V. I.

Lenin

17

TELEGRAM TO V. A. ANTONOV-OVSEYENKO

The Council of People’s Commissars is confident that
Comrade Antonov will continue as before to act in close
contact with the central Ukrainian Soviet authorities who
were greeted by the Council of People’s Commissars, and
with the Commissar Extraordinary appointed by the
C.P.C. [1]

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Notes:
[1]
On December 12 (25), 1917, the First All-Ukraine Congress of
Soviets held in Kharkov proclaimed the Ukraine a Soviet
Republic and elected the All-Ukraine Central Executive Committee
of Soviets. In a telegram to the Council of People’s Commissars
on December 13 (26), the Ukrainian Central Executive Committee
proclaimed the unity of interests of the peoples of the Ukraine
and Soviet Russia. On December 16 (29), the Council of People’s
Commissars sent a telegram in reply, greeting the formation of
“truly popular Soviet rule in the Ukraine” and promising “the
new government of the fraternal republic full support in every
way in the struggle for peace and also in the transfer of all land,
factories and banks to the working people of the Ukraine”.

On December 19, 1917 (January 1, 1918), the C.P.C.
appointed G. K. Orjonikidze Acting Commissar Extraordinary of the
Ukraine for co-ordinating the activities of Soviet organisations
functioning in the Ukraine.