II. CONCESSIONS
SEPTEMBER — NOVEMBER 1921
A. URQUHART CONCESSION

23059
EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH L. B. KRASIN
EARLY SEPTEMBER 1921.
KRASIN’S NOTE.
I spoke about the Urquhart1 concession with Bogdanov, and we have reached
complete agreement. I have requested Urquhart’s draft agreement and am raising
the question of allowing him and his engineers to enter. Could
you return to me by Monday the material left on this matter?
LENIN’S REPLY.
It is also necessary to find from the Gosplan and appoint three
practical and knowledgeable people to review] the draft agreement with Ur-
quhart.
1 English industrialist and ardent opponent of Soviet power
L. Urquhart was the chairman of the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated
Company before the revolution, which held rich developments of ores,
metals, and coal in the Urals and Siberia. In March 1921, Urquhart
began negotiations with the Soviet government for the concession
of his former possessions (Kyshtym, Tanalyk, Ridder-Ekibastuz). A preliminary
agreement with Urquhart was signed by L. B. Krasin on September 9,
1922. The Council of People's Commissars did not approve the agreement due to the unwillingness of the English
government to allow representatives of Soviet Russia to participate
in the Lausanne Conference, as well as due to the unacceptability of Urquhart's
conditions, which were of a predatory nature (for details about the agreement, see
Lenin, Collected Works, vol. XXVII, pp. 314–315 and pp. 549-550, note 155).
The documents printed in the collection relate to the initial period
of negotiations with Urquhart.

276 ft
TELEGRAM TO THE CEC OF THE KIRGHIZ REPUBLIC
Via direct line. Collect on six addresses.
Orenburg, Chairman of the Kirghiz Republic
Copy: Omsk, Kirgpromburo VSNKh, Novo-Nikolaevsk, Sibburo VSNKh,
Semipalatinsk Guberniya Soviet of National Economy, Ust-Kamenogorsk to the Executive Committee,
Ridder, to Deputy Manager Shishkin.
September 10, 1921
It is categorically ordered that until special instructions
from the VSNKh, work at] the Ridder mines shall not be suspended
and the management of the mines, appointed by the Sibburo VSNKh, shall not be
changed.
Instructions will be given to the manager of Ridder, Comrade Domnenko,
on how to proceed and to whom to transfer the Ridder mines.
It is proposed that the Ridder mines be leased as a concession. [01115]
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin.
Chairman of the VSNKh Bogdanov.

NOTE TO SECRETARY 1.
11/IX [1921]
Comrade Domnenko, [Manager of the] Ridderovsky mines.
About a meeting with him. Will he be staying how long (?) in Moscow?
Find out (through the VSNKh) and tell me.
Lenin.
1 The note was written by Lenin on the reverse of a letter from the chairman of the
Siberian Bureau of the VSNKh, Lomov.
At the top of the letter, in Lenin’s handwriting, is the word
notation: “reverse.” On the reverse, the secretary wrote Domnenko’s address and
indicated that he would be staying in Moscow until September 17, 1921. Lomov asked
Lenin to receive Domnenko and simultaneously indicated that with the transfer
of the mines to the Kirghiz Republic, things had begun to fall apart; therefore,
he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to lease the mines as a concession.*
* Printed from
a machine copy; Lenin’s signature is in his own hand. Ed.

L. URQUHART CONCESSION

903S
RECORD OF A CONVERSATION WITH THE MANAGER OF THE RIDDER
MINES
[Between September 12 and 17, 1921]
The English flooded the mines
---------- and took away some important parts
---------- we partially pumped it out
---------- - built a dam and we can complete the electric
power plant (100,000 horsepower)
2 strong rivers, Ulba (?) and Gramatukha?
------* — 500,000 poods of ore
extracted in 4 months
7% copper
? 16 lead
? 10? zinc
Telegraph address: Ust-Kamenogorsk. Ridder Mine.
Yelisey Frolovich Domnenko. Manager of the Ridder
Mines.
Engineer Bredikhin Ivan Kuzmich. Head of the electro- lytic plant.
1 The date is established according to the certificate of the secretary of the Council of People's Commissars that
the manager of the Ridder mines, Domnenko, will be staying in Moscow until
September 17, 1921 (see above, p. 64 of the Collection).

22930
NOTES ON THE CERTIFICATE ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION FOR
NEGOTIATIONS WITH URQUHART.
[Between September 13 and October 5, 1921]1
The following participated in the negotiations with L. Urquhart on the transfer of Kyshtym
and Ridder-Ekibastuz to him as a concession:
1. Main commission:
1) Comrade Krasin
2) Comrade Bogdanov
3) Comrade Krzhizhanovsky (due to the illness of Comrade Krzhizhanovsky, at the last
meeting he was replaced by Comrade Sereda).