Executive of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' and Red Army Deputies, Decree on the Procedure to be Adopted in Commandeering Dwellings and Movable Property. September 11, 1918

Issued by the Executive of the Moscow Soviet on September 11, 1918, this decree lays out a concrete mechanism for “redistributing” urban housing during the deepening crisis of the civil-war years. It creates district Housing Commissions (including party, union, and Cheka representation), authorizes inspections and reassignment of apartments, and divides residents into ranked social categories, down to “non-working parasitic elements,” who could be expelled from Moscow, while also regulating the inventory and confiscation of movable property in requisitioned dwellings.

1. With the object of finding, and providing workers with, healthy dwellings, there must be organized in each district a Housing Commission, comprising delegates from the following organizations:

• From the Regional Soviet of Deputies.
• From Factory Committees.
• From Trade Unions.
• From the Regional Committee of the Russian Communist Party.
• From the Regional Branch of the All-Russian Extraordinary Committee

2. The Commission mentioned in paragraph 1 notes houses in the Region suitable for workers' dwellings, and inspects these houses.

This Committee settles on the spot which of the tenants of a given house are to be expelled from Moscow, which of them can be provided with a dwelling in another place, or in the same building, and who can be left in the dwellings they occupy.

This work of re-distributing the tenants of a house must be exclusively done by the Commission, composed as indicated above, and must not on any account be passed on to House Committees or to any of the Dwellings" Department's individual Controllers.

When a house is being inspected and tenants are being redistributed it is desirable that representatives of the tenants of the house, and particularly of the proletarian inhabitants, should be induced to assist the Commission.

3. After inspection of the houses the Commission is to draw up a report, stating:-

• The number of dwellings (specifying number of rooms) available for new tenants
• The names of the tenants of the house.

The occupants of houses are to be divided into four categories:

• Workers (certified by Trade Unions, Factory Committees and party nuclei).
• Responsible Soviet employees (certified by their respective institutions).
• Others of the working population.
• Non-working parasitic elements.

[The housing allocation of each category will be:]

a. Laboring and Soviet communist-workers remain in their dwellings.

b. Responsible Soviet workers are to be provided with a dwelling in the same or in some other house.

c. Persons engaged in work of public necessity are to be provided with a dwelling in the region where they work, or at all events in the region where they formerly lived.

d. Non-working elements are to be expelled from Moscow, and a list of such persons is to be sent by the Regional Soviet to the Central Dwellings Commission. Expulsion from Moscow can only take place on the order of the Central Dwellings Commission and, prior to receipt of sanction of the latter, Regional Soviets cannot give orders for expulsion from the town.

Note-Soviet workers and persons engaged in work of public necessity can only be evicted when other premises are provided for them.

4. Citizens who receive orders to move into another-house or into other quarters have the right to demand a reconsideration of the decision of the Regional Dwellings Department. Such applications are received in the Regional Dwellings Department. The applications are reviewed by the Dwellings Commission. A term (not less than three days) must be given for handing in these applications.

5. Dwellings for the working population can be requisitioned by no other organizations except those indicated in this present ordinance (i.e., only by the Central Dwellings Commission).

6. The requisition of premises for Government and public institutions, and for military detachments, is only effected by order of the Central Land and Dwellings Department of the Moscow Workers" and Red Army Deputies' Councils. No other organization can requisition premises, and persons guilty of a breach of this ordinance will be brought to the strictest account and be discharged from the posts they occupy.

7. When dwellings are requisitioned the movable property that serves the dwelling is confiscated in the case of persons who are in hiding or who have been expelled from Moscow [Note: All stocks of fuel at a requisitioned house are taken into account by the Fuel Department of the Regional Soviet.]

8. Confiscation and requisition of movable property is effected, every time, at the order of the Presidential Bureau of the Regional Soviet. Decisions of the Presidential Bureau are to be sent for execution to the Dwellings Commission. The Commission takes an inventory (in duplicate) of the property requisitioned. One copy remains with the Dwellings Commission, and the other is sent to the Central Land and Dwellings Department.

9. The requisitioned articles are warehoused.

10. Requisitioned articles pass into use only on the order of Presidential Bureau of the Regional Soviet. In every separate case a deed is drawn up, containing a list of the articles transferred, and signed by the members of that Bureau.

The deed is drawn up in duplicate, one copy of which is sent to the Central Dwellings Department.

The transfer of movable property without a deed being drawn up, and without the same being sent to the Central Dwellings Department is illegal.

11. The responsibility for the strictest observance of the regulations enumerated in paragraphs I to 10, is imposed on the Presidential Bureaus of the Regional Soviets.

12. The right of confiscating movable property belongs to the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission only as a punitive measure.

Source: Daily Review of the Foreign Press, Neutral Press Supplement. (February 7, 1919), p. 349.