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Review of the political state of the USSR in March 1929

Top secret

Notes

*  In the text, the section is titled: ʺThe mood of the unemployed (for February‐March)ʺ.

** In the text, the section is titled: ʺPeasantsʺ.

*** In the text, the section is titled: ʺReflection of the publication of the law on the unified agricultural tax on the attitude of the peasantry to the sowing campaign and the course of the campaign.ʺ

**** In the text, the section is titled: ʺAnti‐Soviet manifestations

(January‐March 1929)ʺ.

Workers

Food difficulties in the city

In March, a transition was made to the normalized supply of bread to the population in cities and industrial districts that had not been translated earlier ‐ Kazan, Kharkov, Sevastopol, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Ryazan, Kaluga, etc. Food books were issued in some cities in an insufficiently organized manner. Preparatory, organizational and explanatory work was not carried out. Long queues were created for books, the apparatus was not prepared for quick and precise work with the issuance of books ‐ Irkutsk, Yaroslavl, Novgorod.

In areas where the transfer to rationed supply was carried out in March, there were significant queues before the introduction of books. The increased demand was presented mainly by the unworked population, buying bread in reserve. In Kazan in March there were lines of 300‐400 people, in Sevastopol in early March the queues increased to 400‐500 people, in Krasnodar ‐ up to 500 people, in Nikolaevsk‐on‐Amur ‐ up to 500 people, in Khabarovsk ‐ up to 200‐300 people people and in some cases ‐ up to 500‐700 people (March 5‐7). With the introduction of sampling books, the queues for bread almost stopped.

In March, grain delivery rates were reduced in some large industrial regions. In Tula, the norm is set at 500 g per worker (at the military and metal factories of the local industry, workers receive an additional 300 g of white bread). In the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk province. the following norms have been established: 12 kg of flour per month for workers and employees employed in production, and 8 kg of flour for families of workers and employees and other working population.

The decrease in the norms caused discontent among some of the workers of the Ivanovo‐Voznesensk factories. In some factories, meetings on the issue of grain supply were stormy. Those who advocated the change in norms were not allowed to speak. At a meeting of workers of the first shift of the factory. Zinovievʹs resolution on the need to agree to a temporary reduction in rations was not adopted, the workers refused to accept any resolution. At a meeting of workers of the first shift of the Sosnevskaya field, it was decided to strive to retain the previous 20‐pound share for the consumer. The meeting elected three delegates to defend this decision at a meeting of the City Council. At the Teikovskaya factory it was also decided to apply for the preservation of the previous norm.

The norm for workers of the Mytishchensky plant (Moscow province) was reduced to 600 g per day and for family members to 300 g.

Workers in two shops at the Kolomna plant are demanding an increase in rations to £ 3 per day. The night shift of the boiler shop, under the influence of the agitation of the shop professional representative, decided to categorically seek to increase the ration, and otherwise, to stop working.

Workersʹ dissatisfaction is also caused by interruptions in the supply of sugar, soap, oil and other products (Moscow, Leningrad, the Urals, Saratov, Kharkov, etc.) and by the rise in prices for basic necessities in cooperation and on the private market.

At logging sites in Mginsky and other districts of the Leningrad District, speculators sell bread for 60 kopecks. per kilogram.

The workers of the Zlatoustinsky plant have established a norm of 100 grams of meat per day per eater.

Interruptions with meat in Khabarovsk. In the private market, meat is sold for 3 rubles. per kilogram (cooperative price 78‐90 kopecks).

In Vladivostok, rye flour is sold for 10 rubles. per pood, wheat ‐ 26‐27 rubles each, rice ‐ 20 rubles, the price of corn rose from 5 rubles. up to 9‐10 rubles. Lack of vegetables.

The food difficulties caused an anxious mood among the most backward groups of workers (some enterprises in Moscow and Ivanovo‐Voznesensk provinces). There are isolated cases of withdrawal of deposits from savings banks (Podolsk steam locomotive repair plant NKPS) and sale of bonds. Some workers say that “war is possible and the bonds will disappear”, etc. (Orekhovo‐Zuevsky factories, Tezinskaya factory, B. Krasnaya factory and other IvanovoVoznesensk factories).

Food difficulties are most acutely felt in non‐industrial cities and towns. The working population receives bread and other food products at a significantly reduced rate (the cities of the Central Black Earth Region ‐ Voronezh, Morshansk, Kursk, Oryol and other small cities and towns in the Ukraine, etc.). The queues for bread in these areas reach 200‐300 and more people.

In Kursk, the norms for the supply of bread have been reduced to 300 g per person per day. There is no bread in the market. On March 19, the co‐organizations had a 3‐day supply of bread.

In the townships of the Kremenchug District, the populationʹs need for bread is met to an extremely insignificant extent. In Novo‐Georgievsk, the working population receives 200 g of bread a day.

There have been several incidents due to food difficulties.

In Krasnodar, the crowd, wanting to take the line for bread, broke through the chain of policemen guarding the bazaar.

In N. Ladoga (Leningrad region), the unorganized population, thanks to a protest, achieved the supply of bread by reducing workersʹ norms.

In Kiev, under the influence of the agitation of the anti‐Soviet element, those standing in line tried to destroy a store. The disorder was eliminated by the police.

In Rostov there was a speech by the homeless (100 people came to the chairman of the city council demanding bread and work).

Strikes and conflicts at state‐owned enterprises

In March, the number of strikes and participants in the main industries (metalworkers, textile workers, miners) is significantly lower than in February (15 strikes, 946 participants and 716 man‐days lost, versus 19 strikes, 3367 participants and 3175 man‐days lost in February).

The strikes involved small groups of workers (no more than 100 people) and are mainly caused by a decrease in the wages of groups of workers (in some cases for textiles ‐ a decrease in wages due to a new collective agreement).

Serious dissatisfaction of certain groups of workers was caused by the downsizing in connection with rationalization measures (Yartsevskaya textile factory ‐ Smolensk province and GEZ No. 1 ‐ Kharkov).

A number of strikes among seasonal workers are associated with dissatisfaction with the norms of the issued food and fodder (according to LBO ‐ 4 strikes).

1) Metalworkers

In March, there were 7 strikes among metalworkers with 335 participants (in February 3 strikes with 655 participants). At the plant them. Petrovsky (Ukrseltrest), 120 workers in the carpentry shop went on strike because of delayed wages (at the end of March, the wages had not been issued for the first half of February), the rest of the strikes arose on the basis of lower prices.

Workersʹ dissatisfaction with the layoffs at Kharkov factories (GEZ No.  1 and KhPZ)

At SEZ No. 1, a survey revealed a significant surplus of labor, mainly auxiliary workers (over 500 people). It should be noted that the plant management, being aware that the control figures, the number of workers in the 4th quarter of 1927‐1928. should not exceed 4500 people, continued to recruit workers, mainly at the expense of unskilled workers; in this regard, the percentage of skilled workers in the main workshops of the plant decreased (from 71 to 67). The commission decided to cut 250 part‐time workers.

Workersʹ discontent is exacerbated by mistakes made by the administration during layoffs (workers pointed out that anti‐Soviet and materially well‐off persons were not included in the lists of layoffs), as well as the issuance of a two‐week allowance instead of a 3‐month allowance.

On March 27, almost all the workers of the foundry, subject to layoff, refused to hand over tools and overalls, filing a petition with the factory for a severance pay of 3 monthsʹ wages.

In the lathe shop, individual workers (including party members) in a group of workers (40 people) spoke about the need to orderly demand the dismissal of the wives of workers and employees who earn up to 200 rubles. per month.

At the Kharkov steam locomotive repair plant, workers are also dissatisfied with the commissionʹs decision to partially lay off workers, and declare that the commission ʺconducted its survey superficially and instead of eliminating a number of abnormalities, found it necessary to lay off a part of the workers.ʺ

2) Textile workers

In March, there were 5 strikes with 417 participants in textile factories (12 strikes with 1387 participants in February).

Serious conflicts took place in early March at factory No. 2 Mostrikotazh and its branches. The strikes were caused by a decrease in wages under the new collective agreement (the wages of weavers are on average reduced by 15 rubles, in addition, the decrease will also affect another 900 workers, spinners and ancillary workers); the draft of the new collective agreement was failed at two working meetings. The strikes involved up to 300 workers.

Downsizing at Yartsevskaya textile factory

At the Yartsevskaya Textile Factory (Smolensk Gubernia), 328 workers are laid off due to rationalization. When compiling the list of those to be laid off, the administration and the factory organizations made a number of mistakes (some workers from the wealthy peasants were left in production, the poor were slated for redundancy, the list included workers who were not members of the Union and had no means of subsistence). The fact of reduction of workers ʺfor non‐payment of membership duesʺ is characteristic.

The Reduction Commission did not take sufficient account of the principles of production and the qualifications of workers, which would have an extremely adverse effect on production later. In some shops, due to this, even a temporary suspension of work is possible, for example, in the mule ¹³⁶ and card shops, where the overwhelming percentage of those laid off are skilled workers.

Discontent was greatly aggravated in connection with the poisoning of a Komsomol worker Mamontova (19 years old, a pupil of an orphanage, single, laid off for non‐payment of membership fees). The note left by Mamontova says: ʺI got poisoned because I was fired.ʺ

The reduction will be finalized by April 15th.

The strike at the textile f ‐ ke «3 ‐ First Internationalʺ in connection with the destruction of Bethel (city of Makhachkala)

Attention is drawn to the strike of 150 workers of the textile factory ʺ3rd Internationalʺ in connection with the destruction of the prayer house at the factory. On March 3, the workers stopped work and went to the DagCEC demanding the restoration of the mosque; some anti‐Soviet persons incited the workers to beat the chairman of the Union of Textiles ¹³⁷. The workers dispersed after promising to call a meeting and discuss the issue. The meeting was attended by up to 300 workers. Despite explanations from members of the government, the workers demanded that the mosque be restored. The murids fueled discontent ¹³⁸ a major spiritual authority ‐ Sheikh Al‐Haji Akushinsky, one former mullah, closely associated with the Sheikh, wealthy peasants, former members of the CPSU. Despite the speeches of the latter, it was nevertheless decided to start work without restoring the mosque.

The conflict was especially aggravated due to the fact that at the same time a trial began on the beating of an anti‐religious Komsomol worker by three workers of a factory. Before the trial, the national religious people carried out the corresponding work among the workers (7 signatures were collected under the statement on the release of the arrested); there were three party members among those who signed the statement. The victims and witnesses, fearing revenge, gave mild testimony, etc. The agitation of murids and clergy among the workers does not meet with opposition due to the weak work of the factory organizations (there is almost no cultural work among the workers).

3) Miners

In the mining industry, three strikes with 164 participants were noted in March (8 in February with 1325 participants). The strikes were caused by dissatisfaction with the imposition of high standards. In some cases, the workers declare mass settlement.

At mine number 5 ʺKarlʺ of the Snezhnyansky mining administration (Ukraine), 250 workers announced the calculation. A number of applications demanding the calculation were submitted at mine No. 8/9 of the Bokovsky Ore Administration.

Conflicts in the coal industry of Siberia

A decrease in prices for new collective agreements, arbitrariness allowed by the tariff authorities in setting prices, calendar exits, etc., caused a number of conflicts at the mines, massive exodus of workers from production and a sharp drop in labor productivity (AnzheroSudzhenskie mines, Montenegrin, etc.). This situation threatens to disrupt the production program at some mines. More than 1,500 tons of coal have not been mined at the Montenegrin mines in 13 working days in February.

