[May 24, 1918]

To Comrades Ioffe and Menzhinsky
May 24, 1918
Dear comrades! I have received your pessimistic and angry letters (received on May 24th, dated May 20th). Part of your accusations, directed against Chicherin, fall upon me. For example, I insisted on sending the theses on concessions through the Germans, in order to show them how seriously we want business economic relations. (Theses were developed unanimously with the participation of Radek and other "Left"-fools.) The terms of our concessions are such that nothing but benefit for us will result, if the Germans accept these terms.
Your policy, especially elaborated in Comrade Ioffe's letters, I fully approve.
Your dissatisfaction with Chicherin is, in my opinion, exaggerated. But in any case, I agree to help you and ask you to direct your efforts towards practical ways to improve the matter. For this, I would propose to precisely formulate concrete proposals (send copies of telegrams and letters to me, in a strictly practical
and brief manner, for I absolutely have no time to read everything). Then I promise to seek their implementation and verify whether they have been implemented.
How to shift alarger center of gravity to Berlin (I agree to help with this), you must think about this and propose very tactful (NB) and concretely practical measures for this. I will accept all possible measures and will strive to implement them.
If it is possible to help obtain peace with Finland, Ukraine, and Turkey (this is the crux), everything must always be done for this (of course, without certain new annexations and indemnities, this cannot be obtained). I would give much for the acceleration of such a peace.
Do not be nervous yourselves. Correcting (and creating new) diplomacy is a difficult matter. Festina lente *.
Best regards.
Your Lenin
P. S.
May 28. Too late for the courier.
Chicherin forwarded to me the text of the note that Ioffe sent on his own behalf to the German government, agreeing to the surrender of the Black Sea Fleet ships (i.e., their withdrawal from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol) on the sole condition of peace with Ukraine. Meanwhile, our government in a clear note (communicated by radio to Ioffe as well) recognized it as possible to agree to the withdrawal of ships to Sevastopol on other conditions, namely: 1) peace on all three fronts, i.e., with Ukraine and with Finland and with Turkey;
2) not — annexation of Sevastopol.
How could Ioffe make such a mistake? How could he "undersell" so much? How could he generally send a note on such an important issue on his own, without consulting, I do not understand...
N.B.
Send Arbeiterpolitik **, the Stuttgart "Social-Democrat" and similar publications, all, completely, in 5-10 copies.
Have you started publishing anything legal in German? What exactly? What is the publication plan and when will it begin?
Greetings! Lenin

Now that I have completed the translation, I will update the `todos` list to reflect that the first two tasks are completed, and the final review task is in progress.

Source: LS/v36

[May 24, 1918]

To Comrades Ioffe and Menzhinsky
May 24, 1918
Dear comrades! I have received your pessimistic and angry letters (received on May 24th, dated May 20th). Part of your accusations, directed against Chicherin, fall upon me. For example, I insisted on sending the theses on concessions through the Germans, in order to show them how seriously we want business economic relations. (Theses were developed unanimously with the participation of Radek and other "Left"-fools.) The terms of our concessions are such that nothing but benefit for us will result, if the Germans accept these terms.
Your policy, especially elaborated in Comrade Ioffe's letters, I fully approve.
Your dissatisfaction with Chicherin is, in my opinion, exaggerated. But in any case, I agree to help you and ask you to direct your efforts towards practical ways to improve the matter. For this, I would propose to precisely formulate concrete proposals (send copies of telegrams and letters to me, in a strictly practical
and brief manner, for I absolutely have no time to read everything). Then I promise to seek their implementation and verify whether they have been implemented.
How to shift alarger center of gravity to Berlin (I agree to help with this), you must think about this and propose very tactful (NB) and concretely practical measures for this. I will accept all possible measures and will strive to implement them.
If it is possible to help obtain peace with Finland, Ukraine, and Turkey (this is the crux), everything must always be done for this (of course, without certain new annexations and indemnities, this cannot be obtained). I would give much for the acceleration of such a peace.
Do not be nervous yourselves. Correcting (and creating new) diplomacy is a difficult matter. Festina lente *.
Best regards.
Your Lenin
P. S.
May 28. Too late for the courier.
Chicherin forwarded to me the text of the note that Ioffe sent on his own behalf to the German government, agreeing to the surrender of the Black Sea Fleet ships (i.e., their withdrawal from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol) on the sole condition of peace with Ukraine. Meanwhile, our government in a clear note (communicated by radio to Ioffe as well) recognized it as possible to agree to the withdrawal of ships to Sevastopol on other conditions, namely: 1) peace on all three fronts, i.e., with Ukraine and with Finland and with Turkey;
2) not — annexation of Sevastopol.
How could Ioffe make such a mistake? How could he "undersell" so much? How could he generally send a note on such an important issue on his own, without consulting, I do not understand...
N.B.
Send Arbeiterpolitik **, the Stuttgart "Social-Democrat" and similar publications, all, completely, in 5-10 copies.
Have you started publishing anything legal in German? What exactly? What is the publication plan and when will it begin?
Greetings! Lenin