Telegram to Fyodor Kolesov, August 23, 1918

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Kolesov

Tashkent

We know little about the Caucasus and Baku. Information is unverified. Soviet power exists in the Northern Caucasus. Its troops are cut off from Tsaritsyn, which is besieged from the south by the Cossacks. The British have landed in Baku and the situation there is unstable. The Germans have agreed to guarantee there will be no offensive against Baku if we drive out the British from there. How matters will turn out there is not known. As regards the military aid, we do not know where it is. We think it is held up near Tsaritsyn.[1]

As regards ambassadors and consuls, we advise a waiting attitude, keeping them under threefold surveillance and arresting suspicious individuals who are in contact with them.

We are considering and preparing some assistance for you, but cannot promise anything for certain, for everything depends on whether we shall be successful in driving the British out of Baku or whether they succeed in capturing a part of the Caspian coast.

  1. See this volume, Document 131.—Ed.