population.

“The Soviet government registers the girls, gives them registration cards and will send them to the center of the USSR. There girls will be married off to Russians in order to mix mountain blood and thus destroy the Ingush nation. ʺ

“Following the bread, cattle will be selected. The horns of the cattle are already being cut off and cans with numbers are hung up. These cattle will soon be taken away. ʺ

These provocative rumors, very skillfully using the national, every day and religious prejudices of the population, in a number of cases have an impact. Numerous cases of hasty marriage of daughters, sale and slaughter of cattle, anxious moods among the poor peasants and Soviet workers, a drop in the rate of grain procurements and other economic campaigns have been registered. The growth of anti‐Soviet activity of the kulaks is reflected in the activities of the Muslim clergy, sectarians and religious activists, who, for their part, are intensively spreading provocative rumors about the ʺgovernmentʹs march on religionʺ, referring to the Koran and religious authorities who allegedly predict the inevitability of the Soviet government. In most cases, these rumors were accompanied by calls to ʺdefend the religionʺ, to fight with arms to preserve the Mohammedan faith,

In connection with the general revival of the kulak‐mulʹs elements, there is a significant revival in the activities of the band elements. There have been cases of open appearance in some villages of hitherto hiding bandits, numerous cases of threats from them against local workers, an increased demand for weapons, as well as more frequent incidents of bandit gangsʹ raiding and robbing cooperative shops. Five such facts were registered during December.

The events in Chechnya further intensified the activities of the kulakanti‐Soviet elements of the Ingush aul. Rumors about events in the flat part of Chechnya, which quickly penetrated into the region, especially in the villages bordering on Chechnya, were immediately picked up by the kulaks and used for their anti‐Soviet purposes, mainly in agitation against grain procurements. As a result of this agitation, grain procurements in a number of border auls fell significantly, and in some places the supply of grain to the delivery points stopped.

In the Nazran district (bordering Chechnya), during the second fiveday period preceding the events in Chechnya, 54,962 poods were procured, during the third five‐day period ‐ 28,125 poods, and in the fourth five‐day period only 12875 poods.

The growing activity of the kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements in the Ingush aul and their intensified agitation against the current campaigns, in the absence of appropriate explanatory work on the part of local Sovietparty organizations, created a tense situation in the region.

DAGESTAN

Responses to the counter‐revolutionary action in the flat part of Chechnya

Rumors about events in Chechnya take place mainly in the regions bordering on Chechnya and in the Cossack Kizlyar District. In the Avar, Andi, Khasavyurt and Gunib districts, there is an increase in the activity of kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements, leading an intensified insurgent campaign and spreading provocative rumors. This activity of the kulak‐anti‐Soviet element quickly took shape in numerous counterrevolutionary groups. The anti‐Soviet groups existing in the Andy, Avar and Khasav‐Yurt districts also began to manifest themselves significantly. Among the counter‐revolutionary groups that have become active, there is a tendency to unite into a single insurgent organization. The activities of the groups are mainly aimed at organizing an asset, establishing communication with each other, with active gangs and with Chechnya, the spread of insurgency; and the procurement of weapons and ammunition. Provocative rumors, intensively spread by members of anti‐Soviet groups, generally paint the situation created in connection with the events in Chechnya as favorable for an armed uprising. In order to provoke dissatisfaction with the authorities, rumors were also spread that the authorities were preparing to ʺtake away the livestock from the population.ʺ As a result, in a number of regions, especially in Avar, there was an increased slaughter of livestock (aul Untsukul). With the appearance in the border districts of a kulak‐bandit element hiding from Benoi (Chechnya), the spread of provocative rumors, in most cases reporting about the ʺsuccessesʺ of the Chechen rebels, about their support by the rest of the national regions, the Cossacks, etc., increased even more.

The mood of the poor and middle peasants of the border districts, in the areas of influence of counterrevolutionary groups, before the deployment of mass Soviet‐party measures, remained tense and expectant. In connection with the start of mass work with the poor and middle peasants, as well as the transfer of scarce goods and bread to disadvantaged auls to supply the poor, a turning point took place in the mood of the poor and middle peasants. At the general meetings held, the poor and middle peasants discuss the behavior of the Odno‐aul bandits and kulaks and express their readiness to assist in the removal of the bandit‐anti‐Soviet element.

It should be noted that carrying out mass explanatory work with the poor and the fight against kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements is largely hindered by numerous excesses and shortcomings in the work of the grass‐roots soviet, which are widely used by kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements.

In a number of auls of the Avar and Andean districts, workers of the village councils continue a campaign to collect signatures under a statement on the closure of mosques. Often, these signatures are obtained under the appropriate pressure.

These shortcomings in the work of the grassroots Soviet apparatus created a corresponding idea of Soviet power in the poor and middle peasants of the remote auls. In this respect, the statement of the meeting of the poor peasant activists and former Red partisans of the Untsukul aul that in particular, against the enemies who sit in the apparatus”.

