Resolution of the Council of the Ukrainian Labour Army No. 8, February 25, 1920

Source: Tom 17

February 25, 1920

In furtherance of the resolution of the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army of February 18, 1920, No. 2, and in the interest of providing the workers of the Donets Basin with an enhanced front-line ration, the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army resolves:

1. The Donbas Food Supply Commission shall be located in the Donets Basin at the Central Administration of the Coal Industry.

2. General supervision of the work of the Donbas Food Supply Commission is entrusted to the Deputy of the Food Supply Commission of the South-Western Front.

3. The following districts -- Starobelsk, Izyum, Kupyansk, Aleksandrovsk, and Pavlograd -- are to be separated from Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav Provinces in terms of food supply and placed under the jurisdiction of the Donbas Food Supply Commission.

4. For the purpose of creating a food supply fund for the Donets Basin, the Southern Provincial Food Supply Commission is to issue an order for the monthly requirements of the Donets Basin for all locally procured products in the Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, and Dneprovsky districts.

5. The Political Department of the Donbas and the Miners' Union shall make available to the Donbas Food Supply Commission in the shortest possible time the necessary number of workers for reinforcing food procurement both in the districts subordinate to the Donbas Food Supply Commission and in the districts subordinate to the Southern Provincial Food Supply Commission.

6. The representatives of the Supreme Economic Council and the Chief Supply Administration of the Army shall, in the shortest possible time, release to the Donbas Food Supply Commission for distribution to the rural population -- giving priority to those communes that have fulfilled their requisition quotas -- all articles of basic necessity available in the Donets Basin (nails, horseshoes, etc.).

7. Cargoes addressed to the Donbas Food Supply Commission are to be considered military-operational.

8. The Transport Department of the People's Commissariat of Communications shall place at the disposal of the Donbas Food Supply Commission two reserved express trains.

9. The Donbas Food Supply Commission is authorized to use mine locomotives for the transport of food products and articles of basic necessity.

10. Ration norms are established as follows: 40% of the total number of family members.

Note: In the distribution of fats and meat, priority is given to hewers.

11. The sole distribution apparatus for food products and articles of basic necessity among workers and their family members in the Donets Basin shall be the Donbas Union of Cooperatives.

12. In matters of distribution, the Donbas Union of Cooperatives shall be subject to all directives and orders of the Donbas Food Supply Commission.

13. The Food Supply Commission of the South-Western Front shall establish fixed release prices for all food products and articles of basic necessity.

Note: The release of products and articles of basic necessity to workers and their family members at prices above the fixed rates will be punished with the full severity of wartime laws.

14. On the instructions of the Central Administration of the Coal Industry, the Donbas Union of Cooperatives shall supply workers of designated operating enterprises with all products on credit at the expense of the Central Administration of the Coal Industry.

15. The summaries required by the Council of People's Commissars' directive No. ... [sic] shall be submitted by the Donbas Food Supply Commission at the prescribed intervals and in the prescribed form, reporting on the receipt and distribution of food cargoes, to the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army and the Food Supply Commission of the South-Western Front, with copies to the Industrial Bureau, in the form of operational dispatches.

16. Comrade Yakubov, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, is directed to proceed to the Donbas with a sufficient number of inspectors to establish oversight, above all, of the supply of Donbas workers and the distribution among them of articles of basic necessity, with special attention to the operation of the distribution work of the Donbas Food Supply Commission. In the event deficiencies are noted, appropriate measures shall be taken through the relevant organs.

Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army,

I. Stalin.

Source: Marxism and Modernity. 2003. No. 1-2, p. 15.