Written: 5 or 6 February, 1919
First Published: February 16, 1919 in Zhizn Natsionalnostei
No. 5 (13); Published according to the manuscript
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, 4th English Edition,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 28, page 445
Translated: Jim Riordan
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters & Robert Cymbala
Online Version: V. I. Lenin Internet
Archive May, 2002
Ufa, Gubernia Revolutionary Committee Chairman
Propose not to alienate Khalikov and to grant amnesty on condition that a common front with Bashkir regiments is set up against Kolchak. The Soviet government pledges its full guarantee for Bashkir national freedom. But naturally, you must deal severely with counter-revolutionaries among Bashkir population and achieve de facto control to ensure proletarian reliability of Baslikir forces.
Lenin, Stalin
[1] The telegram was sent in reply to the Ufa Gubernia Revolutionary Committee's inquiry as to how it should act with regard to the spokesman of the Bashkir bourgeois nationalist government. Khalikov, who had come for negotiations. Khalikov wanted an amnesty for Bashkirs who had fought Soviet power; he also in-formed the Committee that Bashkir troops were now joining the Red Army. The telegram, beginning with the words “But naturally”, was written by Lenin.