TELEGRAM TO THE SOVNARKOM OF UKRAINE
FOR THE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COUNCIL OF DEFENSE
Kiev
May 29, 1919

Not a single promise is being fulfilled; there are no reinforcements for the Donbass; the mobilization of workers is proceeding shamefully slowly. You are personally responsible for the inevitable catastrophe. It is necessary to remove all prominent workers without exception, placing them in Kharkov and Ekaterinoslav for the wholesale mobilization of workers; then dispatch one prominent figure to each military unit to advance it toward the Donbass; then put everything in motion to clear the depots of uniforms. The destruction of the entire revolution is absolutely inevitable without a swift victory in the Donbass, for which it is necessary to cast aside routine in Ukraine, to work in a revolutionary manner, to raise everything and everyone, to personally monitor each military unit, each step of the work, to set everything else aside except the Donbass, to station three soldiers for every rifle. I have not received a single factual report from you.

Lenin