3 IX. Telephone message.

“...to send first delegates to inspect on the spot our land plots for settlement, forest plots, mines, factories, etc. for lease.” Chairman of the CPC Lenin.

Signatures needed: Martens and the People’s Commissariat of Labour, also desirable: Bogdanov and Chicherin.²

¹ The Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia was organized in America in May 1919, had branches in a number of cities in the USA and in Canada. On the tasks 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 americau lumber-workers are here in the Emigration House (three weeks they are here — come through Siberia). Only few have found wo?k. [45] 30 must be sent immediately to Nadejdinsky Savod, 15 to Kusnetsky Bassin in order to construct timber camps, & if we can fit 200 more they will go also. (The must be fully outfitted) \

I) Connection with Nadezhd[insky] Works — a) repair; b) construction, tractors and implements for agricultural] produc[tion]. II) Total 300,000 $ * ** without any money yet issued.

* 200 American lumber workers are in the emigrant 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 timber barracks; if they can be fit, all 200 will go too (They must be fully equipped.) — Ed.

** dollars. — Ed.

LETTER TO V. V. KUIBYSHEV.

19. IX. 1921

Comrade Kuibyshev¹!

I have just seen Rutgers², Calvert³ and Haywood⁴,

representatives of a group of an American workers’ colony wanting to take the Nadezhdinsky Plant and a number of enterprises in the Kuznetsk Basin.
They request that their representative (with an interpreter) personally attend the C.L.D. on Friday. I think this should be allowed.
Further, I draw your attention and ask you to inform all members of the commission and subcommissions of the following:
(1) The Nadezhdinsky Plant, in their opinion, is both economically and technically linked with the group of enterprises in the Kuzbas, because it will supply tractors for their agricultural farms; tractors and all other agricultural implements for the peasants; repair of machinery for the enterprises of their group in the Kuzbas [etc.], equipment for water transport, communication with Siberia, etc.
(2) in the Kuzbas they take 12,000 dessiatins of land and a number of enterprises, wishing to create a large and complete economic whole.
(3) They request a total of 300,000 dollars in cash. Any other opinion is a mistake.
(4) They want, in addition, bread and clothing, in order to launch the necessary construction work immediately. They must begin this very winter, so as to manage by the spring of 1922.
(5) They emphasize that they will create a firm administration of their workers’ group; and they will select the entire 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 Russian ones (Canada or the northern United States).
(6) They want a direct dependence on the C.L.D. Something like an autonomous state trust made up of a workers’ association.
By the way. They say that here in the “émigré house” there live 200 American forest workers. Most are without work. They are pining for work. Send up to 30 of them to the Nadezhdinsky Plant and 15 to the Kuzbas at once, furnishing them with full equipment and food, and they will immediately begin the construction of wooden barracks. (And later on all 200 will go.) They very much request to hurry with the dispatch.
They say that Gerbel (? I did not quite catch the English pronunciation) of the Ural Industrial Bureau gave them oral consent to their plan, and the Siberians (Sibprombureau) gave written consent.

They will take 10-15% of Russian-speaking workers. Possibly more.
Please take all this into account.
Chairman, Council of Labor and Defense V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
*
I
1 V. V. Kuibyshev — Secretary of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.).
2 S. J. Rutgers — Dutch engineer, communist. In 1921, together with W. Haywood, organized from American workers and engineers the “Autonomous Industrial Colony of Kuzbass,” which he then directed until 1927. The following four years Rutgers spent in Holland on party work, from May 1930 again returned to the USSR. At present working in the Central Control Commission — R.C.P.
3 Calvert — American worker, member of the organization “Industrial Workers of the World” (IWW). In 1921 was delegated by a local group of the IWW to the congress of the Profintern. In 1921 took part in organizing the Autonomous Industrial Colony in Kuzbass. After the signing of the contract in the Council of Labor and Defense with a group of American workers was sent to New York* to organize a committee for recruiting and equipping workers’ groups. Later withdrew from the revolutionary movement.
4 W. D. Haywood — one of the most prominent and popular leaders of the revolutionary wing of the American labor movement, was one of the leaders of the syndicalist organization “Industrial Workers of the World” (IWW). After the October Revolution Haywood joined the American Communist Party and adhered to the Comintern. In 1921, together with S. J. Rutgers, organized in the Soviet Republic the “Autonomous Industrial Colony of Kuzbass.” Died on May 18, 1928 (see Memoirs of W. Haywood in the magazine “Class Struggle” No. 1, 1931, pp. 89–99).
26935'
LETTER TO V. V. KUIBYSHEV
[Between September 23 and 30, 1921] Comrade Kuibyshev!
I am sending you a draft of the subscription which [in the event of signing the contract] Rutgers and all his people, down to every single worker, must sign.
If you agree, propose it to them.
Find (for all negotiations) a reliable translator.
Who knows both languages thoroughly.
The contract must be clear and extremely precise.
* This letter was first published in the “Trade-Industrial Newspaper” No. 17, January 20, 1929. Ed.

We need our own lawyer (a communist) to draft it.  
Call it, in my opinion, an agreement for the leasing of the management of a number of factories, etc.  
The technical expert report must be signed by Stünckel * and a few other reputable experts.  
With communist greetings, Lenin.

¹ The date is established on the basis of the following considerations: on September 23, 1921, the Council of Labor and Defense recognized in principle the desirability of concluding an agreement with the Rutger’s group and instructed a special commission to draft the text of the agreement; on September 30 of the same year, during a meeting of the Council of Labor and Defense at which the draft agreement was to be discussed, Kuibyshev informed Lenin in a note that Rutger had accepted all the points of the undertaking proposed by Lenin (see below).

DRAFT OF UNDERTAKING.  
[Between September 23 and 30, 1921]

Do the managers and organisers of the enterprise agree to sign themselves and to obtain from all those travelling from America to Russia the signing of the following undertaking:

1.  We undertake to ensure, and collectively answer for it, that [those who travel] only people travel to Russia who are capable and prepared to consciously endure a number of severe hardships, inevitably connected with the restoration of industry in a country that is extremely backward and ruined as never before.

2.  Those travelling to Russia undertake to work with maximum effort and with the highest labor productivity and discipline, exceeding the capitalist norm, for otherwise Russia is not in a position to overtake capitalism, or even to catch up with it.

3.  We undertake to refer all cases of conflict, without exception, of whatever nature these conflicts may be, to the final decision of the highest Soviet authority of Russia and to conscientiously carry out all its decisions.

4.  We undertake not to forget the extreme nervousness of the hungry and exhausted Russian workers and peasants surrounding our undertaking, and to help them in every way, so as to create friendly relations, so as to overcome distrust and envy.