in the campaign “Soviet-Ukrainian War: Second Invasion and Resource Depletion (1919)”
On 1 June 1919 the central Soviet authority of Russia (the VTsIK) resolved to carry out "a close unification of 1) the military organization and military command, 2) the councils of the national economy, 3) railway administration and management, 4) finances and 5) the commissariats of labour" of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Crimea - "so that the direction of the said branches of national life be concentrated in the hands of single collegiums." The resolution was signed by Kalinin, chairman of the VTsIK, and by secretary Serebryakov, while preserving the formula of independence word for word: the unification was carried out "standing fully on the ground of recognition of the independence, freedom and self-determination of the toiling masses of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Crimea"[1]. Ukraine's economy, railways, finances and labour passed under Moscow's management; independence remained a word on paper.
The food ministry was not on that list: Lenin, head of the RSFSR government, subordinated it separately and in secret. On 12 June 1919 he sent a note to Kyiv: the food ministry of the colonial administration of Ukraine (the UkrSSR) was passing under the all-Russian one in both money and management - without any announcement; at the bottom of the note stood the instruction to encipher the underlined part and transmit it immediately, and on 14 June the question was put before the plenum of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party[2].