May 9, 1919

The Commissariat of Foreign Affairs has received numerous reports of unheard atrocities committed by the Russian and Finnish White Guard bands which have invaded the territory of Russia from Finland and which, according to reliable information, include also detachments of Finnish regular troops, The official authorities of Olonets Uyezd report that during the temporary occupation of the city of Olonets by the above mentioned bands, residents were executed on the slightest suspicion, on the basis of the most absurd information, and no mercy was given to either old men or children. In the Olonets hospital were executed 27 soldiers of the Red Army and sick non-combatant peasants, those of them who were weak, were carried on stretchers to the place of execution. On Easter, during a sudden attack on the border volosts, about 200 people were shot. Among the killed there are whole families, including the women and the children. To the crime of invading foreign territory was added the even more abhorrent crime, – the murder of absolutely innocent peaceful citizens. Not satisfied with the brutal punishments inflicted on the workers of their own country, the bourgeois Finnish Government is thus trying to extend its brutalities to the workers and peasants of a neighboring people, whose government has repeatedly declared its peaceful intentions toward the people of Finland and its unalterable desire to maintain an unbroken friendship with them.

Protesting most emphatically against the crossing of the Russian frontier by the regular Finnish troops and by the White Guard bands, acting with the consent of the Finnish Government, the Soviet Government demands an immediate cessation of these actions, which, we are sure, will be regarded by the Finnish workers and peasants with less indignation than that of the Russian people and of the toiling masses of the whole world.

People's Commissary for Foreign Affairs
Chicherin