22. INSTRUCTION TO V. D. BONCH-BRUYEVICH

Written in January, not earlier than 8 (21), 1918 · First published in 1930 in the book: Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, Na boyevykh postakh Fevralskoi i Oktyabrskoi revolyutsii (At the Fighting Posts Of the February and October Revolutions), Moscow. Printed from the original. · page 55

  Instruction

Notify the sailors of the Guards Depot (taking signed statements from them that they have been so informed) that they are answerable for the lives of the arrested officers and that they, the sailors, will be deprived of food rations, arrested and prosecuted.

Take urgent measures: (1) for sending a well-armed guard to the building; (2) for recording as many as possible of the names of the Guards Depot sailors.^[1]

Lenin
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

Notes

[1] This refers to some sailors of the Second Guards Naval Depot, who illegally arrested three officers. Under the influence of counter-revolutionary agitation, these sailors defied the laws of the Soviet Government, went on drinking bouts, and carried out illegal searches and arrests. They were disarmed and arrested.   The other, better, part of the men went to the Southern Front, where together with the Red Army units they fought heroically against the interventionists and whiteguards.