14 + 

Appeals and Counter-Appeals + 

“Comrades workers, soldiers and citizens! + 

“The Military Revolutionary Committee in an ‘extraordinary notice’ is accusing the workers of the State and private banking and other institutions of ‘impeding the work of the Government, directed towards the ensuring of the Front with provisions.’ + 

“Comrades and citizens, do not believe this calumny, brought against us, who are part of the general army of labour. + 

“However difficult it be for us to work under the constant threat of interference by acts of violence in our hardworking life, however depressing it be to know that our Country and the Revolution are on the verge of ruin, we, nevertheless, all of us, from the highest to the lowest, employees, artelshtchiki, counters, labourers, couriers, etc., are continuing to fulfil our duties which are connected with the ensuring of provisions and munitions to the Front and country. + 

“Counting upon your lack of information, comrades workers and soldiers, in questions of finance and banking, you are being incited against workers like yourselves, because it is desirable to divert the responsibility for the starving and dying brother-soldiers at the Front from the guilty persons to the innocent workers who are accomplishing their duty under the burden of general poverty and disorganisation. + 

“Remember, workers and soldiers! The employees have always stood up for and will always stand up for the interests of the toiling people, part of which they are themselves, and not a single kopek necessary for the front and the workers has ever been detained and will not be detained by the employees. + 

“From November 6th to November 23rd, i.e., during 17 days, 500 million rubles were dispatched to the Front, and 120 millions to Moscow, besides the sums sent to other towns. + 

“Keeping guard over the wealth of the people, the master of which can be only the Constituent Assembly, representing the whole nation, the employees refuse to give out money for purposes which are unknown to them. + 

“Do not believe the calumniators calling you to take the law into your own hands!” + 

“Citizens: Do not believe the falsehood which irresponsible people are trying to suggest to you by spreading terrible calumnies against the employees of the Ministry of Supplies and the workers in other Supply organisations who are labouring in these dark days for the salvation of Russia. Citizens! In posted placards you are called upon to lynch us, we are accused falsely of sabotage and strikes, we are blamed for all the woes and misfortunes that the people are suffering, although we have been striving indefatigably and uninterruptedly, and are still striving, to save the Russian people from the horrors of starvation. Notwithstanding all that we are bearing as citizens of unhappy Russia, we have not for one hour abandoned our heavy and responsible work of supplying the Army and population with provisions. + 

“The image of the Army, cold and hungry, saving our very existence by its blood and its tortures, does not leave us for a single moment. + 

“Citizens! If we have survived the blackest days in the life and history of our people, if we have succeeded in preventing famine in Petrograd, if we have managed to procure to the suffering army bread and forage by means of enormous, almost superhuman, efforts, it is because we have honestly continued and are still continuing to do our work.⁠ ⁠… + 

“To the ‘last warning’ of the usurpers of the power we reply: It is not for you who are leading the country to ruin to threaten us who are doing all we can not to allow the country to perish. We are not afraid of threats; before us stands the sacred image of tortured Russia. We will continue our work of supplying the Army and the people with bread to our last efforts, so long as you will not prevent us from accomplishing our duty to our country. In the contrary case the Army and the people will stand before the horrors of famine, but the responsibility therefor belongs to the perpetrators of violence. + 

It is notified hereby, that all officials and persons who have quitted the service in Government and public institutions or have been dismissed for sabotage or for having failed to report for work on the day fixed, and who have nevertheless received their salary paid in advance for the time they have not served, are bound to return such salary not later than on November 27th, 1917, to those institutions where they were in service. + 

In the event of this not being done, these persons will be rendered answerable for stealing the Treasury’s property and tried by the Military Revolutionary Court. + 

“The conditions of our work for the supplying of Petrograd are getting more and more difficult every day. + 

“The interference with our work⁠—which is so ruinous to our business⁠—of the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee is still continuing. + 

“Their arbitrary acts, their annulling of our orders, may lead to a catastrophe. + 

“Seals have been affixed to one of the cold storages where the meat and butter destined for the population are kept, and we cannot regulate the temperature so that the products would not be spoilt. + 

“One carload of potatoes and one carload of cabbages have been seized and carried away no one knows where to. + 

“Cargoes which are not liable to requisition (khalva) are requisitioned by the Commissars and, as was the case one day, five boxes of khalva were seized by the Commissar for his own use. + 

“We are not in a position to dispose of our storages, where the self-appointed Commissars do not allow the cargoes to be taken out, and terrorise our employees, threatening them with arrest. + 

“All that is going on in Petrograd is known in the provinces, and from the Don, from Siberia, from Voronezh and other places people are refusing to send flour and bread. + 

“This cannot go on much longer. + 

“The work is simply falling out of our hands. + 

“Our duty is to let the population know of this. + 

“To the last possibility we will remain on guard of the interests of the population. + 

“We will do everything to avoid the oncoming famine, but if under these difficult conditions our work is compelled to stop, let the people know that it is not our fault.⁠ ⁠…” + 