Leon Trotsky: Telegram to Military Revolutionary Council, Astrakhan

[Copy. Telegram. True Copy. (From the file “Secret outgoing papers” from I.I to 17.1X.1919, from No. 1 to No. 400, part I, page 23) The Trotsky Papers 1917-1922, edited and annotated by Jan M. Meijer, The Hague. 1964, Vol. 2., p. 263]

Incoming No. 280. 21/IV. 19

No. 10. January 26, 1919

From: Balashov-Arzamas railway line

To: Astrakhan – Military Revolutionary Council.

Copied to: Moscow - Chairman of the Council of Defence, Lenin.

Ordzhonikidze telegraphs about the disintegration of the Eleventh Army.² Why did you give no warning of this? How could the catastrophe occur all of a sudden? Why were measures not taken to ensure the Army’s steadiness? Report immediately what you have done to assist the Eleventh Army in respect of supplies of shells, small-arms ammunition and money.

Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council, Trotsky