V. I. Lenin

Draft Wireless Message
To The Government Of The German Reich [1]

The Council of People's Commissars lodges a protest over the
German Government's movement of troops against the Russian
Soviet Republic, which had declared the state of war ended and
had started to demobilise its army on all fronts. The Workers'
and Peasants' Government of Russia could not have expected such
a step, especially since neither of the parties to the armistice
had, directly or indirectly, made any announcement either on
February 10, or at any other time, that the armistice was at an
end, as both parties to the treaty of December 2 (15), 1917 had
undertaken to do.

The Council of People's Commissars finds itself forced, in the
situation that has arisen, to declare its readiness formally to
conclude peace on the terms the German Government demanded at
Brest-Litovsk.

At the same time, the Council of People's Commissars expresses
its readiness, if the German Government should formulate its
precise peace terms, to reply within 12 hours whether or not
these terms are acceptable.

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Notes:
[1]

The wireless message to the Government of the German Reich was
sent to Berlin on the morning of February 19 on behalf of the
Council of People's Commissars. But the German Government's
reply, containing even harsher peace terms, was handed to the
Soviet courier only on February 22 and was received in Petrograd
on the morning of February 23; it demanded that the new peace
terms should be studied within 48 hours. The Germans, while
delaying their own reply, continued their offensive, and in
those few days covered a great deal of territory; they occupied
a number of towns and came within striking distance of
Petrograd.