Published:
First published in 1931 in the book: D. Oskin, Zapiski Voyenkoma, Moscow.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1976],
Moscow,
Volume 35,
pages 424-425.
Translated: Andrew Rothstein
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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• README
October 20, 1919
Comrades Kaminsky, Oskin and Mezhlauk
Tula
Tula is just, now of exceptional importance—and generally speaking, even independently of the enemy being close at hand, Tula is of vast importance to the Republic.
Therefore you must exert all your energy to achieve co-ordinated work, concentrating everything on military affairs and military supplies.
I regret very much the friction between yourselves and Zelikman on one side and Peters (he is an important and extremely dedicated person) on the other, and I think that this is Zelikman’s fault because, if some unevenness was noticeable, it should have been immediately put right (and this was not difficult to do), without letting matters reach a conflict. The slightest unevenness must in future be settled, reporting to the centre in time, not allowing it to develop into a conflict.
Every effort must be made to improve the work in Tula; it must be placed entirely on a war footing. A decree reducing the civil administration will be published in a few days. Not only must it be observed; it must be applied with supreme conscientiousness and zeal.[1] In Tula the masses are far from being on our side. Hence the necessity for particularly intensive work among the troops, among the reservists, among the working men and women.
If you are short of personnel, write: we shall send you help from Moscow.
Check up on the defence work unremittingly. Are strong points being put up? Is the work weakening? Are there enough materials, and workers? Are the Red Army men being trained? Are supplies for them in order? All these and similar questions must be assigned for special supervision to practical people and comrades devoted to the Party. You hear full responsibility for the success of this work and for any negligence (if you do not complain in lime and do not appeal to the centre). The formation of army units is of exceptional importance.
If we take Orel,[2] the effort should not be reduced, but multiplied tenfold, since without this we shall not conquer, and an interruption in the offensive means death for us.
Read this letter to all responsible workers and Party members and regularly, very briefly, keep me informed of what in fact is being done.
With communist greetings,
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
[1] Lenin refers to the transfer of certain Rod Army units to labour service at the beginning of 1920, so that, they could ho used for purposes of reconstruction. The war with bourgeois-landowner Poland and Wrangel forced the Government to return the labour armies to the fighting line.
[2] Orel was liberated by Soviet troops on October 20, 1919, the day Lenin wrote this letter.
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