V. I.

Lenin

293

To:   L. K. MARTENS

Martens

I have received a telegram from Riga about the congress of societies in the United States and Canada for technical aid to Soviet Russia, which Golos Rossii ? [1] of New
York says was held there early in
July. [2]

According to this report, the congress sent a telegram of greetings to Martens and the People’s Commissars, and
announced in this telegram its decision to start organising
technical teams for dispatch to Soviet Russia right away.

I think I should send them a telegram on these lines:

“ Having learned from the New York Golos Rossii about your congress and its telegram of greetings to Soviet
Russia, I express, on behalf of the C.P.C., our heart-felt
gratitude.

“ Let me add, on my own behalf: we are greatly in need of technical aid from the United States and Canada. If
teams are to be sent without agreement in advance concerning the place of settlement, factory, etc., the team must
have a two-year supply of food, clothing, etc. Each team
must be prepared to do both agricultural and industrial
work. The best thing is to have delegates sent ahead for
an on-the-spot inspection of land tracts for settlement,
forest tracts, mines, factories, etc., for lease.”

Lenin
Chairman, C.P.C.

This requires the signatures of Martens and the People’s
Commissariat for Labour, and Bogdanov’s and Chicherin’s
are also desirable.

---
Notes:
[1]
A reference to Russky Golos , a progressive daily published in
Russian by the Russo-American publishing company in New York
since 1917.

[2]
The Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia was organised in
May 1919 by Russian émigrés in New York. Similar societies
were set up elsewhere in the U.S.A. and Canada. The aim of the
Society was to promote the rehabilitation of the Soviet economy
by sending skilled workers and technicians.

The first congress of the societies for technical aid to Soviet
Russia was hold in New York from July 2 to 4, 1921; it united
local societies in several American and Canadian cities into a
single Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia. From the end
of 1921 to October 1922, the Society sent to Soviet Russia seven
agricultural, two construction and one mining communes and a
number of groups which brought with them equipment, seeds and foodstuffs worth nearly $500,000. The Society was extending its
activity, and by 1923 it had more than 75 branches with over
20,000 members. Its second congress in June 1923 adopted a
decision to intensify its work of organising and sending in communes
and preparatory groups of skilled workers to Russia. The Society
continued its active economic aid until 1925.

Lenin regarded this activity as a striking expression of
proletarian internationalism and fraternal solidarity of the working
people.