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the awakening consciousness among the working class and to educational work.
By the time the 2nd All-Russian Congress was convened the Union was already well organised.
At the 2nd. Congress of the Union (February 1919) a great majority of communists were present (out of 177 delegates represented, 156 were communists or sympathisers). In 10 days the Congress achieved a great amount of work. It ratified the rules and planned out a new scheme of organisation in connection with the amalgamation of the Union of technical workers and workers of the railroad mail service, it worked out instructions for the different sections and a new standard rate of wages; the educational work and the work of the Union relating to the protection of labour were fixed, etc.
At the Congress a new Central Committee was elected; all its members belonged to the Communist Party.
During the period between the 2nd- and 3rd. Congresses if may be noted that the Union was rapidly growing, its organisation was improving and its functions widening. During this period the Union also paid great attention to its participation in the organisation of Public Communications.
It directed its best forces to this work. The Collegiate board of the People's Commissariat of Post and Telegraph was almost entirely composed of members of the Central Committee (4 out of 6 members belonged to the latter). On the periphery two thirds of the members of the board of administration of the Post and Telegraph Departments were representatives of the Unions. All appointments to responsible posts were made by the Union. Thus the Union played an active part in the organisation of the administration of Public Communications. The old monarchist and unsatisfactory system was removed, thanks to the efforts of the Union and only
