NOTES ON A TELEGRAM FROM G. K. ORDJONIKIDZE
June 8, 1920
Moscow, to Lenin, Stalin, and Chicherin
Baku, June 8. The peace delegation* has returned today. They will meet again tomorrow. The Georgians
are advancing impossible demands and refuse to recognize the joint commission. Azerbaijan
is prepared to accept the pre‑revolutionary border. We must put pressure on the Georgians and compel them to agree to the old
border. With regard to the Poyilinski Bridge and the Red Bridge, we must either neutralize them or station Azerbaijani
troops on one side and Georgian forces on the other. Do not dismiss these issues as trivial, for the counterrevolution is exploiting them, claiming that before the Bolsheviks, the Georgians would not have dared to lay a finger on us—and now they are seizing our lands.
Orjonikidze