Date: 1922-04-17
Source: ru:ND; en:Pipes

To T. Chicherin.

Both ciphered messages dated April 15, signed by Chicherin, were received.

We define the limits of our concessions as follows: Military debts and interest on pre‑war obligations shall be offset by our counter‑claims. Restitution is categorically rejected. In this domain, as our maximum concession, we propose granting former foreign owners, under otherwise equal conditions—or under conditions that closely approximate equality—the preferential right to lease or obtain concessions for their former enterprises. Payments on recognized pre‑war debts shall commence after fifteen years (with a maximum concession of ten years). A prerequisite for all of the aforementioned concessions—and in particular for those pertaining to our counter‑claims—is the immediate provision of a substantial loan (roughly one billion dollars). The exact amount of the loan must be determined through direct communication between you and Moscow.

We remind you that the final treaty must benefit both parties; in particular, it must secure for us a large-scale loan. We propose that the matter be brought before the plenary session, where we may fully elaborate upon all of our counter‑claims.

Do not forget the concession we previously discussed only in passing—and which we now assert with firm resolve—namely, our commitment to safeguard the interests of small bondholders.

Lenin.

Trotsky.

Stalin.

Zinoviev.

Kamenev.

Rykov¹*

Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 24788, pp. 3–5—autographs of L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev.

¹* On the copy, above the text and before the signatures, appears the inscription: “After the text, before the signatures: Prepare thoroughly for publication; send materials in installments to Berlin” (see: ibid., p. 1).

Both telegrams from G.V. Chicherin to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) dated April 15, 1922, were deciphered on April 17. They concerned negotiations at the Genoa Conference regarding military debts and nationalized property in Russia; in the second telegram, Chicherin reported: “Today, April 15, the Allies have delivered their final offer. We must renounce our counter‑claims related to the intervention, in exchange for which they will write off our military debts and also the interest on pre‑war debts up to the expiration of the moratorium—whose duration, to be determined by mutual agreement, is set at approximately eight to ten years. Nationalized property shall be returned to its owners on the basis of long‑term leases or, in certain cases where technical feasibility precludes concessions, through restitution—matters on which further negotiations may still take place. Russian assets located abroad, including ships and the like, shall be returned to us. Lloyd George, followed by Schanzer, conveyed through a special messenger dispatched to us that they would not go beyond these terms” (RGASPI, Fund 5, Inventory 1, File 1968, p. 6).

On the original telegram, the Politburo has made notes indicating that it was dispatched at 8:30 p.m. on April 17, 1922, along with inscriptions by I.V. Stalin reading: “Decisions of the PB: adopted following an emergency consultation.” “To the seven members of the PB and to the candidates for membership by 6 p.m.—to Comrade Molotov,” and “To the PB Archive. Strictly confidential. Stalin.”

Russia owed 18.5 billion rubles in gold; its counter‑claims amounted to 39 billion rubles in gold.