Dictated: Dictated by phone on July 19, 1921
Kalinin has told me of the idea to make a special collection of one pound per pood of collected grain in aid of the starving in the Volga area, Let me know whether this matter has been pushed through and when you intend to have it passed by the Presidium of the All-Russia C.E.C.[1] I think we should: 1) have this passed at once; 2) demand, as a matter of the greatest urgency, that each uyezd should send a few carloads of grain to the Volga area, and that every consignment of grain must be accompanied by two or three local peasants who will see for themselves the scale of the disaster and tell their fellow peasants about it; 3) we should consider the institution of some kind of order or honorary cross for intensified assistance to the starving in the Volga area.
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
Chairman, C.P.C.
[1] On August 1, 1921, the Central Famine Relief Commission under the All-Russia C.E.C. issued an appeal to the peasants and all toiling citizens of the R.S.F.S.R., urging a contribution for the famine-stricken areas of one pound per pood of threshed grain. On August 4, the Presidium of the All-Russia C.E.C. adopted a decision on deducting, for the benefit of the starving, one per cent per pood of foodstuffs procured through commodity exchange (published in Izvestia VTslK No, 172 on August 6, 1921).
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