Excerpts from Direct-Line Negotiations with K.E. Voroshilov and A.A. Zhdanov, 22 August 1941

Source: Tom 18

Source: Tom 18

Stalin: You have created a Military Council of Leningrad. You should understand that only the government, or the Stavka by its authorization, can create military councils ... Second: Neither Voroshilov nor Zhdanov has been included in the Military Council of Leningrad. This is incorrect. And even politically harmful ... As though Zhdanov and Voroshilov do not believe in the defense of Leningrad ... This must be corrected. Third: In your order ... you have introduced the election of battalion commanders. This is organizationally incorrect and politically harmful. This too must be corrected. Fourth: According to your order ... it appears that the defense of Leningrad is limited to the creation of workers' battalions, armed more or less weakly, without a proper artillery defense. Such a defense cannot be considered satisfactory, if one bears in mind that the Germans have artillery.

We believe that the defense of Leningrad must be primarily an artillery defense. All the heights in the Pulkovo area and other areas must be occupied, and a serious artillery defense deployed there, using naval guns ... Without such a base, the workers' battalions will be wiped out.

Voroshilov: From everything that has been said, we see that through our fault a great misunderstanding has occurred. First: The creation of the Defense Council of Leningrad in no way excludes but merely supplements the overall organization of the defense ... Second: Voroshilov and Zhdanov bear primary responsibility for the entire defense of Leningrad. Third: We understood the Military Council for the Defense of Leningrad as a strictly auxiliary body to the overall military defense of Leningrad. Fourth: It seemed to us that it would be easier to create a solid defense of Leningrad by means of a special organization of the workers' community into military detachments. Fifth: Leningrad has a special fortified zone that begins at the Kapor Bay and runs south of Krasnogvardeysk ...

Stalin: We are aware of the existence of a fortified zone near Leningrad. Not from you, of course, but from other sources ... But this fortified zone appears to have already been breached by the Germans in the Krasnogvardeysk area, which is why the Stavka raises the question of the defense of Leningrad so sharply ...

As for the questions I raised, you have not answered a single one of them properly ... We have no guarantee that you won't again come up with something that does not fit within the framework of normal relations ... We never know about your plans and initiatives; we always learn by accident that something has been planned, something has been devised, and then a gap appears. We cannot tolerate this either. You are not children and know well that you do not need forgiveness ... You are disorganized people who do not feel responsibility for your actions, and consequently act as though on an isolated island, without regard for anyone ...

Voroshilov: In organizing the Military Council for the Defense of Leningrad, we not only had no intention of violating norms of order and laws, but did not even suppose that this could serve as grounds for such conclusions as we have just heard. This decision of ours was not published, and it was issued as a strictly secret order.

Second: On the question of elections, we may have acted incorrectly, but on the basis of the sad experience of recent days, when not only in workers' divisions but in certain cases in regular divisions as well, commanders fled, and soldiers elected their own commanders ... Third: Voroshilov and Zhdanov did not join the Defense Council of Leningrad because they exercise general direction of the defense ...

Fourth: As for your remark that we may come up with something else that does not fit within the framework of normal relations, we, Voroshilov and Zhdanov, do not entirely understand what we are being reproached for ...

Stalin: Do not pretend to be naive. Read the transcript and you will understand what you are accused of. Immediately cancel the elective principle in the battalions, for it can destroy the entire army. An elected commander is powerless, for if he puts pressure on the voters, they will promptly re-elect him. What we need, as is well known, are commanders with full authority. Once elections are introduced in workers' battalions, it will immediately spread to the entire army like a contagion. Zhdanov and Voroshilov, be so good as to join the Military Council for the Defense of Leningrad. Leningrad is not Cherepovets and not Vologda. It is the second capital of our country. The Military Council for the Defense of Leningrad is not an auxiliary body, but the directing body for the defense of Leningrad. Submit a concrete plan for the defense of Leningrad. Will there be, in addition to the main fortified line, another, narrower fortified line? If so, how will it be organized?

Voroshilov: The elective principle will be canceled. Voroshilov and Zhdanov will join the Defense Council of Leningrad. A narrower defensive zone has not yet been created, but it is being created ...

Stalin: It is possible that we will divide the Northern Front into two parts -- the Karelian part, from Ladoga to Murmansk, with its own front command, and the southern part -- the Leningrad part proper, which should be called the Leningrad Front. The reasons are known. After the Finns occupied the northern shores of Ladoga, it is impossible to direct the northern part of the Northern Front from Leningrad. Discuss this question and give your thoughts.

Trud. 2001. No. 163.