[February 19, 1920]

February 19, 1920
To Trotsky
Copy to Revolutionary Military Council 5, Smirnov
I fully share your response to Smirnov. We must furiously rebuke the opponents of the buffer state (it seems Frumkin is such an opponent), threaten them with a party trial and demand that everyone in Siberia implement the slogan: "not one step further east, strain all forces for the accelerated movement of troops and locomotives westward into Russia." We will prove to be idiots if we allow ourselves to be carried away by foolish movement deep into Siberia, while at the same time Denikin revives and the Poles strike. This would be a crime.
Lenin