Written: Written April 8, 1919
Published:
First published in 1965 in the Fifth Russian Edition of the Collected Works, Volume 54.
Printed from the manuscript.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
2nd English Edition,
Progress Publishers,
1971,
Moscow,
Volume 42,
page 135a.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
D. Walters
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2003).
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I propose that the signatures of the C.C. Politbureau members be collected and these directives to the Ukrainian Communist Party and its C.C. for the Ukraine be endorsed. Extremely urgent.[2]
8/IV. Lenin
To the C.C. 0 r g b u r e a u. Forward urgently to the Ukrainian C.C.[1]
[1] Marginal note added to the draft, apparently after it was endorsed.—Ed.
[2] Lenin’s proposal was written on the draft resolution of the C.C. of the R.C.P.(B.). The draft, with Lenin’s corrections, is signed by V. I. Lenin, N. N. Krestinsky, and J. V. Stalin. The resolution states: “An essential condition for success in the conduct of the war is unconditional unity of action on all fronts, which, in turn, demands unity of Red Army command on all fronts, unity of Red Army supply on all fronts and unity of transport management of all railways, since transport is of primary importance in the conduct of war.” The resolution stresses the need for the strictest directives being given to the Commissariats for the Army and the Navy as well as to the supply agencies of the Soviet Republics “in order that these independent commissariats work exclusively in strict conformity with the directives given by the appropriate Commissariats of the R. S. F.S.R., since only in this way can the necessary unity, dispatch and accuracy be achieved in the fulfilment of all orders and operations.”
The resolution goes on to say that “the most urgent task in the Ukraine is to make maximum use of fuel, metals, existing factories and workshops, and also stocks of food”. Pointing out that the whole industry of the Ukraine was concentrated in the eastern part of the republic and that the transfer of the Economic Council from Kharkov to Kiev had adversely affected the rehabilitation of transport and of the mining and manufacturing industries of the Ukraine, the C.C. of the R.C.P.(B.) recognised the need for the Economic Council as well as the Special Commission for Army Supplies of the Ukraine being located in Kharkov or having competent agencies in Kharkov authorised to deal directly with Moscow and to receive money appropriations directly from Moscow. The C.C. of the Party emphasised that “the Ukrainian railways are an inseparable part of the Russian railway network and are managed by the People’s Commissariat for Railways from Moscow.” The resolution also states that “the People’s Commissariat for State Control of the R.S.F.S.R. should cover all institutions in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C. of the C.P.S.U.).
This resolution of the Party’s Central Committee was an important step towards strengthening unity in military affairs among the Soviet Republics. On April 24, 1919, in connection with Commander-in-Chief I. I. Vatsetis’s memorandum on the military situation in the R.S.F.S.R., urging the need for uniting the armed forces of the Soviet Republics and subordinating them to a single command, Lenin wrote to E. M. Sklyansky asking him to urgently draft the text of the C.C. directive to all “nationals” concerning military unity (unification)” (Collected Works, Vol. 50, Fifth Russian Edition, Document 528). For “Draft C.C. Directive on Army Unity” see present edition, Vol. 29, pp. 404-05. The military union of the Soviet Republics was officially implemented on June 1, 1919, by a decree of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee “On the Unification of the Soviet Republics of Russia, the Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Byelorussia for Fighting World Imperialism”.
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