Written: Written on April 5, 1918
Published:
First published in 1942 in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV.
Printed from the typewritten copy.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1975,
Moscow,
Volume 44,
page 75a.
Translated: Clemens Dutt
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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I fully approve the resolution of Centrosibir.[1] I advise you to prepare stores of foodstuffs and other products even if by requisitioning, in order to build up a serious defence. Our talks with the ambassadors should begin today.[2] It is clear now that no trust can be put in assurances and the only serious guarantee lies in solid military preparations on our part.
[1] This refers to a resolution passed by the Central Executive Committee of Siberian Soviets in connection with the landing of Japanese troops in Vladivostok on the morning of April 5, 1918. It protested against the illegitimate actions of the Japanese Government; a state of war was declared in Siberia and all local Soviets were instructed to immediately step up the organisation of the Red Army.
Centrosibir—the Central Executive Committee of Siberian Soviets; was elected by the First Congress of Siberian Soviets, held in Irkutsk from October 16 (29) to October 24 (November 6), 1917. After the temporary downfall of Soviet power in Siberia (in the summer of 1918) Centrosibir ceased its activity.
[2] This refers to the Soviet Government’s talks with representatives of the U.S.A., Britain and France in connection with the landing of Japanese troops in Vladivostok; the talks took place on the evening of April 5, 1918.
The Soviet Government’s communique on the landing of Japanese troops in Vladivostok, written on April 5 and published in Pravda and Izvestia on April 6, 1918, pointed out that resistance to the Japanese invasion and a relentless struggle against their agents and accomplices within the country was a matter of life and death for the Soviet Republic, for the working people of the whole of Russia. On April 7, 1918, Lenin sent a telegram with directives to the Vladivostok Soviet, warning that the interventionists were sure to advance and demanding that the Communists of the Far East without delay should start preparing to fight the foreign intervention (see present edition, Vol. 27, p. 226).
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