1917 (DECEMBER) – 1918
YEARS

The majority of ships of the Black Sea Fleet were sunk off the coast of Novorossiysk on June 18-10, 1918. V. I. Lenin will provide an explanation of this at the IV conference of trade unions and factory committees of Moscow (see V. I. Lenin.
Complete
Collected
Works, volume 36, pages 320-321, 463, (325-626; volume 50,
pages 79-81; present collection, page 90).

EXCHANGE OF NOTES with L. D. TROTSKY

[1918, June, no earlier than 15]

In my opinion, a message must be drawn up for the press. The role
of the Georgian government:
they rejected the Brest peace and repeat
Ukraine.

Who is this Kvirkelia?
I
don't know.
Maybe the message is incorrect?
I'm afraid it's correct.
1 The document is written on a telegram from the chairman of the Field Headquarters
of the Southern Front, V. M. Kvirkelia, reporting the landing of the first German
landing party in Poti on June 8, 1918, on the arming by the Georgian-Muslim
government of captured Germans, some of whom were landed
in Sukhum along with detachments of the Georgian government, threatening
the Kuban Front and all Soviet troops in Transcaucasia.

RESOLUTION
ON THE TELEGRAM
OF THE POVENTS UYEZD CONGRESS OF SOVIETS
[June 16, 1918]
Moscow, Council of People's Commissars
The Povents regular uyezd congress of Soviets sends its greetings and wishes for success
to the fighters for the poorest peasantry, the proletariat
and a better future for all mankind. — Chairman of the congress Bogoslovsky.
To
the press bureau.

TELEGRAM TO I. V. STALIN

[June 17, 1918]
To Stalin
The orders sent to the fleet in Novorossiysk must be absolutely fulfilled.
It must be announced that for non-fulfillment of them, the sailors will be declared outlaws. It is necessary at all costs to prevent a mad adventure.
Why didn’t Shlyapnikov go
?
Why did Vakhramееv leave without doing anything?
Where is Raskolnikov
?
An influential comrade must definitely go to deal with the
resisting ones. The promise that Joffe gave Kühlmann on our behalf must be absolutely fulfilled!
Lenin
Printed according to the text written by
G.
V.
Chicherin
1 The telegram was caused by the continuing vacillation of the command
of the Black Sea Fleet to fulfill the government’s order to
sink ships near Novorossiysk (see present collection, page 88).
2 Apparently, V. I. Lenin did not yet know that A. G. Shlyapnikov had left
for Yekaterinodar after the telegram of June 13, 1918 (see present
collection, page 88).
3 I. I. Vakhramееv, a member of the board of the People's Commissariat for Naval
Affairs, according to the decree of the Supreme Military Council, approved
by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, left for Novorossiysk with the instruction:
"upon arrival, if by that time he does not receive a cancellation of the order, proceed
to the destruction of all ships in this port" (CPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU).
4 F. F. Raskolnikov — Deputy People's Commissar for Naval Affairs,
member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.
5 A. A. Joffe — plenipotentiary of the RSFSR in Berlin, headed the Soviet
delegation for peace and economic negotiations with Germany.
6 Richard Kühlmann — from August 1917 to July 1918 — State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Germany.

EXCHANGE OF NOTES with G. V. CHICHERIN
[June 27, 1918]
Ritzler verbally conveyed to me a telegram from the German government: they would not want to introduce their troops into Russian territory,
but at the same time they expect that Russia will fulfill its treaty obligations with regard to Murmansk.

1917 (DECEMBER) – 1918 YEARS

We postponed the statement with a note against England regarding
Murmansk. Now we will have to issue a note.*

Of course, and
IMMEDIATELY
Can you receive the Turkish envoy tomorrow afternoon?
I'm not feeling well. Can’t I dismiss him? If it is absolutely impossible,
we will call each other tomorrow at 12 o'clock or schedule for 2 o'clock.
1 Kurt (Rüdorffer)
Ritzler at this time was the acting German diplomatic representative.
2 On June 27, 1918, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs addressed the British diplomatic
representative in Moscow, Lockhart, with a protest against the
landing of troops in Murmansk (see "Documents of Foreign Policy of the USSR",
vol. 1, 1957, pp. 376-377).

EXCHANGE OF NOTES with G. V. CHICHERIN

[June 29, 1918]
In Larin's materials there are questions that are most important and absolutely
urgently requiring resolution. It is necessary to convene a small
meeting for their discussion tomorrow. Is it possible at 4 pm or 5 pm? It will also be necessary to determine the norms of the ambassador’s competence. Joffe arbitrarily
signed a protocol on prisoners of war, where he abandoned things that
the Germans had already agreed to here.
x
Who from?
Definitely You, Vronsky
, Gukovsky, maybe Trotsky too.
Good. Let's schedule it for 5.
Remind me. Call at 4 o'clock
1 The correspondence was at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on June 29, 1918, when
G. V. Chicherin raised the question of the Soviet delegation’s protest in the mixed commission on prisoners of war against the protocol on her resignation signed by A. A. Joffe, with a request to resume the work of the commission in connection with the proposal of the German Ambassador Mirbach on this matter.
2 Yu. Larin (M. A. Lurie) in 1918 — head of the Committee
for Economic Policy of the VSNH.
3 M.
G.
Vronsky after the October Revolution — Deputy
People's Commissar of Trade and Industry.
* Underlinings belong to V. I. Lenin.