May 15–May 21, 1917. Week 20.

Moskovskie Vedomosti, No. 101 Moscow Chronicle Given that the production of ice cream—a luxury item—consumes large daily amounts of sugar, cream, milk, and other nutritional products, the Commissar for Moscow, N. M. Kishkin, has announced a mandatory decree prohibiting the production and sale of ice cream in Moscow starting May 14th.

Russian Word, No. 109

Rebellious deserters throughout the city are being chased by the police, beating them and seizing their weapons… Artillery was sent against a group of deserters who had captured a machine gun. However, before the artillery arrived, the troops managed to disarm the deserters of the machine gun, which was never fired… But while defending the machine gun, the deserters fired from revolvers, wounding several people. Driven away from one location, the deserters gather in another… In the capture of the deserters, the cadets, in addition to the police, were involved…

It was established that the main cause of the deserters' revolt was the accumulation at a distribution point where all detainees—a significant number of former city guards and gendarmes, as well as professional thieves and robbers—were being sent. These sinister individuals began inciting the deserters with stories about how the police and cadets allegedly bullied people who did not happen to have identification, beat them, and so on. …Professional thieves, interfering with the group of deserters, shouted slurs against Jews and tried to start looting stores. However, their actions in this regard were unsuccessful… The night passed quietly in the city, although the population remained in a state of high tension after yesterday’s mass searches, arrests, and clashes… The deserters who caused disturbances yesterday either voluntarily reported to the assembly point or left the city…

New Time, No. 14780 Social Democratic Ruin The education system of the current ministry, involving the most prominent and radical socialists of all stripes—SDs, SRs, Laborites, and others—was met with great hope. Already within a week of taking office, the socialist ministers felt it necessary to report on their activities to the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, Ceretelli, expanded primarily on general policy in his speech, omitting any mention of the condition of his direct department, which, as is known, has fallen into severe decline… Our industry is not less decayed than the postal service… Industrial ruin is growing not day by day, but hour by hour, and in the coming days, approximately 20% of all plants and factories in the Petrograd district are expected to shut down. According to industrialists, this is mainly a direct result of the wild surge in the price of labor. Workers' demands have boiled down to a slogan deadly to industry: maximum compensation for minimum labor input. Typically, industrial crises escalate due to overall overproduction; in our case, conversely, factories and plants are being forced to close amid massive underproduction of almost all consumer goods… By demanding impossibly high wages, the workers have effectively confiscated all enterprise profits and forced the erosion of its core capital. This situation, of course, cannot last long: enterprises are beginning to fail, the capitalists leading them are liquidating their businesses, and tens of thousands of workers—who are being paid more than the value of their labor—are ending up on the streets… …All of this will lead to the cessation of our manufacturing industry, providing nothing for the peasantry, who will be left without cloth, without boots, and without iron, while the peasantry will be obligated to feed hundreds of thousands of idle, unemployed people in the capitals and cities using bread requisitioned from their stores…

I. Gofstetter

Russkiye Vedomosti, No. 112 A. I. Konovalov on the reason for resignation …A. I. Konovalov fully approves the measures outlined by the government in the field of finance, such as increasing income tax, strengthening superprofit taxation, raising inheritance duties… He strongly supports conciliation committees and the creation of arbitration commissions to resolve conflicts between owners and workers, but he is highly skeptical of the form of state control and the method of regulating production proposed by some of the ministers. In the context of Russian reality, establishing democratic bodies, in Konovalov’s opinion, would simply result in inexperienced individuals filling most enterprises instead of improvement—leading only to final disorganization… …According to A. I. Konovalov, the hope for preventing a crisis could only exist if the Provisional Government finally demonstrated full authority, if it finally embarked on the path of restoring the state and social order that is being violated day by day. However, Konovalov does not see this possibility of the government demonstrating full authority in this case and deems it necessary to clear the path for representatives of the socialist parties, sincerely believing that the Russian Revolution must enter a new phase and reach a unified socialist ministry…

The «Alexandrinci» Tour Moscow exchanged its state theater troupes with Petrograd. Unfortunately, our Maly Theatre was poorly organized, and its company was assembled unevenly and haphazardly… The «Alexandrinci, ” on the other hand, gathered nearly all the best talent and created an ensemble in Moscow… All the new plays were a success. In „The Living Corpse, ” Mr. Apollonsky is magnificent; he surpasses the performer of the role of Protasov in the Art Theatre (Mr. Moskvin). Ms. Vasilyeva and Mr. Lersky delivered an astounding scene as Karenin and General Abrezkov. Furthermore, Ostrovsky’s comedy, „Wolves and Sheep, ” was better received than it is currently by the artists of our Maly Theatre: at the forefront was the wonderful Murzavetskaya—N. S. Vasilyeva; Lytkaev—Mr. Lersky—was excellent; and Mr. Apollonsky (Murzavetsky) and Ms. Tima (Glafira) were very good. However, there was no one like Anfusa Tikhonovna, as portrayed by O. O. Sadovskaya—and, of course, you can’t have two artists like Sadovskaya at once. The older plays—“Professor Storitsyn“ and „The Unfortunate Heiress”—were a success, mirroring last year’s performance. The latest novelty was the translated play „Love Has Conquered.“ Watching our guests perform, I thought that it was no wonder the Mikhailovsky Theatre existed for so long in Petrograd: the actors of the Alexandrinsky Theatre seemingly had time to study from the French—how to play graceful pieces with both humor and finesse…Not a columnist

Russian Word, No. 113 Industry Regulation If Germany managed to avoid economic collapse during the war, it was only due to successful socio-state organization of its economy. Russia must assimilate the beginnings of state regulation of the economy in the coming years—and especially now—both at the production stage and in the product distribution stage. For example, when there is a severe shortage of fuel complicated by transportation disruptions, the distribution of coal or oil cannot be left to private hands. We do not need to discuss productive monopolies because the treasury is empty. The state lacks the funds to buy out old enterprises or start new ones. Therefore, every effort must be made for private industry to consolidate itself as much as possible… The German government used syndicates. We cannot avoid this method of combining enterprises, and we must consider measures for effective state control over these syndicates… The victory of the revolution can be saved only through rational organization! M. Bernatsky

New Time, No. 14783 The Food Catastrophe …The entire current food policy consists of continuous errors… How can we speak of fixed, immutable bread prices when the prices of everything else are constantly changing?… A purchasing apparatus simply does not exist… …The bread monopoly and fixed prices might only hold real significance in the case of bread requisition. But if the peasants are not satisfied with the current fixed prices and refuse to surrender all their reserves—how will Mr. Shingarev and Groman requisition bread from them? Imagine any village in the most fertile bread-producing province of Russia… In every village there are various kinds of craftsmen, servants, etc. Until now, they bought flour or ready-made bread from the local shopkeeper. Now, by the law of March 30, all private transactions involving bread are forbidden. You are not allowed to buy bread from a neighbor-peasant or from the nearest shop. Only the volost food committee is supposed to handle this. …It is clear that the monopoly law will not be enforced in practice…B. Yurievsky