Telegram to Sergey Ivanovich Gusev, February 19, 1919

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19. II. 1919

Gusev

Front Headquarters

Arzamas

Reply to coded message received, but not a word in it about food and your measures to eliminate friction and step up transport. Reply.

As for the Bashkirs, you are right to demand either disarming or immediate operations against Kolchak.[1]

Lenin

  1. A telegram from Headquarters of the Eastern Front on February 19, 1919, reported on talks with representatives of the Bashkir bourgeois-nationalist government for the cessation of this government’s anti-Soviet activity and for the Bashkir troops fighting alongside Red Army units against Kolchak. The opinion was expressed in the telegram that if the Bashkir troops would immediately go over to an offensive against Kolchak they should not be disarmed, but if they were to refuse to do so, then it was essential to disarm them.
    Joint operations by Bashkir units and the Red Army against whiteguard troops began at the end of February 1919, and a Bashkir Revolutionary Committee was set up. On March 20, 1919, the Government of the RSFSR signed an agreement with the Bashkir Government setting up a Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic.