Telegram to Lev Kamenev, May 7, 1919

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L. B. Kamenev was then the representative of the Council of Defence at the Southern Front. Lenin sent the telegram to him in connection with the news that Lugansk had been taken by the whiteguards on May 4, 1919.

Rakovsky, Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

Kiev, for Kamenev

Absolutely essential that you personally, taking along Joffe, if necessary, to help you, should not only verify and expedite but personally bring up the reinforcements to Lugansk and the Donets Basin generally, as otherwise the disaster will undoubtedly be tremendous and scarcely remediable. If you need one, take a mandate from the Kiev Council of Defence. We shall undoubtedly perish unless we clear the Donets Basin completely in a short time. Provisionally, until Rostov has been taken, we must be diplomatic with Makhno’s troops, sending Antonov there in person, and making him personally responsible for Makhno’s troops. Telegraph detailed reply.

Lenin