V. I.

Lenin

137

To:   P. A. KOBOZEV, K. KH. DANISHEVSKY, K. A. MEKHONOSHIN, F. F. RASKOLNIKOV [1]

1. VIII. 1918

Comrades Kobozev, Danishevsky, Mekhonoshin and Raskolnikov

Comrades, I take this opportunity to send you a few words by
messenger.

Are the army commanders and Vatsetis working vigorously enough? Is the commissars’ control over them good
enough?

What are the opinions about Blokhin? Is it true that he is splendid? If so, is he being given enough scope?

Of course, I am judging from a distance and can easily be mistaken. But I am afraid lest the “staffs” should
smother the live work below, the work of the masses? Is there
sufficient contact in the military field with the masses
of poor peasants?

Is everything being done to rouse them and draw them into the work?

Now the entire fate of the revolution rests on one card:
swift victory over the Czechoslovaks on the Kazan–Urals–
Samara front.

Everything depends on this.

Is the command sufficiently energetic? Is the offensive
sufficiently vigorous?

Please reply, if only in a few words, both by telegraph
and by messenger.

Regards, Lenin