V. I.

Lenin

488

To:   L. B. KAMENEV [1]

Secret

Comrade Kamenev:

I think Chicherin is wrong. The condition we must lay down is that the grain should go only to our starving peasants;
we have to accept . We in the C.P.C. decided on 5/XI to give
gold only for 9 million poods (33 — 15 = 18. 18 : 2 == 9 [2] ).
We must try to help in every way, even if in exchange for
the British rubbish.

We shall make a provisional reservation on security.

7/ XI. Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
Written on G. V. Chicherin’s letter reporting that the British
famine relief committee intended to deliver to the Ukraine and
other areas goods for exchange for grain, so as to send the grain
obtained to the famine-stricken areas. Chicherin proposed that
the plan should be rejected, believing that the British would
supply old goods and mat there was danger of bandit attacks on
British shop assistants.

[2]
The figures are a calculation of the seed required for spring sowing
in the famine-stricken gubernias in the spring of 1922. The
necessary quantity was 33 million poods, of which 15 million poods
were to be supplied to the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture
by the People’s Commissariat for Food; to obtain one-half of the
remaining 18 million poods, that is, 9 million poods, the C.P.C.
allocated gold; the other 9 million poods were to be obtained by
the People’s Commissariat for Food through procurements aver
and above the plan.