The All-Russian Central Executive Committee was the highest governing body of the Soviet Russia, later Union, between Congresses of Soviets for the first 20 years after the Revolution. Here are contemporary reports of two sessions of the C.E.C. from February 2, 1920 with a report by Lenin on internal and international situation, Kamanev on relations with Poland; and March 2, 1920 with a report by Rykov on the economic situation, Trotsky on the military fronts and mobilization of labor, Krassin on problems of transportation, and Zurupa on the work of the Commissariat of Supplies.

‘Russia’s Problems Before the Central Executive Committee’ from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 2 No. 21. May 22, 1920.

(A full report of two of the sessions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee is presented below. We believe no other such full report has ever been printed of these sessions, outside of Russia.)

The Russian wireless issues the following account of the conference of the All-Russian Supreme Executive Committee, held in Moscow in the Kremlin, February 2. This body, representing the supreme legislative power of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, met in accordance with the decision of the 7th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which ordered that this body hold sessions every second month, for the purpose of receiving and passing upon reports presented by the permanent presidium of the Executive Committee and by the Council of People’s Commissars, and to discuss other measures required by the prevailing political and economic situation.

Lenin’s Report.

The first session of the conference took place in the Kremlin on February 2. The President of the Council of People’s Commissars, N. Lenin, presented a report on the general policies of the Workers’ Government of Russia. Lenin stated in his report that the international position of the Soviet Government is now more secure than ever before, as a result of the victories of the Red Armies on all fronts. The Entente Governments are beginning to understand that it is not easy to crush Soviet Russia with the aid of the White Guard counter-revolution. This is the main reason for the lifting of the blockade. The decision of the Supreme Council of the Entente Governments, of January 16, practically represents an indirect recognition of Soviet Russia and marks the beginning of a new era of the Socialist Revolution. The opposition of the laboring masses everywhere in the world against the blockade of Soviet Russia played an important role in the decision of the Entente. It has thus become possible for Soviet Russia to open a window toward Europe.

“Another victory in the domain of our foreign policy is the conclusion of peace with Esthonia, which the present session of the All-Russian Executive Committee is called upon to ratify. This represents an event of the greatest historical importance. A bourgeois government of a small nation has entered into an agreement with us, preferring peace with us, because it clearly understands the robber plans of imperialism, the oppressor of small nations. We brought about this peace at the cost of territorial concessions and by recognizing the independence of Esthonia. Through our victories over Denikin, Kolchak and Yudenich we have demonstrated our ability to oppose force with victorious force and our peace agreement with Esthonia has demonstrated that we are also able to win by declining to employ force.”

Lenin read a series of documents delivered to the Soviet Government by a White Guard officer, Orlenikov. These documents demonstrated that the Russian White Guard diplomacy had exerted all its powers to persuade Esthonia not to make peace with Russie. “Our relations with Latvia have so far been limited to negotiations regarding exchange of prisoners, but the conclusion of peace with Esthonia will compel Latvia in the very near future to define her future relations with Soviet Russia. Our relations with Poland are more complicated. Tremendous efforts are being made to incite Poland into a war against us. The Polish question is very acute. The Council of People’s Commissars addressed the Polish Government announcing our willingness to establish peaceful relations with Poland. We urge the Executive Committee to ratify this move. We are also sending an appeal to the laboring masses of Poland.

“Against us are the imperialists of the whole world. For us are the laboring masses of all countries. The future will show who will be the victor.

“We proposed to the Governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan concerted action against Denikin. but we were met with a refusal. Very soon we will know what the working masses of these countries have to say about that.

“In the East the prestige of Soviet Russia is very high. The colonies, who have themselves experienced the oppression of greedy imperialism, are more and more inclined to ally themselves with us. Our task is a compact union of small nations against imperialism.”

In his report on the internal policies of Soviet Russia, Lenin dwelt upon several questions which required the ratification of the Executive Committee. The Council of the People’s Commissars, at the recommendation of the Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, abolished capital punishment. As soon as our full victory on the counter-revolutionary front was established the Workers’ Government found it permissible to abolish extraordinary methods of punishment.

“Another important question which demands the action of the Executive Committee is the question of labor inspection. On this question a separate report will be presented by Kamenev.

“A problem of the greatest importance is the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars regarding the development and unification of the cooperatives. We desire that the Russian Soviet Republic in its entirety shall become one single cooperative of the workers. Cooperatives of small property owners, who demand free trade, represent forms of cooperation which mean nothing else than profit for a few and privation for the majority of the population. There is no place in Soviet Russia for such cooperatives.”

Discussing the measures for the organization of labor armies, Lenin explained in detail the necessity of such measures during the transition period from a state of war to conditions of peaceful economic construction. Extraordinary measures are necessary to deliver the country from the terrible consequences of economic disruption.