In Kuzbass, striking sentiments were noted among groups of skilled workers (miners, firemen, ¹³⁹ hammers, etc.).

At Lenrudnik, a group of 10 hammers (including 2 party members) refused to go to work, saying that the collective agreement had not improved their situation. They were left with the previous 6th grade.

At the Montenegrin mines, there is a massive exodus of skilled workers, dissatisfied with the sharp rise in norms. In February, the number of miners decreased by 50%, the management of the mines and the mine were forced to change the rates and prices introduced after the conclusion of the collective agreement.

The tendencies to withdrawal are noted at the Anzhero‐Sudzhensky mines, where prices are systematically reduced and, moreover, incorrectly (without taking into account working conditions), due to the incompetence of the leaders ¹⁴⁰. In September, the daily wage of a worker was 2 rubles. 50 kopecks, in October ‐ 2 rubles. 36 kopecks, in November ‐ 2 rubles. 26 kopecks, in December ‐ 2 rubles. 19 kopecks, January 1929 ‐ 2 rubles. 10 kopecks

In February, the prices for 285 workers were reduced incorrectly, in January ‐ for 235 workers.

Trends to move to other mines have intensified due to rumors of higher wages at other mines (Central Gold Mine ¹⁴¹ and Aldan).

4) Seasonal workers

In the reporting month, there were 13 strikes among the seasonal workers with 1640 participants (in February 8 strikes with 2839 participants). The reason for the strikes is workersʹ dissatisfaction with the level of wages (low wages). 4 strikes were registered in Moscow.

But more serious is the conflict at the construction of Rawat‐Khodja (Central Asia), which involved 34 artels with 500 workers.

The workers demanded higher wages. Sent to a meeting organized by the workers, the secretary of the building committee (party member) refused to discuss the issue of wages. As a result, the workers organized a new meeting without the knowledge of the trade organizations, where they worked out a number of demands. Among those who signed the statement were certain members of the Komsomol and party members (the latter told the secretary of the cell that they were allegedly forced to sign a statement with demands).

Since the resolution of the issue was delayed (a special commission that left on March 7 found out that the workersʹ demands were of a merciless nature ‐ each worker earns on average over 6 rubles a day), then on March 9 the workers stopped working. The situation was aggravated by the fact that on the day of the strike several workers were wounded and one was killed by the explosion of an old cloak. On the evening of March 9, the workers began to work. The conflict was led by a group of well‐earning drillers, among them the anti‐Soviet Zabrodin (previously a teacher at the construction site, the son of a priest). A special commission is currently working to investigate the conflict. The commission revealed the inoperability of the building and the cell. The latter will be re‐elected. The mood of the workers has improved. At their request, the initiator of the strike, Zabrodin, was arrested.

Mood of the unemployed (February ‐ March)

The mood of the unemployed in February‐March is characterized by some deterioration, which is mainly explained by the stability of the number of unemployed (and in some regions, by some growth) and food difficulties, which worsened the situation of the unemployed. The still noted cases of protectionism when sending to work and registering (Nizhny Novgorod, Semipalatinsk, Minsk and a number of labor exchanges of Ukraine) negatively affect the mood of the unemployed. Former traders and persons cleared from Soviet institutions are illegally registered and sent out of turn to work (the Nizhny Novgorod labor exchange has sent ¹⁴² out of 15 people registered as traders and cleared out 7 people to work recently).

Conflicts among the unemployed due to industrial difficulties

On the basis of equating the unemployed in receiving bread products with employees, non‐issuance in some cases of sampling books to the unemployed ‐ members of the Unions and untimely issuance of sampling books, there were conflicts among the unemployed (Kineshma, Kiev, N [izhniy] Novgorod, Vladivostok, Tiflis, Taganrog, Rybinsk). In Kineshma and Kiev, these conflicts were accompanied by processions to Soviet and professional organizations demanding that the unemployed be equated in giving out bread to the workers and issuing sampling books to the unemployed ‐ not members of the trade union.

Conflict at the Kineshma Labor Exchange.  Under the influence of agitation by anti‐Soviet elements, on March 21, about 300 unemployed people from the Kineshma Labor Exchange went to the administration bureau in an organized manner, intending to go to the Ukom and the PEC. The unemployed demanded that they be equal to workers in obtaining grain products. The measures taken by the Ukom were able to prevent the further movement of the unemployed to the PEC and Ukomu.

Conflict at the Kiev Labor Exchange.  On March 13, the unemployed of the Kiev Labor Exchange, non‐members of trade unions (250 people), who had not received any passbooks, went to the building of the OIK. Attempts by the unemployed to join the march of other unemployed and workers of the Krasnoznamensk Kiev Arsenal were unsuccessful (the workers suggested that they disperse immediately). The unemployed, being admitted to the meeting hall of the OIC, presented demands for the issuance of pass books.

Withdrawal conflicts

A number of conflicts among the unemployed, mainly seasonal construction workers, took place as a result of the withdrawal from benefits of some groups of the unemployed and the granting of vacations to newcomers to work according to the new regulation only after 11 months of continuous work (Vyksa, Nizhny Novgorod province, Odessa, Kiev) ...

It should be noted that the tense mood of unemployed seasonal workers who arrived this year in the construction areas earlier than last year is largely due to the decree on the registration of seasonal workers at the labor exchange only since April. Fermentation among seasonal workers is noted in Kazakhstan. Seasonal workers, converging in the city of Frunze, from there are individually sent to the construction sites of Turksib ¹⁴³, demanding, under threat of beating, immediate provision of work.

Activities of anti‐Soviet and Trotskyist elements

In the course of mass campaigns (re‐election of the Soviets, elections to trade congresses), anti‐Soviet and Trotskyist elements attempted to use the tense mood of the unemployed to disrupt meetings and the failure of candidates nominated by party organizations (Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, Odessa, Moscow, Kharkov). In Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, during the elections to the Soviet, in addition to the main mandate, an order of anti‐Soviet content was adopted, and an unemployed person who conducted the most active anti‐Soviet agitation was elected as a member of the Council (the elections were cashed ¹⁴⁴, the deputy was re‐elected).

Debos and conflicts of the unemployed

At           the          Moscow,              Zinovievskaya, Kulebakskaya    (Nizhniy Novgorodskaya guberniya) and Kazan labor exchanges, riots and hooliganism of the unemployed took place, caused mainly by the insufficiently precise work of the labor exchange apparatus and defects in the organization of general services for the unemployed.

 PEASANTS

Food difficulties in the village

To the number of regions experiencing food difficulties (a number of provinces of the Central Region, Smolensk Gubernia, southwestern districts of the Leningrad Region, SKK, southern and southwestern districts of the Ukrainian SSR and DVK), in March, individual districts of the BSSR, some districts of the Bryansk province ... and northern areas of the Leningrad region. and Arkhangelsk Gubernia, which had not experienced any particular acute food situation before.

Central provinces

The food situation in the central provinces continues to remain tense, and in the Kaluga, Yaroslavl and Tula provinces again deteriorated.

Market prices for rye flour in Yaroslavl province. rose from 8‐9 rubles. up to 11‐12 rubles. pood. The number of settlements and the number of people in dire need of bread increased significantly. A particularly tense food situation is observed in the Rybinsk, Uglich and Rostov districts of the Yaroslavl province. In Rostov u. hunger increased begging. The population eats bread with an admixture of oats, potatoes, vetch and oil‐cake issued from the oil mills. Due to the consumption of surrogate bread, the number of cases of disease among peasants has increased.

In Rodionovskaya Vol. Yaroslavl province, due to numerous diseases due to the consumption of bean flour, its sale was prohibited. The ban on the sale nevertheless sparked discontent among the poor, who said: “Before, although they were sick, they did not die. Now there is only one way out for us ‐ to die of starvation. ʺ

In some areas of the Kaluga province. a significant part of the peasants, having used up the reserve stocks of spring crops, begins to eat up the seeds.

The number of cases of sale by the poor and poor middle peasants in exchange for bread not only for cattle, but also for draft animals and agricultural implements (Kaluga province) has increased.

In the Tula province. with an ever‐increasing number of the population in need of food and an aggravating degree of need, the norms for giving out bread to the hungry by order of the gubernatorial department have been reduced from 10‐20 pounds per consumer per month in February, to 8 pounds in March. In a number of districts (Epifanskiy, Obolenskiy, Bogoroditskiy, etc.) flour is issued with an admixture of vetch.

Despite the firm directives of the government trade departments, defining the categories of the population to be supplied, in the practice of distributing food by consumers and village councils, there are still numerous cases of giving grain to peasants who have their own reserves.

In Bobyninskaya parish. Kaluga lips. distribution of bread between POs is carried out without taking into account the needs of a particular village.

Cases of individual villages sending walkers to the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee (Yaroslavl Gubernia) and visits to VIKs and village councils by large groups of peasants demanding an increase in grain delivery (Yaroslavl, Tula, Vladimir Gubernia) have become more frequent.

LVO

The food situation in March became aggravated again. The situation in the Pskov, Velikie Luki and border regions of the Luga and Leningrad districts deteriorated sharply.

The situation in the AKSSR and the Arkhangelsk province, which until recently did not experience any difficulties, became somewhat aggravated.

The number of those in need of bread is increasing, while the delivery of grain products does not increase. In some areas of the Pskov Okrug, as early as March 1, all 100% of the poor and up to 50% of the middle peasants needed bread.

On the basis of systematic malnutrition, the consumption of various bread substitutes, many diseases and swelling have been recorded, and in some cases, the death of children.

In the Novgorod District, the starving eat seven grain, mainly oats. There are fears that the issued semssud will also be eaten due to lack of food. It should be noted that this year the lack of seeds in the district is very large and the fulfillment of the plan for the delivery of sowing material will not cover the demand.

In a number of districts, the poor began to eat horse meat, as well as oilcakes issued for livestock feed. Cases of sale and slaughter of livestock by low‐powered peasantry have become more frequent.

Lack of fodder causes widespread disease in livestock (Velikoluksky and Leningrad districts).

Bagging and speculation have increased significantly. Before the introduction of sampling books in cities, large quantities of bread were brought from Leningrad. At present, speculators and bagmen go to the BSSR for bread. Prices for bread on the free market rose to 9‐10 rubles. for a pood.

Peasants visit RIK and VIK in groups, insistently demanding the distribution of bread. In the Velikie Luki district, peasants from individual villages sent walkers to Moscow with similar demands.

West

The situation with food has worsened in the Polotsk, Orsha, Vitebsk and Mogilev districts of the BSSR, which suffered from crop failure last year.

The supply of bread is done with great interruptions. In some regions, bread was not given out for months. In the Polotsk district, isolated cases of illness caused by hunger, sales of livestock and agricultural equipment were registered. Similar facts were registered in the Smolensk province. With the available stocks of bread in March, it seemed possible (in the amount of the ʺhunger normʺ) to supply only 25% of the population of the Polotsk District in need of food.

In some districts of the Bryansk province. the severity of the difficulties begins to show. By February, a significant part of the population had used up their grain reserves. Its market price rose to 8‐9 rubles. pood.

The supply of those in need at the expense of local procurement is hampered by the slow pace of the latter.

