ПРОЕКТ ТЕЗИСОВ К ПЛЕНУМУ ЦК РКП(Б)
Date: 1920-07-16
Source: ru:ND (Neizvestnye Dokumenty - Unknown Documents)
Translated by: AI (Claude)

To help the proletariat and toiling masses of Poland and Lithuania to liberate themselves from their bourgeoisie and landlords.

For this — all forces and particularly strain to strengthen and accelerate the offensive.

For this also — to mobilize without exception all Polish communists for the Western front.

Note: 1. Exceptions are permitted only in exceptional cases by the Politburo.

Note: 2. The Central Committee recommends helping the creation of Soviet authorities in Poland and assistance to them¹*.

Solemnly and officially declare to the Polish people that we in any case guarantee them, as the border of an independent Polish republic, a line more eastern than Curzon and the Entente give.

Other conditions of peace will depend²* on what guarantees the Polish people give us that they will not be an instrument of French, English and other capitalists in an attempt on Soviet Russia³*.

Reject with detailed motivation any mediation in negotiations with Poland and with other powers both of the League of Nations and England⁴*

{direct and indirect pressure of imperialists, {     "                "           participation of the Entente
{And so on.

We openly declare that if Poland appeals⁵*, we will accept negotiations for peace, not refusing negotiations for armistice either.

England posed the proposal of armistice with Wrangel as separate⁶*. Clarify⁷* the connection of Poland and Wrangel in the offensive plan of the Entente⁸*.

NB || 9. Since England clearly reveals here a desire for annexation of Crimea (develop, prove, expose), we declare that we will not go for this and protest.

10. Since England obviously maintains Wrangel and is his employer (his summons to London)⁹*, (England does not even want Wrangel himself to be a member of the conference on peace) then¹⁰*

Fund 2, inventory 1, file 14706 - autograph.

¹* Both notes to 3 paragraphs of the theses were written by V.I. Lenin in the upper right corner of the sheet with an insertion mark. The ending of the phrase in note 2 was corrected from: "to help local Soviet revo... authorities in Poland, etc."

²* The beginning of the paragraph was corrected from: "How much more eastward depends".

³* The paragraph was crossed out by V.I. Lenin. Against the paragraph in the margin is L.B. Kamenev's note: "Replacement".

⁴* Paragraph 6 was corrected from: "Both the League of Nations and England any mediation in negotiations with Poland and with other powers to reject with detailed motivation".

⁵* Further crossed out: "(directly or through another uninvolved power)".

⁶* Further crossed out: "We agree to consider it as separate in this case, despite". In the margin against the crossed-out words V.I. Lenin noted: "(For the note)"

⁷* Corrected from: "We clarify".

⁸* Further crossed out: "develop, prove this connection"

⁹* Further crossed out: "then the proposal of armistice with Wrangel is a disguised proposal of armistice with England, and we have already expressed agreement to negotiations on armistice with England, on whom Wrangel factually, economically and militarily, etc. entirely depends".

¹⁰* Further V.I. Lenin crossed out: "we reject" and placed a footnote mark, and under the text of the manuscript with this mark noted: "add by record". V.I. Lenin probably had in mind the following: "then to renew agreement to the old proposal of England on capitulation of Wrangel on the proposed conditions (preservation of life)".

Further V.I. Lenin crossed out two variants of paragraph 10: "10. armistice with England and Wrangel on the condition proposed to us by England - (a) immediate withdrawal of Wrangel to Crimea and (b) immediate clarification of the further "fate of his army" (in Curzon's expression) we accept and accept the place of negotiations - London. 10. Reject (with corresponding change in § 9) that is, we accept if England immediately withdraws from Crimea".

EDITORIAL NOTE:

On April 25, 1920, the Polish army began an offensive against Soviet Russia on the front from the Pripyat River to the Dnieper. On May 6 it entered Kiev. On May 26 the counteroffensive of the troops of the South-Western Front began, on June 12 Polish troops were driven out of Kiev. On July 4 units of the Red Army of the Western Front began the offensive. On July 11 they liberated Minsk. On July 14 — Vilno. Military operations moved to the territory of Poland. On July 11 the English government appealed to the Soviet government with a proposal to cease the war with Poland and to begin negotiations in London. In connection with this it was decided to discuss the response to the note of the English government at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP(B). V.I. Lenin prepared for the plenum the published draft theses, which served as the basis for the expanded version of the theses adopted by the plenum (see: RTsKhIDNI, fund 17, inventory 2, file 31, sheets 24-27 and fund 2, inventory 1, file 14706, sheet 3). The plenum took place on July 16 and adopted the following resolution: "To entrust: a) Com. Chicherin to compose a response to Curzon's note; b) Com. Trotsky - a draft appeal on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars regarding Curzon's note; c) the Organizational Bureau and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic — to develop a series of measures for implementing the line outlined on the basis of the attached theses" (RTsKhIDNI, fund 17, inventory 2, file 31, sheets 1-2).

Chicherin's response to Curzon was sent on July 17, 1920 (see: Documents of the Foreign Policy of the USSR. Vol. III, pp. 47-54).

The appeal composed by L.D. Trotsky from the Sovnarkom to workers, peasants and all honest citizens of the RSFSR and Soviet Ukraine on the refusal of the Soviet government to accept England's mediation in negotiations with Poland was approved at the meeting of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR on July 20 and published in central newspapers on July 21, 1920 (see: Decrees of Soviet Power. Vol. IX. M., 1978, pp. 246-252).

See also doc. 236.