403. To L. D. TROTSKY

Written on August 7, 1919 · First published in 1942 in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV. Printed from the original. · page 273

The Politbureau of the Central Committee, having discussed the very serious questions raised by you,^[3] orders that the directive of the Commander-in-Chief on these questions, addressed to the Southern Front and to the 12th  Army, be carried out. The directive will be forwarded at once.

The Politbureau, for its part, insists that Odessa should be defended to the last.^[1]

On behalf of the Politbureau of the C.C.,
Lenin^[2]

Notes

[1] See also present edition, Vol. 35, Document 220.—Ed.

[2] There follows the signature of L. B. Kamenev in Lenin’s handwriting.—Ed.

[3] This refers to Trotsky’s telegram to Lenin reporting that at a meeting in Kiev on August 6, 1919, attended by L. D. Trotsky, Kh. G. Rakovsky, A. I. Yegorov, S. I. Aralov, N. G. Semyonov and V. P. Zatonsky, it was decided to withdraw the Soviet troops to a new line and to surrender to the enemy the Black Sea coast with Odessa and Nikolayev.