Over the past four days, the Stavka has been receiving from you ever new and new requests for armaments and for the delivery of new divisions and tank formations from the Stavka reserve.

Bear in mind that the Stavka has no ready-for-battle new divisions, that these divisions are raw, untrained, and to throw them now to the front means to provide the enemy with an easy victory.

Bear in mind that our resources in armaments are limited, and take into account that besides your front we also have other fronts.

Is it not time for you to learn to wage war with less bloodshed, as the Germans do? One must wage war not by numbers but by skill. If you do not learn to manage troops better, you will not have enough of all the armaments being produced throughout the country.

Take all this into account, if you ever wish to learn to defeat the enemy and not to provide him with an easy victory. Otherwise the armaments you receive from the Stavka will pass into the enemy's hands, as is happening now.

Stalin

US Library of Congress. Manuscript Division. "Volkogonov Collection." Reel 4.