V. I.

Lenin

310

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

11/VIII.

Comrade Molotov:

It is absolutely necessary to appoint a special commission from the Politbureau:

Kamenev

Trotsky

Molotov (with the right of his substitution by
Chicherin) for the day-to-day handling of matters connected with
aid to the starving from America and the League of Nations.

This game is an extremely intricate one. There is rank duplicity on the part of America, Hoover and the League
of Nations Council.

Hoover must be punished, he must be slapped in the face publicly , for all the world to see, and the League of Nations
Council as well.

This is very hard to do, but it must be done.

I can’t work. There is absolute need of help from
Trotsky, who has a capacity for these things (both diplomatic experience and a military and political instinct).

Please have a vote taken in the Politbureau at once by telephone.

Show this note to everyone and get their votes.

Lenin

The German and Norwegian governments could be taken as models.

Any other approach should be rejected with a motivation
which is clear to all, and this should be loudly proclaimed
to the whole world.

The disguised interventionists must be caught (have
Uuschlicht help out).

The Kompomoshch [1] apparatus must be tightened up (if there is a shortage of men, borrow some from the military
for two months).

Collegial work is of especial importance in the next few
days, because the political responsibility for this very difficult matter is enormous .

Lenin

P. S. Our moves must be subtle. A number of especially
strict measures. Hoover and Brown are liars and brazen-faced fellows.

The conditions must be of the strictest : arrest and deportation for the slightest interference in our internal
affairs.

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Notes:
[1]
A reference to the Central Famine Relief Commission under the
All-Russia Central Executive Committee.— Ed .