Leon Trotsky: Telegram to Lenin

[Copy. Telegram. True Copy. (From files of outgoing papers No. 1 for 1919, part II) The Trotsky Papers 1917-1922, edited and annotated by Jan M. Meijer, The Hague. 1964, Vol. 2., p. 255]

From: Petrograd

19/1.1919. No. 303

To: Moscow – Chairman of the Council of Defence, Lenin.

Copied to: People’s Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs,

On the basis of observations made during my last visit to the Southern Front, I report: telegraphic communications are in an appalling state, lines have not been inspected, posts have rotted away and wires in their tens are dislodged all over the place. The Armies are losing contact with each other and with the Front for several days at a time and this has a lethal effect on the course of operations. It is essential that urgent measures be taken to eliminate this fault. Up to now all attempts have ended up in exchanging messages on the subject.

Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council, Trotsky