overnment. One instructor
accountant detailed for auditing the accounts of the economic
organizations of Kamuishlov. Repair of locomotives proceeding in the
works at Ekaterinburg. January 20, 1920, midnight."

The Labor Army's Soviet received a report on the state of the district
covered by the army with regard to supply and needed work. By the end of
January it had already carried out a labor census of the army, and found
that it included over 50,000 laborers, of whom a considerable number
were skilled. It decided on a general plan of work in reestablishing
industry in the Urals, which suffered severely during the Kolchak regime
and the ebb and flow of the civil war, and was considering a suggestion
of one of its members that if the scheme worked well the army should be
increased to 300,000 men by way of mobilization.

On January 23rd the Council of Defense of the Republic, encouraged
to proceed further, decided to make use of the Reserve Army for the
improvement of railway transport on the Moscow-Kazan railway, one of
the chief arteries between eastern food districts and Moscow. The main
object is to be the reestablishment of through traffic between Moscow
and Ekaterinburg and the repair of the Kazan-Ekaterinburg line, which
particularly suffered during the war. An attempt was to be made to
rebuild the bridge over the Kama River before the ice melts. The
Commander of the Reserve Army was appointed Commissar of the eastern
part of the Moscow-Kazan railway, retaining his position as Commander
of the Army. With a view of coordination between the Army Soviet and the
railway authorities, a member of the Soviet was also appointed Commissar
of the railway. On January 25th it was announced that a similar
experiment was being made in the Ukraine. A month before the ice broke
the first train actually crossed the Kama River by the rebuilt bridge.

By April of this year the organization of industrial conscription had
gone far beyond the original labor armies. A decree of February 5th had
created a Chief Labor Committee, consisting of five members, Serebryakov
and Danilov, from the Commissariat of War; Vasiliev, from the
Commissariat of the Interior; Anikst, from the Commissariat of Labor;
Dzerzhinsky, from the Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Dzerzhinsky was
President, and his appointment was possibly made in the hope that the
reputation he had won as President of the Extraordinary Committee for
Fighting Counter-Revoluti