MEMORANDUM TO G. V. CHICHERIN
Dear Comrade Chicherin!
In my view, the following conclusions naturally follow: (1) We must formulate precise
proposals
for Foreign Trade.
(2)
Rather than sending Ioffe away—after all, there will be no real “rest” in Crimea—he should instead be granted a sanatorium stay
near Riga, with visits to Riga two or three times a week for two to three hours each time.
1 Written on a report submitted by A. A. Ioffe to the Chairman of the Sovnarkom, the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the Pre‑Revolutionary Military Council, and the Central Committee of the RCP(b) on November 19, 1920, from Riga. In his report, Ioffe highlighted the dire economic conditions facing the working people of Poland and the Baltic states—Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—and argued that it was feasible to raise the question of providing them with whatever assistance they could reasonably expect prior to the signing of a peace treaty with those countries. Ioffe criticized the policies of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade, which “to this day has been busy devising its own import‑export plans while obstructing every sound initiative in this field.”
In conclusion, Ioffe requested permission to take a two‑week rest in Crimea due to his health.
A. A. Ioffe had been a party member since 1917. From 1919 to 1921, he served as part of delegations engaged in peace negotiations with Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland. Beginning in August 1921, he held the position of Extraordinary Commissioner of the All‑Russian Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR in the territories of Turkestan, Bukhara, and Khorezm.
2 3/X I [1920]
Lenin