on would frighten people into taking this
Committee seriously. Throughout the country in each government or
province similar committees, called "Troikas," were created, each of
three members, one from the Commissariat of War, one from the Department
of Labor, one from the Department of Management, in each case from
the local Commissariats and Departments attached to the local Soviet.
Representatives of the Central Statistical Office and its local organs
had a right to be present at the meeting of these committees of three,
or "Troikas," but had not the right to vote. An organization or a
factory requiring labor, was to apply to the Labor Department of the
local Soviet. This Department was supposed to do its best to satisfy
demands upon it by voluntary methods first. If these proved insufficient
they were to apply to the local "Troika," or Labor Conscription
Committee. If this found that its resources also were insufficient, it
was to refer back the request to the Labor Department of the Soviet,
which was then to apply to its corresponding Department in the
Government Soviet, which again, first voluntarily and then through the
Government Committee of Labor Conscription, was to try to satisfy the
demands. I fancy the object of this arrangement was to prevent local
"Troikas" from referring to Government "Troikas," and so directly to
Dzerzhinsky's Central Committee. If they had been able to do this there
would obviously have been danger lest a new network of independent and
powerful organizations should be formed. Experience with the overgrown
and insuppressible Committees for Fighting Counter-Revolution had taught
people how serious such a development might be.

Such was the main outline of the scheme for conscripting labor. A
similar scheme was prepared for superintending and safeguarding labor
when conscripted. In every factory of over 1,000 workmen, clerks, etc.,
there was formed a Commission (to distinguish it from the Committee) of
Industrial Conscription. Smaller factories shared such Commissions
or were joined for the purpose to larger factories near by. These
Commissions were to be under the direct control of a Factory Committee,
thereby preventing squabbles between conscripted and non-conscripted
labor. They were to be elected for six months, but their members could
be withdrawn and replaced by the Factory Committee with the approval of
the local "Troika." These Commissions, like the "Troikas," consisted
of three