EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH L. B. KAMENEV

[August
1918]
I am in favour of not giving them a separate newspaper, but trying to merge them (as a department) into the peasant newspaper.
Mitrofanov (from Sereda) was at a meeting with them and did not agree to take them on.
Yes, I heard, but I do not think that this statement by one Mitrofanov
 
2 was already decisive.
1 The correspondence apparently took place at one of the meetings of the Council of People's Commissars. It concerns the publication of an independent newspaper by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture.
2 A. Kh. Mitrofanov worked in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture from 7 August 1918.

NOTE TO G. V. CHICHERIN
23. IX. 1918
Comrade Chicherin!
I am sending you back the documents
You did not write the purpose of sending them: if the purpose is to consult, then I have nothing against it. I have not seen Stalin and have not spoken with him
 2.
Yours, Lenin
1 It has not been established which documents are referred to.
2 On 22 September 1918, J. V. Stalin left for Tsaritsyn.

RESOLUTION ON THE TELEGRAM FROM THE CHIEF OF MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS OF THE EASTERN FRONT, KATIN

[1918, September, not earlier than 28]
Inform Trotsky
I propose to appoint an investigation and shoot those guilty of negligence.
| 28/9 the enemy could have blown up the bridge!!! |
Lenin

1917 (DECEMBER) — 1918

1 The telegram deals with the enemy's blowing up of the bridge over the Volga in Simbirsk. The chief of military communications of the Eastern Front, Katin, requested technical assistance from Moscow for restoring the bridge. On the telegram there is a note by the secretary of the Council of People's Commissars, A. P. Kizas, of L. D. Trotsky's reply that such an order had been given three days earlier.

ASSIGNMENT TO THE SECRETARY

[30 September 1918]
Forward to Chicherin:
A strict reprimand must be sent
1) to Miklevich *
for being negligent: he should have arrested;
2) to Zorin in Petrograd
2: how dare they issue documents without Moscow.
3) Appoint an investigation over Zorin and Co.
Lenin
1 The assignment is written on a telegram from the special border commissar R. A. Muklevich to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G. V. Chicherin, stating that diplomatic couriers travelling via Toroshino station to Pskov are abusing documents issued by the Foreign Department in Petrograd, using them for speculative purposes to transport gold, silver, manufactured goods, rubber and private items under the guise of embassy inventory and diplomatic correspondence. On the telegram there is a note by the secretary of Chicherin's reply that he will speak by telephone with Petrograd.
2 S. Zorin — chairman of the revolutionary tribunal.
* A slip; it concerns R. A. Muklevich.

NOTE TO B. S. WEISBROD

Dear Comrade Weisbrod!
I send my very best greetings and wishes for a good rest and good "help" to the Europeans!

15/X - 1918
Yours, Lenin
1 B. S. Weisbrod — doctor who treated V. I. Lenin.
2 What is being referred to has not been established.

TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY

[23 October 1918]
Today Stalin arrived, bringing news of three major victories of our troops near Tsaritsyn; one victory 10 versts from Tsaritsyn, another — the destruction of 4 enemy regiments by the steppe army near Svetly Yar, which, it turns out, was summoned by the Tsaritsyn people, and the third — near Muzga, where also 4 enemy regiments were destroyed.
Stalin convinced Voroshilov and Minin
2 , whom he considers very valuable and irreplaceable workers, not to leave and to show complete submission to the orders of the Centre; the sole cause of their discontent, in his words, is the extreme delay and non-delivery of shells and cartridges, from which the two hundred thousand strong and excellently disposed Caucasian Army is also perishing.
Stalin would very much like to work on the Southern Front; he expresses great fear that people who know little about this front will make mistakes, of which he gives numerous examples.
Stalin hopes that in his work he will be able to convince others of the correctness of his view, and does not set an ultimatum about the removal of Sytin and Mekhonoshin
3, agreeing to work together with them in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, also expressing a desire to be a member of the Supreme Military Council of the Republic.
Informing you, Lev Davydovich, of all these statements by Stalin, I ask you to consider them and reply, firstly, whether you agree to a personal explanation with Stalin, for which he is willing to come, and secondly, whether you consider it possible, on certain specific conditions, to eliminate previous friction and establish joint work, which Stalin so desires.
As for me, I believe that every effort must be made to establish joint work with Stalin.
1 This telegram of V. I. Lenin was prompted by great alarm over the state of affairs on the Southern Front. By a decision of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of 17 September 1918, J. V. Stalin, S. K. Minin, the front commander P. P. Sytin and the assistant commander K. E. Voroshilov were appointed to the front's Revolutionary Military Council. Later, K. A. Mekhonoshin was also introduced into the front's Revolutionary Military Council. Acute disagreements arose from the very beginning between Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov, on the one hand, and Sytin and Mekhonoshin, on the other. Their essence consisted in the unwillingness of the Tsaritsyn workers to reckon with the party line on the use of old military specialists in the building of the Red Army, and in attempts to introduce collegial command of troops, which had been rejected by the party. On 2 October, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) discussed the question of the subordination of all party workers to the decisions of the central organs. In connection with this, Ya. M. Sverdlov on the same day telegraphed to Stalin, Voroshilov and Minin in Tsaritsyn: 'All decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council are binding on the Military Councils of the fronts. Without subordination there is no unified army. Without suspending execution of a decision, it can be appealed to the higher body — the Sovnarkom or the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, or, in extreme cases, to the Central Committee. We strongly urge you to implement the decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council... There must be no conflicts' (Ya. M. Sverdlov. Selected Works, Vol. 3, Moscow, 1960, p. 28).
The conflict that arose in the Revolutionary Military Council had an extremely negative effect on the combat effectiveness of the Southern Front, whose position in the autumn of 1918 was exceptionally difficult. Trotsky, as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, instead of quickly resolving the conflict on the basis of the norms of relations accepted in the party, repeatedly allowed rudeness and extreme disloyalty towards the Tsaritsyn workers. In connection with this, Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov telegraphed to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Party Central Committee: 'The conversation with Trotsky was very brief, deliberately insulting, and in logical content — incomprehensible. The conversation was cut short by Trotsky...' (Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CC CPSU).
Lenin's recommendations were not carried out by Trotsky.
In order to correct the situation, a new Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front was formed consisting of the front commander P. P. Sytin and Council members K. A. Mekhonoshin and B. V. Legrand.
On 19 October, J. V. Stalin left for Moscow. After a conversation with him, V. I. Lenin wrote the published telegram.
On 1 January 1919, the Party Central Committee and the Council of Defence adopted a decision to appoint J. V. Stalin and F. E. Dzerzhinsky to a party-investigative commission to ascertain the reasons for the surrender of Perm. In connection with this, J. V. Stalin left for the Eastern Front.
2 S. K. Minin — from 1917 on leading work in Tsaritsyn. During the civil war he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
3 P. P. Sytin — a general of the old army who went over to the side of Soviet power after the October Revolution. In 1918 he was commander of the Southern Front, head of the military-administrative department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. K. A. Mekhonoshin — in 1918 a member of the All-Russian Collegium for the Formation of the Red Army, then a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Eastern, Southern and Caspian-Caucasian Fronts, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.