V. I. Lenin

To the Communists of Turkestan [1]

Comrades, permit me to address you not as Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars and the Council of
Defence, but as a member of the Party.

It is no exaggeration to say that the establishment of proper
relations with the peoples of Turkestan is now of immense, epochal
importance for the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet
Republic.

The attitude of the Soviet Workers’ and Peasants’
Republic to the weak and hitherto oppressed nations is of very
pradtical significance for the whole of Asia and for all the
colonies of the world, for thousands and millions of people.

I earnestly urge you to devote the closest attention to this
question, to exert every effort to set an effective example of
comradely relations with the peoples of Turkestan, to demonstrate
to them by your actions that we are sincere in our desire to wipe
out all traces of Great-Russian imperialism and wage an implacable
struggle against world imperialism, headed by British imperialism. You should show the greatest confidence in our
Turkestan Commission and adhere strictly to its directives, which
have been framed precisely in this spirit by the All-Russia
Central Executive Committee.

I would very much appreciate a reply to this letter indicating
your attitude.

Wilh communist greetings,

V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Endnotes

[1]
This letter was written by Lenin in connection with the dispatch
to Turkestan of a commission of the All-Russia Central Executive
Committee and the Council of People’s Commissar,;. The commission included G. I. Bokia, F. I. Goloshchokin,
V. V. Kuibyshev, Y. E. Rudzutak, M. V. Frunze and S. Z. Eliava. It
was veste d with the powers of a state and Party body. Its
main tasks were to strengthen the union of the peoples of
Turkestan with Soviet Russia,to consolidate Soviet power,to
rectify mistakes in the national policy in Turkestan, and to
improve Party work. The members of the commission were to follow
the instruction of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and
the Council of People’s Commissars of October 8, 1919, which
pointed out that self-determination of the peoples of Turkestan
and the abolition of all national inequality and of the privileges
of one nationality group at the expense of another form the basis
of the policy of the Soviet Government of Russia and serve as the
guiding principle in the entire work of all its bodies. Only by
such work can we overcome the old mistrust of the local working
masses of Turkestan for the workers and peasants of Russia due to
the many years of the rule of Russian tsarism. The working people
of Turkestan welcomed this decision of the All-Russia C.E.C. and
C,P.C. The joint meeting of the Territorial Committee of the
Communist Party of Turkestan, Territorial Moslem Bureau of the
C.P.T. and the Presidium of the Turkestan C.E.C. studied
Lenin’s letter and heard the report by Eliava, chairman of
the commission, and adopted a resolution, which read as follows:
“We promise to carry out all the tasks with which history
has presented us in accordance with the instructions of the
C.C. of our Party and the Third International,” In January
1920 Lenin’s letter was discussed at the Fifth General
Territorial Conference of the Communist Party of Turkestan. The
Conference sent a letter to Lenin in which the Communists promised
to rectify their blunders and render unanimous support to the
Turkestan commission.