“Our most important task is to create supply reserves for the workers of large industrial centers and to reconstruct the disrupted means of transportation.”

Lenin concluded his report referring to the very important measures undertaken by the Executive Committee of the Commissariat of Agriculture for the electrification of the industrial centres of Soviet Russia.

After Lenin’s report, Kamenev presented a draft of a proclamation addressed to the people of Poland. The Executive Committee accepted the proclamation with slight changes. The decision to abolish capital punishment was adopted unanimously.

Markhlevsky, representing the Polish Communists working in Soviet Russia, read a protest issued by such Polish Communists, denouncing the lies disseminated by the enemies of Soviet Russia. “The Polish capitalists and landowners,” he said, “are eager to incite the Polish workers into a state of war with Soviet Russia and to attain their purpose they are spreading lies about the Communist Party.”

SECOND SESSION.

At the second session of the Executive Committee, on March 3, the President of the Supreme Council of National Economy, Rykov, presented a report on the economic policy of the Soviet Government.

Rykov’s Report.

Rykov pointed out that our economic disruption is caused not only by the external attacks, but also by the civil war, which at times raged over almost all the territory of Soviet Russia. Bridges, roads and factories have been destroyed. Kolchak’s policy in retreating was to carry away by force a great part of the skilled workers and almost every technical expert.

“Production in our factories has greatly decreased, especially in the metal industry. The production of foodstuffs and leather, on the other hand, has not only not gone down, but has actually increased.

“Our victories over the counter-revolution, however, give us at this time an opportunity rapidly to improve the economic life of the country. We have now in our hands the most important sources of raw materials and fuel. The Urals, Siberia and the Donetz basin are in our possession and the victories of the Red Army have caused the breaking down of the blockade. With the commencing of the exchange of commodities, we shall take from western Europe in exchange for our raw material only such commodities as are absolutely indispensable, and not what is offered us. Up to the present, western Europe has offered us unimportant manufactured goods, dried vegetables, and vinegar (!), whereas we need lathes, tools, machines, etc., whereby we may accelerate the reorganization of our productive enterprises. It is also obvious that western European countries are more to be benefitted by the exchange of products than is Soviet Russia. Although available stores of raw materials have been greatly depleted, we are still able to exchange a certain amount of such materials for goods needed by us. We are able immediately to export not less than two million poods of flax (72,000,000 lbs.), several millions pieces of all kinds of furs, a great quantity of platinum, about 100,000 poods (3,600,000 lbs.) of bristles, and great amounts of lumber. In exchange for this, we will accept only such goods as are indispensable for the rehabilitation of the basic productive enterprises of the country.

“The nationalization of the means of production has developed rapidly in all fields of industrial production. At the present time we have in our hands about 4,000 nationalized factories, in other words, we have been able to nationalize not only the big industries, but also a considerable number of smaller enterprises.

“During the past two years we have endeavored to concentrate available supplies of raw material, fuel, and labor in such factories as are best organized and most up to date. This process of concentration has progressed very rapidly: 30 per cent of all the enterprises have been unified into socialistic ‘trusts.’ The number of workingmen in these factories is 74 per cent. We find that by concentrating 74 per cent of the industrial labor in 30 per cent of cur factories we have been able to economize on overhead expenses to a great extent.

“Our most important problem at this time is the reconstruction of the means of transportation, and thereafter, to create large reserve funds of food supplies, fuel and raw materials, which will form a basis for a rational organization of the economic life of the country.”

Rykov discussed at great length the problems connected with the exploitation of the immense national wealth of the country. Immense stores of slate, peat, coal and oil are now available. Especially, there are great supplies of slate and peat in the Volga valley.

“The utilization of slate is a new field, which received no attention in Russia during former regimes, but which has been fully studied and worked up by the Soviet Government. The preliminary experiments in this field have been completed, and two big government planta are now exclusively exploiting the slate deposits. Deposits of slate and peat are immense. They exist in northern Russia as well as in the Volga valley. This kind of fuel is very bulky and cannot be transported. Peat and slate must be utilized on the spot, and electrical energy derived therefrom made to supply the needs of the surrounding territory. This condition led the Supreme Council of National Economy eighteen months ago to undertake the building of gigantic power stations which would use on the spot the available peat and slate supplies. Provincial cities and rural organizations have also taken steps for the electrification of their territory. It is necessary to consolidate these efforts and to create a unified, centralized system of supplying electric power, whereby the utmost attention must be given to supplying electricity to the rural communities. The realization of these plans would greatly accelerate the development of relations between the cities and rural communities.”

