V. I.   Lenin

Decisions of the Politbureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on the Order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front^[3]

Written: Written between August 20 and 24, 1920
Published: First published in 1905 in the Fifth Russian Edition of the Collected Works, Vol. 54. Printed from the manuscript.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, 2nd English Printing, Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, Volume 42, page 206^b.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: D. Walters
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2003). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. • README

The Politbureau rules that the action of Comrades Tukhachevsky and Smilga be severely censured. They had no right to issue their worse than tactless order, which undermines the policy of the Party and the Government.^[1]

The Politbureau directs the R.M.C. of the Republic to immediately rescind the order of the R.M.C. of the Western Front and to reprimand the latter for their irregular action.^{[2] [4]}

Notes

[1] By a note written at the top of the document Lenin instructed his secretary to have this decision telegraphed to the R.M.C. of the Western Front: “Brichkina, send this off by wire.” Under the text of the decision he wrote: “Copies for Comrades Chicherin and Danishevsky.”—Ed.

[2] This text was marked off by Lenin with a pencil and a note added: “Sklyansky has already been told.”—Ed.

[3] This refers to Order No. 1847 dated August 20, 1920, of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front, which stated that the Polish peace delegation consisted entirely of spies and secret service agents and that peace could only be concluded “on the ruins of White Poland”.

[4] On August 23, 1920, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic rescinded the order of the R.M.C. of the Western Front and reprimanded the latter for their irregular action, Simultaneously K. Danishevsky, head of the Soviet delegation conducting negotiations with Poland, was directed, in the event of the Polish delegation not feeling satisfied with the explanation already given to the delegation at its meeting, to bring to the notice of this delegation the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic countermanding that of the R.M.C. of the Western Front.