V. I.

Lenin

265

TELEGRAM TO S. I. GUSEV

19. II. 1919

Gusev
Front Headquarters
Arzamas

Reply to coded message received, but not a word in it about food and your measures to eliminate friction and
step up transport. Reply.

As for the Bashkirs, you are right to demand either disarming or immediate operations against
Kolchak. [1]

Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
A telegram from Headquarters of the Eastern Front on
February 19, 1919, reported on talks with representatives of the Bashkir
bourgeois-nationalist government for the cessation of this
government’s anti-Soviet activity and for the Bashkir troops fighting alongside Red Army units against Kolchak. The opinion was
expressed in the telegram that if the Bashkir troops would
immediately go over to an offensive against Kolchak they should not be
disarmed, but if they were to refuse to do so, then it was essential
to disarm them.

Joint operations by Bashkir units and the Red Army against
whiteguard troops began at the end of February 1919, and a
Bashkir Revolutionary Committee was set up. On March 20, 1919, the
Government of the R.S.F.S.R. signed an agreement with the
Bashkir Government setting up a Bashkir Autonomous Soviet
Republic.