V. I.

Lenin

563

To:   JAKUB HANECKI [1]

Please let me know in greatest possible detail, first, whether the
British Government will allow passage to Russia to me and a number of
members of our Party, the R.S.D.L.P. (Central Committee), on the following
conditions:
(a) The Swiss socialist Fritz Platten receives permission from the British
Government to conduct any number of persons through England irrespective of their political allegiances and
their views on war and peace; (b) Platten alone answers both for the composition of the conducted groups
and for maintaining proper order, and receives a railway coach for
travelling through England, which he, Platten, is to keep locked. No one
can enter this coach without the consent of Platten. This coach shall have
exterritorial rights; (c) From a port in England Platten conveys the group by the steamer of any
neutral country, with the right to notify all countries of the
sailing time of this special ship; (d) Railway fares shall be paid by Platten according to the tariff and the
number of seats occupied; (e) The British Government undertakes not to place obstacles to the
chartering and sailing of a special steamer with Russian political
emigrants and not to detain the steamer in England, enabling the passage to
be made in the quickest possible way.

Secondly, in the event of agreement, what guarantees can England give
that these conditions will be observed, and whether she has any objection
to these conditions being published.

If telegraphic inquiries have to be made in London we agree to bear the
expenses of a telegram and a prepaid reply.

Date....

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Notes:
[1]
In Lenin’s manuscript in the Central Party Archives of the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism the addressee is not given. Probably this letter was
intended for Jakub Hanecki or Inessa Armand. Lenin asked Armand on
March 18, 1917, to find out whether he would be allowed legal passage from
Switzerland to Russia via England (see ^^Document 555^^ in this volume). On
March 19, however, Lenin learned that she refused to go to
England. Therefore, he had no reason for sending this document to
Armand. In fact, in his subsequent letters to her Lenin makes no further mention of his request.

The date in Lenin’s MS. is missing. Judging by its contents, this
letter was probably written after the afore-mentioned letters to Armand. It
formulates the conditions for the passage of a group of political emigrants
through the mediation of the Swiss Social-Democrat Fritz Platten. These
conditions, in a somewhat modified form, were set forth in the document
“Basis of Negotiations for the Return of Political Emigrants to Russia”
through Germany, signed by Platten April 4, 1917 (see Lenin Miscellany II , pp. 382–83).

Jakub Hanecki, in his reminiscences, mentions that “after the first
reports of the February revolution” he suggested to Lenin that he travel
to Russia through England. This document, there fore, is more likely to
have been addressed to Hanecki, a member of the R.S.D.L.P., who took an
active part in organising the return of Russian political emigrants from
Switzerland to Russia. This volume contains a number of letters and
telegrams to Hanecki on this question.