1) Arrest Manikovsky and Marushevsky immediately and do not release them without the permission of the Council of People's Commissars611;

2) immediately begin the most vigorous purge of the War Ministry and carry out the removal of unreliable elements from the higher command staff;

3) immediately send reliable elements from the command staff of the Latvian rifle regiments to Petrograd;

4) immediately send one Latvian rifle regiment to Petrograd612;

5) report daily to the Council of People's Commissars on the actual fulfillment of the indicated measures.

This decree is not to be published.

* The first two paragraphs are written in the hand of L. D. Trotsky. —Ed.

Written November 19 (December 2), 1917

Published for the first time, from the manuscript