SESSION OF THE COMMUNIST FRACTION OF THE VTsIK
2. REPLY DURING THE DEBATE
We have just heard exceedingly diplomatic speeches from Comrade Shlyapnikov and Comrade Ryazanov, who, although they are now protesting with great vehemence, nonetheless do so in such a diplomatic manner that they would be eminently well suited to negotiations with concessionaires and with bourgeois states. We have come to a meeting at which I am reporting on the disagreements that have arisen within the Central Committee and the Sovnarkom. These disagreements will also surface here in the course of the discussion… As a result of these differences, the resolution adopted by the X Congress states: “To approve the decree of the Sovnarkom and to grant a concession in Baku and Grozny.” We intend to debate this issue here; therefore, I would ask that the proposals put forward by Shlyapnikov and Ryazanov be rejected, and that their curiosity—though one might better say their inquisitiveness—be left satisfied with the outcome of the forthcoming debate.