In conclusion, Rykov expressed his conviction that the economic disruption will be conquered ‘through intensive labor on the part of the conscious proletariat, through the establishment of universal labor service, through the organization of labor armies, etc. In this manner, Soviet Russia will rapidly heal the wounds caused by the world war and the civil war, and bring Russia’s economic life to a high level.

Labor Mobilization.

The Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Military Council, Trotsky, presented a report on the mobilization of labor.

Trotsky first gave an outline of the situation on the various fronts.

“On the western front we note first of all the complete collapse of Yudenich’s army. On the Esthonian front military activities have ceased altogether. But the extreme imperialistic elements of the Entente Governments are trying to incite against us a new enemy—the Polish Government. It is to be hoped, however,” said Trotsky, “that the Polish Government will display sufficient caution and common sense to refrain from attacking the Soviet Republic.”

“The Soviet Government,” said Trotsky, “has fully demonstrated its peacefulness. You have accepted the manifesto of the Soviet Government to the people of Poland. The Soviet armies will not encroach on the line of demarkation, but if the Polish Government, disregarding the interests of the people of Poland, will undertake an attack on Soviet Russia, the armies on the western front, with the aid of the necessary reserves, will do their duty to the end.

“The eastern front is completely liquidated. On the southern front we are finishing Denikin, after having effected a necessary regrouping of our forces.

“We are approaching the final liquidation of the civil war. We are unable, however, fully to demobilize the army until we receive serious international guarantees for our national integrity. We are demobilizing certain parts of our army, but will retain some permanent forces in endangered territories for the safeguarding of our national existence.

“The demobilization in the army represents our transition to a militia army. The organization of our militia army will have to correspond to the needs of the economic life of the country. We will have to reorganize the administration of each territory, with due consideration for the position of important industrial centers. Our economic problems depend on the proper relation between the large manufacturing industries and agricultural production. Our economic administrative districts must be composed of industrial centers surrounded by rural districts gravitating toward that center. Our militia districts must correspond to such rural districts. The centers of such districts will be located in the productive centers, where we have on hand a nucleus of workingmen who are trained to be leaders of the economic as well as of the intellectual and political life of the district. The officers of our future army, now being organized by us, must at the same time be the officers of our industries. They are our best workers and our best and most conscious working peasants, who will be the leaders of our industries and of our agriculture. In such centers we will also establish educational courses for the training of Red commanders, to replenish the present commanding element, and at the same time not to detach the future Red officers from their productive bases.”

Having described the organization of the labor battalions, Trotsky discussed at some length the question of universal labor service and of the registration of the labor forces.

“The economic condition of the country,” he said, “demands the establishment of universal labor service. Whereas we are compelled to mobilize the industrial workers through the apparatus of the trade unions, the enrolling of peasants in the universal labor service is possible only by undertaking a mobilization along military lines. For this purpose it is necessary to organize a Supreme Committee of Labor Service, which will be the principal agent for supplying labor forces for the needs of the workers’ government. It is necessary to concentrate all requisitions for labor in the hands of a centralized organ, to avoid confusion and conflicts of authority. Some of our needs require seasonal work, some periodical, others temporary; and still others permanent, employment of labor. It is the task of local committees to see to that no conflicts arise in this respect.”

Trotsky emphasized the tremendous difference between compulsory labor under conditions of private ownership and under conditions created by the establishment of a socialistic state. “Only people who think along the lines of a bourgeois liberal ideology are unable to see this vast difference. In former times we had to submit to compulsory labor to strengthen the rule of the serf-owning landlord. Now we are working for ourselves,—for the building up of our own socialistic society. The state of the workers and peasants has responsibilities towards each citizen; but at the same time the duty of every citizen is to give the whole of his labor to the socialistic state. –

“To facilitate the introduction of universal labor service it is necessary to conduct energetic educational work along broad lines, among the peasant population. It is necessary to explain to the peasants that by giving bread and labor to the state they will get in the very near future manufactured products which will be supplied in sufficient amounts by our own industries as soon as they have been revived. It is necessary to increase verbal and written propaganda among the peasants and to explain to the most backward peasant man and woman, the nature of the Soviet Republic as a cooperative state founded on the principle of social, unified labor.

“We must borrow from the Red Army that enthusiasm, that ability of effort which made it possible for us to become victors on all fronts,—this is that ‘militarization’ of our productive life, which has been so much discussed. It is nothing but the development among the laboring masses of a high class labor discipline, a spirit of self-sacrifice and firmness.

