Stalin's Reply to the telegram from Kiev. Telegram of the State Defense Committee

Archive source:
Bulletin of the Central Committee of the CPSU 1990 No. 7 P.207-208

July 10, 1941

Kiev Khrushchev

1) Your proposals [1]  on the destruction of all property contradict the guidelines given in Comrade Stalin's speech [2] , where the destruction of all valuable property was mentioned in connection with the forced withdrawal of the Red Army units. Your proposals mean the immediate destruction of all valuable property, grain and livestock in the zone 100-150 kilometers from the enemy, regardless of the state of the front.

Such an event can demoralize the population, cause dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime, upset the rear of the Red Army, and create, both in the army and among the population, a mood of obligatory withdrawal instead of determination to repulse the enemy.

2) The State Defense Committee obliges you in view of the withdrawal of troops, and only in the event of a withdrawal, in the area of ​​a 70-verst strip from the front, take all the adult male population, draft cattle, grain, tractors, combines and move on their own to the east, and which is impossible remove, destroy, without touching, however, poultry, small livestock and other foodstuffs necessary for the remaining population. As for distributing all this property to the troops, we strongly object to this, since the troops can turn into bands of marauders.

3) Do not blow up power plants, but remove all those valuable parts without which the power plants cannot operate so that the power plants cannot operate for a long time.

4) Do not blow up water pipes.

5) Do not blow up the factories, but remove from the equipment all the necessary valuable parts, machine tools, etc., so that the factories cannot be restored for a long time.

6) After withdrawing our units to the left bank of the Dnieper, blow up all bridges thoroughly.

7) Warehouses, especially artillery, must be taken out, and what cannot be taken out must be blown up.

8) As for the evacuation of factories beyond the 70-verst strip, where there is still no direct threat from the enemy, this evacuation should be carried out in advance, removing mainly machine tools and other most valuable equipment.

Chairman of the State

Defense Committee

I. Stalin

[1] See telegram of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Ukraine dated July 9, 1941

[2] This refers to the speech of I. V. Stalin, broadcast on the radio on July 3, 1941, in which he outlined the content of the directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of June 29, 1941. “Party and Soviet organizations of the frontline regions on the mobilization of all forces and means to defeat the fascist invaders "(see" CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee. "M., 1985, vol. 7, pp. 221-223). Ed.