Moscow, Kremlin, Lenin.

The Polish armies are completely falling apart; the Poles have lost communications and command; Polish orders, instead of reaching their addressees, are increasingly falling into our hands. In short, the Poles are experiencing a collapse from which they will not soon recover. This circumstance is evidently well known to Curzon, who is now trying to save the Poles with his armistice proposal. The same circumstance explains the proposal regarding Wrangel, for with the defeat of Poland, Wrangel loses his significance, and the British lose Crimea. You are entirely right in saying that they want to snatch victory from our hands.

I propose: First, in the reply note on Poland, not to give a definite answer; to emphasize in general phrases Russia's love of peace and to say that if Poland truly wants peace, she could address Russia directly. This gives us a gain of time.

Second, regarding Wrangel, it is necessary, first, to emphasize that Curzon's mediation between Wrangel and the Soviet Government, which has already been attempted once, did not justify itself; second, to point out that the Crimea has not yet been severed from Russia, and that Wrangel is a Russian general with whom Russia can establish one or another modus vivendi just as she generally settles her internal affairs independently -- that all internal questions, including the Crimean question, Russia will resolve on her own.

I think that imperialism has never been so weak as now, at the moment of Poland's defeat, and that we have never been so strong as now; therefore the more firmly we conduct ourselves, the better it will be both for Russia and for the international revolution. Communicate the decision of the Politburo.

Stalin.

Source: Bolshevik Leadership. Correspondence. 1912-1927, pp. 142-143.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 1815. L. 2-5.

NOTE

The telegram was sent from Kharkov (the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the South-Western Front) to Moscow and was a reply to Lenin's telegram to Stalin of July 12 or 13, 1920: "...A note has been received from Curzon. Curzon proposes an armistice with Poland on the condition that the Polish army withdraw behind the line assigned to it by the peace conference last year... Everything east of this line remains with us. Our army must withdraw 50 kilometers east of this line. A conference of representatives of Soviet Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland will take place in London... Representatives of Eastern Galicia will be admitted there... We are offered an armistice with Wrangel on the condition that Wrangel withdraw to the Crimea.

Wrangel is going to London to discuss the fate of his army, but not as a member of the conference. We are given a week's time to reply... I ask Stalin: 1) to speed up the order for a furious intensification of the offensive; 2) to communicate to me his, Stalin's, opinion.

I personally think that this is sheer swindling for the sake of annexing the Crimea..." (Complete Collected Works, Vol. 51, pp. 237-238). A telegram similar in content was sent on July 13 by Trotsky to Chicherin, Lenin, Krestinsky, Stalin, and Kalinin.