“the delegation is waiting for you in Kursk.” We ourselves did not receive the radio directly, perhaps because the Kursk station is lame on both legs. We sent our reply with a parlementaire, inviting the Ukrainians to Kursk, where, according to the statement of the Ukrainian courier, the wires have been laid and everything is prepared for the meeting. In our address we skirt the question of Nezhin, and, between us be it said, it goes without saying that we will not make a casus out of Nezhin. Just now it was reported that General Skoropadsky has been appointed hetman of Ukraine, but this report has not yet been verified. By the way: do you not think that the new Ukrainian government will not fail, at the first opportunity, [to declare] war on us to restore order and tranquillity under strict, absolutely strict, neutrality of Germany?

L e n i n: I also had no doubt that you would not make a casus out of Nezhin, but in my opinion, this thought should have been expressed in your reply to the Ukrainians. Compose a new telegram with an inquiry both to the German government and to the new hetman’s government. Transmit this telegram here to us by direct wire, and we will send it by direct wire to Berlin. Besides, it would be useful to confirm the order to all units stationed on the borders to formally propose a suspension of hostilities, and then to talk with Rostov about strengthening the defense of both Rostov and the Kerch Strait. I think, in general, that, lacking means of communication with the Ukrainian government, you should speak through Moscow with Berlin twice a day, hinting in a very polite form that Eichhorn
 5 is a more stable quantity than the Ukrainian government. Lenin

We, both of us present here
 6, believe that it is not the telegrams of the peace delegation, but those of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, that should go to Berlin. We also believe that the orders to the fronts should be given not by us, but by the Supreme Military Council. For our part, we have done everything possible and have actually created an atmosphere of armistice on the Kursk and Bryansk fronts. There is no communication with Rostov. We intend to send a person to Rostov with appropriate directives. Did you receive yesterday’s tape of ours, taken by Karakhan
 7, about our conversation with Antonov?

No, I did not receive it. I will try right now to find Chicherin and Trotsky to talk to them and I hope today, in about three hours, to send you a note. That’s all for now. Lenin

S t a l i n: One more moment. Catch Karakhan and demand the tape he undertook to deliver to you. The content of the tape: Antonov demands in categorical form that orders be given to the Soviets of Deputies, especially to the Voronezh Soviet of Deputies, to set up a border guard with white flags that would disarm all detachments crossing its border. If this is done, Antonov undertakes to officially divest himself of the powers of the Glavkoverkh and to recognize the war with Ukraine as liquidated. I believe this would considerably accelerate the cause of peace. Rakovsky and I asked Karakhan to transmit this demand of Antonov to the proper quarters and to satisfy it. Such is the content of the tape. Stalin

L e n i n: Good. I will now look into everything. Lenin

S t a l i n: I shake your hand, I’ll wait. Goodbye.

Printed from the telegraph blank

1 By the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars of April 27, 1918, I. V. Stalin was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR to conduct negotiations with the Ukrainian Central Rada on the conclusion of a peace treaty. Beginning on April 29, when the Soviet delegation arrived in Kursk, V. I. Lenin spoke with it daily via direct wire.

2 “Kievskaya Mysl” — a daily liberal-bourgeois newspaper. Published in Kiev from 1900 to 1918.

3 Paul Rohrbach — a German bourgeois politician, publicist, one of the most prominent exponents of the annexationist aspirations of German imperialism. He called for the redistribution of colonies in favor of Germany at the expense of England and France, and in the East — at the expense of Russia. In 1914–1918 he conducted revanchist militarist propaganda.

4 On V. I. Lenin’s instructions, the peace delegation in Kursk on April 30 sent parlementaires to the Crimean, Don, Voronezh, Kursk, and Bryansk fronts for negotiations with the Ukrainian military command on the cessation of hostilities. In a telegram to V. I. Lenin about the parlementaire traveling from Lgov to Vorozhba, I. V. Stalin reported that the Germans promised him free passage to his destination, while they “took the first parlementaire to Konotop to their main headquarters” (Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU).

5 Eichhorn — commander of the German occupation forces in Ukraine.

6 Apparently, Kh. G. Rakovsky, who was together with I. V. Stalin as part of the peace delegation in Kursk.

7 L. M. Karakhan in December 1917 joined the Council of People’s Commissars. From 1918 — member of the collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, deputy people’s commissar.