V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v37;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Telegram to Tsaritsyn
To Stalin or Shlyapnikov

It is extremely important that you proceed without the slightest delay to Novorossiisk in order to secure the fleet’s compliance with the government order. A number of telegrams to this effect have already been sent to Novorossiisk. If the government order is not carried out by the fleet without the slightest delay, a German offensive and the seizure of Novorossiisk by the Germans will be inevitable—such is the precise and definite German ultimatum.

Exert every effort to make the trip to Novorossiisk and secure compliance with the order.

2.
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin

Printed from a typewritten copy

1 A. G. Shlyapnikov, after the October Socialist Revolution, entered the Council of People’s Commissars as People’s Commissar for Labour. He was subsequently engaged in trade union and economic work.

2 On receipt of this telegram, Shlyapnikov left for Ekaterinodar, where delegates of the fleet from Novorossiisk had been summoned. At a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Northern Caucasus jointly with the fleet delegates, a decision was taken to carry out the government’s instruction.

1917 (DECEMBER)—1918
The majority of the Black Sea Fleet’s vessels were scuttled off the coast of Novorossiisk on June 18–19, 1918. V. I. Lenin gave an explanation of this at the Fourth Conference of Trade Unions and Factory Committees of Moscow (see V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, pp. 320–321, 463; Vol. 50, pp. 79–81; this collection, p. 90).