V. I.

Lenin

466

NOTE TO G. V. CHICHERIN AND REMARKS ON A DRAFT SOVIET GOVERNMENT DECLARATION ON DEBT RECOGNITION [1]

October 24

Comrade Chicherin:

I am sending you my amendments and request you to return thorn with your comment.

No. 1) We do not have 150 but 130 million including the Far-Eastern Republic.

No. 2) Not to “yield”, but to make a number of concessions .

No. 3) The main thing : our claims to them should be stated subtly and precisely.

With communist greetings, Lenin

Draft Declaration

The Brussels Conference of representatives of the Powers,
according to the West European press, has set as a condition for granting
credits to the Government, of Russia in aid of the starving its
recognition of the debts of the former Russian governments. Nothing has yet
been communicated to the Government of Russia about the decisions
of this conference. However, the Government of Russia, in face of
the starving masses, refuses to abide by the subtleties of diplomatic
etiquette and feels it to be its bounden duty to declare here and now
its attitude to the Brussels decisions. The British Prime Minister,
Mr. Lloyd George, in his speech in the British Parliament on August
16, said that the proposal to use the famine in Russia to force her
to recognise the tsarist government’s debts was a devilish scheme.
Nevertheless, the Brussels Conference, being quite aware that, in
view of the scale of the famine disaster in Russia, the Soviet
Government is incapable, with its own resources, to save the famine-stricken
population, has made the granting of credits to Russia, without which
serious aid to the starving is impossible, contingent on the Soviet
Government’s recognition of the old debts.

Drawing the attention of the toiling masses in all countries and
of all citizens who cherish humanitarian considerations, to these acts
of the Brussels Conference, the Government of Russia hereby declares
that the proposal to have the old debts recognised on certain terms
now meets its own intentions. Since its inception, the Soviet
Government has set itself economic co-operation with other Powers as one
of the main aims of its policy. It has always declared its readiness
to make available sufficient profit to foreign capitalists who would help it to work Russia’s natural resources and rehabilitate her
economic apparatus. At present, it says that the official statements of
the President of the United States of America and of the Ministers
of Great Britain have repeatedly expressed the idea that three years
after the end of the world war there is still no real peace, the plight
of the masses is becoming ever more acute, state debts are increasing
and there is growing economic dislocation.

It is quite obvious that it is inconceivable to establish full peace
without Russia, with her 150 million population, that the economic
dislocation cannot be overcome, so long as Russia is left in ruins,

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No. 1
130

and that the question of relations between Russia and the rest of the
world, which is a paramount world question, cannot be solved without
an agreement with the Soviet Government. From the standpoint of;
the long-term interests and constant requirements of all states and
all peoples, the economic rehabilitation of Russia is a prime
necessity not only for her but for them as well. Without economic
co-operation with other countries, the task of Russia’s economic revival
proves to be exceptionally difficult, and its fulfilment is sure to be
dragged out over a much longer period.

This task can be best carried out by a workers’ and peasants’
government. It is not hampered in its work of rehabilitating the
national economy by the private self-seeking interests of separate groups
of capitalists. A workers’ and peasants’ power is guided immediately
by the interests of the broadest masses of people which, in essence,
amount to the interests of society as a whole. With its purpose of
satisfying the interests of all the toiling people of Russia, the workers’
and peasants’ power, which has emerged victorious from the
incredible ordeals of the Civil War, holds out to private initiative and capital
the opportunity of co-operating with the workers’ and peasants’
power in developing Russia’s natural resources. The Soviet
Government has restored private trade, private property in small
enterprises, and the right of concession and lease of large enterprises.

The Soviet power holds out to foreign capital a sufficient part of
the profit to satisfy its interests, so as to attract it to participation
in economic work in Russia. Following this path, the Soviet
Government strives to have economic agreements with all the Powers, for
which purpose there is ultimately a need to conclude a final peace
settlement between Russia and other states. With this task before
it, the Soviet power has met with the demand on the part of the other
Powers for recognition of the tsarist government’s old debts.

The Soviet Government declares that it is firmly convinced that no people is obliged to pay the cost
of the chains it has worn for centuries. But in its firm resolve to reach full agreement with the other

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No. 2 make a number of substantial concessions

Powers, the Government of Russia is prepared to yield on this cardinal question. In this way it also
meets the desires of many small holders of Russian state loans, especially in France, for whom its
recognition of tsarist debts is of substantial interest.
On the strength of these considerations, the
Government of Russia declares that it is prepared to recognise its obligations to other states and their citizens
on state loans contracted by the tsarist government before 1914, provided it is granted easy terms, giving
it a practical possibility of meeting these obligations.

It goes without saying that an indispensable prerequisite of such recognition shall be the
simultaneous obligation on the part of the Great Powers
unconditionally to end all acts threatening the security of the Soviet Republics and the immunity of
their boundaries. In other words, the Soviet
Republic will undertake these obligations only in the event
the Great Powers conclude with it a final general peace, and if its government is recognised by the
other Powers.

With that end in view, the Government of Russia proposes the early convocation of an international
conference to deal with the tasks indicated above, to examine the reciprocal demands of the other

No. 3 reciprocal claims
X on each other
X on the other
Powers

Powers ∨ and the Government of Russia ∧ and work out a final peace treaty between them. Only after the
convocation of this conference will it be possible to reach a general peace settlement. This will in no sense
be achieved by the Washington Conference, whose decisions will not be recognised by the Republic of Russia,
which has not been invited to attend the conference.

On the fourth anniversary of the Soviet Government, to be marked
in a few days, everyone will have to recognise that the efforts of its
numerous external and internal enemies have merely served to
consolidate the workers’ and peasants’ power in Russia, as the true
defender and representative of the interests of the toiling masses of
Russia, and of her independence. The fresh interventionist designs
against Soviet Russia, whose existence is evident from the numerous
statements by the leading organs of the press in the Entente countries,
will merely help to strengthen the indissoluble bonds between the
toiling masses of Russia and the workers’ and peasants’ power, which
represents their will, but any attempt to implement these schemes
can merely increase the suffering of the toiling masses, and delay the
moment of Russia’s eventual economic rehabilitation, thereby also
delivering a blow at the economic interests of all other peoples.

The proposal being put forward by the Government of Russia is
the best evidence of its urge for peace with all states, and the
establishing with them of undisturbed economic relations. It is in the
interests of all states and peoples that this proposal should be realised.
The Government of Russia expresses the firm hope that its
proposal will shortly result in the achievement of a final settlement of
economic and political relations between Russia and the other states.