V. I.

Lenin

48

RADIO-TELEGRAM TO THE PEACE DELEGATION

Chicherin, Joffe, Karakhan, Sokolnikov
Novoselye Railway Station
Peace Delegation

We do not quite understand your telegram. If you are wavering, it is
impermissible. [1] Send envoys and try to reach the Germans quickly.

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

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Notes:
[1]
On February 25, the Soviet delegation, which had left for
Brest-Litovsk to sign the peace treaty, was delayed at Novoselye
railway station, where a bridge had been blown up. Unable to get
in touch directly with the German Government, the delegation
wired the Council of People’s Commissars requesting that the
German Government be informed of the arrival of the delegation.
Lenin’s remark about possible waverings on the part of the
delegation was apparently due to the fact that two of its members,
G. Y. Sokolnikov and A. A. Joffe, had been refusing to join it,
and had only set out after a decision of the Central Committee
of the R.C.P.(B.).