23.VII. 1920 г.

Cipher

Kharkov. To Stalin

The situation in the Comintern is excellent. Zinoviev, Bukharin and myself think that we should encourage revolution immediately in Italy1. My personal opinion is that for this purpose we should sovietize Hungary, and maybe also Bohemia and Rumania. We must think carefully. Report your detailed conclusion. The German Communists think that Germany is capable of fielding three hundred thousand troops of lumpen against us.

Lenin.

Fund 2, op. 2, d. 348, l. 1 - autograph.

1Speaking with a closing speech at the IX All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b) September 22, 1920. Lenin said: "I received a note, why little was said about Italy? Because we have nothing but newspaper information about Italy. Maybe it is for the best, because then the bourgeoisie might have notified if there was victory on its side. But maybe it is also for the worse. And in general we can say that the international situation is giving birth to a new international revolution quite independently of our steps in Poland and that the Italian revolution has gained a new dimension. If there had been a Soviet Poland, or a Soviet Hungary, it would have been better. By no means do we vow that tomorrow [not] we will take a chance for Hungary as well. I am sure that the conference will agree with us in this respect. But we will say that we will risk in such a way that with every confident step we will remember where to stop. We will take risks, we will expect to help Italy, although, unfortunately, this is now practically impossible" (Historicheskiy archiv, 1992, N° 1, p. 28).

In 1919-1920 there was an upsurge of the workers' movement in Italy, but after the agreement between the General Confederation of Labor and the government to raise workers' wages and to introduce workers' control in the enterprises, the movement declined.