TELEGRAM TO YU. V. LOMONOSOV 1
11920, May, no earlier than the 4th]
To Lomonosov
In cipher: The CEC cannot accept your resignation; all of this stems from a single misunderstanding that will be dispelled upon our meeting.
Lenin
1 The telegram was sent in response to Yu. V. Lomonosov’s request for resignation and permission to return immediately to Moscow from a business trip whose purpose was to oversee the overhaul of rolling stock and to reorganize the local railway administrations of the South. Lomonosov cited the fact that, during his illness, the work that had been accomplished had been half‑abandoned.
V. I. Lenin turned to the People’s Commissariat for Railways for an explanation. In a note prepared by the People’s Commissariat, it was stated that Lomonosov had written to them about certain ill‑conceived changes. As for the reorganization of local administrations, Lomonosov “was redrawing railway lines based on local consultations and deliberations, without coordinating with the central authorities”—a practice to which he had been warned against. Below the text of this request, Lenin wrote: “Your draft reply.”