Written: Written July 16, 1920
Published:
First published in 1965 in the fifth Russian Edition of the Collected Works, Vol. 54.
Printed from the manuscript.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
2nd English Printing,
Progress Publishers,
1971,
Moscow,
Volume 42,
page 203b.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
D. Walters
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2003).
You may freely copy, distribute,
display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
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1) Badayev for M.C.S. [Moscow Consumers’ Society.—Editor.]
2) Badayev to be rehabilitated (through the Orgbureau).
3) A number of Petrograd food workers to be transferred to Moscow.
4) Petrograd to be placed under very strict supervision. [Points 2 and 4 in the manuscript are crossed out. Point 4 was not included in the adopted decision.—Editor.]
5) Petrograd, Moscow and all other food points to be put on, an equal footing in the distribution of bread and norms of issue.[2]
[1] The conflict between the Petrograd United Consumers’ Commune and the Petrograd Soviet was this. In the summer of 1920 a number of functionaries of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet headed by G. Zinoviev and the Petrograd Trade Union Council raised the question of issuing bread rations to workers not only for actual work days but also for holidays and non-working days. The Board of the Petrograd Commune (A. Y. Badayev and others) were opposed to this on the grounds that such an extra issue would violate the very principle on which the work ration was based and that, besides, the necessary supplies for this were lacking; in general, it might upset the regular issue of the work ration and shake the workers’ trust in the food supply system. The Petrograd Soviet, however, ignored the opinion of the Petrograd Commune Board and announced the issue of rations for holidays. Badayev refused to carry out this order and declared that the Board of the Petrograd Commune could not work under such conditions. On July 5, 1920, the Petrograd Gubernia Committee of the A.C.P.(B.), having discussed “Comrade Badayev’s refusal to accept the decision of the Large Presidium of June 23 providing for an increase in the bread ration, the issue of 5 lb. advance and the issue of rations to workers during holidays” resolved: “1. That all district bureaux and all functionaries of the Petrograd Commune shall be ordered to remain at work and discharge their duties without the slightest hitch until further notice from the Petrograd Party Committee and the Executive Committee. 2. That it be deemed necessary to radically change the personnel of the Petrograd Commune Board and instruct the Bureau of the Gubernia Committee together with the Presidium of the Executive Committee to appoint new comrades through the medium of the Control Council of the Petrograd Commune and to get in touch with Moscow on this question pending the convocation of a city conference of factory committees and unions” (Party Archives of the Party History Institute of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the C.P.S.U.).
[2] The conflict between the Petrograd Commune and the Petrograd Soviet was discussed at a plenary meeting of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on July 16, 1920, at which Lenin wrote his draft decision. Lenin’s motion was adopted. Taking into consideration that the existing relations between the functionaries of the Petrograd Commune and the Petrograd Soviet were likely to lead to further conflicts, the CC. resolved to have A. Badayev and a number of other Petrograd Commune workers transferred to Moscow. Badayev was appointed Chairman of the Moscow Consumers’ Society.
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