 A prominent example of Lenin's views was his August 1918 telegram to the Bolsheviks of Penza, which called upon them to suppress a peasant insurrection by publicly hanging at least 100 "known kulaks, rich men, [and] bloodsuckers".Requisitioning disincentivised peasants from producing more grain than they could personally consume, and thus production slumped.A booming black market supplemented the official state-sanctioned economy, and Lenin called on speculators, black marketeers and looters to be shot.