V. I.

Lenin

512

TELEGRAM TO H. Y. YUMAGULOV [2]

Yumagulov
Ufa
Copies to Eltsin, Ufa and to Artyom Sergeyev, Bashkir Revolutionary
Committee, Bashkir Regional Committee, Sterlitamak

In stating in the telegram that “The All-Russia Central
Executive Committee considers it improbable and quite out
of the question that Artyom, Samoilov and Preobrazhensky
could carry on agitation against the Bashkir Republic”,
the All-Russia C.E.C. thereby again confirmed the necessity
of their most loyal observance of the Bashkir Constitution.

The telegram of the Central Committee sent later to
Comrade Artyom had the same aim. Under these circumstances
I am quite sure that Artyom, Preobrazhensky and
Samoilov will give no real cause for complications. The members
of the Bashkir Revolutionary Committee should act in the
same way. Only from your telegram did I learn that
Comrades Shamigulov, Izmailov and others were deported from
Bashkiria by the Bashkir Revolutionary Committee; the
Central Committee thought they were travelling to Moscow
on their own initiative to make a report, considered it
unnecessary for the five comrades to waste time on the journey and sent them back to Sterlitamak.

Your attempt to deport old Party comrades from
Bashkiria, the absurd reference to their Bukharinist orientation,
the persistent, though incorrect, application of the epithet
“Ukrainians” to Preobrazhensky, Artyom and Samoilov— give me grounds for doubting your objectivity in this
matter. Therefore I order you immediately to fulfil the
telegram from the All-Russia C.E.C. of 20.I, which is still unfulfilled as regards cancellation of the conspiracy
report.

On behalf of the Politbureau of the C.C., Lenin [1]

---
Notes:
[1]
The words “On behalf of the Politbureau of the C.C., Lenin ”
are in Lenin’s handwriting.— Ed.

[2]
Lenin’s telegram was written in connection with the attempt
by Bashkir bourgeois nationalists to carry out a coup d’état in
Bashkiria in January 1920. The bourgeois nationalist A.-Z. A.
Validov and a group of his followers who, under pressure from the
working people, came over to the side of Soviets in February 1919,
had not changed their views or abandoned their aim to secure
bourgeois autonomy for Bashkiria.

In the summer of 1919 the Validov group set up a “
Provisional Central Bureau of the Communists of Bashkiria” headed by
Yumagulov, who was at the same time Chairman of the
Revolutionary Committee organised by the Validov group. Validov’s
“Bureau” tried to assume leadership of the Party organisations
of Bashkiria although it had not been endorsed by the Central
Committee of the R.C.P.(B.). In January 1920, on the proposal
of Validov’s supporter, K. M. Rakai, the Bashkir Revolutionary
Committee set up a Foreign Relations Department. When the
Party Regional Committee on January 13, 1920, condemned this
step and resolved to recall Rakai from the posts he held, the
Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee, Yumagulov, tried to carry
out a coup d’état. On the night of January 15, 1920, by his order
the members of the Party Regional Committee and other
Communists were arrested, and a manifesto was issued accusing them
of conspiring against the Bashkir Republic.

The telegram of the C.E.C. of January 20, 1920, mentioned
by Lenin, stated: “In view of the friction between the Bashkir
Revolutionary Committee and the Ufa Gubernia Revolutionary
Committee, and your accusation against Comrade Eltsin of
deviating from the policy of the central government, the C.E.C. by
agreement with the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) sent to Sterlitamak
Comrades Artyom (Sergeyev), Preobrazhensky and Samoilov, who have
no local Ufa interests and are incapable of pursuing a localist,
chauvinist policy. The C.E.C. considers it improbable and quite
out of the question that they could carry on agitation against
the Bashkir Republic. The C.E.C. therefore orders you immediately, upon Comrade Artyom’s directives, to free all the arrested
members of the Regional Committee and other Communists, to
cancel your report of a conspiracy, and make known to the
population and army units that the arrests were due to a
misunderstanding.” = ( Obrazovaniye Bashkirskoi ASSR. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov , Ufa, 1959, p. 444.)

Shortly afterwards, Validov, Yumagulov and Rakai were recalled from Bashkiria and expelled from the Party.