12.XII. 1918 г.

Voronezh or at Trotsky's location

Received the following protest1:

"The Tenth Army is bleeding to death, melting from the daily battles with the advancing Krasnov gangs, striving to take Tsaritsyn at any cost. Feeling colossal responsibility before the world revolution, we do not consider the situation hopeless, we are straining all our skills and all our strength and investing all our revolutionary and combat experience in order to repel and defeat the enemy with a united steel communist wall; unfortunately, at this most responsible and militarily dangerous moment, our internal cohesion, our friendly self-sacrificing work of comrades thrown here from different corners of the Russian Republic, but closely connected with each other by the great tasks and the socialist revolution and b... Okulov. We disregard those spits, those slaps on the ego with which he rewards us who serve the cause of the revolution and only this cause; we have buried our ego, we have reconciled ourselves to his dictatorial tone, to his policy of pitting political commissars in the army against our proletarian command staff; life itself smoothed out the antics of this tactless comrade; we reconciled ourselves to the fact that at his insistence Valery Mezhlauk, a member of the Army Revolutionary Military Council, a convinced, intelligent and intelligent Party comrade, was removed from Tsaritsyn; We have reconciled ourselves to the system of rough political supervision which Okulov has established here over us, comrades who have been working in the Party for more than a year or two, but now, even in the field of political work in the army, thanks to his morbid ambition, he is starting conflicts with such comrades and in such a matter where, it would seem, there could not be and is not even a shadow of disagreement. At the insistence of Okulov, the Revvoensoviet of the Southern Front eliminated the head of the political department of the army, Comrade Magidov, the most popular here, and destroyed and disorganized the most basic and most important apparatus of the class army. Having exhausted all measures of comradely influence, we consider it a sad necessity to confess that our further joint work with Comrade Okulov is impossible if his disorganizing will continues to prevail here, thanks to the support of Comrade Trotsky. If Comrade Okulov is not immediately recalled from here, we, the undersigned, resign all responsibility for the ruin of the work entrusted to us and ask to be relieved of our duties.

Commander of the Tenth Army Voroshilov.

Chief of Staff of the Tenth Army Matsiletsky.

Special Commissioner of the Military Revolutionary Council Shchadenko.

Assistant Chief of Staff of the Tenth Army Dubovy1*.

For assignments under Commander Parkhomenko.

Artillery Inspector of the 10th Army Dyshlovoi.

Supply Commissar Kritsky.

Assistant to the chief of supply 10 Tuchoshvili.

Head] of the artillery supply department of the 10th Army Golovoshkin.

Manager of affairs of the 10th Army Revolutionary Military Council Grishkovsky.

Head of the Field Directorate Kazanov.

Chief of Duty A. Krussel2*.

Chief of Counterintelligence Ivanov".

Once again, in view of the extremely aggravated relations between Voroshilov and Okulov, we consider it necessary to replace Okulov with another.

Lenin.

Sverdlov3*.

Lenin's instruction to secretaries

Inform Trotsky by telegraph of the time of delivery of this telegram.

Fond 2, op. 1, d. 7748 - original order to the secretaries - Lenin's autograph.

1* Correct - Dubovoy.

2* Correct - Krusser

3* The last phrase and signature are the autograph of an unknown person

1L.D. Trotsky replied to V.I. Lenin from Kursk on December 14, 1918: "The question of the recall of Okulov cannot be solved in isolation. Okulov remained as a counterweight to Voroshilov, as a guarantee of the fulfillment of combat orders. It is impossible to leave Voroshilov further after all attempts at compromise have been nullified by him. It is necessary to send to Tsaritsyn a new Revolutionary Military Council with a new commander, letting Voroshilov go to Ukraine. Predrevvoensoviet Trotsky" (The Trotsky papers. 1917-1922. V. I, p. 196).

Commander of the 10th Army K.E.Voroshilov was released on December 18, 1918 and replaced by N.A.Khudyakov, who was replaced by A.I.Egorov on December 26, 1918. Voroshilov joined the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine.

Chief of Staff of the 10th Army S.K.Matsiletsky was released on December 17, 1918 and replaced by N.Y.Kazanov. The latter was replaced by L.L.Klyuyev on December 26, 1918.

A.I.Okulov was relieved of his post as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army on December 26, and on January 2, 1919, at the suggestion of L.D.Trotsky (see: Lenin's Collection XXXVIII, p. 227) the Sovnarkom appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, on January 3 Lenin signed a certificate to Okulov on this appointment (see: Decrees of Soviet Power. Vol. IV, p. 672; RCCHIDNI, f. 2, op. 1, d. 23988).

The member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army V.I.Mezhlauk, who was released from his post, became People's Commissar for Military Affairs of Ukraine in January 1919. On January 28, 1919, D.I.Efremov was appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army.

See also docs. 148, 150.