Tsaritsyn

To Commissar Stalin

Today around 3 o'clock in the afternoon a Left Socialist-Revolutionary killed Mirbach with a bomb. This murder is clearly in the interests of the monarchists or the Anglo-French capitalists. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, unwilling to hand over the murderer, have arrested Dzerzhinsky and Lacis and begun an uprising against us. We shall liquidate this very night without mercy and tell the people the whole truth: we are on the brink of war. We have hundreds of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries as hostages. Everywhere it is necessary to suppress without mercy these pitiful and hysterical adventurists, who have become tools in the hands of counter-revolutionaries. All who are against war will be with us.

Regarding Baku, the most important thing is that you maintain continuous communications with Shaumyan and that Shaumyan know of the proposal made by the Germans to Ambassador Ioffe in Berlin, namely, that the Germans would agree to halt the Turkish offensive against Baku if we guaranteed the Germans a share of the oil. Of course, we shall agree. So be merciless against the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and report more frequently.

Lenin

Written July 7, 1918 at 1 o'clock in the morning

First published January 21, 1936 in the newspaper *Pravda* No. 21

Printed from the manuscript