410. TELEGRAM TO I. T. SMILGA

Written in August, not earlier than 16, 1919 · First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51. Printed from the original. · page 276

Smilga
and present whereabouts of the Volsk Revolutionary Committee

I sent you a letter and then received yours of the 16th.^[1]

Trotsky is here and will stay for a week or so, I think. I hope work with him will go smoothly. Would it not be better for you to come here and reach an agreement? Keep your temper, don’t overdo things. If you do not come, send news more frequently.

Lenin

Notes

[1] Lenin is referring to Smilga’s letter to the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) reporting on the grave situation at the Southern Front. “The chief and basic cause of our reverses,” he wrote, “lies in the inability of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front to command and control the troops.... The Revolutionary Military Council, as now constituted, is ineffectual. Failure to understand one another is so great that the idea of achieving any harmony in the work is ruled out.” = (Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51, p. 382.)