All-Russian Central Military Provisions Bureau

All-Russian Central Military Provisions Bureau 

(full name, All-Russian Central Military Provisions Bureau of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions and of the People’s Commissariat of Provisions), the organization which during the years of the Civil War headed up the work of the trade unions in bringing advanced cadre workers into the provisions organizations and in increasing procurements of foodstuffs and raw produce.

The All-Russian Central Military Provisions Bureau was created by decrees of the Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars), dated Aug. 3 and 4, 1918. It had krai, oblast, provincial, uezd (district), and raion divisions attached to local provisions organizations, which directly supervised the activity of the provisions detachments. From August 1918 through Apr. 15, 1921, the All-Russian Central Military Provisions Bureau directed 74,689 workers into provisions detachments and 5,403 workers to responsible positions in the provisions organizations. Through its provisions detachments this bureau also conducted political, cultural, and educational work in the countryside: it organized Communist cells, village reading rooms, discussions, meetings, elections to the soviets, and so on. In connection with the transition to the New Economic Policy the Fourth All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions on May 25, 1921, adopted a decree on the cessation of the activity of the bureau.

V. P. BUTT