A. D. Tsiurupa, Organization and Activity of Grain Requisition Detachments. August 20, 1918

Original Source: Sistematicheskii sbornik dekretov i rasporiazhenii pravitel'stva po prodovol'stvennomu delu. (Nizhnii Novgorod, 1919), 106-109.

Issued in August 1918 by Aleksandr Tsiurupa, the People’s Commissar of Food, these instructions lay out how the Soviet government intended to organize grain-requisition detachments: their size and armament, their chain of command, and the dual authority of a military commander and a political commissar. In stark operational terms, food procurement was militarized and fused with class policy, linking local soviets, “committees of the poor,” and armed worker-peasant detachments to the forced collection and transfer of “surpluses” into the state supply system.

Harvesting and Grain Requisition Detachments

4 August 1918

1. All guberniia and uyezd Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, all committees of the poor, all trade union organizations of workers, together with the local organs of the People's Commissariats of Food and Agriculture are to form immediately harvesting and grain requisition detachments. Detachments of workers and peasants from starving guberniias, sent to requisition grain, are to help in bringing in the new harvest Form immediately new detachments from among local peasants and workers to carry out these tasks.

2. The tasks of the above-mentioned detachments are:

(a) Harvest winter grain in former landlord owned estates; (b) Harvest grain in front line areas;

(c) Harvest grain on the land of notorious kulaks and rich people; (d) Help in harvesting grain in good time everywhere and in the transfer of all surpluses to state storehouses.

3. All grain, collected by harvesting and grain requisition detachments, is to be distributed on the following basis: firstly, of course, the necessary amount of grain to satisfy the need for food of the poorest strata of the local population is to be distributed. This part of the grain collected is not to be removed but to remain at the local level. All other grain is to be immediately and unconditionally delivered to grain collection centers. The distribution of this grain is to be carried out by the guberniia food committees on the instructions of the People's Commissariat of Food.

4. Members of harvesting and food requisition detachments, if they are not being rewarded according to previously published decrees (e g. the decree on the maintenance of volunteer workers, going to the front and in food detachments, their localities and average earnings) are to be rewarded, firstly, by an allowance in natura; secondly, by payment in cash according to local conditions and; thirdly, by special bonuses for successful and rapid fulfillment of harvesting work and the transfer of grain to storage centers. The extent of rewards and bonuses are to be determined by guberniia food committees on the basis of instructions from the Commissariat of Food.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. UL'IANOV (LENIN)

People's Commissar of Food TSIURUPA

Instructions for Requisitioning Grain

20 August 1918

1. Every food requisition detachment is to consist of not less than 75 men and two or three machine guns.

2. A commander is to head each detachment He is to be appointed by the chief commissar responsible for the organization of food armies and a political commissar appointed by the Commissariat of Food.

The commander is to control purely military and economic activities. The political commissar's duties are (a) to organize local committees of the rural poor (b) to ensure that the detachment carries out its duties and is full of revolutionary enthusiasm and discipline.

3. Guberniia and uyezd military commanders are to be in charge of all food requisition detachments operating in a given guberniia or uyezd.

4. Plans for grain requisition in a uyezd are to be drawn up by the head of the requisition department appointed by the guberniia food committee.

5. Food requisition detachments are to be subject only to the orders of their commanders ...

6. The food requisition detachments shall be deployed in such a manner as to allow two or three detachments to link up quickly. Continuous cavalry communication shall be maintained between the various food requisition detachments.

People's Commissar of Food A. TSIURUPA