Top Secret

1. The State Defense Committee establishes that Comrade Kulik was obligated in his actions regarding the defense of Kerch and the Kerch region to be guided by the following orders of the Stavka of the Supreme Command:

a) "The main task of the Black Sea Fleet is considered to be the active defense of Sevastopol and the Kerch peninsula with all forces" (order of the Stavka signed by Comrades Stalin, Shaposhnikov, and Kuznetsov — People's Commissar for Naval Affairs — of November 7, 1941);

b) "Hold Kerch at all costs and do not allow the enemy to occupy this region" (order of November 14, 1941, signed by Comrade Shaposhnikov, issued on the instructions of Comrade Stalin).

2. Instead of honest and unconditional fulfillment of these orders of the Stavka and the taking of resolute measures on the spot against the defeatist attitudes and defeatist behavior of the command of the Crimean forces, Comrade Kulik, in violation of the orders of the Stavka and his military duty, sanctioned the surrender of Kerch to the enemy and by his panic-stricken behavior in Kerch only intensified the defeatist attitudes and demoralization among the command of the Crimean forces.

3. Comrade Kulik's attempt to justify the unauthorized surrender of Kerch by the necessity of saving the weapons and equipment present on the Kerch peninsula only confirms that Comrade Kulik did not set as his goal the defense of Kerch at all costs, but consciously proceeded to violate the order of the Stavka and by his panic-stricken behavior facilitated the enemy's temporary seizure of Kerch and the Kerch peninsula.

4. The State Defense Committee considers that such behavior on the part of Comrade Kulik is not accidental, since such defeatist behavior had also occurred in the unauthorized surrender of Rostov without the sanction of the Stavka and contrary to the Stavka's orders.

5. On the basis of all the foregoing, the State Defense Committee resolves to bring Marshal Kulik to trial and to transfer his case for consideration by the Procurator of the USSR.

The composition of the court shall be determined separately.

Chairman of the State Defense Committee

I. Stalin

Izvestiya TsK KPSS. 1991. No. 8. Pp. 203-204.