[Enclosure]
Admiral
Kolchak to the American
Government
Extreme difficulties in supplying the troops on the Siberian front
and the superiority in numbers of the Bolsheviks, obliged the
Siberian troops to retreat and temporarily to relinquish Omsk—the
seat of the Russian Government. Similar to the conditions on the
front which forced the French Government in 1914, to leave Paris,
the Russian Government temporarily transfers its seat to Irkutsk.
The Russian Government makes this sacrifice in order to preserve the
army for further struggle against the Bolsheviks. The high morale
revealed by the troops in the heavy fighting of the last few months
sustains in the Government the unshaken faith that after a rest and
strengthening of the Siberian troops with men and equipment, the
army will again acquire a powerful offensive impetus. The awakening
of the national spirit in the Russian people in their struggle with
the Bolshevist-internationalists, usurpers of power, and the
strengthening in the population of hatred for the terrorists, permit
the Government to regard with confidence the future with entire
faith in the final triumph. The flight of the masses of the
population before the advancing Bolsheviks is a striking proof of
the popular hatred for them. The workmen of the Votkinsk, Ijevsk,
and Zlatoust works, practically without exception, fled from the
Bolsheviks; the peasants of the Volga region, Ural and of part of
Western Siberia, the Cossacks of Orenbourg and of Siberia left their
homes with their wives and children to evade the violence of the
Bolshevist bands. Reconciliation with the Bolsheviks, hatred for
whom has so deeply rooted itself in the people, is impossible. There
remains only a merciless fight until the Soviet power is absolutely
destructed.
Russia calls the attention of the Allied powers to the fact that in
making innumerable sacrifices in her fight with the Bolsheviks, she
is thereby carrying out not only her own national aims, but is
struggling against a world danger—Bolshevism, which to a certain
extent threatens all the nations of the universe; in particular,
Bolshevism in Siberia is a serious menace to all countries in Asia.
The Russian Government which has always been unshakenly loyal to its
Allies during the great war, appeals to the Governments of the
friendly nations of America, England, France, Japan, Poland,
Czecho-Slovia and China, with the confidence that they will not
discontinue their further support and aid. Under such circumstances
the Russian Government which heads all the Russian forces fighting
against the Bolsheviks, will be firmly assured that it will bring
the struggle to a victorious end.
