On the order of evacuation and destruction of property Telegram of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine

Proceedings of the Central Committee of the CPSU 1990 No. 7 S.206-207

Kyiv City

Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to Comrade MALENKOV

We consider it necessary to determine more precisely when to destroy MTS property and other equipment that cannot be removed. We make the following suggestions:

1. In a zone of 100-150 kilometers from the enemy, local organizations are obliged to immediately begin to destroy all combines, lobogreks, winnowing machines and other agricultural machines. The tractors must be driven inland under their own power, the rest of the tractors, which cannot be used by the retreating units of the Red Army and which for some reason cannot be taken out in the same zone, are subject to immediate destruction.

2. In the same zone, it is necessary to immediately distribute to the collective farmers insurance and all other grain and other collective farm funds.

3. In the same zone, they immediately start stealing all the cattle of collective farms, state farms, oxen and young horses. Working horses, which may be needed by the retreating units of the Red Army, are subject to stealing when the enemy has approached a distance of 10-30 kilometers. It is categorically forbidden to drive cattle along the roads where the movement of troops takes place, to drive cattle through crops, beets and along roads that the Red Army does not use.

4. Pigs of collective farms and state farms in the same zone must be slaughtered. Meat and lard must be handed over to military units, collective farmers, workers in cities, hospitals, hospitals, students of the FZO. A certain number of pigs must be left alive in this zone for the passing units of the Red Army. The poultry of collective farms and state farms in the same zone is also subject to distribution in slaughter form to military units, collective farmers, and workers.

5. In the zone of 100-150 kilometers, local authorities, in agreement with the military command, themselves decide what kind of valuable equipment loaded into wagons should be destroyed in trains, due to the impossibility of exporting it. Such a directive must be given to the military and local authorities because we have cases when, for example, part of the echelons with the most valuable cargo loaded in Lvov went to the enemy, because the enemy cut off the path to these echelons.

6. In a zone of 100-150 kilometers from the enemy, it is necessary to destroy all valuable equipment in factories, grain in warehouses, goods that could not be taken out during the forced withdrawal of Red Army units.

SECRETARY OF THE CCCP(b) OF UKRAINE KHRUSHCHEV

Reply to a telegram from Kyiv. Telegram of the State Defense Committee

July 10, 1941

Kyiv to Khrushchev

1) Your proposals on the destruction of all property contradict the instructions given in Comrade Stalin's speech [2], where the destruction of all valuable property was discussed in connection with the forced withdrawal of Red Army units. Your proposals mean the immediate destruction of all valuable property, grain and livestock in a zone of 100-150 kilometers from the enemy, regardless of the state of the front.

Such an event can demoralize the population, cause dissatisfaction with the Soviet government, upset the rear of the Red Army, and create, both in the army and among the population, a mood of obligatory withdrawal instead of determination to repulse the enemy.

2) The State Defense Committee obliges you in view of the withdrawal of troops, and only in the event of a withdrawal, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe 70-verst strip from the front, take away all the adult male population, draft animals, grain, tractors, combines and move east on your own, and which is impossible take out, destroy, without touching, however, poultry, small livestock and other foodstuffs necessary for the remaining population. As for distributing all this property to the troops, we strongly object to this, since the troops may turn into bands of marauders.

3) Do not blow-up power plants but remove all those valuable parts without which power plants cannot operate, so that power plants cannot operate for a long time.

4) Do not blow-up water pipes.

5) Do not blow up the factories but remove from the equipment all the necessary valuable parts, machine tools, etc., so that the factories cannot be restored for a long time.

6) After the withdrawal of our units to the left bank of the Dnieper, thoroughly blow up all the bridges.

7) Warehouses, especially artillery ones, must be taken out, and what cannot be taken out must be blown up.

8) As regards the evacuation of factories beyond the 70-verst strip, where there is not yet a direct threat from the enemy, this evacuation should be carried out in advance, taking out mainly machine tools and other most valuable equipment.

Chairman of the State

Defense Committee

I. Stalin

[2] This refers to the speech of I.V. Stalin, broadcast on the radio on July 3, 1941, in which he outlined the content of the directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of June 29, 1941 “To the party and Soviet organizations of the front-line regions on the mobilization of all forces and means to defeat the fascist invaders ”(see“ CPSU in the resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee ”. M., 1985, vol. 7, pp. 221-223). Ed.