You can be assured, comrades, that the Sovnarkom will support the autonomy of your region on Soviet principles; we welcome your initiatives and are deeply convinced that you will cover the entire region with a network of Soviets and will work in complete contact with the already existing Soviets.

We request that you send the commission for convening the Constituent Congress of Soviets, which you have undertaken to organize, to us in Moscow for joint elaboration of the question concerning the definition of the relationship of the authorized organ of your region to the Council of People's Commissars.

In greeting your congress, we hope that you will worthily fulfill the tasks history has laid upon it.

Moscow, April 22, 1918.

Lenin and Stalin

*"Pravda" No. 81 and "Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee" No. 83,
April 26 (13), 1918*

*Printed from typewritten copy*