In the Kizlyar Okrug, the reactionary and counter‐revolutionary elite of the Cossacks are positive about the action in the flat part of Chechnya and speaks out about the need to support the Chechen rebels. Provocative rumors are spreading that the Terek Cossacks came to the aid of the rebels, as a result of which the Red Army was defeated and forced to leave Chechnya. These rumors are spread by local kulakanti‐Soviet elements, mainly with connections with the Chechens of the Gudermes district.

Political state of Adjara

Countering school building

Under the influence of the incessant agitation of the kulak‐Mula elements against Soviet schools (see reviews for October and November), an increase in anti‐Soviet sentiments continues to be observed among the population of a number of regions of Adjara. The transfer of new teachers to the field in early December, the holding of rallies and propaganda and explanatory work among the population for visiting Soviet schools, further increased the activity of the kulakanti‐Soviet elements. The latter continue to urge the population to fight against Soviet schools, expel and boycott teachers and persecute parents who send their children to Soviet schools. At the same time, they spread rumors about the forthcoming new uprising in the Khuli district, war and intervention, accompanied by threats of inevitable reprisals against the supporters of Soviet schools. ʺThe hour of the uprising is approaching,

As a result of such agitation of the kulak‐mulle elements, which still retained a significant influence on the main strata of the population, there were cases of opposition to Soviet schools and from the poor and middle peasants. In addition, in most of the villages of the Khulinsky and Kedsky counties, the percentage of attendance at Soviet schools has significantly decreased, and in some villages of Gordzhomsky, Uchamsky and Riketsky, the population has completely stopped sending children to the Soviet school.

In with. The population of Tsablan is so intimidated by the circulating rumors of an uprising, which will be supported by the British, already disembarking from the sea, that they have stopped sending children to the Soviet school, with the exception of some communists.

In with. Didi‐Adjara even the teacher himself stopped teaching his children.

Not confining themselves to anti‐school agitation and the spread of provocative rumors, kulak‐mulle elements in places go to active action, disrupt general meetings devoted to the school issue (villages of Papashvileba, Agara), intimidate children going to the Soviet school and force them to return home (villages of Tskhaklisi, Shubani, Tsablan), encourage the peasants to take hostile actions against the Soviet regime, promising that ʺif there is repression, then the rebels and Turks will free you.ʺ

Noteworthy is the following maneuver used in the village. Riketi led by Khoja, a group of former participants in the March performance. The designated members of the group insist on the construction of a new school and demand the destruction of the madrasah. Meanwhile, a functioning Soviet school is located in the building of the madrasah. This maneuver is designed for the failure of the current academic year. The same group managed to organize a delegation to the Khuli executive committee with the specified requirements.

It should be noted that agitation against Soviet schools is also being carried out by individual members of the village council, communists and Komsomol members, who openly spoke at meetings against sending children to Soviet schools (Dioknisi village) and persuading peasants not to attend meetings devoted to the school issue (Agara village).

Dissatisfaction with logging

The arrival in the Kobuleti and Khulinsky districts of a party of workers for felling and harvesting timber was used by kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements in order to disrupt logging. Basically, the agitation against logging boiled down to the fact that it was impossible to allow the export of timber, which the local peasants were not given in sufficient quantities, and that the arriving party of workers consisted of newcomer Georgians, who were taking bread from the local population, thereby depriving the latter of their earnings. This agitation had its effect. In the villages of Tskhemvali, Chahati, Zeraboseli, Chvany, Tskhemlis and other peasants began to interfere with the workers, forcing them to leave the forest. There were also threats to the workers (the villages of Zeraboseli and Chakhati). In with. Tskhemvali, one of the leaders of the anti‐logging campaign, a former trader, came to the logging commissioner, demanded from the last cleaning of the premises he occupied, and leaving together with the workers. Under pressure from peasants, agitated by the former merchant, the commissioner had to obey and leave for Kobuleti. The workers in the village were dispersed in a similar way. Meskhi‐Kedakh.

Agricultural tax

The taxation of the unified agricultural tax had a significant impact on the income of the clergy, in connection with which the mullahs and khojas led intensified campaigning for the ʺequalizing taxʺ and for a general reduction in the rates of the unified agricultural tax. In some cases, the agitation of representatives of the Muslim community was successful. So, at a general meeting in the village. Chahati poor people about taxing a fellow villager with an individual tax of 47 rubles. expressed: “It is better to distribute these 47 rubles. on all of us. Everyone will find 1 ruble to help their fellow villager. ʺ

The attitude of the general population towards the new law on the unified agricultural tax is positive. The poor mainly express dissatisfaction with the under‐taxation of the wealthy and the kulaks (Kobuleti district).

