Leon Trotsky: Letter to Lenin

[Copy. By direct line. True Copy. (From file of outgoing papers of the Field Chancery No. I for 1919, part II) [On a separate slip of paper:] Note: Comrade Lenin’s in, quiry (No. 12) has not been found. The Trotsky Papers 1917-1922, edited and annotated by Jan M. Meijer, The Hague. 1964, Vol. 2., p. 239]

From: Orel

January 3, 1919. No. 72

To: Kremlin, Moscow- Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin.

Your No. 12. The episode connected with the occupation of Raygorod has evidently been already cleared up. As regards the passivity of the Caspian Flotilla, this, according to Saks’ report, is a question of the intensive preparatory work that is being put in. Saks was categorically notified four weeks ago of his responsibility for operations in the Caspian. He demands that he should not be urged to undertake rash and ill-prepared actions. He personally vouches for the success of the operations. In such a situation there are two possible solutions: either to replace Saks; or to give him the necessary freedom of action. Saks, is an absolutely reliable, energetic person and Party-man. I have nobody who could replace him.

Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council, Trotsky