40840
TELEGRAM TO THE DEPUTY PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR FOR MILITARY AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE
Kharkov
May 28, 1919
The Council of Defense on May 26 of this year resolved to immediately mobilize all workers from Kharkov without exception to defend Lugansk.
You are to carry out this resolution in the shortest possible time, not stopping before the most extreme decisive measures, applying the highest measure of punishment in relation to the disobedient, backward, and careless. Your telegram
about sending 3,853 is striking in its insignificance of the number. It is impossible to win at this pace. Intensify the work. Answer immediately. If you leave, indicate a deputy.
Chairman of the Council of Defense
Lenin
Printed from a hand- written copy.

DIRECTIVE OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS
OF UKRAINE
May 28, 1919
Concentrate all forces on the Donbass, remove everything possible from the Western front, reducing to a minimum all active operations on your Western front, send plenipotentiaries to Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav for the most complete and energetic mobilization of workers for the Southern Front under their personal responsibility.
Lenin
Printed from a typed original with
V. I. Lenin's inscription:
" in cipher.
Kiev."

1919
40411
NOTE BY DIRECT WIRE TO THE CHAIRMAN
OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS OF UKRAINE
May 28, 1919
According to reports from the Southern Front, of all that Antonov was supposed to provide by order of the Commander-in-Chief, only two regiments have actually arrived, and even those are combat-ineffective. The mobilized workers promised by Podvoisky are not arriving. Meanwhile, Makhno is retreating westward and exposing the flank and rear of the XIII Army, opening a free passage for the Denikinites; in the direction of Millerovo, the enemy is gathering forces to join up with the rebelling Cossacks. We are forced to resort to heroic measures, up to and including sending command courses en masse to the south, which in the near future may deprive the Red Army of red commanders, while Antonov and Podvoisky are fobbing us off with empty and boastful telegrams, which
remain unfulfilled.
In view of this, the Central Committee of the RCP resolves: to consider every minute of delay in military assistance to the Southern Front on the part of Ukraine a crime for which Antonov and Podvoisky bear full responsibility. Concentrate all forces on the Donbass, remove everything possible from the Western front, reducing to a minimum all active operations on your Western front, send plenipotentiaries to Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav for the most complete and energetic mobilization of workers for the Southern Front under their personal responsibility. Antonov is obliged to provide the Southern Front with all the reinforcements requested from him by the Field Headquarters within three days. The echelons must begin departure no later than 24 hours after receiving this resolution in Kiev, and the echelons must depart one after another without delay, primarily before
any other echelons and trains. The same applies to Podvoisky with regard to the replenishments and reinforcements that the Ukrainian People's Commissar for Military Affairs is to provide. Responsibility for the speed of movement of the echelons is personally assigned to the People's Commissar for Railways of Ukraine. Antonov and Podvoisky must
daily provide by telegraph the most accurate information about the reinforcements and replenishments they are sending to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic
and Moscow, to the Field Headquarters in Serpukhov, and to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front. This information must necessarily include data
on the location of the echelons en route. No excuses for the non-fulfillment of this resolution are possible.
Lenin
Printed from a hand- written copy.