V. I.

Lenin

22

INSTRUCTION TO V. D. BONCH-BRUYEVICH

Instruction

Notify the sailors of the Guards Depot (taking signed statements from them that they have been so informed)
that they are answerable for the lives of the arrested officers and that they, the sailors, will be deprived of food
rations, arrested and prosecuted.

Take urgent measures:
(1) for sending a well-armed guard to the building; (2) for recording as many as possible of
the names of the Guards Depot sailors. [1]

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

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Notes:
[1]
This refers to some sailors of the Second Guards Naval Depot,
who illegally arrested three officers. Under the influence of
counter-revolutionary agitation, these sailors defied the laws of the
Soviet Government, went on drinking bouts, and carried out
illegal searches and arrests. They were disarmed and arrested.

The other, better, part of the men went to the Southern Front,
where together with the Red Army units they fought heroically
against the interventionists and whiteguards.