“Our most dangerous front at this time is the economic front. There we are threatened with hunger, cold, epidemics, etc. This danger is much more formidable than the danger from Denikin, and it demands the concerted efforts of the entire country. Our greatest problem at the present moment is the organization of a large reserve of supplies. But for this purpose it is necessary first of all to reorganize our means of transportation. We must gather all available supplies of raw material, food and fuel, and bring it to the industrial centers by all possible means, by rail wherever possible, or, if necessary, carry it on our own backs.

“This problem is many times as difficult as the military problems which have confronted us. There is no doubt, however, that we shall solve this problem as we have solved all our other problems, thanks to the heroism of the working class. Millions and tens of millions of workers must take a hand at this new, live, creative work and only then will we be able to elevate our country from the depths of filth, poverty and disease.”

Report by Krassin.

Krassin, People’s Commissar of Ways and Communications, reported on measures taken by the Commissariat in its struggle against the disruption of means of transportation. The situation in this respect during the past two months has become much worse, he said.

“It should be remembered, however, that a transportation crisis prevails at this time not only in Soviet Russia, but in every other European country. Railroads have been utterly exhausted during the imperialistic as well as during the civil war. The destruction of rolling stock by the White Guards, the food crisis, the labor crisis, the fuel crisis,—these are reasons for the breakdown of transportation. The number of sick locomotives has increased to 56 per cent and the situation is getting very threatening. The only escape from this dangerous situation lies in heroic efforts on the part of the working class and in a more efficient and organized application of labor. We are confronted with the task of creating a. railroad personnel as efficient and harmonious as is the Red Army, wherein every member is imbued with the importance of his task.”

Discussing internal reforms undertaken by the Commissariat, Krassin emphasized the very important function of the political organization connected with the Department of Ways and Communication. Trusty political workingmen, Communists, are employed in every district in the railways, engaged in the task of counteracting laziness, exploitation and speculation, and educating the large masses of the railroad proletariat fully to understand the necessity of a regularly functioning railway transportation. Of great importance has been the agreement made between the Commissariat of Ways and Communications and the Commissariat of War, regarding the utilization of the reserve army of Kazan for a month’s work on the railroad line between Kazan and Moscow and Kazan and Yekaterinburg, and regarding the participation of the Red Armies on the Western front for the repair of rolling stock. It may be noticed that only a month after the establishment of such cooperation very good results were achieved on the railroad line Moscow-Kazan. The Commissariat notes with great satisfaction great improvements in the speed with which wagons are loaded, the increase in the number of supply trains to Moscow, an increase representing (20 per cent) the increase in the supplies of fuel, the achievement of greater regularity in the train schedules and an increase of repaired locomotives.

Report of Zurupa.

A report was presented by the Commissar of Supplies, Zurupa. He reports that by the first of February, the Commissar of Supplies had gathered a reserve fund of various supplies to the amount of 108,000,000 poods (3,800,000,000 Ibs.). The Commissariat of Supplies has at its disposal at the present time: 34,000,000 poods (1,224,000,000 lbs.) of grain, including 10,000,000 poods (360,000,000 lbs.) of oats and 30,000,000 poods (1,080,000,000 lbs.) of hay. The supplies of grain are 50 per cent greater than at the corresponding time last year. On the other hand, great difficulty has been encountered in gathering vegetable fats, due to the fact that those parts of Russia which supply oil-seeds have been ravaged by Denikin’stroops. Available meat supplies amount to 6,500,000 poods (234,000,000 lbs.), potatoes 23,000,000 poods (828,000,000 lbs.) and dried vegetables 100,000 poods (3,600,000 lbs.). The condition of the railroads is such, however, that it is very difficult to bring these supplies to the hungering districts and great privation prevails in many parts of Russia for this reason. The Commissar pointed out that the willingness of the peasant population regularly to supply breadstuffs 18 increasing now, and that the Commissariat is developing measures for the supply of other rural products, such as milk, butter, game and eggs. The activities of the Commissariat of Supplies had encountered much criticism, and the Communist Party of Russia had suggested that the Executive Committee should appoint a committee to reorganize the machinery of the Commissariat of Supplies. This suggestion was accepted by the Executive Committee and a committee of three was appointed, one member representing the Executive Committee, one member from the Commissariat of Supplies, and one member from the All-Russian Council of Trade Union.

Soviet Russia began in the summer of 1919, published by the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia and replaced The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. In lieu of an Embassy the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was the official voice of the Soviets in the US. Soviet Russia was published as the official organ of the RSGB until February 1922 when Soviet Russia became to the official organ of The Friends of Soviet Russia, becoming Soviet Russia Pictorial in 1923. There is no better US-published source for information on the Soviet state at this time, and includes official statements, articles by prominent Bolsheviks, data on the Soviet economy, weekly reports on the wars for survival the Soviets were engaged in, as well as efforts to in the US to lift the blockade and begin trade with the emerging Soviet Union.

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