5.1.20Secret

Revolutionary Military Council 14, to the member of the Revolutionary Military Council T. Ordzhonikidze т. Sergo! I received a message that you + Commander 14 have been drinking and hanging out with women for a week.Formal paper1*...

Scandal and shame! And I've been praising you left and right! And Trotsky has been informed...!

Answer me immediately:

1) Who gave you the wine?

2) How long have you been drunk in the Revolutionary Military Council 14?

With whom else did you drink and party?

3) - also - women?

4) Can you in good conscience promise to stop or (if you can't) to transfer you somewhere? Because we can't let you drink.

5) Is Commander 14 a drunkard? Can't we fix it?

Answer me immediately. We'd better give you a rest. But you have to pull yourself up. You can't. You're setting a bad example.

Hi!

Your Lenin2*.

Fond 2, op. 2, d. 231 - autograph.

1*Here and below the dots are put by V.I.Lenin

2*The letter has an envelope with Lenin's inscription "Tov.Ordzhonikidze (from Lenin)".

1How much reliable information V.I.Lenin had, it has not been possible to establish.

G.K.Ordzhonikidze was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 14th Army from October 5, 1919 to January 26, 1920, then from February 3, 1920 to May 29, 1921 a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front. The issue of appointment to this post was decided in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) on January 17, 1920.

The commander of the 14th Army was I.P.Uborevich, who held this position from October 6, 1919 to February 24, 1920, then from March 1, 1920 was the commander of the 9th Army.

Whether further discussion of the behavior of Ordzhonikidze and Uborevich took place in service or party instances - could not be established. Ordzhonikidze's reply has not been found. Apparently, his correspondence with Lenin ended with Lenin's telegram of April 3, 1920: "Received your offended letter. You regard your vainly obligatory inquiry to me as distrust. I hope that you will drop the inappropriate tone of resentment even before a personal meeting" (Lenin V.I. Complete Collected Works, vol. 51, p. 206).