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU

Messing

Head of the Secret Operations Directorate of the OGPU

Evdokimov

Pom. Head of the Information Department of the OGPU

Zaporozhets

Correct: Secretary of INFO

Kucherov

 Appendix No. 1. Kinks and distortions in the practice of grain procurement

SVK

Buguruslan district.  In N. Sultangulovsky village council of the Alekseevsky district (unites three Tatar settlements and one Russian village of Molozino), the control figure is 16,000 poods. spread out only between two villages, and the remaining two villages, which have a significant number of wealthy kulak farms, are not taxed. The greatest burden of grain procurements fell on the Molozinsky settlement (9000 poods). Here grain procurement workers (most members of the CPSU) made a number of gross excesses. In order to find bread, the earth was dug up, a pond was unloaded. The discovery of two sewing machines and a harrow at the bottom of the pond gave rise to unacceptable bullying against the peasants. So, for example, one of the delegates at a meeting once said: ʺDig your own grave alive, we will bury it alive.ʺ

On the initiative of the grain procurement officials, over 300 people (including old people and women) were arrested and put in a cold barn, where they were kept for up to three days. Commissioner Sayfulin arrested and put in a cold cell a 72‐year‐old man, and at night he sent him to the so‐called military headquarters organized by him at the village. Colosino. The middle peasant summoned to him for individual processing, the delegates were forced to confess that the found pit with bread (4 poods) belonged to him, but despite assurances that the pit was not his, one of the delegates, taking a rope, led the middle peasant to the yard, where he locked in a cold shed, holding for a whole day. In this village, out of 42 houses, 11 households were sold out, and 61 st. UK. All property was described and sold, up to kitchen curtains, hoes, etc.

UKRAINE

Proskurovsky district. In with. Pakhutins (inhabited by a significant number of anti‐Soviet elements) local activists (former Petliurites, punishers) committed gross mockery of peasants who did not fulfill their grain procurement assignments. So, for example, the middle peasant summoned to the presidium of the meeting, who refused to export grain surpluses, was immediately beaten by the poor activist. Another poor man, who declared that he did not have bread, was also beaten at the meeting. Moreover, fists also took part in the beating. After half an hour of bullying, he was released with the words: ʺWell, go, rest,ʺ and then beaten again. Two other middle peasants were subjected to the same beatings. On the orders of the grain procurement officer, one cam was pushed into the courtyard, where he was beaten with his back against the fence. At one of the meetings in the house of one middle peasant, the latter, fearing beatings, ran out into the yard, where he was caught and dragged back into the house and, after putting out the lights, they beat him. Similar cases of beatings were practiced in relation to other middle peasants. The chairman of the village council, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Velichko was present at some of these bullying. The peasants regarded this as a completely legal action of the local village council since this is done in the presence of a member of the CEC. A number of complaints from peasants to the regional prosecutor remained unanswered. In total, 19 people were beaten in this village, of which: three kulaks, three poor peasants, the rest are middle peasants.

The case is under investigation.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

Appendix No. 2. Kazakhstan. Excesses in the practice of grain procurement

Petropavlovsk district.  In with. In the Vysokoye Volodarskiy district, the grain procurement officials confiscated all the bread from one lowpowered middle peasant, and during a search they put family members half‐naked in a cold barn.

In stts. Novo‐Nikolskaya, Voroshilovskiy district (Russian Cossacks), a grain procurement commissioner (he is also an authorized representative of the Voroshilovskiy regional executive committee) beat one middle peasant and, threatening to be shot, demanded the delivery of bread. In with. Metlishyno Trudovogo District, the representatives for grain procurements (members of the CPSU (b)) at a general meeting of peasants on the issue of increasing the rate of grain procurement, said: ʺToday will be St. Bartholomewʹs night, you need to beat the kulaks.ʺ After the meeting, they supplied some members of the village council with hunting rifles and gave them the following order: ʺWork, beat those who resist and drive them out into the street.ʺ In fulfillment of this order, the members of the village council summoned all kulaks to the village council, beat the poor and middle peasants, rode on horseback, put them in a cold barn, put the kulaks on top of the poor peasants, shouting: ʺGo for bread.ʺ Under the influence of talk about St. Bartholomewʹs night, some peasants came home, put on clean linen in anticipation of death. (The case for the indicated commissioners is in the district CC VKP (b)).

In with. Karamyshevsky, Shchuchin District, the grain procurement officer put one middle peasant in his underwear in a cold barn, and when the latter refused to undress his fur coat and felt boots, he pointed a revolver at him and, threatening to be shot, forced him to undress; he also put two poor people in a cold barn.

In stts. Bogoyavlenka of the Presnogorkovsky district, the grain procurement officer took the wealthy and middle peasants out into the street and froze them for several hours, offering to hand over the bread. (The authorized person has been removed from work and held accountable).

