TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY

[October 23, 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 regiments of the enemy by the steppe army near Svetly Yar, which, as it turns out, was summoned by the Tsaritsyn people, and the third – near Muzga, where 4 enemy regiments were also destroyed.
Stalin persuaded Voroshilov and Minin
2, whom he considers very valuable and indispensable workers, not to leave and to fully submit to the orders of the Center; the only reason for their dissatisfaction, according to him, is the extreme lateness and non-delivery of shells and cartridges, which is also causing the death of the two-hundred-thousand-strong and well-disposed Caucasian army.
Stalin would very much like to work on the Southern Front; he expresses great concern that people who know little about this front will make mistakes, examples of which he cites numerous ones. Stalin hopes that he will succeed in convincing of the correctness of his view at work, and does not set an ultimatum for the removal of Syтин and Mekhonoshin
3, agreeing to work 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, about all these statements of Stalin, I ask you to consider them and answer, firstly, whether you agree to explain yourself personally to Stalin, for which he agrees to come, and secondly, whether you consider it possible, under certain specific conditions, to eliminate the previous friction and establish joint work, which Stalin so desires.
As for me, I believe that it is necessary to make every effort to establish joint work with Stalin.
1 The present telegram of V. I. Lenin was caused by great anxiety about the state of affairs on the Southern Front. By a resolution of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of September 17, 1918, I. V. Stalin, S. K. Minin, front commander P. P. Syтин and assistant commander K. E. Voroshilov were appointed to the Revolutionary Military Council of the front. Later, K. A. Mekhonoshnн was also introduced into the Revolutionary Military Council of the front. Sharp disagreements arose from the very beginning between Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov, on the one hand, and Syтин and Mekhonoshin, on the other. The essence of them consisted in the unwillingness of the Tsaritsyn workers to reckon with the party line on the use of old military specialists in the construction of the Red Army, in attempts to introduce the collegiate management of troops rejected by the party.

1917 (DECEMBER) – 1918

On October 2, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) discussed the issue of subordinating all party workers to the decisions of central bodies. In this regard, Ya. M. Sverdlov telegraphed Stalin, Voroshilov and Minin in Tsaritsyn on the same day: “All decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council are binding on the Military Councils of the fronts. Without subordination, there is no united army. Without suspending the execution of the decision, you can appeal it to a higher body – the Council of People's Commissars or the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in extreme cases – the Central Committee. We strongly suggest implementing the decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council... There should be no conflicts” (Ya. M. Sverdlov. Selected Works, vol. 3, M., 1960, p. 28). The conflict that arose in the Revolutionary Military Council had an extremely negative impact on the combat capability of the Southern Front, the situation of which was extremely difficult in the autumn of 1918. Trotsky, as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, instead of quickly settling the conflict on the basis of the norms of relations adopted in the party, repeatedly allowed rudeness and extreme disloyalty towards the Tsaritsyn workers. In this regard, Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov telegraphed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the party: “The conversation with Trotsky was very short, deliberately offensive, and logically incomprehensible. The conversation was interrupted by Trotsky...” (Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU). Lenin's recommendations were not followed 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. Syтин and members of the Council K. A. Mekhonoshin and B. V. Legran. On October 19, I. V. Stalin left for Moscow. After a conversation with him V. I. Lenin wrote the published telegram. On January 1, 1919, the Central Committee of the party and the Council of Defense decided to appoint I. V. Stalin and F. E. Dzerzhinsky to the party investigative commission to investigate the reasons for the surrender of Perm. In this regard, I. V. Stalin left for the Eastern Front.
2 S. K. Minin – from 1917 in a leadership position in Tsaritsyn. During the Civil War he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army, a member of the board of the NKVD.
3 P. P. Syтин – a general of the old army who went over to the side of the Soviet government after the October Revolution. In 1918 he was the commander of the Southern Front, the 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.

NOTE TO A. S. YENUKIDZE

4 / XI 1918
To Comrade Yenukidze
Please issue a guest ticket to the bearer of this, Comrade Vorontsov, for the right to attend the meetings of the VI Congress of Soviets.
3.
Lenin