V. I. Lenin

Protest to the German Government

Against the
Occupation Of The Crimea [1]

May 11, 1918

May 11, 1918

In connection with the wireless message from the Commander-in-Chief of the German troops
in the East.

The People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs considers it necessary to express its
emphatic protest to the German Government:

1) On no occasion nor in any document has the German Government made any
statement to us alleging that our fleet has taken part in fighting against German troops in
the Ukraine.

2) Consequently the statement to this effect in the wireless message of May
11, 1918, is clearly untrue and is not confirmed in the acts of the German Government.

3) If part of the fleet considered itself attached to the Ukrainian fleet,
it remained in Sevastopol.

3 his) If our fleet left Sevastopol this happened only after the
Germans’ offensive and the attack on Sevastopol; consequently, in this case clearly the
Brest Treaty was violated by the Germans and not by us.

4) The facts prove, therefore, that we firmly stand by the Brest Treaty,
but that the Germans have violated it by occupying the entire Crimea.

5) They have occupied it solely with German troops, removing therefrom all
Ukrainians.

6) They have ’occupied the Crimea after the German Government in its
wireless message of the month of .... 1918, [2] had quite precisely stated that it considered the Crimea not to
be part of the territory of the Ukraine.

7) The German Ambassador Mirbach has stated to our Commissar for Foreign
Affairs that Germany is not claiming new territorial acquisitions.

8) If at the present time the German Government has adopted a different
position and is presenting demands for the Crimea or part of the Crimea or other territorial
acquisitions, we consider that complete clarity in this matter is absolutely necessary, and
we state again officially that for our part we insist on the conclusion of a precisely
formulated peace with Finland, the Ukraine and Turkey, which is waging war in defiance of the
Brest Peace Treaty.

9) We once again insistently request the German Government to inform us
whether it holds the view that peace with the Ukraine, Finland and Turkey is desirable, and
what steps it has undertaken or will undertake with this aim.

10) On the question of the Black Sea fleet we agree to give any new
guarantees of its non-intervention in the war or of its disarmament (concerning which
Ambassador Mirbach made an official statement to us yesterday, May 10, 1918), provided the
German Government informs us of the exact terms of a complete peace, i.e., peace with Finland
and the Ukraine and Turkey, and provided this peace is concluded, on which we insist.

11) Nor do we in any way refuse to return the fleet to Sevastopol if this
port-in accordance with Mirbach’s statement of May 10, 1918, in a conversation with the
People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs-is not annexed in one form or another and is not
occupied by Germany, and a clearly defined peace with the Germans, constituting part of the
Finnish, Ukrainian and Turkish armies, is concluded.

Endnotes

[1] Protest to the German Government against the Occupation of the Crimea was written by Lenin in the spring of
1918, when the German imperialist forces occupied the Ukraine and,in violation of the Brest
Treaty, marched into the Crimea as far as Sevastopol, where the Black Sea fleet was
stationed. On the instructions of the Soviet Government some of the ships were moved on April
29-30 to a new base at Novorossiisk. Only the ships that refused to obey the inetruction to
move and those that could not be moved for technical reasons remained in Sevastopol. On May
11 the German Command sent an ultimatum demanding the return of the fleet to Sevastopol on
the grounds that the withdrawal of the Black Sea fleet from Sevastopol was an infringement of
the Brest Treaty, and threatening to continue its offensive along the Black Sea coast.

Lenin’s protest formed the basis of the Note sent by the
People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs to the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs on
May 13, 1918.

[2] This refers to the German
Government’s radio-telegram of March 30, 1918, which declared that the Ukraine
consisted of nine gubernias, including Taurida Gubernia but not the Crimea. The German
occupation of the Crimea was therefore in contradiction to the official declaration of the
German Government.