Neither force nor threats could overcome the resistance of the peasants. In the latter part of November, 1919, sixteen food-requisitioning detachments of twenty-five men each were sent from Petrograd to the Simbirsk Province, according to the _Izvestia_ of Petrograd. They were able to secure only 215 tons of grain at a very extraordinary price. Speculation had raised the price of grain to 600 rubles per pood of 36 pounds. The paper _Trud_ reported at the same time that the delegates of forty-five labor organizations in Petrograd and Moscow, who left for the food-producing provinces to seek for non-rationed products, returned after two months wholly unsuccessful, having spent an enormous amount of money in their search. Their failure was due in part to a genuine shortage, but it was due in part also to systematic concealment and hoarding for speculation on the part of the peasants. Much of this illicit speculation and trading was carried on with the very Soviet officials who were charged with its suppression![10] [10] The _Bulletin_ of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets (No. 25), February 24, 1919, reports such a case. Many other similar references might be quoted. _Pravda_, July 4, 1919, said that many of those sent to requisition grain from the peasants were themselves “gross speculators.” How utterly the attempt to wrest the food from the peasants by armed force failed is evidenced by figures published in the Soviet journal, _Finances and National Economy_ (No. 310). The figures show the amounts of food-supplies received in Petrograd in the first nine months of 1918 as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. The totals include flour, rye, wheat, barley, oats, and peas: _Jan.-Mar._ _Apr.-June_ _July-Sept._ _Total for Nine Mos._ _Tons_ _Tons_ _Tons_ _Tons_ In 1913 24,626 24,165 20,438 69,229 In 1918 12,001 5,388 2,241 19,639 If we take barley and oats, which were drawn mainly from the northern and central provinces and from the middle Volga--territories occupied by the Bolsheviki and free from “enemy forces”--we find that the same story is told: in the three months July-September, 1918, 105 tons of barley were received, as against 1,245 tons in the corresponding period of the previous year. Of oats the amount received in the three months of July-September, 1918, was 175 tons as against 3,105 tons in the corresponding period of 1917.