Translated from: ru/1917/1917-12-27_pismo_vi_leninu_27_dekabrya_1917.txt

27 December, 5 o'clock in the evening.

Comrade Ilyich!

I very much ask you to set out for Petersburg immediately, so as to be at Smolny by noon on the 28th. The point is that:

1) A reply has been received from the Rada -- evasive, yet fairly conciliatory (our reply is needed);

2) Today I was visited by delegates who are members of the Kaledin Military Circle, with the question: on what conditions could we (the Council of People's Commissars) cease military operations and the dispatch of punitive expeditions against Kaledin? (Our reply is needed.)

3) I held a meeting with Proshyan and his Armenians, which produced a joint decree (your signature is needed).

Come, and then you can go back again.

The offensive against Dutov is proceeding. Dutov is retreating, blowing up bridges. The offensive against the Rada (from the west, by order of Headquarters) has proceeded more successfully (there is a report from Ter-Arutyunyants). Trotsky reports from Brest that on the question of the venue for negotiations, we shall probably prevail.

I shake your hand and await you tomorrow.

We have issued a decree on the compulsory labor of telegraphists, with a number of threats of reprisals (this in anticipation of a telegraphists' strike in connection with the Constituent Assembly, which we have decided to forestall).

Stalin.

Bolshevik Leadership. Correspondence. 1912-1927. p. 33.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5397. L. 2.