In connection with the aggravation of food difficulties, the peasants of individual villages of the Polotsk district at the meetings of the village councils demanded that a delegation be sent to the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR demanding bread, stating that ʺthe center does not know our need.ʺ

In the Smolensk province. the poor daily come to VIKs and wolves in groups and ask for bread. During the month of March, a number of excesses on the basis of industrial difficulties were registered in the Polotsk District. In the Osveisky district, a crowd of 150 peasants dispersed the plenum of the Kiselevsky village council.

In the Lepel district, two middle peasants, threatening the chairman of the village council with beating, forced him to give them bread from the cooperatives.

In the Shatilovsky, Donekovsky village councils of the Polotsk region, peasants who were not included in the list of those in need tore up the lists for receiving food.

Among the poor, there has been talk of the need to forcibly confiscate grain from speculators and wealthy peasants.

Ukraine

The situation with the grain supply of the rural population remains tense. Recently, a shortage of bread began to be felt in certain areas of the Kiev and Vinnitsa districts. In the Uman District, due to hunger, cases of enslaving deals have become more frequent. On the basis of grain difficulties, two performances were recorded in the Kremenchug and Melitopol districts.

DVK

The situation with grain supply for the rural population of the DCK has deteriorated sharply. By the end of the month, the stocks of various grain products available from the cooperatives and district organizations in charge of grain supply were almost completely used up and by April there were only 44,812 quintals of bread, while in March the consumption of bread products was equal to 122544 quintals when the rural population of starving regions received no more than 2 kg per eater per month, removing from the supply of bread to cities, regional centers and the unworked population of the city.

In Sretensky, Chita, Khabarovsk districts, in many villages and railway settlements, the population removed from the supply is starving. Cases of illness and death due to systematic malnutrition have been reported.

In the Chita and Sretensky districts the starving poor are threatening the kulaks with the destruction of barns.

In the Sretensky district, there are numerous cases of the poor eating seed grain, both from their own reserves, and issued in the order of the semssud, which creates a threat of disruption of the sowing campaign. In a number of villages in the Khabarovsk Okrug, the poor are selling draft animals to buy food.

In the Nikolaev‐on‐Amur district, due to the aggravation of food difficulties, there is a sharp deterioration in the political mood of the former red partisans.

In the Khabarovsk District, individual demonstrations of the hunger strikers and anti‐Soviet elements using their moods with an appeal to march on the city have been registered.

Grain procurement

Workpiece travel

A well‐known turning point in grain procurement came only from the second half of March, from the fourth five‐day period, when in some grain‐procurement regions (Ural, SVO, NVK) a sharp increase in the supply of grain began. At the same time, in the Central Black Earth Region, NCC, Kazakhstan and Siberia, procurements were still proceeding at a slow pace, as a result of which the March grain procurement plan for the Union was fulfilled with only a slight increase in comparison with the February one ‐ 45.3% (against 44.1% completed in February). With the exception of the Urals, where the March grain procurement plan was fulfilled with an excess (127.5%), the rest of the regions give only a slight increase compared to February procurements, and in the NWO, Kazakhstan and Siberia, the percentage of fulfillment of the grain procurement plan even decreased. The percentage of fulfillment of the grain procurement plan for individual districts is represented by the following data: TsChO ‐ 51.6% (in February ‐ 28.3%), SVO ‐ 31.5% (versus 40.4% in February), NVK ‐ 40.6% (40.2%), CCM ‐ 62.1% (57.8%), Kazakhstan ‐ 23.6% (36.6%), Siberia ‐ 42.1% (50.4%), Ukraine ‐ 48.4 % (45.2%). It should be borne in mind that the March plan for grain procurements in the Central Black Earth Region, the Urals, the NCC and Siberia was significantly reduced against the February plan, according to the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Trade.

Despite the use of methods of economic pressure on the holders of large grain surpluses (boycott, increase in self‐taxation amounts, tough collection of various kinds of debts, expulsion from land societies, etc.), they continue to hold the bread or take it out in small batches (2‐10 pood.) (SVO, NVK, Ural, Ukraine).

Bread speculation, which negatively affects the progress of procurement in March, compared with February, has intensified even more, assuming in some places (SVO, NVK, TsChO) a mass character with the participation in it not only of the wealthy peasantry, but also of the middle peasants and even the poor who are engaged in resale of bread. The interruptions in the supply of scarce manufactured goods to the countryside, which were observed last month, have been eliminated almost everywhere. There is even an overstocking of the cooperative network in some districts of the Central Black Earth Region and the

NVK.

Bread speculation

In a number of villages of the Samara and Mordovian Districts (SVO), peasants of all strata, gathering in several yards, take out grain in whole carts to the private market. In some areas of the NWO, NVK and TsChO, speculators take out the bought bread by carts (20‐50 carts each) to consuming regions (Vladimir, Kaluga and other provinces), where it is sold at a speculative price.

Bread speculation in the Urals and Siberia has noticeably increased lately, where private traders buy up bread in local village markets and resell it in city markets at a significantly increased price. In Tomsk, Irkutsk and other districts of Siberia, the kulaks, who have significant reserves of their own grain, also buy up grain and hold it until spring in the hope of higher prices.

As in the past, cases of grain speculation by individual workers of the Soviet apparatus and village party members continue to take place.

Cases of speculation in grain by individual collective farms and agricultural partnerships, which do not hand over their surplus to the state, have been registered in the NWO and the Central Black Earth Region.

In connection with the growth of speculation in the NWO, in the Urals, among the poor and low‐power middle peasantry, dissatisfaction with ʺweak measures of the Soviet governmentʹs struggle against speculationʺ is growing. Representatives of these groups of the peasantry are in favor of the active participation of the poor themselves in identifying speculators and malicious grain holders.

ʺBy all means, the private grain market must be closed ‐ it disrupts grain procurementsʺ (Chelyabinsk District, Ural).

The mood of the procurers and part of the workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus

The directives of the government and the party on strengthening grain procurements and revitalizing the activities of the procurement apparatus among some of the workers of the lower Soviet, party and cooperative apparatuses caused confusion, and in some cases even passive resistance to their implementation. ʺDemobilization sentimentsʺ among some of the workers in the procurement apparatus are still far from being eradicated.

“Whatʹs useless to go to the peasant households ‐ all the bread from the peasants has already been raked out, the last juices have been squeezed out of the peasants and there is nothing left to take” (Omsk, Biysk okrug, Siberia).

Among some of the village communists in a number of districts of Siberia, in connection with the measures of economic boycott against the malicious holders of grain, there were registered khvostist sentiments, sentiments against measures taken to increase grain procurements.

ʺSuch a policy leads to the ruin of the peasantryʺ, ʺwith such an attack on the peasants, the party will not wait for the good, shout about the expansion of the sown area and hope for those who have never sown beforeʺ (Secretary of the N. Tsaritsyn cell of the All‐Union Communist Party of the Omsk District, Siberia) ... ʺLet the central administrations and specialists reduce rates, cut the daily allowance, travel allowance, etc. and increase the price of bread, then things will be better, otherwise grain procurement plans are built at random, which is why the peasants and local communists are cracking their necksʺ (members of the Volodarsky, Barnaul District).

As a result of such sentiments of the communists and workers of the procurement apparatus, grain procurements are not intensive enough and measures to strengthen them are not taken in some places (SVO, Siberia, Ukraine).

During the reporting period, there have been cases of excesses in the methods of grain procurement allowed by workers of the procurement Soviet and party apparatus (Siberia, Urals, SVO, NVK, Ukraine).

Holding on to grain surpluses

In all procurement regions, numerous cases of kulaks and well‐to‐do peasants continue to adhere to their grain surpluses. In some kulak farms, grain stocks by the end of March amounted to 1000‐3000 poods. (SVO, Ural, NVK, Siberia). In a number of villages in the Kamensk District (Siberia), many wealthy peasants have not yet handed over a pound of bread to the state. In Ukraine, in the CCK, NVK, Siberia, numerous cases of the categorical refusal of the kulaks and the well‐to‐do from handing over their grain surpluses to the state have been recorded with appeals: ʺto hold fast and not to give surplusʺ, ʺit is better to let the bread rot, it is better to feed the pigs, but not to give the authorities breadʺ (Ukraine).

In order to avoid the forced confiscation of grain surpluses, the holders of the latter begin to hide bread in pits, keep it unmilled, give it out for safekeeping to relatives and the poor, often in the form of loans on enslaving terms (TsChO, SVO, Ural, Siberia).

Measures of economic influence on the malicious holders of grain (boycott, methods of social influence, expulsion from the land society, etc.) gave positive results in a number of cases in terms of increasing grain procurements. In the Northern Military District, NVK, the Urals and Siberia, there were cases when the kulaks and the wealthy, after the announcement of a boycott, agreed to take out grain. It should be noted that boycotted kulaks in every possible way avoid exporting all surplus grain and export it in insignificant quantities, 5–20 poods each, with the sole purpose of avoiding a boycott, and rarely 100 or more poods.

In most cases, the boycotted kulaks and the well‐to‐do are indifferent to the boycott, claiming that they are sufficiently provided with manufactured goods that money can buy goods anywhere.

ʺTo hell with her with this board *, shoot us, cut us, but we will not bring bread to the stateʺ (SVO, Ural, Siberia).

It should be noted the high activity shown by the poor and underpowered middle peasants in identifying the harvesters of grain and encouraging them to export grain surpluses (Ural, SVO, Ukraine, Siberia). Demanding increased pressure on the malicious holders of grain, the middle peasants, and especially the poor, often proposed to deprive those who held the grain of the land and suffrage.

In a number of cases in Ukraine (Kharkov district) and in Siberia, due to the categorical refusal of the kulaks to hand over grain, the relationship between the poor and the well‐to‐do became extremely aggravated.

As a result of the great work of local party organizations in the main grain‐procurement regions, organizing the healthy class activity of the poor, it was possible to achieve a clear class demarcation of the countryside and to achieve almost complete isolation of the kulaks.

However, in some cases, where the organizational coverage of the poor was clearly insufficient and the rural asset was not prepared in a timely manner, the methods of public influence on the malicious harvesters of bread sometimes took ugly forms.

Such cases have been reported in Siberia (Rubtsovsky District), SKK (Kuban District), SVO (Buguruslansky, Mordovsky Districts) and especially in the Urals (Tyumensky and Shadrinsky Districts).

So, in the village. Atamanskoye, Pavlovsky District (Kuban District) On March 18, local party and Soviet organizations organized a demonstration in order to induce the holders of bread to export it to procurement points through public influence.

Demonstrators, members of the village council, members of the Union of Soviet Trade and Railway Workers, local party members and Komsomol members under the leadership of the secretary of the VKP (b) cell, gathered at the village council, staged a procession through the village. At the head of the procession were moving two carts, on one sat the musicians, on the other ‐ the mummers ʺfist and the poor man.ʺ Arriving at the house of the ʺdisenfranchisedʺ blacksmith, the demonstrators called him into the street and began to mock him (the demonstrators danced around the carts, called the blacksmith a reptile, a bloodsucker, etc., threatened to send him out of the village, etc.). A poor man, whose husband died in exile, two middle peasants, a former teacher, 8 well‐to‐do people and the wife of a deacon, a ʺdispossessedʺ, were subjected to the same bullying.

