E. V. LUGANOVSKOGO

[14 February 1918]

Kharkov
To People's Secretary Luganovskogo

I have given an order to present to me a copy of the mandate given to Kudinskogo by Podvoyskogo. It is hardly likely that this mandate could have extended to Ukraine, where all commissars going from here are obliged to submit to the Ukrainian people's secretariat and, consequently, to You.

I request that You transmit a copy of this telegram or the original to Kudinskogo and ask him to speak with me directly by telephone. I hope there is simply a misunderstanding here.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin

1 The telegram of V. I. Lenin was occasioned by a report from V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko to the Council of People's Commissars about the removal of Kudinskogo from all business entrusted to him in connection with repeated violation of revolutionary discipline. On this see also the telegram of V. I. Lenin to E. V. Luganovskogo of 15 February 1918 (V. I. Lenin. Complete Collected Works, vol. 50, pp. 42-43). Antonov-Ovseenko at this time commanded Soviet forces fighting against the Kaledinists and the Central Rada.

2 S. D. Kudinskogo — Socialist-Revolutionary maximalist, commander of the northern military-revolutionary detachments, and then commissar at the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.
N. I. Podvoyskogo — member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs, commander of the Petrograd Military District.