Date: 1921-05-05
Source: ru:ND

T. Gorbunov!

I am sending this to you in strict confidence and in person. Please return it after reading. And please jot down two brief remarks: 1) Is it possible to provide Chicherin with better nutrition? Does he receive the “standard” ration from abroad? How did you determine this standard, and could we, as an exception, ensure that Chicherin receives this full ration—indeed, an enhanced diet?2*

2) As for Chicherin’s handling of administrative affairs, he seems simply to be on edge. I trust that you will take his heightened sensitivity into account and refrain from paying undue heed to Chicherin’s overly harsh or overly critical remarks.

5/V

Lenin.

Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 24522 — autograph.

1Written on a letter from People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin to L.D. Trotsky dated May 3, 1921: “For the most part, our representatives’ reports are devoted to current issues, and only occasionally do they offer a general overview of the political situation and our relations with a given country. I will endeavor to send you the materials that may prove most useful to you. The dire food situation has taken a heavy toll on my health, and I have extremely few qualified assistants; thus, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to accomplish everything required to fulfill your task.

With communist greetings, Georgy Chicherin.

Now, ‘the management of affairs,’ the state within a state—Karakhan and I have been shut out of the economic sphere. In the past, there was ‘lack of system’; now, however, we have ‘system’—that is, every minor detail must pass up and down five or six hierarchical levels, countless documents must be drafted, and visiting foreign missions find themselves without even a bed to sleep on. All the journalists have fled abroad, driven by hunger—and yet I cannot flee abroad myself. As a result, I have grown utterly weak, gradually fading away in the very name of ‘the system.’”

On the letter appears a note from L.D. Trotsky: “To T. Lenin. Is it really impossible to feed Chicherin? Or is this a hunger strike against ‘the system’?”

Lenin inscribed on the document: “To the archives—confidential regarding Chicherin” (V.I. Lenin. Biographical Chronicle. Vol. 10. Moscow, 1979, p. 382).

2On the same day, the Head of Administration of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, P.P. Gorbunov, reported on the measures taken to ensure Chicherin’s regular supply of food:

“May 5, 1921, 11:30 p.m.

Dear Vladimir Ilyich!

It was only from the document you kindly returned to me that I first learned of the truly tragic circumstances surrounding Comrade Chicherin’s sustenance.

Neither he himself nor those who serve him—his family, the Baumanns—ever so much as hinted at this to me or to my assistants.

Today, all the usual foodstuffs have been delivered to him, and starting tomorrow, milk, eggs, chocolate, fruits for compote, and other such items will be delivered on a regular basis. I have assigned one comrade the task of ensuring that everything is provided in full, while I personally assume responsibility for verifying that no shortages occur in the future.

Of course, I am to blame for not having thought to inquire about this earlier—but Georgy Vasilyevich had isolated himself in his personal life to such an extent that it never once occurred to anyone to wonder what he actually lived on.

I have grown accustomed to his sensitive, nervous disposition, and I know that in recent times it has often been triggered by an excessive trust in the people around him—people whom I have guided from a haphazard, sometimes unaccountable, artisanal mode of work to a more deliberate, organized approach. In particular, of course, they are displeased that, from the diplomatic–foreign-food ration, I have reduced their share somewhat.

With communist greetings, Gorbunov.” (RGASPI, Fund 5, Inventory 1, File 976, p. 1).