In with. A carnival was organized in Ust‐Kozlukh of the Pokrovsky district (Rubtsovsky district, Siberia). 40 people who were boycotted (including 16 kulaks, the rest are wealthy and 8 middle peasants), drove along the street in formation with a black flag. Ahead of the procession was a cart with two loaves of bread on a sleigh, on the other cart sat a middle peasant with a black flag on which was the inscription: ʺI want to be a fist.ʺ Behind the kulaks marched in formation of the poor with a red flag. During the march, rallies were organized. The boycotted ones were scoffed at in every possible way, they were booed, ridiculed, etc.

In the same district in the village. Karpovsky, at the meeting of the poor, which was also attended by a part of the middle peasants and agricultural land, the holders of surplus were called, the appearance of which was met by those present with a whistle, noise and hooting. The secretary of the candidate group of the VKP (b), being the chairman of the meeting, announced: ʺBe persistent ‐ now you will see the face of a kulak.ʺ The summoned kulaks were forced to read aloud the prepared slogans and inscriptions on black flags: ʺThe holder of bread is a friend of Chamberlainʺ, ʺI don’t hand over the surplus — I keep it.ʺ Depending on whether the summoned holder of surpluses agreed to hand them over to the collection point or not, he was handed one or another flag by order of the meeting.

Along with this, it should be noted that in some places (Siberia, the Northern Military District and the Urals), the use of a social boycott by individual workers of the lower Soviet apparatus (including party members) is not being implemented. The boycotted kulaks continue to receive goods, the boycott is lifted from them and in every possible way they pander to them.

In the Samara District (SVO), in a number of villages in the Spassky and Grachevsky districts, the workers of the village councils refused to carry out a boycott, declaring: ʺWe have no bread, and others do not have it, so there is no one to boycott.ʺ Secretary of the VKP (b) cell s. Talli objects to the boycott, referring to the fact that ʺthe district committee does not recommend the boycott method.ʺ As a result, none of the malicious bread‐holders was boycotted and the export of grain soon almost stopped.

In the Shadrinsky and Kungursky districts (Ural), in many localities of the Orda and Kataysky districts, boycotted grain donors continue to receive goods from cooperatives.

In the Kurgan Okrug, individual village councils are gradually lifting the boycott of the well‐to‐do, as a result of which the population gets the impression that ʺno matter how much boycott is made, the boycott is not carried out.ʺ

In the Kamensk district (Siberia) in the village. Tyumentsevsky, the list of boycotted people was written on a piece of paper in small print and glued to a complaints box in the PO shop. This had no effect on the boycotted.

In the Biysk district, a fist with. Kolovo, boycotted for shelter of 600 poods. bread, after he passed 1 ½ pood., the chairman of the PO (member of the CPSU (b)), the boycott was removed from him.

A similar situation is also observed in Tomsk, Omsk and other districts of Siberia.

The facts of the distortion of the class approach in the application of the boycott stand apart. In the NWO, the Urals and Siberia, in some villages, the low‐powered middle peasants, who did not have a grain surplus, were boycotted. In some cases (Central Black Earth Region, SVO, Siberia), the middle peasants handed over semmaterial, sold cattle, just to take out the assigned amount of grain and remove the boycott.

In the Ponomarovsky district (Buguruslan district, SVO), 77 people were deprived of their land allotments in 16 settlements as a result of the boycott, including most of the middle peasants who refused to take out the assigned amount of grain (100 poods).

In with. Martynovka, Abdulinsky district (Buguruslan district, SVO), authorized by the RIK, a member of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, who works on grain procurement, despite the fact that the village commission at one time determined the yield of winter crops at 20‐25 poods. from the tithe, based on the calculation of the yield of 4550 poods, he offers the peasants to take out additional grain. Those who refuse are put on a black board, deprived of a cooperative share, etc. Up to 50 two‐horse peasants were boycotted, including those who were recently put on the red board for the delivery of grain.

In the Tomsk Okrug (Siberia), Pavlovsk Production Association announced a boycott of 4 poor peasants and 15 middle peasants for the fact that they found moonshine.

In with. Petrovka (Biysk district) boycotted a number of middle peasants who do not have grain reserves. The middle peasants say: ʺWeʹll have to take the seeds, or the children will be kicked out of school.ʺ

In the Usolsky District of the Irkutsk District, grain procurers intercept peasants on the road, carrying grain to be sold to the market, and carry them onto a black board. As a result, the supply of grain to the Usolsk market was greatly reduced, and the price of bread rose significantly.

Note

* Depending on the delivery or non‐delivery of grain, the peasants were entered, respectively, on a red or ʺblackʺ board.

Anti‐Soviet activities of the kulaks

Along with the increased activity of the low‐powered groups of the peasantry, the anti‐Soviet activity of the kulaks and anti‐Soviet‐minded groups of the wealthy peasantry has greatly increased.

Agitating among the peasants against the export of grain with calls to “rebel, take the procurers by the throat” and “demand the return of grain,” the kulaks and the wealthy elite of the village hold their illegal meetings, at which they discuss ways to counter grain procurements (Siberia, the Urals, Ukraine), distribute anti‐Soviet leaflets content, terrorize workers of the procurement and Soviet apparatus, the poor and agricultural assets working on procurement.

In Siberia, the Urals and Ukraine during the reporting period, there were a number of mass anti‐Soviet protests organized by the kulaks in response to measures of economic boycott and the use of other measures of influence on the malicious non‐donors of grain.

In the Chelyabinsk District (Ural) on March 12 in the village. In the Kardopolovskaya Shumikhinsky District, a group of the well‐to‐do, in protest against the boycott declared by them, staged a demonstration with a white flag urging them to hide bread and not give it to the state.

In the village In Kumlyakh of the Uysk District (Troitsk District), a demonstration of women was organized by their fists in order to oppose grain procurements, which prevented the filling of bread. The demonstration, after the men also joined it, turned into a mass demonstration, the participants of which walked around the peasant yards and poured back the grain prepared for delivery.

A meeting was held near the boycotted kulak, which was attended by 19 people who took part in the speech. The organizers of the meeting called on the peasants present at the meeting to organized opposition to the export of grain. 7 kulaks were arrested.

In the same village at the end of last year, there was a mass demonstration on the basis of the closure of the church.

In the Barnaul district (Siberia) in March in three districts there were 6 mass anti‐Soviet demonstrations organized by the kulaks on the basis of tough measures being taken against malicious non‐donors of grain.

In Verkh [not] ‐Chumyshsky district (Ivanovka village), under the influence of agitation by a kulak, a member of a kulak group, a group of women (7 kulaks, 31 middle peasants and 4 poor peasants) appeared in the village council, which turned to the grain procurement officer with a protest against the announcement of a boycott of nondelivers grain surplus.

Shouts and threats were heard from the crowd of women against the grain procurement officer. ʺStart, women, strangle them, what are you watching, they will support us ‐ there will be enough people on the street.ʺ At this time, a crowd of peasants (up to 100 people) gathered at the village council building. There were shouts from the crowd. ʺHit them, grab them by the hair.ʺ “Plant better than us, but we will no longer allow you to mock our husbands. It is a pity that we have no weapons, we would have dealt with you differently. ʺ

The mother of the kulak, the initiator of the protest, demanded an end to grain procurements and threatened: “If you go to the barns and take grain from us, then we will declare war on you, and we will not go from the village council until you give us the obligation not to demand from us delivery of the last bread ʺ.

The crowd of women remained in the village council for about two hours, continuing to make noise and shout. Thanks to the skillful explanation of the authorized RIK, the crowd calmed down and dispersed.

A similar thing happened in the village. Kitmanovo in the same district and district, where a crowd of women dispersed a demonstration consisting of members of the Rabzemles Union, Soviet salesmen and seven‐year‐old students, who called for the surrender of grain surpluses. With shouts that “these flags are coming for bread, we wonʹt give them bread, we wonʹt allow ourselves to be robbed,” the women burst into the columns of demonstrators, dispersed them and beat up their children *.

In the Izyum district (Ukraine) in the village. Valvenkovo, Petrovsky District 10 kulaks (two former party members expelled for harassment), boycotted, gathered at the apartment of one of the former party members to discuss their future behavior. They severely beat the secretary of the local party cell and the grain procurement officer who entered the poor manʹs apartment. Fleeing, the cell secretary and the grain procurement officer fled to the village council. The kulaks, pursuing them, ran to the village council, but could not penetrate there. Then they left one of the kulaks to the sentry, armed with an ax. This was witnessed by a crowd of villagers (about 50 people), which, however, did not take any measures of pressure against the kulaks trying to kill the secretary and the grain procurement officer.

Note

* So, in the document.

Self‐imposition ¹⁴⁵

Campaign progress

Self‐taxation in Siberia and the NCC is not quite satisfactory. The percentage of accepted self‐taxation to the amount of agricultural tax in individual regions is very low. In the CCM, for example, self‐taxation is adopted at a rate of 23.2%, in Siberia ‐ 26.4%, in the NWK ‐ selftaxation is adopted at a rate of 31%.

The percentage of accepted self‐taxation in individual districts of these districts, where it ranges from 4 to 30%, is very variegated. So, in Siberia (as of March 1), self‐taxation was adopted in 6 districts in the amount of 16 to 20%, in 9 districts ‐ from 22 to 25%, in 3 districts from 26 to 27% and in the 1st district (Kirensky) ‐ 3.9%.

In the CCM in the Stavropol District (as of March 7), self‐taxation was adopted at a rate of 18.4%, in Salsky —19%, in Sh [Akhtinsko] ‐Donetsk — 20%, in Maikop — 30.6%, etc.

In the NVK in the Astrakhan District (as of March 25), the percentage of self‐taxation accepted to the target figure is 15, in the Khopersky District ‐ 30, in the Saratov District ‐ 33.2, in Pugachevsky ‐ 42.6 and in Balashovsky ‐ 68.

Everywhere there is an extremely weak receipt of payments for the already adopted self‐taxation.

In the NVK on March 8, the amount of self‐taxation receipts was only 16% of the checksum and 41% of the accepted amount.

In Siberia, as of March 1, the receipt of the accepted self‐taxation amounts is 53.9%.

In the CCM on March 7 ‐ 71.7% and in the Urals ‐ 56.4%.

Self‐tax payments come mainly from the underpowered peasantry and mainly in cash. Even in those places where self‐taxation was adopted in kind (SKK, Chita Okrug, DVK), peasants receive numerous applications to replace it with cash.

Carrying out additional self‐taxation (up to 50% of the tax amount) is met with resolute resistance from the kulaks and well‐to‐do peasantry (Siberia, NVK).

Deficiencies in the work of the grassroots government apparatus for self‐taxation

The weak development of the self‐taxation campaign is largely due to its insufficient preparation and a number of shortcomings in the work of the lower Soviet apparatus. In some areas of the NVK, Siberia, and the CCC, self‐taxation was adopted at a reduced rate, in a number of villages self‐taxation was carried out with a great delay and the collection of the accepted amounts for self‐taxation was not carried out with sufficient decisiveness.

Due to insufficient preparatory work in the presence of a very high activity of the kulaks in the farms of Nikolayevsky, Oblivsky (Kamyshinsky district, NVK), the population completely abandoned self‐taxation, and in a number of farms it accepted it in the amount of 3 to 15% of the agricultural tax ruble.

In the Omsk District (Siberia), as of February 16, self‐taxation was not carried out in 62 villages.

