V. I. Lenin

Draft Decision for the C.P.C. on
Potato Purchases^{2}

Written: November 18, 1919
Published: First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXIV. Printed from the manuscript.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, Volume 42, page 149.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: D. Walters
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) © 2003 Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.  

The draft of the Food Commissariat and § 4 of the S.E.C. draft^{3} shall be accepted as a basis.

A commission to be set up to work out the whole draft in detail in order to establish with absolute accuracy both the separate districts (in Food Commissariat’s §§) and the concrete measures to reinforce the Food Army at definite centres, enlist the co-operation of the workers, determine the amount of necessary and possible deliveries of spirit and starch, and so on.

The commission shall precisely formulate the Food Commissariat’s responsibility for fulfilment of all emergency measures and their enforcement in a revolutionary manner so that this responsibility can be taken into account in the C.P.C.’s future policy.

The commission to consist of Scheinman (+2 F.C,^{1} )
      Rykov
      Schmidt
      Kamenev
      Avanesov (or a Vecheka man)
      Markov

The commission to be given 2 days and the C.P.C. to meet on Friday.^{4}

Notes

{1} Meaning two representatives from the Food Commissariat.—Ed.

{2} This draft decision was adopted by the C.P.C. on November 18, 1919. —Ed.

{3} Simultaneously with the draft of the Food Commissariat the C.P.C. discussed the draft of the Supreme Economic Council on the same question. Point 4 of the S.E.C. draft read: “The starch and treacle factories shall be allowed to make contracts with the peasants for the delivery of potatoes, and to issue 1 pound of produce for every processed pood” (Lenin Miscellany XXIV, p. 140). —Ed.

{4} The decree on potato purchases drafted by the commission was endorsed by the C.P.C. on Saturday, November 22, 1919, with amendments proposed at its meeting.—Ed.