V. I.   Lenin

585

To:   V. M. MOLOTOV FOR THE POLITBUREAU OF THE R.C.P.(B.) C.C.[1]


Written: Written on January 16, 1922
Published: First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 54. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, pages 433b-434a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.README


Secret

To Comrade Molotov, at the Politbureau:

1) Perhaps we should demand special guarantees against the fascists (e.g., either an Italian warship with a   wireless at our disposal? the names of responsible persons in the Italian army and police, etc.)?

2) Perhaps we should at once inform them that our delegates will number from ... to ... ((+ staff))? When shall we call the All-Russia C.E.C. session?

3) On the whole (and about the rest) Chicherin is right.

4) Perhaps we should appoint on behalf of the All-Russia C.E.C. (as a subtle point):

Lenin —Chairman

Chicherin—Deputy with all the powers of the Chairman, in the event the latter cannot go.

{{ Joffe ?? 2 assistant deputies? and or 3–4 ?? Krasin ?? }} assistant deputies?[2]

5) Perhaps we should start at once only personal talks (without any papers) in Berlin and Moscow with the Germans about contacts between us and them at Genoa?

6) Perhaps we should at once suggest secretly to all the plenipotentiary representatives to put out feelers with the governments concerned to find out whether or not they are prepared to start unofficial secret talks with us on a preliminary marking out of the line at Genoa?

16/I. Lenin


Notes

[1] Written under the text of G. V. Chicherin’s proposals concerning a reply to the Allied Supreme Council, which on January 6, 1922, adopted a resolution on the convocation of an All-European Economic and Financial Conference, and on the main conditions which the Supreme Council believed were necessary for its success.

[2] The question of a reply to the Supreme Council of the Entente about the international conference at Genoa was discussed by the Politbureau of the R.C.P.(B.) C.C. on January 17, 1922, which decided: “To agree in general with Comrade Chicherin’s proposals, with Comrade Lenin’s additions and amendments taken down by Comrade Chicherin” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee).

On January 27, 1922, an Extraordinary Session of the All-Russia C.E.C. approved the composition of the Soviet delegation to   the Genoa Conference. On the delegation were L. B. Krasin, M. M. Litvinov, N. N. Narimanov, V. V. Vorovsky, Y. E. Rudzutak, A. A. Joffe, Kh. G. Rakovsky and others, V. I. Lenin was appointed chairman of the delegation, and People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs G. V. Chicherin, his deputy (Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, Vol. V, Moscow, 1961, pp. 66–67).


< backward   forward >
Works Index   |   Volume 45 | Collected Works   |   L.I.A. Index