V. I.

Lenin

13

To:   G. V. CHICHERIN

Comrade Chicherin, The news from Britain, especially from Krasin (and
extracts from the newspapers), and particularly the news
that America will at once join (a trade agreement between
Russia and Britain) raises the urgent and extremely important issue of a trade agreement with
Britain. [2]

If it is a question of peace or war, [1] it should be tied in
with Batum and
Georgia. [3]

Then, on the question of debts, we should be absolutely sure that we are not made to pay.

If there is a trade agreement who will have the right to
sign the final text? Krasin alone? or the Council of People’s
Commissars?

This question must be urgently worked out in all its aspects.

With communist greetings, Lenin

19/ XI.

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Notes:
[1]
In the original the last three words are in English.— Ed .

[2]
The Soviet Government concluded a trade agreement with
Britain on March 16, 1921.

[3]
A reference to the occupation of Batum Ivy British troops planned
with the consent of the Georgian Menshevik government. On
November 16, 1920, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
G. V. Chicherin, sent a Note to the representative of the
Georgian Menshevik government Makharadze and a radio telegram
to the British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, stating that the
Soviet Government regarded the occupation of Batum as an
attempt to start another war in the Caucasus and to create a direct
threat to the security of the Soviet Republic. He drew attention
to the possible dire consequences, the responsibility for which
would fall entirely on the invaders and their accomplices.