It is absolutely essential that you personally, enlisting Joffe's assistance if necessary, not only verify and accelerate, but also yourself bring reinforcements to Lugansk and generally to the Donbass, for otherwise there is no doubt that the catastrophe will be enormous and scarcely remediable. Take for yourself, if necessary, a mandate from the Kiev Soviet of Defense. We shall undoubtedly perish if we do not completely clear the Donbass in a short period of time. With Makhno's forces, for the time being, until Rostov is taken, it is necessary to be diplomatic, sending Antonov there personally and placing upon Antonov personally the responsibility for Makhno's forces. Telegraph a detailed reply.

Written May 7, 1919

First published in 1925

In the journal *Proletarskaya Revolutsiya* No. 6 (41)

Printed from the deciphered telegraph tape text

Lenin