V. I. Lenin

Death to spies!

The whiteguards’ advance on Petrograd has made it per-fectly clear that in the vicinity of the front line, in every
large town, the Whites have a wide organisation for espionage,
subversion, the blowing-up of bridges, the engineering of revolts
in the rear and the murder of Communists and prominent members of
workers’ organisations.

Every man should be on the watch.

Everywhere vigilance must be redoubled and a series of measures evolved and carried out with the greatest strictness to track down and capture spies and whiteguard conspirators.

Railwaymen and political workers in all military units without exception must, in particular, redouble their precautions.

All class-conscious workers and peasants must rise up in defence of Soviet power and must fight the spies and whiteguard traitors. Let every man be on the watch and in regular contact, organised on military lines, with the committees of the Party, with the Extraordinary Commission and with the most trusted and experienced comrades among the Soviet officials.

V. Ulyanov (Lenin),
Chairman of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defence

F. Dzerzhinsky,
People’s Commissar of the Interior