V. I. Lenin

Resolution Of The Council Of People's Commissars On The
Rada's Reply To The C.P.C.

The Council of People’s Commissars regards the Rada’s reply as so indefinite and evasive as to verge on mockery. The
main source of difference with the Rada was the fact clearly
indicated by the Council of People’s Commissars in its first message to the Rada containing the
proposal for peace talks. The message said that we regarded the
Rada’s direct or indirect support of the Kaledinites as
unconditional ground for military operations against the
Rada. Counterrevolutionary elements of landowners and the
bourgeoisie from every part of Russia have rallied round
Kaledin. He has against him a clear majority of the peasants and
working Cossacks even in the Don area. It is obvious to everyone
that Soviet power has been accepted by the majority of the
population of Russia, above all by the working masses of all
nations. The revolutionary movement of the Ukrainian working
classes for the transfer of all power to the Soviets is assuming
ever greater proportions in the Ukraine itself and holds out the
prospect of an early victory over the Ukrainian bourgeoisie.

The Rada’s evasion of the question of whether it is prepared to stop giving direct and indirect support to the
Kaledinites has wrecked the peace talks we had started and makes
the Rada fully responsible for the continued civil war which the
bourgeois classes of the various nations have launched and which
is absolutely hopeless, because the over-whelming majority of
the workers, peasants and soldiers have come down solidly on the
side of the Soviet Socialist Republic.

As for the national demands of the Ukrainians, the independence
of their people’s republic, and its right to federate, these are all recognised by the Council of People’s
Commissars and are not in dispute at all.