Commissioner for grain procurement in stc. Sibirka (Russian Cossacks) of the Presnogorkovsky district, under the threat of execution, forced one middle peasant to take out the last 26 poods. of bread. He also put 16 people in a cold barn, including women. One poor man, the wife of a Red Army soldier, was summoned by him to the komsode, she was asked to hand over the surplus bread, to the objection that she had no surplus, they put her undressed several times in the snow. (The commissioner was removed from work and brought to trial.)

Similar cases of kinks were noted in p. Sivkovo Labor District, s. Grachevka, Volodarsky district and a number of other villages.

Urals District.  The ombudsperson for grain procurements and the chairman of the village council No. 12 of the Karatyubinsk district, in order to influence non‐donors of bread, practiced locking the latter in cold sheds in their underwear, and such measures were also applied to the middle peasants.

Commissioner for grain procurement in the village. Mergenev, Lbischensky district, arrested 6 peasants for not handing over surplus grain and put them in their underwear in a cold barn.

Aktobe district.  Commissioner for grain procurement in the village. Uspensky, Khodbinsky District, the grain procurement plan was spread among all social strata, in addition, it additionally imposed tasks on those who had already fulfilled the plan, including the middle peasants and the poor.

Commissioner for grain procurement in the village. In Karaganda, the Khodbinsky district, he arrested and put in a cold barn one middle peasant, allegedly for not delivering grain surpluses.

Similar cases of bends were noted in the Semipalatinsk District.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

Appendix No. 3. Table of mass demonstrations for November and

December 1929 in the USSR

Areas

Numb er                 of perfor mance s                 in Nove mber and Dece mber

Mo   nth s

Numb er                 of perfor mance s

Based on:

The numb er of perfor mance s, the numb er of partici pants in which is establi shed

Of these,   the numb er     of   perfor mance   s with a predo minan ce             of wome n

Total numb er             of partici pants in perfor mance s

Not e

Reli giou s

Grain procu reme nt

Collect ivizatio n

Kulak provo cation s

Ot he rs

1

2

3

4

five

6

7

8

ni ne

ten

eleven

12

thirt een

 

CCh O		29		XI		17		7		6		4		‐		‐		fifteen		thirtee n		4270
				XII		12		elev en		‐		1		‐		‐		eleven		nine		3010
Ukrai nian SSR		ten		XI		five		1		3		1		‐		‐		4		‐		570
				XII		five		4		1		‐		‐		‐		3		2		1500
CCM		7		XI		6		1		4		‐		1		‐		6		4		780
				XII		1		‐		1		‐		‐		‐		1		1		100
NVK		19		XI		7		4		3		‐		‐		‐		6		five		1700
				XII		12		8		‐		4		‐		‐		nine		8		2700
SVK		21		XI		fifteen		ten		1				‐		1*		fourte en		eleven		2550		Incl udi ng Mor dov
				XII		6		five		‐		1		‐		‐		4		3		750		sky regi on.
Siberi a		4		XI		4		1		3		‐		‐		‐		3		3		291
				XII		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐
IGO		eleven		XI		five		4		‐		1		‐		‐		4		3		173
				XII		6		five		1		‐		‐		‐		6		6		1155
Nizh ny Novg orod regio n		4		XI		1		1		‐		‐		‐		‐		1		1		300
				XII		4		1		‐		2		‐		‐		2		2		140
BSSR		4		XI		3		2		‐		1		‐		‐		2		2		600
				XII		1		1		‐		‐		‐		‐		1		‐		100
	West ern regio n		6		XI		4		3		‐		1		‐		‐		4		4		580
					XII		2		1		‐		1		‐		‐		2		1		90
	Nort h edge		1		XI		1		1		‐		‐		‐		‐		1		1		200
					XII		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐		‐
	DVK		2		XI		1		‐		‐		‐		1		‐		1		‐		200
					XII		1		‐		‐		‐		1		‐		1		‐		100
	Thro ugho ut the USSR with out natio nal repu blics and regio ns		118		XI		69		35		20		eleven		2		1		61		47		11914
					XII		49		36		3		nine		1		‐		40		32		9646
	By easte rn repu blics and regio ns		50		XI		20		five		ten		2		1		2 **		fifteen		ten		4141		See dep. tabl e
					XII		thirty		ten		7		eleven		‐		2 **		20		fifteen		3955
	Arou nd the USSR		168		XI		89		40		thirty		thirtee n		3		3		76		57		16055
					XII		79		46		ten		20		1		2		60		47		13601

Notes:

* Data for December is incomplete [document note].

** Column 9 includes a speech motivated by the accidental murder of a girl by a communist among the ʺothersʺ in the SVK.

Among the ʺothersʺ in the eastern national republics in November [referred to] one speech on the basis of land management, the other on the basis of industrial difficulties; in December ‐ one against scarlet fever vaccination (Kabardino‐Balkarian region) and one on the basis of dissatisfaction with the distribution of manufactured goods (document note).

