Written: December 24, 1917/January 6, 1918
First Published: Sobranie Uzakonenii i Rasporiazhenii Rabochego i Krestianskogo Pravitelstva, 1918, No. 12, p. 190.
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, The Bolshevik revolution, 1917-1918: Documents and materials, Stanford University Press; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934, pp. 331-332.
Translated: Emanuel Aronsberg
Transcription/Markup: Zdravko Saveski
Online Version: marxists.org 2017
In order to harmonize all the measures taken in the work of food supply, and in order to create a single .... supply organization at Petrograd, an All-Russian Food Committee has been organized, which includes representatives of the All-Russian Army Food Commission, of the First All-Russian Navy Congress, and of the congress of organizations working for the supply of the front.
The All-Russian Food Committee maintains close contact with the Soviet of People's Commissars, standing as it does on the platform of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets .... and being in full accord with the principle that .... "the reorganization of the supply service can yield positive results only on the condition that the state .... monopolizes all the products of both urban .... and rural economy; that it establishes regular exchange of goods between towns and villages, as well as Workers' Control over production; and that the supply service must be democratized and intrusted to the poorest strata of the population, eliminating those bourgeois groups which are interested in raising the price of articles of prime necessity." The All-Russian Food Committee advises all Soviets .... immediately to begin forming food commissions attached to the Soviets and to secure the co-operation in them of all active forces of the revolutionary democracy. These commissions shall at once assume control over local food organizations. . . . . When full unity in the work of [these] commissions .... and the existing food organizations has been established, all food-supply organs .... are to be placed under the control of the Soviets, which, in turn, must bring their own work of food supply into harmony with the [activities] of the central food organs. Up to the time of their final liquidation, all supply organizations must submit entirely to the directions of the local Soviets .....
Immediately after forming a food commission you are requested to submit to the All-Russian Food Committee .... exact data on the membership of the commission .... stating the methods by which the business of food supply can best be transferred to the Soviets .....
In a very short time the All-Russian Food Committee will call a congress of all democratic organizations and prominent food-supply workers who are entirely devoted to the interests of the .... revolution.
YA. SVERDLOV
Chairman of the Central Executive Committee
A. SCHLICHTER
People's Commissar of Food