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