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

 

Appendix No. 4. Table of mass demonstrations for November and

December 1929 by eastern national republics and regions

R ayo ns	Numb er                 of perfor mance s                 in Nove mber and Dece mber	Mo   nth s	Numb er                 of perfor mance s	Based on:					The numb er                 of perfor mance s, the numb er of partici pants in which is establi shed	Of these,   the numbe r                 of   perfor mance   s with a predo minan ce                 of wome n	Total numb   er                of partici pants   in perfor mance s	No te
				Reli giou s	Grain procu reme nt	Collecti vizatio n	Kulak provo cation s	Ot her s
1	2	3	4	five	6	7	8	nin e	ten	eleven	12	thir tee n
Tarta ry	21	XI	6	4	‐	1	‐	1	4	4	2400
		XII	fifteen	8	‐	6	‐	1	ten	8	1900
	6	XI	4	‐	2	1	‐	1	4	2	575
Kaba rdino ‐ Balka r regio n		XII	2	‐	1	‐	‐	1	2	1	270
Chec hnya	7	XI	3	‐	3	‐	‐	‐	1	‐	500
		XII	4	‐	4	‐	‐	‐	1	‐	70
Bash kiria	2	XI	2	1	‐	1	‐	‐	2	2	1035
Crim ea	2	XII	2	1	‐	1	‐	‐	2	1	130
Kaza khsta n	7	XI	7	1	five	‐	1	6	4	4	666
Dage stan	1	XII	1	‐	‐	1	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐
Kara chay	2	XII	2	‐	‐	2	‐	‐	2	2	310
Ingus hetia	1	XII	1	‐	1	‐	‐	‐	1	1	200
Adyg e‐ Cher kessi a	1	XII	1	‐	1	‐	‐	‐	1	‐	40
Total:	50	XI	20	five	ten	2	1	2	fifteen	ten	4141
		XII	thirty	ten	7	31	‐	2	20	fifteen	3955

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

Appendix No. 5. Mass demonstrations Kupyansky District (Ukraine). At the beginning of December 1929, in two villages of the Senkovsky district, Novo‐Osinovka and Glushkovka, mass demonstrations of peasants took place against the workersʹ brigades who were carrying out grain procurement in these villages. These performances were caused mainly by excesses on the part of the team members.

On the morning of December 4 in the village. In Novo‐Osinovka, a working brigade that arrived convened a rural asset, where it was decided to procure 1,000 poods in excess of the plan. of bread. This decision soon became known to the entire village, and when the brigade began to check the grain surplus at one of the kulaks, a crowd of peasants (70 people) gathered to prevent this. From the crowd that surrounded the house, kulaks were shouting to the workersʹ brigade: ʺItʹs enough for you to take bread, we wonʹt give it, the workers live well, but we walk in rags.ʺ The members of the workersʹ brigade, fearing reprisals, rushed to the village council. Sometime later, the alarm was sounded in the local church. The gathered crowd of up to 500 people surrounded the village council, where the workers were hiding, and held them until evening. Shouts were heard from the crowd: ʺNobody will take the bread out of here.ʺ

On December 7, a mass demonstration took place in the nearby village. Glushkovka, which fulfilled the grain procurement plan in full. Here, as in Novo‐Osinovka, the reason for the speech was the excesses in the work of the workersʹ brigades who arrived in the village to pump out grain surpluses imposed for the third time in excess of the plan. At the same time, the working brigades (3) demanded the export of all grain reserves, not leaving even the necessary minimum for sowing. When indignant individual peasants turned to the chairman of the village council for clarification, asking him: ʺWho gave the workersʹ brigade the right to seize all grain even from the poor and middle peasants,ʺ the chairman of the village council added [oil] to the fire with his statement: “I donʹt know who they are, but I know that they came to take all the bread from you. ʺ

Gradually, a crowd gathered near the village council, demanding the termination of grain procurements and the expulsion of workersʹ brigades from the village, and then, breaking up into groups, went to the place of work of the brigades to oppose the seizure of grain. The members of the brigades fled from the village. When representatives of the regional authorities arrived in this village with two authorized brigades who had fled from Glushkovka earlier, the peasants rushed to the cars shouting: ʺBeat them, scoundrels, drag them, kill them on the spot.ʺ Representatives of the local authorities who arrived were forced to flee. During a speech in the village. In Novo‐Osinovka, a crowd of peasants beat the chairman of the KNS, a member of the grain procurement commission, and intended to beat an activist who had escaped, a member of the POP.

December 7 in the village. Novo‐Osinovka, a second speech took place demanding the release of the arrested initiators of the first. The participants in the December 7 demonstration were mainly women, including 10 kulaks who did not fulfill the grain procurement plan. The initiative to speak came from s. Novo‐Osinovka. In the village of Glushkovka, soon after the speech, the peasants were pacified. After the explanation, the local population at the general meeting adopted a resolution on the need to investigate the illegal actions of the labor brigade and the anti‐Soviet element, condemning the actions of the initiators, participants in the mass protests.

