Telephone message to Joseph Stalin, July 12, 1920

Add a subpage to this text

Read the help page for usage.

 

By telephone to Stalin, Kharkov

A Note has been received from Curzon. He proposes an armistice with Poland on the following terms: the Polish army to withdraw beyond the line fixed by last year’s peace conference," viz., Grodno, Yalovka, Nemirov, Brest-Litovsk, Dorogiisk, Ustilug, Krylov. This line cuts across Galicia between Przemysl and Rava-Russkaya, right up to the Carpathians. We keep everything east of this line. Our army is to withdraw 50 kilometres east of this line. A conference of representatives of Soviet Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland is to be held in London under the auspices of the peace conference. Representatives of Eastern Galicia will be allowed to attend. We can send anybody we like as our representative. It has been proposed to us that we conclude an armistice with Wrangel, provided he withdraws to the Crimea. Wrangel is going to London to discuss the fate of his army, but not as member of the conference. We have been given a week for our reply. Besides, the Curzon Note says that the Polish Government has given its consent to a peace with Russia, on the basis of these terms.

Such is the Curzon Note. I ask Stalin:

1) to expedite execution of the order to furiously inten-sify the offensive;

2) to inform me of his (Stalin’s) opinion.

For my part, I think that all this is a piece of knavery aimed at the annexation of the Crimea, which is advanced so insolently in the Note. The idea is to snatch victory out of our hands with the aid of false promises.

Lenin

Stalin’s reply to be recorded and sent on to me by telephone.

Lenin