In the Achinsk district, in 9 villages of the most economically powerful and grain‐oriented region (Berezovsky), self‐taxation was not carried out at all, in 3 villages self‐taxation was adopted in the amount of 5% and in 4 villages ‐ 10%.

In the Maryinsky district of the Tomsk district, out of the total selftaxation amount of 40,900 rubles. collected only 15,000 rubles.

In the Zachulym region, at the beginning of March, the amounts for individual taxation remain uncollected.

Along with the negligence and inactivity of the NIAC, the JCC and Belarus, there have been registered cases of direct opposition to selftaxation on the part of employees of the grassroots Soviet apparatus and individual village party members. The failure of the self‐taxation rulings in many cases was solely due to opposition from these individuals.

So, in the village. Ozerki (Saratov District, NVK) at a meeting of the village council members of the village council thwarted the adoption of an additional 25% self‐taxation, categorically refusing to carry it out, declaring: “There is no bread, but the Soviet government continues to tear our skin off us. Weʹll have to sell the last cow. ʺ The poor people attending the meeting voted against additional self‐taxation.

In the Turkovsky district of the Balashov district, thanks to a speech at a general meeting of peasants by a member of the CPSU (b) against selftaxation (“Self‐taxation must be abandoned, since the peasants have no money this year”), the proposal to accept it was rejected.

Similar cases were also recorded in a number of districts of Belarus

(Mozyr, Vitebsk, etc.).

There have been numerous cases of distortion of the class principle in the alignment and levying of self‐taxation, an arbitrary increase in the amount of self‐taxation in excess of the norms established by law (in some cases up to 200% of the Unified Agricultural Taxation) (NIAC).

Resisting the fists and the well‐to‐do self‐taxation

The kulaks and the well‐to‐do part of the peasantry stubbornly resisted self‐taxation, disrupting meetings, beating and terrorizing supporters of self‐taxation, activists‐poor and middle peasants.

The kulaksʹ agitation against self‐taxation was clearly counterrevolutionary in nature: ʺThe Soviet government strangled us, we must strive for freedom, down with the communists and all the Soviet bastard that ruins us with self‐taxation, down with this order and power, we cannot stand any longerʺ (CCM).

The kulaks in an organized manner, forming groupings, disrupted selftaxation meetings, in some cases inflicting rout. In the NVK, Belarus and Siberia, in some villages, kulaks disrupted meetings 2‐3 times in a row. In the BSSR, according to far from complete data, 72 meetings were disrupted by kulaks, and 26 in the NVK.

In with. Orlovskoe of the Marksstadt Canton (ASSRNP, NVK), a group of ʺdisenfranchisedʺ kulaks, appearing at a meeting where they discussed the issue of self‐taxation, shouting that ʺyou are taking the indemnity from us again, get out before you are beatenʺ, etc., did not allow the meeting to be conducted. During the voting, they did not allow raising their hands and beat those who voted for self‐taxation. It turned out to be a dump, the meeting had to be closed and the question of self‐adoration was thwarted.

In the hut. Ryaski of the Denisovsky village council (Salsky district, SKK), a group of the wealthy, in order to disrupt self‐taxation, held an illegal meeting in advance, at which it was decided to go to a meeting with all family members in order to get more votes. Even before the meeting, the members of the group campaigned among their fellow villagers: “You’re better and don’t get ready, it won’t be in your opinion anyway”. At the meeting, the members of the group tried to disrupt the meeting by shouting that “the meeting was not open correctly, because there is only one poor person present,” etc. In addition, two members of the group were collecting money from their wealthy for a trip to Moscow, to the CEC with a complaint about actions of local authorities.

Considering that the solution of the issue ultimately depends on the position of the middle peasants, the kulaks everywhere before the meetings were actively working on the middle peasants, trying to restore them against the poor.

In some cases, the kulaks managed to attract part of the middle peasants and, with their help, thwart self‐taxation (BSSR, SKK, NVK, Siberia).

In the Bobruisk district (BVO) in the village. The well‐to‐do kosier attracted part of the middle peasants to their side, arrested the presidium of the meeting and kept them in the house where the meeting was held for 3 hours until the police arrived and freed them. The members of the presidium were subjected to all kinds of insults. They were spat in their faces, pushed and abused them in every possible way.

In Siberia, the CCK, NVK and BVO kulaks and the wealthy tried to prevent the poor from attending meetings where the issue of selftaxation was discussed: ʺThe poor do not pay taxes, they are not selftaxed, they have no voice.ʺ

In the Armavir and Salsk districts (CCM), the kulaks demanded to ʺdeprive the poor of the right to voteʺ so that she could not vote for selftaxation. “We are not allowed to attend meetings of the poor, so they should not be allowed to meetings where self‐taxation is discussed” (BVO).

The kulaks widely practiced methods of economic pressure on the poor, who advocated self‐taxation, threatening them with an economic boycott (refusal to sell grain, refusal to lease land, etc.).

After the adoption of self‐taxation, the kulaks and wealthy peasants continued to offer stubborn resistance, without paying the amount owed from them. In a number of villages and villages of the SKK, the kulaks made payments only after the inventories and the appointment of tenders for their property (Sh [Akhtinsko] ‐Donetsky, Chernomorsky and other districts of the SKK). In the Black Sea region alone, up to 20 cases of organized refusal of self‐taxation payments have been registered.

Spring sowing campaign

In a number of regions (Ukraine, NWO, Siberia, and Yaroslavl Gubernia), preparatory work for the spring sowing was unfolding at an insufficient pace.

In some places, the lower Soviet apparatus by this time had not yet come close to the practical implementation of their plans.

To a large extent, this was due to departmental inconsistency between the organizations (provincial, district and district) leading the sowing campaign, which were late in giving practical instructions to village councils and the cooperative periphery.

A significant renewal of the composition of the village councils as a result of their re‐election and the coincidence of the moment of the change of leadership also played a role in the delay in the launch of the campaign.

In the main producing regions, workers of the lower Soviet and cooperative apparatuses, distracted by grain procurements, in some places did not pay at all attention to the preparation for the sowing campaign, arguing that ʺsowing campaign is a secondary matter, the first is grain procurementʺ (NVK), that ʺit is still far from sowing, there is no hurry ʺ, Andʺ when the sowing time comes, the peasants will know what they need to do without a campaign ʺ(Ukraine, Siberia).

Advocacy and explanatory work among the broad masses of the peasantry about the directives and measures of the government in terms of increasing yields and expanding the cultivated area until midMarch was carried out in places almost completely or was carried out in clearly insufficient amounts.

All this taken together, along with numerous shortcomings in the preparation of the material base of the sowing campaign (seed and machine supply, the creation of a seed fund, lending, etc.) in certain regions (SVO, Tver and Smolensk provinces), casts doubt on the fulfillment of the target figures of the planned organizations on expanding the sowing area and increasing yields.

Grain cleaning campaign and machinery supply

In a number of districts of Ukraine, SVO, JIBO and provinces of the Central region, the grain cleaning campaign is under the threat of under‐meeting the governmentʹs target figures in the field of grain cleaning. The main reasons for non‐fulfillment of the planned task for cleaning grain are: 1) lack of grain cleaning machines, 2) untimely repair of them due to the lack of workshops and high‐quality iron, 3) delay in organizing rental points, 4) agitation of wealthy and kulaks against grain cleaning, 5) and the main thing is the inert attitude of some of the workers of the lower soviet.

In a number of NWO districts, as of March 20, seed cleaning does not exceed 25‐30% of the total task. In Ryazan lips. the plan for cleaning seeds until the second half of March was fulfilled by only 31.4%.

The situation is much better in Siberia, where in a number of districts, as a result of timely and appropriate training, the poor and middle peasants willingly cleanse and seed the seeds, often on their own initiative issuing resolutions on the cleaning of seeds by the whole village, imposing fines on those who evade cleaning (Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Kuznetsk districts).

In terms of machine supply, the implementation of machine supply plans is extremely slow. Agricultural implements and machines arrive with a great delay against planned dates (Siberia, SKK, SVO, Ukraine, Belarus, Smolensk and a number of other central provinces).

Reflection of the publication of the law on the unified agricultural tax on the attitude of the peasantry to the sowing campaign and the course of campaigns

Weak popularization of the law on unified agricultural tax

Despite the fact that more than 1½ months have passed since the publication of the new law on agricultural tax, its popularization among the broad masses of the peasantry has not been carried out enough. The new law has not yet reached the countryside in a number of regions by the end of March, and the peasantry is not aware of the main changes in the law and the benefits provided to farms that increase sowing and use the simplest agricultural measures. Due to insufficient explanatory work, the peasantry often reacts to this law on the basis of those rumors and misinterpretations that are caused by the fact that a new tax law has been issued, often presented in a distorted form. In the regions where the explanatory work was carried out, a number of cases were registered when the workers who carried out the familiarization of the population with the main changes in the new law on the unified agricultural tax, clearly distorted its main provisions.

Such cases are especially numerous in the North Caucasus. For instance.

In stts. The speaker at the meeting on the new law on the unified agricultural tax explained the tax in the Labinsk Maikop district: ʺThis year the benefits written in the new law will not be provided, but will be given only in 1930 and 1931.ʺ

This is explained by the fact that the workers of the lower Soviet apparatus, due to the belated dispatch of materials about the new ESHN, often did not study them themselves.

Kiev district.  The newly issued regulation on the Unified Agricultural Taxation for 1929‐1930. is not popularized at all (as of March 16). It is characteristic that even the employees of the district apparatus are not familiar with the new law. Some employees of the district offices know about him only by hearsay.

In areas where the peasantry has already become familiar with the main changes in the law on the unified agricultural tax, this has a positive effect on the attitude of the middle peasants and poor peasants to the issue of expanding the cultivated area.

There are numerous cases when, after familiarizing themselves with the new tax law, peasants, on their own initiative, pass resolutions on increasing the cultivated area and raising the yield. For example: the peasants of the Novozhilovsky section of the Vereshchaginsky district of the Perm district, having heard a report on the new agricultural tax, in particular, on the provision of benefits to sowers, decided to increase the sown area.

General meeting of peasants der. Antonovo Vyazemsky u. Smolensk province, after hearing a report on the new agricultural tax, issued the following resolution: ʺTo carry out a universal sorting of seeds, to welcome the decision of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee on a single agricultural tax, aimed at facilitating the middle peasant farms.ʺ

In the North Caucasus, NWK and in some Central provinces, as a result of familiarization with the main changes in the law on benefits provided to farms that increase sowing and use the simplest agricultural measures in their farms, there is an increase in the populationʹs applications for obtaining loans, loans, the desire to expand the area through rent land from the poor and public funds. So, for example, in the Primorsko‐Akhtyrsky district of the Kuban district, a number of cases were noted when, as a result of explanatory work about the new tax, grain growers who had previously refused to sow and even surrendered their land plots to the Stansoviet took back their shares and, denying themselves the most necessary, raised funds to buy grain for sowing. In the Labinsky district of the Maikop district, the stansovets rented out almost all the land of the public fund they had. Similar facts were noted in a number of places in the Kuban, Maikop, Salsk and Donetsk districts.

In the Leninsky district of the Stalingrad district, the middle peasants and the poor, having familiarized themselves with the changes in the law on the unified agricultural tax, daily groups of 20‐30 people in the village council with applications for leasing land from the public fund in order to expand the sown area.

While there is, in the main, a positive attitude of the poor and middle peasants towards the new agricultural tax, nevertheless, due to insufficient clarification of the tax law, among some of the middle peasants there is disbelief in the actual implementation of the new law:

ʺThe new law on the unified agricultural tax will remain only on paper, and when the deadline for its collection comes, the tax will be brought back to the previous oneʺ (middle peasant, Stalin district).

To a large extent, the emergence of such sentiments is facilitated by cases of distortion of tax policy that took place in the tax campaign last year.

“Now a new tax law has been issued ‐ this is the power of us, the peasants, who are fishing the bait so that we increase our crops. Now we are promised everything, but as soon as we increase the crops, they will immediately bring us under the kulaks” (middle peasant, Armavir district).

“If these laws were thorough, then it would be possible to add crops, otherwise they often change. You will expend energy and suddenly again a new law will impose it in such a way that you will repent ʺ(middle peasant, Stalin district.).

In the Stalingrad and Khopersky districts of the NVK, dissatisfaction with the late publication of the new law on the unified agricultural tax was noted, since “the peasants can no longer increase the sowing in the spring, because they plowed little under the plow due to the heavy tax last year. And now a new regulation on the unified agricultural tax has come out, but itʹs too late, it should be released in the fall, when the peasant was preparing for autumn plowing ¹⁴⁶. In spring, plowing is not very profitable, because it often has a bad harvest” (poor man, Khopersky district).

The kulaks, using the lack of awareness of the broad masses of the peasantry about the changes in the UAR, in Siberia, the North Caucasus, the Urals, the Northern Military District, the NVK, the Ukrainian SSR and other regions, are trying in every possible way to sow distrust among the middle peasants and the poor towards the new law, campaigning for a reduction in the sown area, emphasizing the severity of the taxation last year and spreading rumors of an even larger UAT hike this year. “The Soviet government is lying that it will make a 10% discount and all sorts of benefits, this was invented to expand the sown area, and then they would crush us with taxes” (Sh [Akhtinsko] Donetsk district). ʺYou need to sow as little as possible, since the new law is just a bait, and then they will be left not only without economy, but also without trousersʺ (kulak, Kuban district).

In the Leon‐Kalitvensky district of the Donetsk district (SKK), kulaks walk around the yards of the poor and middle peasants and agitate among them that “a new tax has been issued in order to identify new objects of taxation. They only fool the population in order to expose the kulaks and strangle them with a tax. The Soviet government acts like swindlers ‐ they will tax you, and then they say that you are given discounts” (kulaks, Leono‐Kalitvensky district).

Anti‐Soviet manifestations (January‐March 1929)

January‐March gives a decrease in all the main types of anti‐Soviet manifestations in the countryside ‐ terror, leaflets and mass demonstrations, as can be seen from the following table:

	Terror	Leaflets	Mass and group performances
4th quarter 1928	554 cases	281 case	84 cases
1st quarter 1929	332 cases	199 cases	61 cases

Terror

Out of 332 terrorist acts in the 1st quarter of 1929, 156 were registered in January, 94 in February and 72 in March (according to incomplete data).

One of the main reasons contributing to the decrease in the terrorist activity of the kulaks is a tougher punitive policy towards terrorists. This also explains the fact that terror is beginning to take on fewer active forms. Moreover, the number of murders is especially decreasing: in January ‐ 33 cases, in February ‐ 14, in March ‐ 11.

Of interest in this respect are the following comparative data on the nature of terror:

	Total	Of them:
		Kills	Injured	Beatings	Arson	Assassination   attempts	Others
1st     quarter 1928	554	119	48	90	174	105	eighteen
1st     quarter 1929	332	58	44	94	74	45	7

In the overwhelming majority of cases, terror is directed against the workers of the grassroots Soviet apparatus (95 facts), the asset of the poor (94), members of the CPSU (b) and the Komsomol (54).

For reasons of terror, it is distributed as follows: on the basis of the electoral struggle ‐ 51, for the struggle against the kulaks ‐ 50, in connection with grain procurements ‐ 38, on the basis of tax and selftaxation ‐ 12, in connection with land management and collectivization ‐ 13, and for notes in newspapers ‐ 8 (in other cases, the reasons for the attacks have not been established).

Leaflets

According to the number of cases of leaflet distribution in the first quarter of 1929, January stands out ‐ 121 facts (in February ‐ 51 and in March, according to incomplete information ‐ 27).

Of the registered insurgent leaflets ‐ 38, in connection with the reelection of village councils ‐ 35, on the basis of a food crisis ‐ 17 and with threats to the workers of the Soviet apparatus and activists of the village ‐ 57.

Mass performances

Mass and group demonstrations in January‐March are registered in connection with the food crisis ‐ 26 cases, on the basis of grain procurements ‐ 14, on religious grounds ‐ 7, in connection with lynching and police opposition ‐ 6, on the basis of tax and self‐taxation ‐ 3, lack of manufactured goods ‐ 2, land management ‐ 1 and others ‐ 2.

The following table gives an idea of the number of participants in individual performances:

Performances with a fixed number of participants	Of them with the number of participants						Total participants
	up to 50 people	from                 51 to 100	from 101 to 200	from 201 to 300	from  300 to 500	over   500
46	fourteen	fourteen	five	nine	2	2	7980

Of the individual mass demonstrations during the reporting period, the speeches on the basis of grain procurements as a result of the use of tough measures against the malicious holders of grain ‐ kulaks and repressions against grain speculators ‐ deserve attention.

In the Barnaul district (Siberia), on the basis of the sale of the property of 250 kulak farms, imposed fivefold by self‐taxation for malicious failure to deliver grain, 6 mass demonstrations took place in March. Moreover, a crowd of 300‐500 people were beaten and injured 10 workers of the village council and police. The kulaks, leading the protests, tried to contact neighboring villages in order to obtain support.

In the Trinity District (Ural) in the village. Kumlyak for 3 days women organized by the kulaks opposed the delivery of grain to the procurers. The local priest, up to two times, called a thousandth crowd with an alarm bell, which, appearing to the village council and protesting against the work of procurement organizations, demanded to convene a ʺnational assembly.ʺ The kulaks tried to enlist the support of the workers, choosing for this purpose a delegation to travel to the city of Zlatoust (in the same village at the end of 1928 there was a mass demonstration on the basis of the closure of the church).

Eastern national republics and autonomous regions

Adjarastan

In the first days of March from. in Khulinsky district Ajaristan, there were mass demonstrations, which then took on an insurrectionary character. The reasons that triggered the movement were: contamination and a significant separation of the district Soviet apparatus from the masses, the lack of a sufficiently flexible policy in relation to the rural population when conducting certain events in the countryside, the distortion of the party line on the part of individual coworkers, especially in the campaign to liberate women, errors in the tax politics, lack of bread, dissatisfaction with the system of levying regular contributions of state insurance and the systematic delay in issuing premiums for dead livestock. The decisive stimulus for the performance was dissatisfaction with the campaigns to remove the veil ¹⁴⁷ and the closure of madrasahs, which also coincided in time with the Sovietsʹ re‐election campaign. Back in January and February, under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks and the Muslim clergy, a number of women rallied against the removal of the veil and the closure of madrasahs (see reviews for January‐February). Some acceleration of the campaign to remove the veil, the use of threats, arrests and violence by local workers played a significant role in shaping the active protest. As a result, the insurrectionary movement, which began in Chvansky by those, spread to others in the Khulinsky district. ‐ Gordzhomskoe, Khulinskoe, Skhaltinskoe, Riketskoe.

The initiators and leaders of the movement were the kulaks, Muslims, and former adherents of the ¹⁴⁸ Khimshiashvili brothers, who fled to Turkey and from there carried out systematic work to support the resettlement sentiments and ferment among the peasant masses of Khulinsky district. The active organizers of the movement were Odabash‐oglu Mukhamed, an adherent of the Khimshiashvili brothers, a Turkophile leader, a kulak with great influence on the peasants of Chvansky, and the famous smuggler Izet Chagalidze. The following slogans were subsequently added to the initial demands of the rebels to cancel the removal of the veil and the closure of the madrasah, to eliminate individual cases of arbitrariness of local collaborators: 1) the organization of the muftiat ¹⁴⁹ (higher spiritual administration), 2) the creation of Kadi ¹⁵⁰ (Sharia court), 3) exclusion of girls from schools, 4) removal from Khuli district. Communists, 5) within two days to carry out ʺfreeʺ re‐elections of the Soviets in the Khuli district, 6) the creation of a national Ajarian army, 7) the populationʹs failure to surrender weapons.

According to preliminary information, from 600 to 700 people took part in the movement. In Chvani, the number of speakers was at least 300 people. As a result of the measures taken, a significant part of the speakers surrendered their weapons and the population returned to their villages. Some of the speakers dispersed.

National regions of the North Caucasus Territory

Re‐election of the Soviets

Preliminary data, recording a generally more satisfactory social composition of the newly elected village councils in comparison with the previous re‐elections, indicate, however, that the village councils are partially littered with alien and criminal elements. Along with this, among the poor part of the members of the village councils there are a significant number of podkulachniki and persons with an anti‐Soviet past or who have compromised themselves in Soviet work.

The village council of St [arye] Atagi (Chechnya) has 56 members: one former bandit, 5 former whites, 4 former police officers, kulaks and former traders ‐ 3, Arabists ^{151 ‐} 2, that is, the village council is clogged by 27%.

In with. Adyge‐Khabl (Cherkessia), a former cattle stealer, convicted in

1924 and deprived of his rights for 5 years, was elected chairman of the village council. This term ends in September 1929.

In with. Zumsoy (Chechnya) elected to the village council Sheikh ¹⁵², who has up to 100 murids and regularly collects zakyat ¹⁵³ for himself. In the village council Chugun‐Kale (Chechnya), one of the members of the village council has 200 heads of small livestock, a horse, 10 heads of cattle, a former guard who beat peasants, now a member of an antiSoviet group.

The littering of village councils in 9 districts of Chechnya, according to incomplete data, is drawn in the following form: kulaks ‐ 22, traders ‐ 50, former white police officers and foremen ‐ 6, embezzlers ‐ 4, bandits and cattle stealers ‐ 25, defamed by court ‐ 4, ʺdisenfranchised ʺ‐ 6, former officers ‐ 2, representatives of the religious community ‐ 17.

As a new and unusual phenomenon for the mountain aul, numerous cases of women being elected as chairpersons and, mainly, as deputy chairmen of village councils (Ossetia, Adygea, Karachay, Ingushetia) should be noted. There is an exceptionally high turnout of kulak‐antiSoviet elements at election meetings, often with whole families. The formation of new village councils and some presidiums is proceeding with great difficulties, meeting strong resistance from the kulaks and their supporters.

In the village of Lakshukai (Chechnya), the kulak group, after the reelection of the village council, convened a meeting, which attracted up to 40 voters. The meeting singled out a delegation to the regional election committee with a complaint about the incorrect conduct of the re‐election.

