RESOLUTION AND NOTES ON A NOTE ABOUT THE ORGANISATION OF A “COMMUNE OF PEOPLE OF VARIOUS CREEDS” IN TURKESTAN

22 November 1919

[V. I. Lenin’s resolution:] Reply: impossible; typhus, no passage.

[Note:] …I want to go to Turkestan and set up there a corner of the new life as follows: the Soviet Republic gives me a little place in the south-eastern part of Turkestan and permits people thirsting for peace and work to settle there. A free commune is formed of sectarians of various creeds, simply of quiet people, scholars wishing to pursue science peacefully, Tolstoyans, etc. All this is under the military protection of Soviet power. Through the sectarians, connections are established with America, as if by private means, and from there ploughs, axes, telephones, printing presses are delivered for the needs of the commune. Settlers will come to us from China and from India too…