Following the capture of Krasnaya Gorka, Seraya Loshad 74 has been taken. Their guns are in perfect order. A rapid check of all the forts and fortresses is under way.

Naval experts assert that the capture of Krasnaya Gorka from the sea runs counter to naval science. I can only deplore such so-called science. The swift capture of Gorka was due to the grossest interference in the operations by me and civilians generally, even to the point of countermanding orders on land and sea and imposing our own.

I consider it my duty to declare that I shall continue to act in this way in future, despite all my reverence
for science. Stalin June 16, 1919

First published in
Pravda, No. 301,

December 21, 1929