The Council of People's Commissars orders you, Citizen Commander,...
to propose to the enemy military authorities immediately to cease
hostilities, and enter into negotiations for peace.
In charging you with the conduct of these preliminary pourparlers,
the Council of People's Commissars orders you:
1. To inform the Council by direct wire immediately of any and all
steps in the pourparlers with the representatives of the enemy
armies.
2. Not to sign the act of armistice until it has been passed upon by
the Council of People's Commissars.
The Allied Ambassadors received Trotzky's note with contemptuous
silence, accompanied by anonymous interviews in the newspapers, full
of spite and ridicule. The order to Dukhonin was characterised
openly as an act of treason....
As for Dukhonin, he gave no sign. On the night of November 22nd he
was communicated with by telephone, and asked if he intended to obey
the order. Dukhonin answered that he could not, unless it emanated
from "a Government sustained by the Army and the country."
By telegraph he was immediately dismissed from the post of Supreme
Commander, and Krylenko appointed in his place. Following his
tactics of appealing to the masses, Lenin sent a radio to all
regimental, divisional and corps Committees, to all soldiers and
sailors of the Army and the Fleet, acquainting them with Dukhonin's
refusal, and ordering that "the regiments on the front shall elect
delegates to begin negotiations with the enemy detachments opposite
their positions.
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