423. MARKINGS ON THE REPORT OF K. F. MARTINOVICH AND A NOTE TO L. D. TROTSKY, F. E. DZERZHINSKY AND THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.C.P.(B.)
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... The Revolutionary Military Council failed to pay due attention
to the reconnaissance report, and the Southern Front Commander
declared it to be a trifle, saying that even if the Cossacks did break
through, they would be caught in a trap.
...As a result of all this, about 290 trucks of Clothing and Equipment Depot property were left behind in Kozlov and plundered by the Cossacks and population.
In view of this I consider it necessary to insist on a thoroughly detailed investigation of the process of evacuation of the institutions of the Southern Front Headquarters, and particularly the Clothing and Equipment Depot, to be carried out by a commission consisting of representatives of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Republic, the Council of Defence, and the People’s Commissariat for State Control.
Comrade Trotsky
Comrade Dzerzhinsky
and the Central Committee
I think the investigation should be instituted through the Vecheka.[1]
Lenin
12/IX.
Notes
[1] Written on a covering letter dated September 12, 1910, from A. K. Paikes, Deputy People’s Commissar for State Control, accompanying the report of K. F. Martinovich, Chief Controller of the Southern Front, concerning the evacuation of Southern Front Headquarters from the town of Kozlov.