Written: Written on February 15, 1921
Published:
First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 52.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
pages 84c-85a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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The C.C. regards the operations of the 11th Army R.M.C. as local protection for insurgents in the neutral zone against their imminent destruction by the whiteguards.[3] Take account of this political character of your operation in all your public statements. Of course, we expect the 11th Army R.M.C. to take swift and vigorous action, not stopping short of the capture of Tiflis, if, for military considerations, this should be necessary for the actual defence of the neutral zone against a fresh attack. We expect you to reckon most seriously with our warnings. Inform us daily.[1]
[1] Lenin then wrote: “On behalf of the C.C., Krestinsky.”—Ed.
[2] The text of the telegram proposed by Lenin was approved by the Politbureau of the R.C.P.(B.) Central Committee on February 15, 1921.
[3] Reciprocal territorial claims over Borchalo and a part of Akhalkalaki uyezds, Tiflis Gubernia, resulted in a war between Menshevik Georgia and Dashnak Armenia in December 1918. After “peaceful mediation” by the British command, which pursued its own colonialist aims, military operations were stopped, the northern part of Borchalo Uyezd going to Georgia, the southern, to Armenia, and the central—Lori district—was declared a neutral zone with a mixed Georgian-Armenian local administration subordinate to the Entente military command. In November 1920, in view of the war between Dashnak Armenia and Turkey, the neutral zone was occupied, with the Entente’s consent, by the troops of Menshevik Georgia. The working population of the neutral zone, which was being subjected to savage plunder and violence, staged an armed uprising under the leadership of the Communists against the oppressors on the night of February 11, 1921. It was the start of a general victorious uprising by the working people of Georgia against the Menshevik regime.
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