To Stalin

Bolshevik leadership Correspondence. 1912-1927
Collection of documents 1996.
Compiled by: A.V.Kvashonkin, L.P.Kosheleva, L.A.Rogovaya, O.V.Khlevnyuk.

Stalin Correspondences
J. V. Stalin to A. F. Myasnikov, M. I. Kalmanovich

December 29, 1918

29.XII. 1918

T. T. Myasnikov, Kalmanovich.

Belarusians are leaving for Smolensk today 1 . They bring a manifest with them. The request of the Central Committee of the party and Lenin to accept them as younger brothers, perhaps still inexperienced, but ready to give their lives to party [and] Soviet work. The proclamation of the government should take place in Minsk. Please inform the day of the proclamation by direct wire, otherwise it may be inconsistent 2. The Byelorussians agreed to the agreement known to you with two reservations: 1. The chairman does not take the portfolio, as a result of which another member is introduced into the government, who is supposed to take the portfolio on foreign affairs - Vsevolod Falsky; 2. Belarusians Zybko - Reingold's deputy for finance, Getsov - Pikel's deputy, Zybak - Rosenthal's deputy, Netsetsky - Savitsky's deputy, Droko-Drokon - deputy for military affairs, manager of government affairs - Pyotr Klysh are appointed as deputy members of the government (an official announcement is not required). (the latter will not be a member of the government) 3. The Central Committee of the Party agreed with these reservations and urgently asks you to agree to it without further discussion (no time to waste). One of these days, perhaps, the CEC will announce the liquidation of the Obliskomzap and the annulment of the well-known resolution on the territory of the Obliskomzap 4 . It goes without saying that all means and communications are at the disposal of the government of Belarus. By order of the Central Committee of the party

I. Stalin.

29/XII

RTSKHIDNI. F. 558. On. 1. D. 377. L. 2. Handwritten text. The signature is an autograph.

Notes:

1 At the end of December 1918, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) decided to form the territory of the North-Western Region of the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic on the territory liberated from German troops. On behalf of the Central Committee, the preparatory work was carried out by the People's Commissariat of Nationalities and the Belarusian National Commissariat created under it. The letter was sent by Stalin from Moscow to Smolensk through Zhilunovich, the chairman of the Belorussian government formed at a meeting at the People's Commissariat of Nationalities (Moscow, December 27, 1918). Together with the rest of the cabinet, Zhilunovich left Moscow on December 29, 1918.

2 After the departure of the Belarusians, Stalin duplicated this request in an additional telegram to Myasnikov: “[...] Zhilunovich and other Belarusians came to you this evening, wait for their arrival. The day of publication (of the Manifesto on the Proclamation of the BSSR - Comp.) Report by wire. Zhilunovich will give you my letter. Stalin" (RTSKHIDNI. F. 558. On. 1. D. 479. L. 1).

3 The composition of the future government of the BSSR was basically formed at a meeting at the People's Commissariat for National Affairs on December 27, 1918. Of the members of the government listed here, it really included: Zhilunovich (chairman), Falsky (foreign minister), Pikel (chairman of the Council of the National Economy), Rosenthal (Commissioner of Posts and Telegraphs), Savitsky (Commissar of Communications). Knorin became the manager of government affairs.

4 Regional Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Western Region. Existed from November 1918 to January 1919

No. 36

Telegram from A. F. Myasnikov to I. V. Stalin

December 31, 1918

Tov. Myasnikov Tov. Stalin 1 .

31/XII-1918

I received the list of members of the government just now, and then with the reservation of Zhilunovich, who declared that he and the comrades who had arrived agreed to it only on the condition that three members of the government were excluded from the lists personally: for military affairs, supplies and the Economic Council 2 , and even on the condition that the members were independent government from the Central Bureau of the 3rd party. I have not seen Manifesto 4 , because they do not present it; since the question remains as we discussed it in Moscow 5I am wholly in favor of getting down to business immediately, but apparently the comrades have their own special considerations in this regard; I find that it is necessary to instruct them, or else to allow us to nominate the corresponding Belorussian surnames, which we have here; I foresee certain frictions on the basis of the most undisguised nationalism; all day the Central Bureau is assembled and waiting for your instructions in order to finally get down to business. I look forward to an early reply.

Myasnikov.

RTSKHIDNI. F.558. Op.1. D.3520. L. 2. Certified typewritten copy.

Notes:

1 The telegram was sent from Smolensk to Moscow.

2 It is certain that, among others, we are talking about Myasnikov, who later became the commissar for military affairs. Two other candidates for the government could not be identified.

3 The Central Bureau was established in accordance with the "Regulations on Party Organizations" adopted by the VI North-Western Regional Party Conference (I Congress of the CP (b) B) on December 30-31, 1918 in Smolensk. “At the head of all organizations of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic,” the first paragraph of the regulation said, “is the Central Bureau elected by the Party Congress, which is the supreme body in the republic and the faithful eye of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of all Russian Soviet Socialist Republics, its deputy, developing general provisions and instructions given by the center [...]” (Essays on the History of the Communist Party of Belarus. Ch. I. Minsk, 1968, p. 433).

4 This refers to the Manifesto on the proclamation of the BSSR, prepared at a meeting in the People's Commissariat for National Affairs on December 27, 1918 and sent by Stalin to Myasnikov through Zhilunovich.

5 Myasnikov was also at a meeting at the Narkomnats in Moscow on December 27, 1918. Myasnikov left Moscow before the other participants in the meeting.