Five days ago General Hoffmann announced to us the expiration of the armistice treaty[9], and a day later he opened military operations. No reply has yet been given to the Council of People's Commissars' statement of consent to resume peace negotiations. Evidently, the German government is in no hurry to respond, in order to plunder the country to the end and only then open peace negotiations. The Germans have taken Dvinsk, Rovno, Minsk, Volmar, Gapsal; they are moving toward Petrograd and Kiev. Evidently, the aim of the campaign is not only seizures but, chiefly, the strangulation of the revolution and its gains.

The Council of People's Commissars decided to organize a rebuff from Petrograd, to mobilize the entire working population, as well as the bourgeoisie, and, if the latter does not want to dig trenches, to take them by force, to compel them under the control of the workers to dig trenches.

The general opinion of the comrades is that you, the people of Kiev, are obliged, without losing a single minute, to organize a similar rebuff from Kiev from the west, mobilize everything viable, deploy artillery, dig trenches, drive the bourgeoisie under the control of the workers to trench work, declare a state of siege, and act with all the rules of strictness. The general task is to defend Petrograd and Kiev, to hold back the German bands at all costs.

The situation is more serious than it might seem to you – we have no doubt that the German bands want to take a stroll from Petrograd to Kiev and there, only there, in those capitals, to start talking about peace negotiations. I think that the treaty of the old Rada with the Germans[10] has not yet been annulled by you. If this is so, it seems to us that you should not be in a hurry with this.

Once again: without losing a single minute, get down to work without debate and show everyone that the Soviet power is capable of defending itself.

All our hope is on the workers, for the demobilized so-called army proved capable only of panic and flight.

Waiting for an immediate response.

By order of the Council of People's Commissars, J. Stalin

Petrograd,

21 February 1918