Lenin's Hanging Order

The Hanging Order is a name given by the U.S. Library of Congress to Russian Communist Vladimir Lenin's telegram on suppressing the kulak revolt in the Penza Gubernia region. The telegram was addressed to Penza Communists Vasily Kurayev (Penza Soviet chairman), Yevgenia Bosch (the chairwoman of Penza Gubernia Party Committee) and Alexander Minkin (the chairman of Penza ispolkom) and dated 11 August 1918.

During the summer of 1918, many of Russia's central cities, including Moscow and Petrograd, were cut off from the grain-producing regions of Ukraine, northern Caucasus, and Siberia by the civil war. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people were on the brink of starvation. The Penza Gubernia was critical in providing food to the cities, but the government used drastic measures, such as prodrazvyorstka (forcible requisitioning), to collect grain from the peasants. The Central Committee sent Yevgenia Bosch to supervise grain collection.

A peasant revolt erupted in the Kuchkino Volost of Penza Uyezd on 5 August 1918, in opposition to requisitioning, and soon spread to neighbouring regions. While Penza Soviet chairman Kurayev opposed the use of military force and argued that propaganda efforts would be sufficient, Bosch insisted on using the military and mass executions. By 8 August 1918, Soviet forces had crushed the revolt, but the situation in the gubernia remained tense, and a revolt led by members of Socialist Revolutionary Party erupted in the town of Chembar on 18 August. Lenin sent several telegrams to Penza demanding harsher measures in fighting these kulak, peasant and Left SR insurrectionists.

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