5/XII.

Comrade Shklovskii!

I received your letter concerning Kovno 115. I will fulfill your request if the question comes up. (But it seems someone has already been appointed.)

Why are you writing about a "life raft"?

Would you personally like to go to Russia and are you hoping to be closer from Kovno?

And leave your family in Germany? Or do you have other plans?

Krestinsky promised me he would try to arrange for you to be appointed consul in Germany. Didn't that work out? Or did you not want it?

Write me a couple of words about this.

Best regards! Your Lenin

Written 5 December 1921

Sent to Berlin

Published for the first time, from the manuscript