Proposal to the Politburo of the CC of the RCP(b), August 30, 1920

Source: Tom 17

To the Politburo of the CC.

I propose that the CC establish a commission of three persons (through the Council of Defense) to investigate the conditions of our July offensive and August retreat on the Western Front. The commission should be given a two-week deadline. As chairman of the commission (if the CC has no better candidate), I propose Comrade Serebryakov.

I. Stalin.

Source: Bolshevik Leadership. Correspondence. 1912-1927, p. 156.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5213. L. 1.

NOTE

On the same day, August 30, 1920, Stalin submitted a statement to the Politburo in which he linked the failures on the Polish front to errors of the supreme military leadership of the country. In particular, he named the absence of serious combat reserves as the main deficiency of military policy and proposed the adoption of a "program for the formation of combat reserves of the Republic" (Stalin, I.V. Works, Vol. 4, pp. 348-350). Stalin's proposal was considered at the Politburo session of September 1. The resolution adopted stated: "Take note of Trotsky's report that the military department is taking measures in the spirit of Comrade Stalin's proposal..."