V. I. Lenin

Interview with Mohammad Wali-Khan Ambassador Extraordinary of Afghanistan. October 14, 1919 {1}

Comrade Lenin met the Ambassador in his private office with
the words, “I am very glad to see in the red capital of the worker and
peasant government the representative of the friendly Afghan people, who
are suffering and fighting against imperialist oppression.” To which the
Ambassador replied: “I proffer you a friendly hand and hope that you will
help the whole of the East to free itself from the yoke of European
imperialism.” During the talk that followed, Lenin said that Soviet power,
the power of the working people and the oppressed, was striving towards the
very goal the Afghan Ambassador Extraordinary had spoken about, but that it
was necessary that the Moslem East should realise this and help Soviet
Russia in her great war of liberation. To this the Ambassador replied that
he could assert that the Moslem East realised this and the hour was not far
off when the world would see that there was no room for European
imperialism in the East.

Afterwards the Ambassador stood up and with the words: “I
have the honour of presenting my Sovereign’s letter to the Head of the free
Russian proletarian Government and hope that the Soviet Government will
give due consideration to what the Afghan Government is writing about,” he
handed Lenin the Amir’s letter. Comrade Lenin answered that he accepted
the letter with the greatest pleasure and promised shortly to give a reply
to all the questions Afghanistan was interested in. {2}

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Notes:
{1}
The Afghan Embassy Extraordinary headed by the Ambassador Extraordinary
Mohammad Wali-Khan arrived in Moscow on October 10, 1919. On October 12 the
Ambassador, accompanied by Chief Judge of the Afghan Army Saifurrahman-Khan
Commissar the Secretary of the Embassy visited the People’s Commissar for
Foreign Affairs. He was received by the Board of the Commissariat in full
atteiidariee. On October14 Lenin received the embassy in the presence of
representatives of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. The talk
between the Ambassador and Lenin lasted over half an hour.

{2}
Replies to the questions raised in the letter of Amir Amanullah Khan
were given in the Soviet Government’s letter dated November 27, 1919,
signed by Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars V. I. Lenin.