V. I.

Lenin

Comrade Krestinsky

I propose:

1) that Kamenev and his commission (+Stalin) [1] be given a formal assignment from the
Politbureau, this to be entered in the minutes.

2) that Chervyakov be instructed to urgently draft
a detailed letter of the C.C., R.C.P. on Byelorussia and a
decree of the C.P.C. on the same subject (confidential). [2] .

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Notes:
[1]
This refers to what is known as the Federal Commission headed by
L. B. Kamenev. The commission was engaged in preparing questions involving
state relations among the Soviet Republics.

[2]
These proposals were written on Chicherin’s letter to the Poutbureau
dated December 30, 1920. Chicherin reported that A, G. Chervyakov, Chairman
of the Council of People’s Commissars of Byelorussia, pointed out the
extremely abnormal situation that existed as a result of the unsettled
state relations between Byelorussia and the R.S.F.S.R., which made
co-operation between the Republics difficult. Chicherin expressed the
opinion that an agreement should be concluded with Byelorussia similar to
that concluded with the Ukraine.

The question of an agreement on alliance between Soviet Byelorussia and
the R.S.F.S.R. was raised by the Byelorussian Patty and administrative
bodies in the autumn of 1920. Following the negotiations at the end of
December 1920 and the beginning of January 1921, an agreement on workers’
and peasants’ alliance between the R.S.F.S.R. and the Soviet Socialist
Republic of Byelorussia was signed on January 16, and endorsed by the
Central Executive Committee of Byelorussia on January 21, 1921.