V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v23;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

APK KUZBASS

It is advisable to send delegates first to inspect on the spot land plots for settlement, forest plots, mines, factories, etc., for taking on lease.” Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin.
Signatures needed from Martens and the People’s Commissariat of Labour; those of Bogdanov and Chicherin are also desirable.²

¹ The Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia was organised in America in May 1919, and had branches in a number of cities in the USA and Canada. On the aims and activities of the Society see Lenin, Works, Vol. XXVII, p. 546, Note 148.
² G. V. Chicherin—People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AMERICAN WORKERS’ COLONY.
19. IX [1921]
200 American lumber-workers are here in the Emigration House (three weeks they are here—come through Siberia). Only few have found work.
[45] 30 must be sent immediately to Nadezhdinsky Works, 15 to the Kuznetsk Basin in order to construct timber camps, & if we can fit 200 more they will go also. (They must be fully outfitted.)

I) Connection with Nadezhdinsky Works—a) repairs; b) construction, tractors and implements for agricultural production.
II) Total 300,000 $ without any further disbursement of money.

LETTER TO V. V. KUIBYSHEV.
19. IX. 1921
Comrade Kuibyshev!¹
I have just had with me
Rutgers,² Calvert³ and Heywood,⁴

* 200 American lumber-workers are in the Emigration House (they have been here three weeks—came through Siberia). Only a few have found work.
30 must be sent immediately to the Nadezhdinsky Works, 15 to the Kuznetsk Basin, to build wooden barracks; if they can be made fit, all 200 will go too (They must be fully outfitted.) Ed.
** dollars. Ed.

40

representatives of the group of the American workers’ colony, which wishes to take over the Nadezhdinsky Works and a number of enterprises in the Kuznetsk Basin.
They request that their representative (with an interpreter) be personally present at the Council of Labour and Defence on Friday. I think this should be allowed.
Further, I draw your attention and ask you to inform all members of the commission and sub-commissions of the following:
(1) The Nadezhdinsky Works, in their opinion, is both economically and technically connected with the group of enterprises in the Kuzbass, because it will provide tractors for their agricultural farms; tractors and all kinds of other agricultural implements for the peasants; repair of machines for the enterprises of their group in the Kuzbass [etc.], equipment for water transport, connection with Siberia, etc.
(2) In the Kuzbass they are taking 12,000 desyatinas of land and a number of enterprises, wishing to create a large and complete economic whole.
(3) They are asking for only 300,000 dollars in cash. Any other opinion is a mistake.
(4) They want, in addition, bread and clothing, so as to speed up the necessary construction work immediately. They say it must be started this same winter, so as to be ready by the spring of 1922.
(5) They emphasise that they will create a firm administration for their workers’ group; and will select the whole group (3,000–6,000 workers) from the best workers, mostly young and unmarried, who have practically studied the corresponding production, and have lived in climatic conditions similar to those of Russia (Canada or the northern United States).
(6) They want to be directly subordinate to the Council of Labour and Defence.
Something in the nature of an autonomous state trust from a workers’ association.
Incidentally. They say that here in the “Emigration House” there are 200 American lumber-workers. Most of them are without work. They are longing for work. Send up to 30 of them to the Nadezhdinsky Works and 15 to the Kuzbass immediately, giving them full equipment and food, and they will at once start building wooden barracks. (And then all 200 will go too). They earnestly ask that you hasten their dispatch.
They say that Gerbel (? I did not catch the English pronunciation exactly) of the Urals Industrial Bureau gave them oral consent to their plan, and the Siberians (Siberian Industrial Bureau) gave written consent.