V. I.

Lenin

197

TELEGRAM TO THE PETROGRAD DEFENCE COMMITTEE [1]

Zinoviev, Defence Committee, Petrograd

With the object of ascertaining the situation in Petrograd,
the Defence Council requests you to give an exhaustive reply: on what considerations was it decided to evacuate
several factories from Petrograd and the neighbourhood, by
whom and why was an instruction given to sink ships, the
total numbers of workers mobilised and remaining in the
factories, are all those who have been mobilised really being
used for defence requirements, for what reasons were
Commissars appointed to the slate factories, was there an
indiscriminate call-up of citizens or was the decision of the central
authority observed. The Defence Council, while leaving in
force for the time being the slate of siege in Petrograd, notifies
you that measures taken by the Petrograd Defence
Committee must be applied with the knowledge of, and in
appropriate cases by agreement with, the central authority. [2]

Lenin
Chairman, Defence Council