Allow armed clashes is impossible. Show firmness — and the boldness of the opponents and provocateurs will disappear. The question of leaving Grazis in your hands. The party commission will arrive and punish those who by their actions are drawing the garrison into Astrakhan affairs.

---

Written 7 or 8 January 1919

First published in 1942

in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV

Printed from a typewritten copy