Date: 1921-11-10
Source: ru:ND

T. Chicherin!

What does this mean? I have not read either Rotstein’s reports or any other documents, and I do not understand a thing. We’ll need to bring this up at tomorrow’s Politburo meeting. Please share your assessment—and perhaps you could even serve as the rapporteur on this matter. Stalin is accusing Rotstein and Yurenev, while raising a serious question about our entire Eastern policy.

10/XI.

Lenin.

Fund 2, Inventory 2, File 999 – autograph.

1The note addressed to G.V. Chicherin was penned by V.I. Lenin on a telegram sent by G.K. Ordzhonikidze and S.M. Kirov to V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin on November 8, 1921, which charged the Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Persia, F.A. Rotstein, with distorting the Soviet government’s policy toward Persia. On the telegram, Lenin recorded Stalin’s view on this issue: “...perhaps Rotstein is right—after all, it was adventurers who intervened.” (Stalin, November 17, 1921). At Lenin’s suggestion, the Politburo resolved on November 11: “To place the question of Persian policy in its entirety before the Politburo on Thursday, November 17, dispatching the core materials to all members of the Politburo” (RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 229, p. 1). At the Politburo meeting on November 17, it was decided: “a) To request Comrades Rotstein and Ordzhonikidze, via telegram, to indicate a convenient date for each of them to travel to Moscow for a consultation. b) To inform Comrades Kirov and Ordzhonikidze that the portion of their telegram proposing the immediate establishment of an illegal Committee for the Liberation of Persia in Azerbaijan and the commencement of revolutionary group activities in Gilan flatly and unconditionally contradicts the Central Committee’s resolution of October 3 of this year, which mandates that the Caucasian Bureau cease all such efforts without exception. It should be reminded to Comrade Kirov that he bears the responsibility of ensuring the implementation of the Central Committee’s decisions—and that he has been failing to fulfill this duty satisfactorily” (ibid., File 231, p. 1).

The Politburo resolution of October 3, 1921, is mentioned, which stated the following: “a) To assign Comrade Kirov the special task of closely monitoring compliance with the Politburo’s decision not to support Kuchek Khan and similar elements; in particular, to ensure that no contraband of weapons or other military supplies is smuggled across the border. To hold Comrade Kirov personally accountable for maintaining rigorous and effective oversight, and to require him to submit monthly reports on this matter.

b) To instruct Comrade Chicherin to convey to Comrade Rotstein the directive that, while his overall policy toward Persia is sound, he has nonetheless allowed certain shortcomings to go unchecked—shortcomings that now demand correction. Specifically, he must adopt an exceedingly scrupulous stance of neutrality in his dealings with insurgents and anti-Shahist elements, bearing in mind that while our policy toward Persia excludes any support for Kuchek Khan and like-minded figures, it by no means implies that we are taking part in the struggle against them” (ibid., File 210, p. 3).

See Doc. 319.