NOTE TO L. D. TROTSKY
Comrade Trotsky!
# Is it really true??
If it is true, then the stakes are exceedingly high.
22/IX [1920] Lenin
Telegram No. 167
From the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade to the People’s Commissariat for Railways, to Comrade Trotsky
I deem it necessary to inform you regarding the matter of foreign orders for locomotives. As you are well aware, Comrades Krassin and Lomonosov have been vested by the People’s Commissariat for Railways with extensive powers and assignments abroad, tasked with securing locomotive orders in various countries. Some orders have already been placed, while negotiations are ongoing with numerous firms concerning others. Meanwhile, in recent times, representatives of the People’s Commissariat for Railways who serve on the Council for Foreign Trade have shifted their stance on the original assumptions underlying the locomotive program—and at the most recent meeting of the Council for Foreign Trade, a resolution was adopted to suspend further locomotive orders by Comrades Krassin and Lomonosov, pending the submission by the People’s Commissariat for Railways, through the Council of People’s Commissars, of a new plan for the locomotive industry. I have informed Comrades Krassin and Lomonosov of this resolution. These developments within the People’s Commissariat for Railways have given rise to certain delays and complications in communications with Lomonosov, which are reflected in his latest telegrams.
September 22, 1920
Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade: Lezhava
1 On this very issue, the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism holds a copy of a telegram from A. M. Lezhava to London, addressed to L. B. Krassin, bearing Lenin’s marginal notes and emphatic underlinings:
28. IX!!!
Copy
September 28, 1920
Secret
L2 205
Urgent
To the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs
The People’s Commissariat for Transport requests that the following be transmitted as directed, via cipher:
As 589
To Krassin
London
??!!
It is hereby confirmed that Lomonosov is no longer a member of the collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Railways. Tomorrow, the Council of People’s Commissars will consider a new request from the People’s Commissariat for Railways regarding locomotives (the request has been drafted in a highly schematic manner; I presume it will be forwarded to the relevant commission). At the forefront now is the urgent procurement of spare parts, amounting to three hundred million gold rubles in 1921. Contractual orders are currently limited to the Swedish agreement and to the draft German contract for one thousand locomotives. Engineer Romanov has been appointed Chairman of the People’s Commissariat for Railways’ locomotive division; he will be departing in the coming days at your disposal. The question of revoking the mandate granted to Lomonosov by the Council of People’s Commissars has not yet been raised. Do you not consider it necessary to appoint Lomonosov as the representative of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade abroad, responsible for locomotive and machine‑building affairs? Please telegraph your response.
September 28, 1920, HP 205.
Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade: Lezhava