The population did not interfere with the work of the district commission, which investigated the events. However, with each visit of the district and district authorities, crowds of the population gathered in order to prevent the arrest of the initiators. The most protracted performance was in the village. Novo‐Osinovka, where the kulaks managed to subjugate the poor and middle peasants, who were also affected by the illegal actions of the workersʹ brigades. Fists and wealthy s. Novo‐Osinovka kept in touch with the Glushkovites all the time, counting on them as a reserve in case of active action. After performances on December 4 and 7 in the villages of Glushkovka and Novo‐Osinovka, repeated performances took place, covering two other villages in the same region ‐ Kurilovka and Kolesnikovka.

It should be noted that in the interval between December 8 and 20, the situation in the villages of Novo‐Osinovka and Glushkovka remained tense. The population of both villages put forward the same demands related to grain procurement, party members and activists were beaten. The fact that these settlements border on the Belgorod District of the Central Black Earth Region, where a number of serious protests have recently taken place, forced the district authorities to take measures to remove active instigators and participants in the protests.

December 23, 1929 in the village. Novo‐Osinovka, when the 14 arrested initiators of the first protest were being withdrawn from the village, a crowd of 150 people, armed with stakes and stones, attacked the accompanying detachment, beating some of the guards. One arrested person was beaten off by the crowd. In with. Kolesnikovka crowd of about 100 people, accompanying the arrested, went to the village. Glushkovka, where 13 initiators of the first speech were also seized. 300 people from Glushkovites and Kolesnikovites attacked a detachment of guards in order to free the arrested. Having beaten off two of those arrested, the crowd took the remaining four employees of the GPU and the police as hostages to pump out weapons. From here, the Glushkovites and Kolesnikovites went to the village. MaloOsinovka and, connecting with the local residents, went in a crowd of 1000 people to the station. Kupyansk‐Lugovaya. The crowd was armed with pitchforks braids and stakes. By the measures taken, the crowd was dispersed, and shooting into the air was used.

At 3 oʹclock. On December 23, the GPU officers captured in Glushkovka were released by a specially sent detachment of mounted militia and railroad guard riflemen. It was established that the captured employee hostages could not offer resistance due to the fact that, while defending themselves from the crowd of arrested persons, they used up all the cartridges in the process of warning shooting into the air.

As noted above, the demonstrations were mainly caused by excesses on the part of the workersʹ brigades who arrived to carry out grain procurements. Despite the fact that the plan of grain procurements in the village. Glushkovka was completed in full, the district workers decided to give an assignment for the procurement of another 3000 poods, for which a working brigade was sent there, which allowed a number of ugly phenomena ‐ rampant searches, re‐taxation of the poor and middle peasants, rough treatment of the population, etc.

In with. Kurilovka, the chief representative, a railway worker, on his own initiative began to work to close the church. For this purpose, he summoned the priest and demanded that he sign a renunciation of dignity, as well as that the priest would preach a sermon demanding that the church be closed.

Especially should be noted the behavior of the chairman of the district commission (non‐partisan), who, being authorized for grain procurement, incited the peasants to a mass protest, declaring to them: ʺIf you want to get rid of grain procurements, you must act in an organized manner, otherwise you will be left without a pound of bread.ʺ Interestingly, when he was surrounded by a crowd during a performance with other grain procurement workers, a group of ten percent kulaks took him under their protection and provided horses for leaving the village.

Before the departure of the workersʹ brigades in the Senkovsky district, a meeting was held with the participants of the last meeting, at which the secretary of the district committee gave the following instructions to the departing workers: ʺBread is mainly taken from the kulak, to squeeze a little of the middle peasant and not touch the poor peasant.ʺ Answering questions about possible distortions of the class line during grain procurements, he said: ʺIf we twist the class line, but fulfill the grain procurement plan, we will be beaten once, and if we twist and fail to fulfill the plan, we will be beaten twice.ʺ ...

Kharkiv district (Ukraine). In with. Zarozhniy Chuguevsky district On December 16, local farm laborers at their general meeting decided to initiate a petition to close the church and adapt it to a hut‐reading room. Upon learning of this, the local priest, through active churchmen and kulaks, notified the peasants, campaigning for the prevention of the closure of the church.

On December 17, in the building of the reading room, a crowd of 400 women gathered, led by the wife of a kulak, a former policeman Mikhailovsky, and demanded from the head. the hut‐reading room immediately throw the cabinets out of the hut‐reading room in order to hang icons and arrange a divine service. Having received a refusal, the crowd went to the chairman of the village council, presenting the same demands. The crowd did not disperse until the arrival of the aforementioned priest, who, having invited the crowd to church, told her: “This night we all need to pray. The Soviet enemy is advancing on us. ʺ Then the crowd dispersed.

