LENIN COLLECTION

TELEGRAM TO I. V. STALIN

[17 June 1918]

To Stalin

The orders sent to the fleet in Novorossiysk must be executed absolutely without fail. It is necessary to declare that sailors who fail to execute them will be declared outlaws. It is absolutely essential at all costs to prevent this insane adventure.

Why did Shlyapnikov not go?² Why did Vakhrameyev leave without doing anything? Where is Raskolnikov⁴? A person of influence must necessarily go to deal with those who are resisting. The promise that Ioffe⁵ gave to Kühlmann on our behalf must be executed without fail!

Lenin

Printed from the text written in the hand of G. V. Chicherin

¹ The telegram was occasioned by the continuing vacillation of the Black Sea Fleet command in carrying out the government's order to sink ships at Novorossiysk (see the present collection, p. 88).

² Apparently V. I. Lenin did not yet know that A. G. Shlyapnikov had left for Ekaterinodar following a telegram of 13 June 1918 (see the present collection, p. 88).

³ I. I. Vakhrameyev, member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs, pursuant to a resolution 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 revocation of the order, to proceed with the destruction of all vessels located in that port" (TsPA IML at the Central Committee of the CPSU).

⁴ F. F. Raskolnikov — deputy commissar for naval affairs, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

⁵ A. A. Ioffe — Plenipotentiary Representative 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 of Foreign Affairs of Germany.

# EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH G. V. CHICHERIN

[27 June 1918]

Ritzler¹ orally communicated to me a telegram from the German government: they would not wish to introduce their troops onto Russian territory, but at the same time they expect that Russia will fulfill its contractual obligations with respect to Murmansk.

1917 (DECEMBER) — 1918

We have been postponing issuing a note against England concerning Murmansk. Now we shall have to release* the note.

Of course, IMMEDIATELY

Can you receive the Turkish envoy tomorrow in the afternoon?

I am not feeling well. Is it possible to be excused? If it is absolutely impossible, we will ring each other tomorrow at 12 o'clock or arrange it for 2 o'clock.

¹ Kurt (Rüdorfer) Ritzler at this time — acting German diplomatic representative.

² On 27 June 1918 the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs addressed a protest to the British diplomatic representative in Moscow, Lockhart, against the landing of an expeditionary force at Murmansk (see "Documents of Soviet Foreign Policy," vol. 1, 1957, pp. 376–377).


[29 June 1918]

In Larin's² materials there are matters of the utmost importance, and absolutely requiring immediate resolution. It is necessary to convene a small meeting tomorrow to discuss them. Is it possible at 4 o'clock or at 5 o'clock? It will also be necessary to define the norms of the ambassador's competence. Ioffe on his own authority signed a protocol on prisoners of war, in which he renounced things to which the Germans here had already agreed.

Who should attend?

Necessarily you, Vronsky³, Gukovsky, and perhaps Trotsky.

Very well. Let us set it for 5 o'clock.

Remind me. Ring at 4 o'clock.

¹ The correspondence took place at a session of the Council of People's Commissars on 29 June 1918, when G. V. Chicherin raised the question of a protest by the Soviet delegation in the mixed commission on prisoners of war against the protocol signed by A. A. Ioffe, concerning her resignation, with a request to resume the work of the commission in connection with a proposal from the German ambassador Mirbach on this matter.

² Yu. Larin (M. A. Lurye) in 1918 — head of the Committee on Economic Policy of the VSNKh.

³ M. G. Vronsky after the October Revolution — deputy commissar of trade and industry.

* Underlinings belong to V. I. Lenin.