V. I. Lenin

To the Comrades Communists of

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Daghestan, and the Mountaineer

Republic [1]

I send my warmest greetings to the Soviet Republics of the
Caucasus, and should like to express the hope that their close
alliance will servo as a model of national peace, unprecedented
under the bourgeoisie and impossible under the capitalist
system.

But important as national peace among the workers and peasants
of the Caucasian nationalities is, the maintenance and development of the Soviet power, as the transition to socialism,
are even more important. The task is difficult, but fully
feasible. The most important thing for its successful fulfilment
is that the Communists of the Transcaucasus should be fully
alive to the singularity of their position, and of the position
of their Republics, as distinct from the position and conditions
of the R.S.F.S.R.; that they should appreciate the need to
refrain from copying our tactics, but thoughtfully vary them in
adaptation to the differing concrete conditions.

The Soviet Republic or Russia had no outside political or
military assistance. On the contrary, for years and years it
fought the Entente military invasions and blockade.

The Soviet Republics of the Caucasus have had political and some
military assistance from the! R.S,F.S.R. This alone has made a
vast difference.

Second, there is now no cause to fear any Entente invasion or
military assistance to the Georgian, Azerbaijan, Armenian,
Daghestan and mountaineer whiteguards. The Entente “burnt
their fingers” in Russia! and that will probably compel
them to be more cautious for some time.

Third, the Caucasian Republics have an even more pronounced
peasant character than Russia.

Fourth, Russia has been, and to a considerable extent still is,
economically isolated from the advanced capitalist countries. The Caucasus is in a position to start trading and
“living together” with the capitalist West sooner and with greater ease.

These are not all the differences, but they are sufficient to
demonstrate the need for different tactics.

You will need to practise more moderation and caution, and show
more readiness to make concessions to the petty bourgeoisie, the
intelligentsia, and particularly the peasantry. You must make
the swiftest, most intense and all possible economic use of the
capitalist West through a policy of concessions and trade. Oil,
manganese, coal (Tkvarcheli mines) and copper are some of your
immense mineral resources. You have every possibility to develop
an extensive policy of concessions and trade with foreign
countries.

This must be done on a wide scale, with firmness, skill and
circumspection, and it must be utilised to the utmost for
improving the condition of the workers and peasants, and for
enlisting the intelligentsia in the work of economic construction. Through trade with Italy, America and other
countries, you must exert every effort to develop the productive
forces of your rich land, your water resources and irrigation
which is especially important as a means of advancing agriculture and livestock farming.

What the Republics of the Caucasus can and must do, as distinct
from the R,S.F.S.R., is to effect a slower, more cautious and
more systematic transition to socialism. That is what you must
understand, and what you must be able to carry out, as distinct
from our own tactics.

We fought to make the first breach in the wall of world
capitalism. The breach has been made. We have maintained our
positions in a fierce and superhuman war against the Whites, the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks, who were supported
by the Entente countries, their blockade and military assistance.

You, Comrades Communists of the Caucasus, have no need to force
a breach. You must take advantage of the favourable international situation in 1921, and learn to build the new with
greater caution and more method. In 1921, Europe and the world
are not what they were in 1917 and 1918.

Do not copy our tactics, but analyse the reasons for their
peculiar features, the conditions that gave rise to them, and
their results; go beyond the letter, and apply the spirit, the
essence and the lessons of the 1917-21 experience. You must make
trade with the capitalist countries your economic foundation
right away. The cost should be no object even if it means
letting them have tens of millions’ worth of valuable minerals.

You must make immediate efforts to improve the condition of the
peasants and start on extensive electrification and irrigation
projects. What you need most is irrigation, for more than
anything else it will revive the area and regenerate it, bury
the past and make the transition to socialism more certain.

I hope you will pardon my slipshod style: 1 have had to write
the letter at very short notice, so as to send it along with
Comrade Myasnikov. Once again I send my best greetings and
wishes to the workers and peasants of the Soviet Republics of
the Caucasus.

N. Lenin

Moscow, April 14, 1921

Endnotes

[1] Mountaineer Republic. The full name: “Gorskaya Avtonomnaya
Sovetskaya Socialisticheskaya Respublika” (Autonomous
Socialist Soviet Mountaineer Republic), founded in January 1921
as a republic of the Chechen, Ingsuh, North Ossetian, Kabardine,
Balkar, Karachai and Cherkess peoples. At the end of 1922
autonomous districts (“oblasti”) were formed. In
1924 the Mountaineer Republic was dissolved, but the autonomous
districts survived.