Drawing on extensive documentary material furnished by Party, government and trade union archives, the authors of the article vividly describe the economic rehabilitation period in the U. S. S. R. following the Civil War and foreign military intervention. The article shows how the Communist Party and Soviet government, despite the unprecedented economic dislocation caused by the war and the extremely backward state of the national economy inherited from the past, carried out a series of important measures to moderate the difficulties and hardships experienced by the working people and considerably raised their material standards compared with the prewar level. The greatest difficulties during the economic rehabilitation period fell on the shoulders of the working class. As a result of the postwar economic dislocation many industrial enterprises in the country came to a standstill and the working class was undergoing a process of degradation. In this situation V. I. Lenin enjoined the Communist Party and Soviet government to take resolute and energetic steps to save the working class from hunger and degradation, regarding this as the most serious and pressing task of the moment. A number of urgent measures were carried out to improve the position of the working people. One of the most difficult and acute problems was that of supplying food to workers of major industrial centres. How this complex problem was solved is shown in the first part of the article. The authors describe the activity of the Bread Committee established at the Labour and Defence Council under V. I Lenin's chairmanship, Soviet grain pur- стр. 217 chases abroad, the organization of direct commodity exchange between town and country. However, the only solid and reliable base for raising the working people's living standards, the authors write, could be provided by large-scale industry and mechanized agriculture. The article shows how this important task was gradually solv ... Read more