Sowing campaign

Among the workers of the district and rural apparatus, there is some confusion, a manifestation of lack of confidence in their strength, dissatisfaction with the insufficient help of regional organizations ‐ ʺthey are in charge, and we do.ʺ Hence, there is some tendentiousness in the information about the general situation on the ground and exaggeration about the shortages of bread and fodder (Kabarda, Ossetia, Chechnya). The same sentiments are the reason for quite numerous cases of inactivity of the district apparatuses, which seek to mechanically shift the burden and responsibility for their implementation onto the rural authorities. There are other reasons for the demobilization moods of the district apparatus: in Chechnya, in connection with the upcoming enlargement of districts, in Adygea, ¹⁵⁴, in connection with the unification of the Takhtamukayevsky and Preobrazhensky districts into one administrative unit.

The preparatory and practical work on the sowing campaign is poorly developed. Insufficient participation in the campaign of partyKomsomol and Soviet organizations is noted. Public opinion around the campaign is very insufficiently mobilized. The new law on the unified agricultural tax is not popularized, which leads to cases of perverse interpretations about changes in the agricultural tax.

The condition of agricultural implements and machines is unsatisfactory. Many cars are in need of repair, and most of the national regions are just starting to organize repair shops. There are isolated cases of distribution of loans by the heads of some agricultural partnerships among their close and wealthy relatives (Kabarda). Crop contracting in all national regions is weak. In Ossetia, the plan was fulfilled by 15% by mid‐March, while the deadline for 100% fulfillment was 15 February. In many auls of Adygea, agricultural cooperatives have not yet started this work. There is an acute issue with sowing materials.

Despite these shortcomings, at the past regional and district conferences of grain growers on the sowing campaign, the poor and middle peasants in their speeches welcomed the measures of the Soviet government in raising yields and expanding the sown area. The speeches of the podkulachniki about high taxes ʺhindering the development of agricultureʺ, about ʺunfairʺ pressure on the wealthy, etc. in almost all cases were rebuffed by the conferences themselves ¹⁵⁵... The activities of the kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements are directed mainly towards refusal to contract crops, to refusal of sowing aid from the state, to resist the collection of seeds in local funds and to incite anti‐collective farm sentiments. In some places, kulak agitation is successful. In Chechnya, in one Shali district, 6 cases of disruption of meetings on the creation of semifond were registered. In Kabarda, in the Primalka district, in a number of villages, the organization of sowing associations was disrupted, in which the peasantry, under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks, saw future collective farms. In Ossetia in the village. Ardonskoe fists thwarted the organization of agricultural courses. There are also facts of organized resistance to the sowing campaign.

In with. Goyty (Chechnya), the kulak group convened conspiratorial meetings, for this purpose it organized an active from the poor and middle peasants, which three times failed meetings on issues of seed fund, contracting, organization of sowing partnerships. The group even managed to seize the majority of the village council, the plenum of which, referring to the negative sentiments of the aul, refused to carry out sowing activities. At the re‐convened plenum of the village council, the proposed plan was adopted, but with the proviso ‐ ʺwe are not responsible for society.ʺ Kazakhstan

Grain procurement

On March 15 with. The March plan for the region was fulfilled only by 11.7%. An unfavorable effect on grain procurement was exerted by: the continuing malicious delay by the fists and the wealthy of grain surpluses, the lack of manufactured goods, the activity of private traders and speculators with insufficient activity of the lower apparatus. Among the workers of the Soviet apparatus and procurement organizations, ʺdemobilizationʺ sentiments are growing. There are also cases of direct opposition of individual workers to measures for grain procurement (Syr‐Darya, Ural, Kostanay districts). Competition has intensified between individual procurers. In a number of districts in the kulak‐wealthy farms, the presence of large grain reserves was established. Some of the middle peasants also have more or less significant surpluses. There are cases of burying bread with fists in holes. There were no significant sharp anti‐Soviet statements by the kulaks on the basis of boycotting the malicious nondelivery of grain. Usually the kulaks declare that ʺgoods can be bought in the cityʺ and call on the peasants ʺto respond to the with the boycott of the cooperatives” (Semipalatinsk District). Cases of kulak terror against activists and distribution of anti‐Soviet leaflets have been registered. In with. Georgievsky, Semipalatinsk District, in connection with grain procurements, a leaflet was pasted on the doors of the cooperative calling for the overthrow of Soviet power. In the Petropavlovsk district, two cases of distribution of anti‐Soviet leaflets were recorded. In        the Kostanay district, in two villages, two anonymous letters were posted on the doors of the PO, directed against grain procurements.

Sowing campaign

Practical work on preparation for spring sowing is poorly developed. Often the plans were drawn up without taking into account the real possibilities (Semipalatinsk, Akmola okrugs). There is a lack of sufficient awareness‐raising campaign. The government decree on raising yields among the broad masses of the village and aul was not popularized. The grain cleaning campaign is weak in a number of areas. In some places the grain cleaning machines have not been repaired, and those in operation are used with partial load. There is a lack of sowing materials and agricultural implements.

In the Semipalatinsk District, 73% of poor households do not have seeds for sowing, and the shortage of plows is expressed in 84%. The poor and underpowered middle peasants (Syr‐Darya and Petropavlovsk districts) also feel an acute need for seeds.

Crops contracting is proceeding poorly due to repeated changes in the control figures along the edge. There is a lack of contact in the work of the Soyuzkhleb and collective farm unions, in connection with which contradictory directives are given in places. Everywhere the kulaks are conducting intensified agitation against contracting. At the same time, the kulaks launched a broad campaign against the expansion of the sowing wedge. Under the influence of kulak agitation, tendencies of an insignificant part of the middle peasantry to reduce crops (Aktobe, Ural, Alma‐Ata okrugs) were noted.

Female campaign

The campaign to remove the burqa ¹⁵⁶ in the Syr‐Darya district provoked widespread opposition from Bai elements, merchants and the Muslim community. Not limited to intensified anti‐disclosure campaigning, buys and traffickers threaten revenge women with violence. The most implacable and serious opponent of the womenʹs campaign is the Muslim clergy, which refers in its speeches to the uprising in Afghanistan ¹⁵⁷ as an example to be followed by the Uzbeks ʺin the struggle to preserve their religion.ʺ The struggle of anti‐Soviet elements against the womenʹs campaign is sometimes successful. 7 cases of beatings of revealed women and a number of death threats were registered. Passivity, and in many cases direct opposition to the campaign on the part of part of the party members and representatives of the grassroots apparatus, had a negative impact on the course of the campaign. By forbidding their wives to take off their veils and even attend general meetings, the communists in some places threatened them with divorce and beatings.

Uzbekistan

Sowing campaign

In a number of districts, it is planned to increase the sown area mainly due to the development of fallow ¹⁵⁸ and displacement of rice. In the Fergana district, the sowing campaign plan envisages bringing the sowing area to 228723 hectares against 216568 hectares in 1927‐1928. In the Zeravshan district, the sown area of irrigated crops was determined at 96,400 dessiatines against 92,000 dessiatines in 1927‐1928. Expansion of the cotton area is expected by 27.6% against last year. In the Khorezm district, the total cultivated area is expected to increase by 5% compared to last year. The increase in the cotton wedge in the current sowing campaign compared to last year is expressed according to the plan at 30%. In the Samarkand district, the cotton sowing area in 19271928. was equal to 40360 hectares, and in 1928‐1929. should be equal to 49,800 hectares. In some places, there is a discrepancy in the work of zemborgs and cotton associations, in connection with which the control figures for the sowing area have not been agreed upon and have not been specified. In the Khojent and Surkhan‐Darya districts, the collection of applications for cotton planting is proceeding successfully. In the Andijan district, there were cases when the figures of the indicative plan exceed the figures for the applications of cotton growers, which is partly due to shortcomings in the work on collecting applications. Significant interruptions in the supply of crops to peasants are noted. The main threat along the Vodkhoz line is floods, which have significantly damaged the irrigation network. On the ground, there is often a lack of procurement of materials in case of destruction from floods, there is a lack of building materials. In some districts, a serious shortcoming in the field of irrigation construction is the lack of engineering and technical personnel and poor equipment of the irrigation network. There is no survey of the state of the water system. In the Khorezm district, the flood of the river flooded 59 farms and killed about 60 tanaps of the sown area. In some places, in connection with the transfer of the burden of work in kind to more powerful farms, cases of division of wealthy farms have been recorded. The kulak‐bai elements are actively campaigning for the reduction of the cotton area. Under the influence of Bai agitation, cases of poor peasantsʹ refusal to plant cotton were recorded (Fergana

District).

Countering the womenʹs campaign

The campaign for the emancipation of women continues to meet with active opposition from the Bai‐anti‐Soviet elements. During the reporting period, there were 7 cases of murder (Fergana, Andijan districts), one attempted murder (Fergana district), one case of beating (Andijan district) and one mass demonstration with the participation of 200 people (ibid.). The initiators of the performance were the bai and representatives of the Muslim clergy.

Tajikistan ¹⁵⁹

Sowing campaign

The increase in the area in Tajikistan due to the newly irrigated land is expressed in 28270 hectares, the share of cotton regions is 27840 hectares. It is planned to increase the cotton wedge to 60,240 hectares. One of the serious indicators of a possible failure of Vodkhozʹs work to the target date is the work issue, which is acute at present. The possibility of an outbreak of discontent among workers is not excluded, due to the low rates in comparison with last year. There is a shortage of draft animals in the Kurgan‐Tyube vilayet ¹⁶⁰ and Parkhar Tumen ¹⁶¹.

Kyrgyzstan

The total sowing area in Kyrgyzstan is estimated at 562325 hectares. The increase in the cultivated area against last year is expressed by 13%. The total cotton sowing area is set at 56205 hectares, which exceeds last yearʹs sowing by 28.9%. Despite the fact that the number of hectares intended for sowing cotton is guaranteed by the land department and Vodkhoz, there is an opinion among the dekhkans and even workers in cotton cooperatives that the plan for sowing cotton has been excessively increased. There is a delay in the timely transfer of seed material. With regard to the tractor teams, there are fears that they will have interruptions in their work due to the lack of repair shops and the supply of fuel and lubricant.

Crimea ¹⁶²

Sowing campaign

Preparatory work for spring sowing is poorly developed. There are no data on the required amount of seeds and the need for the poor and low‐powered middle peasants in seed material.

In the Bakhchisarai region, standard contracts for contracting have not yet been received, grain has not been delivered. Cartage is not prepared, which slows down the transfer of seed to the site. In Dzhankoy, Karasubazar, Bakhchisarai and Yevpatoria districts, there is an acute shortage of sowing material, in connection with which plans for expanding cultivated areas are threatened in some villages.

In the process of distributing the available semomaterial, there were cases of distribution of seeds to wealthy farms. One of the main obstacles to expanding the cultivated area of the poor and underpowered middle peasants is the lack of draft power and draft animals. A feed crisis is beginning to be felt in a number of areas. In Sevastopol, Evpatoria and Dzhankoy districts, due to the lack of forage, there is a death of livestock. The kulaks everywhere are vigorously agitating against the expansion of the sown area, raising yields and contracting. Under the influence of kulak agitation, there is a tendency of some part of the middle peasantry to reduce the area under crops this year and cases of a negative attitude towards contracting crops.

Prodzones

In a number of regions there is a shortage of grain, which is especially strongly felt by the poor. Bread‐fodder difficulties are most pronounced among the poor of the Evpatoria, Simferopol and Dzhankoy regions. Grain difficulties are no less strongly felt in the special cultural regions, in particular, in Yalta. On this basis, there is discontent and criticism of the Soviet regime from the poor. Discontent is aggravated by the release of manufactured goods only in exchange for bread. Many declare: ʺOnly the kulaks with grain surpluses can get a manufacture, and the poor are forced to walk in rags.ʺ The kulaks use industrial difficulties to intensify anti‐Soviet agitation and spread various provocative rumors.

