February 6, 1921

Comrade Sklyansky!

Send me the telegram of the Saratov Gubernia Military Commissar, the “reply” to which from the Commander-in-Chief you sent me today.

The reply is stupid and in places illiterate.

Bureaucratic evasion instead of action: banditry must be destroyed, not evaded with paperwork.

Have them give me twice a week brief, very brief summaries of the struggle against banditry.