V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v50;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

TO THE SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL

May 16, 1918

To the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council

The Supreme Military Council is requested to send envoys—through the appropriate military authorities at the front—for the purpose of concluding an armistice and establishing a demarcation line on the South-Eastern (Don) Front. For the purpose of giving the appropriate instructions to the military authorities, we inform you that at the present moment our envoys are in Kharkov, headed by the military leader of the Bryansk detachments, General Staff officer Sytin, who has been instructed to seek a general armistice on the Voronezh and South-Eastern Fronts. It is made incumbent upon you to secure an armistice, particularly on the South-Eastern (Don) Front, as soon as possible, agreeing, in extreme cases, to accept the present disposition of military forces as a basis.

Sytin has been instructed to seek, through the mediation of the German command, direct communication with our command on the South-Eastern Front for coordinated action.

For the same purposes, the Supreme Military Council must, by all means at its disposal, maintain continuous communication both with Sytin and with our command on the South-Eastern Front.

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars,
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)