Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

DRAFT DECREE ON CONSUMERS’ COMMUNES417only on condition that the relevant entry is made in thebook of the local consumers’ society.The transport, purchase and sale of products withouta permit from the committees of supplies shall be punishableby the confiscation of the whole of the property of the offender,by imprisonment for a period of not less than six monthsand by sentence to compulsory labour.Permits for the transport or the purchase and sale ofproducts shall be drawn up in duplicate and signed by notless than three members of the board of the committee ofsupplies concerned, one copy being filed by the board.Each permit must state from which and to which consumers’society the products are being consigned.Telegraph offices shall give priority to the telegrams ofthe committees of supplies.All committees of supplies shall act under the controland in accordance with the instructions of the local Sovietsof Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies.Every individual shall be entitled to acquire at his consumers’society any product, without any restrictions whatsoever,except for such regulations as may be establishedto limit the import of products from abroad.Products produced for sale must be delivered to thelocal committee of supplies at uncontrolled prices, exceptin cases when fixed prices are established by law. Moneyreceived for products sold shall be entered to the account ofthe owners in the local (village, volost, city, factory orother) branch of the People’s Bank.Every Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputiesmust appoint a group of inspectors, auditors and instructorsto assist the population to establish consumers’societies (committees of supplies) and check their accountsand all their business.Instructions on keeping the accounts and on the correspondenceof the committees of supplies will be issuedseparately.Written December 24-27, 1917(January 6-9, 1918)First published on January 22Published according1929 in Izvestia No. 18 to the manuscript