DRAFT RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS

ON THE QUESTION OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT

In view of the fact that General Manikovsky issued a counterrevolutionary directive to the Moscow Military District, ordering that appointed commanders not be replaced by elected officers—and in view of the fact that General Marushevsky engaged in negotiations with Dukhonin that were openly hostile to the Soviets, and made a criminal attempt to sabotage the formation of a delegation tasked with negotiating an armistice*—

1) Manikovsky and Marushevsky are to be arrested without delay and held in custody until authorized release by the Council of People’s Commissars;611

2) the War Department is to be subjected forthwith to the most vigorous purging, with immediate removal of all unreliable elements from the higher command ranks;

3) reliable personnel are to be transferred without delay from the command staff of the Latvian Rifle Regiments to Petrograd;

4) one Latvian Rifle Regiment is to be dispatched to Petrograd without delay;612

5) daily reports are to be submitted to the Council of People’s Commissars regarding the actual implementation of the aforementioned measures.

This resolution is not to be made public.

Written on November 19 (December 2), 1917.

Published here for the first time, based on the manuscript.

* The first two paragraphs were penned by L. D. Trotsky. Ed.