V. I.

Lenin

201

To:   A. M. LEZHAVA [1]

Urgent!

Comrade Lezhava:

Please add the word unconditionally “(I do not at all object unconditionally to Azvneshtorg trading directly with
Constantinople”, etc.) and send with this addition.

Awaiting your letter. (P.S. What’s this contract I hear
about involving 35 million francs in Rostov?)

With communist greetings, Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
Written in connection with A. M. Lezhava’s letter of June 6,
1921.

Lezhava proposed to Lenin that the following passage should
be deleted from the draft telegram to A. P. Serebrovsky: “I do
not at all object to Azvneshtorg [Azerbaijan People’s Commissariat
for Foreign Trade] and Azneftkom [Azerbaijan Oil Committee]
trading directly with Constantinople, I am prepared to support Baku’s autonomy within considerable limits, but we must
have guarantees” (see this volume, Document 198). He argued
that the Azerbaijan Oil Committee did not have a smoothly
running trade apparatus and referred to the prepared agreement on
merging the foreign trade of the three Transcaucasian republics.

Lezhava also mentioned the agreement concluded on April 22,
at Rostov-on-Don, on the basis of the C.L.D. decision of March 24,
between the South-Eastern Territorial Economic Council and the
French “Optorg” on the purchase of 35 million francs worth of
goods at Constantinople through this company. The agreement
was economically unprofitable and was not approved by the
People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade.