V. I.

Lenin

Draft Resolution for the Plenum of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on Georgia [2]

To Point 3

1) The People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs to be
directed to defer a break with Georgia, to systematically collect material
concerning her violations of the agreement and to press our demands for
transit of supplies to Armenia.

2) The Caucasian Front to be asked for information as to
the state of preparedness of our available armed forces in the event of an
immediate or imminent war with Georgia, this inquiry, mentioning Georgia’s
growing insolence, to be drafted by a committee consisting of Comrades
Trotsky, Chicherin and Stalin.

3) Directives to be issued to the Revolutionary Military
Council of the Republic and the Caucasian Front to be prepared for an
emergency involving war with Georgia. The

S.C.R.F. [1] to report as soon as possible to the Council of Labour and Defence on the possibility of increasing troop transportation
to and within the

Caucasus. [3]

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Notes:
[1]
The Supreme Council for Rail Freightage under the
C.P.C.— Ed .

[2]
On January 26, 1921, the C.C. plenum examined the question of Georgia
(this question stood third on the agenda, hence Lenin’s heading “To Point
3”). The discussion of this question followed hostile acts against the
Soviet Republic by the Menshevik Government of Georgia. In violation of her
agreement with the R.S.F.S.R. of May 7, 1920, Georgia put a ban on the
transit of goods from the R.S.F.S.R. through her territory, among them food
supplies for the famine-stricken population of Armenia. She refused to
return the R.S.F.S.R. the more valuable of the Russian ships formerly held
by Wrangel, which put in at Georgian ports after his defeat. She took
repressive measures against members of the Russian embassy staff, insulted
the national flag of the R.S. F.S. R. and provoked and encouraged
counter-revolutionary acts against the Soviet authorities in the Northern
Caucasus. In connection with these violations of the agreement
representatives of the R.S.F.S.R. lodged repeated official protests, but
the Georgian government ignored them.

[3]
Lenin’s draft was incorporated without amendment in the reso-lution of
the plenum, where it figures as Point “a”. Point “b” read: “The
Caucasian Front to be directed to examine the question of any real
guarantees (a control commission, etc.) that we could demand from the
Georgian Government through diplomatic channels as a safeguard against
assistance being given by Georgia to insurgents in Daghestan and Chechen”
(Central Patty Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC. of
the C.P.S.U.).