"
7.
WINE "POGROMS"
It was afterward discovered that there was a regular organisation,
maintained by the Cadets, for provoking rioting among the soldiers.
There would be telephone messages to the different barracks,
announcing that wine was being given away at such and such an
address, and when the soldiers arrived at the spot an individual
would point out the location of the cellar….
The Council of People's Commissars appointed a Commissar for the
Fight Against Drunkenness, who, besides mercilessly putting down the
wine riots, destroyed hundreds of thousands of bottles of liquor. The
Winter Palace cellars, containing rare vintages valued at more than
five million dollars, were at first flooded, and then the liquor was
removed to Cronstadt and destroyed.
In this work the Cronstadt sailors, "flower and pride of the
revolutionary forces," as Trotzky called them, acquitted themselves
with iron selfdicipline….
8.
SPECULATORS
Two orders concerning them:
_Council of People's Commissars_
_To the Military Revolutionary Committee_
The disorganisation of the food supply created by the war, and the
lack of system, is becoming to the last degree acute, thanks to the
speculators, marauders and their followers on the railways, in the
steamship offices, forwarding offices, etc.
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