Bashkiria ¹⁶³

Grain procurement

The March plan was fulfilled by 21.9% (a decrease in comparison with last yearʹs procurements by 26.3%). In the Birsk and Sterlitamak cantons, the activity of private traders and speculators noticeably revived.

In the village. Seityak St. Baytachevskaya parish Birsk canton profiteers beat up members of the village council, who detained 8 wagons with bread.

On the part of the lower procurement and Soviet apparatus, proper attention is not paid to reviving the rate of procurement. The attention of the workers of the Soviet apparatus was partially diverted by the sowing campaign. In connection with a decrease in the supply of grain by the grassroots procurement organizations and workers of the Soviet apparatus, in some cases, in order to increase grain procurements, excesses were allowed, expressed in intimidation of peasants who did not surrender grain, in household rounds, etc. state producers, at the same time they are campaigning among the middle peasants against the export of grain and for the reduction of crops. Large bread holders with up to 2000 poods are registered in the Zilair and Bir cantons.

Sowing campaign

According to the tentative plan, it is supposed to increase the sowing spring wedge by 10%. Bashnarkomzem intends not to issue a seed loan from the state fund during the current sowing campaign, but to increase the sown area at the expense of the resources of the local fund and a varietal loan. However, the local fund figure is 1852628 poods. unrealistic as this includes the debt on local fund loans. The actual amount of seeds of the local fund, which will be collected by the beginning of the sowing campaign, should be counted at 1,015,000 poods, i.e., the shortage in seeds will be expressed in 837,628 poods. The supply of seed grains of low quality with low germination is noted.

Ak‐Yarskiy Semenovodsoyuz ʺShootsʺ of the Zilair canton received 8000 poods. seed wheat, in the analysis of which it turned out that it has 33% non‐germination. The collective farms refused to take this wheat. The Davlekanov state farms received 49,000 poods from Bashseltrest. high‐quality wheat, which, according to the control‐seed station NKZem ^164, has a very poor germination rate ‐ from 40 to 80%.

The grain cleaning campaign is extremely slow. Some cantons have not yet started cleaning and sorting seeds. In the Ufa, Zilair and Sterlitamak cantons, there is an insufficient delivery of agricultural machinery and tools. The kulaks are vigorously agitating against the expansion of the sowing wedge, while using excesses and distortions in the grain procurement campaign. Under the influence of kulak agitation, some of the middle peasants intend to reduce the sown area this year.

Speeches in connection with the closure of churches and mosques

Due to the lack of sufficient preparation for the implementation of the decisions of the electoral assemblies on the use of churches and mosques for cultural purposes and the excesses and distortions made, a number of cases of negative attitude of some workers and peasants to the aforementioned event were registered.

In total, 23 churches and houses of worship and 31 mosques were closed. Anti‐Soviet elements, and especially the clergy, led a vigorous campaign against the closure of churches. On this basis, 4 mass demonstrations were registered. Particularly noteworthy is the mass demonstration of the religious part of the population of Beloretsk, accompanied by the beating of police officers who were forced to shoot in the air in self‐defense (see Appendix). At the same time, there is a tendency of believers to build new and renovate old churches and mosques (Birsk, Belebey cantons).

Tartary

Sowing campaign

The grassroots Soviet and cooperative apparatuses, despite the approaching spring sowing time, are inactive. TNKZ and Tatkhlebosoyuz limited themselves to formal drawing up of sowing and contracting plans, which often do not correspond to real possibilities. Cleaning and sorting of seed grain is extremely poor. The main reasons influencing the successful conduct of the grain cleaning campaign are: the lack of the required number of grain cleaning machines, untimely repair of machines and their incomplete load. A number of cases of peasantsʹ refusal, under the influence of the agitation of the kulaks, from cleaning and sorting seeds were noted. The contracting of crops is proceeding poorly, mainly due to the negligence of the cooperative and Soviet apparatus and the lack of funds. The kulaks are vigorously agitating against contracting. Under the influence of kulak agitation, there have been registered cases of peasants adopting resolutions on the refusal of contracting (Chistopol canton). There is a significant interruption in the machine supply. Requests for cars presented from the field will not be fully satisfied.

In the Spassky canton, due to the lack of agricultural machinery, there is a threat of disruption of the sowing campaign.

Buryat‐Mongolia

Emigration sentiments

Emigration sentiment among the Buryat population of the border strip continues to increase. In Aginsky aimag ¹⁶⁵ along the river. Argun concentrated about 3000 yurts ¹⁶⁶ (households) intending to emigrate to Borgu (China). The inspirers of the movement are the lamas of the

Tsugolsky datsan ¹⁶⁷, who travel specifically to the ¹⁶⁸ uluses of the Aginsky aimag and are campaigning for the resettlement of the Buryats to Mongolia. Rumors are spreading rapidly that ʺthe government has issued a decree on the confiscation of part of the property from all Trans‐Baikal Buryats.ʺ Agitation of lambs for emigration continues to be observed in somon ¹⁶⁹ Novaya Zarya of the Chita district.

Mood over Afghan events

The Afghan events are still widely used by the Baysko‐anti‐Soviet elements in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan in the struggle against the measures of the Soviet government. Significant interest in Afghan events is also noted among the national

intelligentsia. Baytry, the Muslim faith, former emir officials ¹⁷⁰ and traders point to the uprising in Afghanistan as an example that every Muslim should follow ʺin the struggle to preserve his religion.ʺ This agitation, which at first existed only in Central Asia, has recently begun to be noted in other national‐eastern regions.

In the national areas of the CCM, the most active response to the Afghan events took place among the Muslim community. Prayer meetings in mosques               were      used      by           mullahs                for          anti‐Soviet agitation. Representatives of the Muslim community regard the Afghan events as ʺthe beginning of a holy war bringing the triumph of Islam.ʺ

Speeches of the following kind are characteristic: “The war in

Afghanistan ended with the victory of the supporters of England and Sharia. In spring, the victors, with the help of England, will wage war against Amanullahʹs ally, the USSR. The times of the holy war have come. The sheikhsʹ predictions have come true. ʺ No less characteristic and significant are statements of the following order: ʺWe must help him (insurgent Afghanistan), Georgia will support us.ʺ

Similar references to the Afghan events took place on the part of the Muslim clergy in the Syr‐Darya district of Kazakhstan in connection with the campaign to remove the burqa. In the Muslim regions of the Ural region. also recorded the speeches of kulak‐anti‐Soviet elements: ʺIf England is taken properly, then not only Afghanistan will overthrow her, but the USSR will overthrowʺ (Kaksarlino village, Chelyabinsk district).

In connection with the Afghan events, the revival of the Transcordon gangs on the borders of our Union with Afghanistan and raids on the territory of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, accompanied by robbery of the population and theft of livestock, are still noted. At the beginning of March, Utan‐Bekʹs Basmach gang seized one tractor in the KurganTyube region.

Deputy Chairman of the OGPU

Trilisser

Head of INFO OGPU

Alekseev

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

 Appendix [No. 1]. Eastern national republics and autonomous regions

On the mass demonstration in the city of Beloretsk, Bashkiria on the basis of the closure of churches

March 4 p. In the city of Beloretsk, after the decision adopted at the election meeting for the city council elections to close the church (out of 10755 voters, 8693 people signed for the closure of the church), the religious part of the population in the amount of up to 150 people, agitated by the priest, demonstratively came to the city council, demanding the cancellation the decision to close the church. Threats were heard from the crowd against the chairman of the city council, who was subsequently beaten by an excited crowd.

On March 20, the city council of Beloretsk, upon receiving the sanction of the Bashkir Central Executive Committee to close the church, allocated for this purpose a commission of representatives from the city council ‐ 2 people, workers ‐ 2 people, the church council ‐ 2 people and the rector of the church.

The workers of the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant decided to take an active part in the closure of the church by arranging an organized demonstration, and on the initiative of the party collective, despite the disagreement of the cantkom bureau, they demanded a music orchestra, with which they arrived at the church. Simultaneously with the demonstration, a commission arrived at the church, after whose entrance into the church the gates of the fence were locked and the fence was cordoned off by the police. Soon thereafter, small groups of believers began to group around the workers, who entered into a squabble with the worker demonstrators. By the time the cross was removed from the bell tower, a huge crowd of several thousand people had gathered, which, rushing to the fence, beat communist demonstrators, Komsomol members and workers with sticks, pulled the policemen off their horses, shouting: “We must shoot those who break the crosses”, “beat them ʺ etc. As a result, a number of party members, Komsomol members and workers were beaten. The police, believing that the crowd of believers could not be convinced by persuasion, fired several volleys into the air. The retreating crowd soon again began to advance towards the fence of the church. Party members and workers asked the military commissar to present there to give them weapons. The latter agreed to this and armed 32 people with rifles equipped with blank cartridges, who cordoned off the fence. After that, only the crowd subsided and began to disperse. equipped with blank cartridges, 32 people who cordoned off the fence. After that, only the crowd subsided and began to disperse.

By 5 pm, the cross and several bells were removed from the bell tower. By this time, the commission also completed its work. When the commission left the church, the priest was surrounded by believers, who, seeing him off, shouted: ʺWe will not let Father be arrested.ʺ After that, the crowd soon dispersed.

In connection with the incident that took place on the same day, militia, Komsomol members and party members detained 14 people. The next morning the commission resumed its work and removed the second cross and bells from the church, around which a crowd of up to 600 people gathered. However, there was no active speech from the audience.

On the third day, when the last big bell was being removed, only a small group of believers gathered near the church, from whose side there were no speeches. After the closure of the church, the following conversations were noted among the workers: “We were forced to sign by means of intimidation and shame,” “we ourselves do not go to church, we don’t believe in God, but there was no need to close the church, there was no need to anger the population,” etc.

Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

Kucherov

 

Table movement of strikes in enterprises of state industry of the

USSR 1929 February‐March, city of

Industry industry laziness	Causes of strikes
	Under the will of existenc e current salary		Unde r delig ht in wage cut		Under deligh t       in  delaye d wages		Under freedom  of working conditio ns		Under freedo m     of food ration norms		Other reason s		Total hit tovoc		Total part nicknam es		Total lost mandays
	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III	II	III
Metalworke rs	1	‐	‐	4	‐	1	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	2	3	7	655	335	565	88
Textile workers	‐	‐	3	3	‐	‐	‐	‐	4	‐	4	2	12	five	1387	447	998	304
Miners	1	‐	1	3	‐	‐		‐	1	‐	1	‐	4	3	1325	164	1612	324
Chemists	‐	1		‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	1	‐	28	‐	28
Transport workers	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	1	‐	25	‐	125	‐
Seasons	2	2	1	4	1	2	‐	1	3	4	1	‐	8	thirtee n	2839	1640	6292	618 0
Other	2	‐	1	3								2	fiv e	five	117	137	129	111
Total:	6	3	6	17	1	3	‐	1	8	4	6	6	33	34	6348	2751	1172   1 *	703 5

 Note

* In the document, the total is incorrect, it follows ‐ 9721.

 Correct: Secretary of INFO OGPU

 Kucherov