V. I.   Lenin

Draft Decision for the Council of Defence on
The Mobilisation of Soviet Employees[1]


Written: Written not later than May 31, 1919
Published: First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXIV. Printed from the manuscript.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, Volume 42, pages 137b-138a.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: D. Walters
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2003). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.README


§ 1. All male employees of Soviet institutions between the ages of 18 and 45 [better more, as some will be exempted] to be mobilised for 4 months (from 15.VI to 15.X) and to be replaced by women or part of the work to be temporarily reduced.

Note to § 1. Only people who are ill or absolutely indispensable, but not more than 10 per cent, shall be exempted with the permission of a special commission.

§ 2. The mobilised men to be placed at the disposal of the military authorities. To present themselves (date).

§ 3. The mobilised men to answer for each other by collective liability and their families to be considered hostages in the event of their deserting to the enemy or failing to carry out assignments, etc.

§ 4. The mobilised men to form small groups, preferably of different professions, so that each group may take upon itself, in the rear and at the front, various tasks in connection with troop formation, ferrying, maintenance and so on.

§ 5. Each mobilised person is obliged to form for himself out of supplies received from C,E.C. and other stores a small collection of the most needful propaganda booklets and leaflets, with which he is duty bound to familiarise the soldiers and population and report every week on how he performs these duties.

§ 6. Each mobilised person, immediately on being mobilised, but not later than within ... days, is obliged to give detailed information as to his education, previous employment or occupation, places of former residence, knowledge of foreign languages, etc., in accordance with a programme to be specially drawn up.


Notes

[1] On May 31, 1919, the Council of Defence considered questions relating to mobilisation. The Council endorsed the decree drafted by Lenin (see pp. 138-39 of this volume) and decisions directing the People’s Commissariat for Food to provide themobilised men with food and ordering the conscription status of employees in all departments and institutions to be checked with the object of placing at the disposal of the military command all such persons who were liable for service in the armed forces and who could be replaced without great detriment to the work by persons who were not liable or by women.


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