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

MEETING OF PRESIDIUM OF PETROGRAD SOVIET5032DRAFT RESOLUTIONA plenary meeting of the Petrograd Soviet shall be calledto take revolutionary measures to fight speculators andovercome the famine:(1) All soldiers and workers must be recruited to formseveral thousand groups (consisting of 10-15 men, and possiblymore) who shall be bound to devote a certain numberof hours (say, 3-4) daily to the food supply service.(2) Regiments and factories failing to provide the numberof groups required shall be deprived of bread cards, subjectedto revolutionary coercive and penal measures.(3) The groups shall immediately conduct searches, firstly,of railway stations, inspecting and counting cars loadedwith grain; secondly, of railway tracks and junctions nearPetrograd; thirdly, of all warehouses and private livingquarters.The instructions covering search, counting and requisitionshall be worked out by the presidium of the Petrograd Sovietwith participation of delegates from the district Sovietsor by a special commission.(4) Speculators who are caught and fully exposed as suchshall be shot by the groups on the spot. The same penaltyshall be meted out to members of the groups who are exposedas dishonest.(5) The most reliable and best armed groups of the mass ofrevolutionary contingents organised to take extreme measuresto overcome the famine shall be detailed for dispatch toall stations and all uyezds of the principal grain supplyinggubernias. These groups, with the participation of railwaymendelegated by local railway committees, shall be autho-