V. I.

Lenin

To:   THE R.C.P.(B.) CENTRAL COMMITTEE [1]

Fully in favour.

Lenin

Authorise Chicherin to draw up a draft message and put it through at this very session of the All-Russia Central
Executive Committee.

Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
Written on G. V. Chicherin’s letter to the R.C.P.(B.) Central
Committee of March 18, 1921, saying that, according to information received through Washington Vanderlip, the new
U.S. President William Harding (who succeeded Woodrow
Wilson in March 1921, as a Republican President) was allegedly in
favour of establishing trade relations with Soviet Russia. In tins
connection, Chicherin proposed that the session of the
All-Russia C.E.C., which was to open, should adopt a Message on the
desirability of establishing trade relations between Soviet
Russia and the U.S.A. On March 20, the All-Russia C.E.C. sent a
Message to the Congress of the U.S.A. and President Harding.
However, this and other friendly acts by the Soviet Government
did not meet with any response from the U.S. Government which
persisted in refusing to recognise the Soviet state. This hostile
U.S. stand delayed the normalisation of diplomatic and trade
relations between the two countries for many years.