DECREE TO E. M. SKLYANSKY 
[April 20, 1919] 
To Sklyansky: 
it is necessary to support C 
1 Written on the telegram of a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, G. Y. Sokolnikov. The telegram reported on the situation on the Southern Front, noting that the units of Makhno’s brigade operating there were unfit for combat and unreliable. Sokolnikov stated that Makhno was waging a struggle against the Communists, while the local population groaned under the plundering of his bands. He raised the question of the urgent need to remove the demoralized units of Makhno’s brigade and to send reinforcements to the Southern Front in order to ensure the advance toward Rostov and its capture. 
At the same time as issuing the decree to E. M. Sklyansky, V. I. Lenin sent a telegram to G. Y. Sokolnikov, proposing that practical directives be formulated to expedite the capture of Rostov and to strengthen the Southern Front, and he informed Sokolnikov that these directives would be transmitted through the Central Committee (see Political Collected Works, Volume 50, p. 283).