"Two rich families having two rich fiats are obliged to move into one of their fiats during the winter, giving the other up to the use of the poor population in view of the extreme need created by the war."

Addenda to the Draft Decree on The Requisition of Articles of Warm Clothing for the Soldiers at the Front.

The following to be added:

Heading: +… and on the requisition of flats of the rich to relieve the needs of the poor ….

§ 1. ... plus one article of warm clothing in addition to a blanket (overcoat, winter coat, jacket, felt boots, etc.).

§ 2. … The term rich flat applies to any flat in which the number of rooms equals or exceeds the number of permanent occupants.

The owners of rich flats are obliged immediately, under threat of confiscation of all their property, to draw up in duplicate a statement listing the articles of warm clothing they have and of those supplied by them to the front, one copy of which is to be handed to the House Committee, the other to the district Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

The owners of rich fiats, under similar threat, are obliged immediately to submit in duplicate to the same institutions a statement to the effect that they are vacating one of two rich fiats for the needs of the poor population of the capital (that is, two rich families having two rich fiats are obliged to move into one of their fiats during the winter, giving the other up to the use of the poor population in view of the extreme need created by the war).

The house committees shall immediately draw up lists of rich flats subject to requisition, and the district Soviets of Workers’ Deputies shall endorse these lists and define the conditions and order in which families of the poor population are to move into these flats.^[1]

Notes

[1] The Draft Decree on the Requisition of Articles of Warm Clothing for the Soldiers at the Front was discussed and approved at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on November 8 (21), 1917. Lenin’s addenda in regard to the requisitioning of articles of warm clothing were taken into consideration in the final wording of the decree (see Pravda No. 184, November 22 [9], 1917). On the question of “the requisition of flats of the rich to relieve the needs of the poor”. Lenin’s amendment formed the basis of a Draft Decree on Installing the Families of Red Armymen and Unemployed Workers in the Flats of the Bourgeoisie and on the Normalisation of Housing which was approved at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet on March 1, 1918 (see Izvestia No. 38, March 2, 1918).

Source: Marxist Internet Archive.