Soldiers Urged to Negotiate with the Enemy
Vladimir Lenin, Proclamation to Soldiers and Sailors. November 22, 1917
Original Source: Izvestiia, No. 221, 23 November 1917, p. 2.
During the night of November 20 the Soviet of People's Commissars dispatched a wireless message to Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin, ordering him to propose immediately and officially an armistice to all belligerent nations, allied as well as enemy.
This wireless message was received at the Stavka at 5:05 in the morning of November 21 Simultaneously the same proposal-that of an armistice-was made officially to all the plenipotentiary representatives of the Allied countries in Petrograd.
Failing to obtain an answer from Dukhonin up to the evening of November 21, the Soviet of People's Commissars authorized Lenin, Stalin, and Krylenko to inquire of Dukhonin by direct wire the reason for this delay. The conversations were carried on from 2:00 till 4:30 in the morning of November 22. Dukhonin made many attempts to evade an explanation of his action and failed to give a clear answer concerning the government order. When he was told that he must begin at once official negotiations for an armistice, he refused to obey. Thereupon Dukhonin was informed in the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, by order of the Soviet of People's Commissars, that he was dismissed from his post for disobeying the orders of the government and for acting in a manner that was bound to lead to great calamities for the toiling masses of all countries, especially for the armies ...
Soldiers, the cause of peace rests in your hands! You will not permit counter-revolutionary generals to frustrate the great cause of peace. You will surround them with guards, so as to avoid lynchings unworthy of revolutionary armies and to prevent these generals from escaping the judgment that is in store for them. You will maintain the strictest revolutionary and military discipline.
Let the regiments at the front immediately elect representatives to open formal truce negotiations with the enemy. The Soviet of People's Commissars gives you this authority. In every possible way keep us informed of each step in the pour-parlers, but sign no final agreement for an armistice. This can be done only by the Soviet of People's Commissars.
Soldiers, the peace is in your hands! Watchfulness, patience, energetic action-and the cause of peace will triumph!
In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic,
V. UL'IANOV (LENIN) President of the Sovnarkom
N. KRYLENKO People's Commissar of War and Supreme Commander-in-Chief
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 236-237.