NOTE TO E. A. PREOBRAZHENSKY 1
[October 1920, no earlier than the 28th]
1) I have provided a copy to
Trotsky.
2) I wrote to Frunze: “If things are this bad, prepare the heavy artillery, the sappers, and the like.” 2.
1 The memorandum was a response to a note from the Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), E. A. Preobrazhensky, addressed to V. I. Lenin, which stated: “To press Frunze too hard in connection with Perekop is risky—by doing so, they are unwittingly pushing those above them toward a futile, bloody attempt to assault a superbly fortified line.”
2 See V. I. Lenin, Complete Collected Works, Volume 51, p. 321.
M. V. Frunze had been a party member since 1904. Following the October Socialist Revolution, he assumed responsibility for critical military duties; at that time, he served as Commander of the Southern Front. In 1925, he became Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Naval Affairs.

1920

10 7 03
CORRESPONDENCE WITH E. M. SKLYANSKY
[October 1920]
1. Conversations with Frunze take place daily, just as they do with Tukhachevsky and Yegorov.
X
2. Frunze intends to wait for Budenny’s arrival.
In any case, he will delay the timing.
x) Where to? To Kakhovka?
When might he arrive?
For now, he remains in the area of the 6th Army (on the right bank of the Dnieper). Budenny plans to be in the Kremenchug region by the 17th, and to reach the army’s vicinity around the 27th. Frunze, however, is pressing him to move more quickly.