What about America?

It is difficult to make out what is happening there. Your bankers, it seems, fear us more than ever before. In any case, your government applies extremely brutal repression not only against socialists, but against the entire working class as a whole, in comparison with any other government, even in comparison with the reactionary French government. It is evidently persecuting foreigners. And yet, what would America do without its immigrant workers? They are absolutely essential for your economic development.

However, some American entrepreneurs seem to be beginning to understand that it is more rational to conduct profitable business in Russia than to wage war against Russia, and this is a good sign. We shall need American industrial products—locomotives, automobiles, and so forth—more than goods from any other country.

What are your peace conditions?

There is no point in wasting time discussing this. The whole world knows that we are prepared to conclude peace on conditions whose justice cannot be disputed even by the most imperialistic-minded capitalists. We have repeatedly declared our striving for peace, that we need peace, and also our readiness to provide foreign capital with the most generous concessions and guarantees. But we do not intend to allow ourselves to be strangled to death in the name of peace.

I see no reason why such a socialist state as ours cannot have unlimited business relations with capitalist countries. We are not opposed to making use of capitalist locomotives and agricultural machines, so why should they object to making use of our socialist wheat, flax, and platinum? After all, socialist grain tastes the same as any other grain, does it not? Of course, they will have to conduct business relations with the terrible Bolsheviks, that is, with the Soviet government. However, conducting business connections with the Soviets for American entrepreneurs producing, for example, steel, will be no more difficult a matter than when they had to deal during the war with the governments of the Entente on the question of military equipment.