V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek deepseek-v4-pro) from the Russian; AI-translated.

14. TO V. III. 1920
Comrade Chicherin!
I hope you will fully inform Kamenev of all the facts
proving that France and Daszyński¹ are wrecking the meeting
in Minsk?²


This is necessary. Very, very much so.
Danishevsky³ should be told to begin with a solemn declaration
(a) of independence and sovereignty (b) of frontiers larger than Curzon’s⁴
(c) no indemnities. Is that not so?
In reply to Kamenev’s request I am sending for encoding:
To Kamenev by cipher
The whole thing, in my opinion, is that France and Daszyński are wrecking the very meeting in Minsk, and will probably wreck the armistice as well.
I hope that England will not be able to wage war, and without her everything collapses.
News from Poland is almost non-existent. The little we have confirms our decision in the C.C. plenum: extreme vigilance, and we must win this campaign. That we have stirred up the workers is already no small gain. Lenin
With comradely greetings, Lenin
P.S. England is trying to prove that we are wrecking the meeting. All documents must be sent to Kamenev urgently.

¹ I. Daszyński—Deputy Prime Minister of the bourgeois-landlord government of Poland in 1920–1921.
² This refers to the peace conference in Minsk on the question of ending the war and establishing peaceful, friendly relations between the R.S.F.S.R. and the Ukrainian S.S.R., on the one hand, and Poland, on the other. The peace conference, despite all attempts by the imperialists to wreck it, began its work on August 17 in Minsk, where it continued until September 3. The Soviet Government agreed to the Polish Government’s proposal to transfer the conference from Minsk, which was in the front-line zone, to Riga. On September 21 the conference resumed its work in Riga.
The Soviet Government, not wishing to subject the people to new trials, since a difficult winter campaign was in prospect if the war continued, made serious concessions in favour of Poland. The negotiations in Riga ended with the signing on October 12, 1920, of the “Treaty of Armistice and Preliminary Conditions of Peace” between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine, on the one hand, and Poland, on the other. On this question see also this collection, pp. 123, 123–126.
³ K. Kh. Danishevsky—Chairman of the Soviet peace delegation in Minsk in 1920.
⁴ This refers to the “Curzon Line”—the conventional name for the line of Poland’s eastern frontier recommended by the Supreme Council of the Entente in December 1919. During the Polish-Soviet war, when the Red Army went over to the offensive, the British Foreign Secretary Curzon sent a telegram to the Soviet Government on July 12, 1920, demanding that the Red Army halt its advance on the line adopted by the Supreme Council of the Entente.