ing as chief of the organisation for collecting and distributing foodstuffs and other necessaries of life. It is difficult for an outsider to understand where the business of the Food Ministry begins and ends, for as I understand it, the co-operators do all the practical work. I think the Food Control department decides the rations, the duty of the co-operative organisations being to see that people get what they are entitled to.
In the early days of the revolution, the peasants would not part with their stocks because the Government was only able to give paper money in exchange for foodstuffs, and this money was almost valueless owing to the fact there was no possibility of exchanging money for clothes, boots, tools, seeds, etc. In these circumstances even soldiers found it difficult to get the stores so badly needed by the people in the towns. This is now changed. The peasants willingly trade on credit with the co-operators, accepting the Rouble paper money as Government scrip to be redeemable later on. From this it will be seen that the co-operative movement in Russia has become what many English co-operators desire it to become here ; that is, an integral part of food control and the sole organisation for the distribution of the necessaries of life to the people. I was told by some others besides Leshava that the Russian character lends itself