The next day, December 18, the crowd, led by the same

Mikhailovskaya, again came to the hut‐reading room, where they tore up posters, portraits of the leaders, threw out tables and smashed the radio. The aforementioned Mikhailovskaya showed herself most actively, shouting: ʺSmash this evil spirit to hell.ʺ Some participants called for the massacre of the Komsomol members. The crowd soon dispersed.

On December 21, under the influence of these rumors about the upcoming closure of the church, a crowd of women again appeared at the premises of the village council and demanded that the question of closing the church be lifted. The crowd, breaking into the village council, made a riot, tore off the walls and tore up the portraits of the leaders.

The question of closing the church, raised by public organizations in the village, has not yet been approved by the higher Soviet bodies, neither by the district committee, nor by the regional executive committee.

Balashov district (NVK). December 23 in the village. Repnoi Vershiny of the Balashov district, the general meeting of peasants passed a resolution on the removal of church bells, making them as a deposit for a tractor for the newly organized collective farm. On December 24, in the afternoon, the village council, with the participation of the poor, removed the bells. In the evening, the pre‐village council for nonpayment of the tax for the church by the church council locked the church, taking the keys for himself, and informed the chairman of the church council and the church leader about this. The latter, with the permission of the chairman of the village council, appointed a meeting of believers to raise funds to pay off the debt. Up to 400 people attended the meeting (most of them women). At the end of the discussion of the question of raising funds from among those present, shouts were heard: ʺThe village council deceived us, we must take the bells back and force the village council to open a church.ʺ The meeting allocated a commission of 12 people (exclusively from the poor), which was instructed to petition the village council for the opening of the church and the return of the bells. She was also tasked with guarding the removed bells. As a result of the speech of a member of the Komsomol who was present at the meeting, who spoke about the complete closure of the church, noise and shout rose among those present. ʺDrive the Komsomol members out of here, take the bells away from them, down with the collective farms, we will not go into them if the bells are not given to us.ʺ Moreover, the chairman of the church council immediately beat this Komsomol member.

The next morning, notified by the well‐to‐do, women gathered at the building of the village council in the number of 100 people, making noise. Attempts by the chairman of the village council and the district police officer to calm the crowd were unsuccessful and the crowd continued to make noise. The chairman of the church council (she is also a member of the board of the collective farm and PO), addressing the chairman of the village council, said: “Look, the masses have come themselves; you think we teach the poor, no, they came themselves, but I did not bring them. ʺ Shouts were heard from the crowd: “Give us the keys to the church, why did the chairman of the village council unauthorizedly remove the bells, but they took away our bread and cattle, and now they have reached the bells. The chairman of the village council is not ours, but a visitor, he robbed us, he must be replaced, who forcibly wants to drive us to the collective farm.

The men in the crowd instigated to crack down on the chairman of the village council, shouting: “Take the chairman by the throat, why look at them, their souls, this is not power, but bastards, robbers, communists. We need to shoot them because they send Komsomol members to rob us. Letʹs leave the collective farms. ʺ The poor man was immediately beaten by the crowd. Seeing the indignation of the crowd, the chairman of the village council together with the district supervisor locked themselves in the building of the village council. The crowd began to tear down the doors, shouting: ʺAnyway, we will get you out, we will set fire to the village council, then you will leave yourself.ʺ The crowd pursued the messenger of the Komsomol member to report the incident to the RIK and did not let him out of the village.

In the evening, at the initiative of the chairman of the village council, a meeting of women was called and, under the influence of the persistent demands of those present, the keys to the church were returned. Not satisfied with this, the meeting demanded written permission from the chairman of the village council to open the church and that the church was opened personally by the chairman of the village council.

Having received the keys to the church, the crowd immediately pulled back the lying bells, after which they dispersed to their homes.

Stalingrad district.  In with. V. Elshanku, Stalingrad region, on

December 11, a commission arrived to remove the bells in the Alexander Nevsky Church. Summoned by the alarm bell, a crowd of peasants, numbering up to 600 people (including up to 500 women), gathered to the church, shouting: ʺWe did not make any decisions, and therefore we will not allow to remove the bells,ʺ attacked the members of the commission, threatening them with reprisals.

The members of the commission called by telephone from the city of Stalingrad an equestrian detachment of militia, which arrived in the amount of 9 people, headed by a representative of the regional department. The crowd, incited by the anti‐Soviet element and the traders, shouts: “We will kill you all and we will die ourselves, but we will not give the bell. We are hungry, naked and capable of anything.” She attacked the policemen. And bricks were thrown at the policemen. As a result, 7 people of them were slightly wounded in the head.

The crowd dispersed only after the representative of the okradmotdel removed the policemen and gave the order to suspend the work on removing the bells, returning the keys to the church.

