V. I.

Lenin

155

RADIO MESSAGE TO S. G. SHAHUMYAN

July 22, 1918

Shahumyan
Soviet of Deputies
Baku

I can only support in full Stalin’s telegram against the
Narodnik faction of the Baku Soviet and concerning the will of the Fifth Congress of
Soviets. [1]

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

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Notes:
[1]
Reference is to the telegram that J. V. Stalin sent from Tsaritsyn
to Shahumyan on July 20, 1918. In this telegram Stalin condemned
the policy of the Mensheviks, Dashnaks and Socialist– Revolutionaries in the Baku Soviet, who, on the pretext of defending the
city from the advancing Turkish army, advocated inviting the
“assistance” of British troops. On behalf of the All-Russia Central
Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars,
Stalin demanded that the Baku Council of People’s Commissars
should unconditionally implement the decisions of the Fifth
All-Russia Congress of Soviets on an independent foreign policy and
resolute opposition to the agents of foreign capital.