Memorandum. Smolensk. From Moscow, the Kremlin. To Zhilunovich.

Copy to Myasnikov.

I find Zhilunovich's proposal to exclude three members disorganizing and fundamentally contrary to the decisions of the Party. There can be no separate decisions by Zhilunovich's group. The list of members -- seventeen in total -- is final. I demand from Zhilunovich and his group a categorical answer to the question: does he unconditionally submit to the decision of the CC of the Party? I await an urgent reply. On behalf of the CC of the Party,

Stalin.

Source: Bolshevik Leadership. Correspondence. 1912-1927, pp. 73-74.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 3520. L. 1.

NOTE

This telegram is a response to Myasnikov's telegram of December 31, 1918: "...I received the list of government members only just now, and even then with a reservation from Zhilunovich, who stated that he and the comrades who had arrived agree to it only on the condition that three members of the government be personally excluded: for military affairs, supply, and the Supreme Economic Council, and furthermore on the condition that the members of the government be independent of the Central Bureau of the Party..."