The crowd dispersed and assigned 50 people to guard the church.

The removal of the bells was carried out in accordance with the clause of the agreement on socialist competition, concluded by the Elshan village council. Moreover, the contract also provided for the closure of the church. No awareness campaign was conducted among the population beforehand. And when the cultural brigade, who arrived from the region to hold the socialist competition, raised the issue of removing the bells, at the meeting the proposal of the village activists was rejected and a resolution was adopted: “Remove the small bells and leave the big ones”.

After the small bells were removed in the presence of specially summoned representatives of the Industrial Collegeʹs patronage community, the village activists insisted that the large bell be removed as well.

On December 8, upon the arrival of the commissioner for carrying out complete collectivization, the question of removing the bells was raised a second time at a meeting of peasants. However, the proposal to remove the large bell by the assembly was greeted with a loud noise, and some of the peasants defiantly left the assembly. Selktiv managed to carry out the proposal to remove the bell.

The kulaks and the anti‐Soviet element around the issue of removing the bells ⁴⁰¹ launched a wide campaign, and on December 11 the wives of the kulaks began to group women around them from 4 oʹclock in the morning.

A priest and 9 kulaks were arrested in the case.

Kamyshinsky District (NVK). In with. V. Valkley of the Nikolaev area, on December 14, a meeting of the poor was held on the issue of grain procurement and collectivization. During the meeting, a group of kulaks and fists burst into the room where the meeting was taking place. Having pounced on the presidium of the meeting, the kulaks tried to deal with the secretary of the VKP (b) cell and the rapporteur on collectivization, shouting: “Why are you forcing us to go to the collective farm, you are drinking blood from the population and want to ride on our backs; break the resolution. ʺ The meeting was closed, but the fists, having surrounded the presidium in a tight ring, did not part for a long time. At the time of the kulaksʹ speech, the telephone wires connecting Balykley with other villages in the region were broken.

On December 20, on the issue of collectivization, meetings of peasants in schools were scheduled. Learning about this, under the leadership of one of the kulaks, a crowd of 300 peasants came to the building of the village council and demanded that the meeting be held in the street. Representatives of the local authorities who came out to the crowd were greeted with shouts and whistles. The initiators of the speech were arrested.

Mordovia region ⁴⁰². December 23 in the village. In Cheremyshevo, a general meeting of peasants was organized on the issue of tractors in this village. A crowd of women gathered at the building of the village council (where the meeting was taking place), which, after the opening of the meeting, raised a noise and shout: ʺEnough patience, we do not need tractors and Soviet power.ʺ When the speaker, authorized by the RIK, began the report, the women shouted ʺhurrayʺ and did not allow him to speak, and when he was silent, the crowd began to shout: ʺRemove the flags from the mosques, restore the mullahs and do not tax them.ʺ As a result, the meeting was disrupted. The representative of the RIK, fearing reprisals, sent for help in the nearest village. Lyambille, from where the chairman of the village council and the URO agent soon arrived. However, attempts to calm the crowd have come to nothing. The women did not leave for a long time. The womenʹs performance was provoked by fists and mullahs,⁴⁰³.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

Table of the strike movement at the enterprises of the state industry of the USSR for November‐December 1929

About tr asli promys h laziness

Causes of strikes

Total:

Unde r the will of exist ence work ing salar y latte

Sle ep rac es pri ce

Za der live ly sal ary ar mo r

Due     to the rationali zation and the transitio n          to compact ed work

Condi tion their labor

Due     to dissatisf action with the quality of     raw material s

Abse nt prod pleas ure

Oth er reas ons

zabas s tovoc

share nickna mes

loss of man ‐days

XI

XI I

X I

X II

X I

X II

XI

XII

XI

XII

XI

XII

X I

XI I

X I

XI I

XI

XI I

XI

XI I

XI

XI I

Metalw orkers

1

‐

4

1

‐

1

1

‐

1

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

7

2

530

31 4

63 2

81

Textile workers

2

‐

‐

2

‐

‐

‐

‐

3

2

1

‐

‐

‐

2

1

8

fi v e

323

32 2

31 8

10 4

Miners

‐

1

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

1

‐

‐

‐

‐

1

1

‐

2

2

110

14 7

95

26 7

Chemist s

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

1

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

1

‐

fourt een

‐

2

‐

Seasons

fiv e

3

‐

‐

3

‐

‐

‐

1

1

‐

‐

‐

1

2

‐

ele ven

fi v e

692

59 7

46 8

69 7

Other

2

2

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

‐

3

‐

‐

‐

‐

1

‐

3

fi v e

190

16 9

20 7

11 7

Total:

te n

6

4

3

3

1

1

‐

7

6

1

‐

‐

2

6

1

32

19

1860   *

15 49

17 22

12 66

Note:

* In the document, the total is incorrect; followed by 1859.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov