LETTER TO G. V. CHICHERIN
7/VI [1921] To Comrade Chicherin!
I am not in town, which is why my reply is somewhat delayed. But everything should still be sent to me—and I will receive urgent communications within the hour (arrange through Fotieva).
I fully agree with you that: 1) Koppa must be dispatched on a specific, designated mission—4f.
2)
We need—contrary to Stomonakov’s view (though, if I have correctly understood one of his telegrams, he is actually opposed)—to establish connections and “agreements” with both groups: with those who are aligned with Stomonakov, as well as with his opponents, whom certain individuals known to you are linked to.
# With one precise, clear caveat: only in this particular matter—not in any other—and for a brief, limited period.

We must engage with both groups without fail.
3)
We ought to wholeheartedly support the emerging dialogue with those who are departing on Thursday.
“You ask,” you write, “what forms of financial arrangements and administrative organization are acceptable to us?” In my view, the possibilities are manifold. After all, we have already stated: concessions are most convenient for us. Don’t like them? Then let your proposals come forward!
If we find ourselves compelled to propose a concrete agreement, then let Bogdanov (Chairman of the VSNKh) task his own people with drafting a proposal and swiftly forwarding it to me. Please send him the relevant portion of this letter: we need equipment, and in return we will grant them whatever they desire.
How much *? — we must calculate carefully and enter into negotiations.
With kind regards, Lenin
I urge you to exert greater pressure on the Latvian government to secure the release of Latvian workers who have been handed over to military courts in Riga. Send a telegram to Ganetsky on this matter, adding that I specifically request him to press the Latvian authorities even harder—and to ensure their salvation at all costs.
2. The letter concerns negotiations regarding the conclusion of trade and concession agreements with German industrialists and firms.
V.
L. Korin had been a party member since 1917. From 1919 to 1930, he served within the system of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs; from 1919 to 1921, he held the position of Plenipotentiary of the People’s Commissariats for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and thereafter (from May 1921), he served as the Representative of the RSFSR in Germany.
B. S. Stomonakov had been a party member since 1902. From 1920 to 1925, he served as the Trade Commissioner of Soviet Russia in Berlin.
2. The letter pertains to an exchange: two workers—members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia—who had been handed over to the military tribunal in Riga were to be exchanged for individuals arrested in the RSFSR for anti‑Soviet activities, whom the Latvian bourgeois government sought to free. On June 6, 1921, P. I. Stuchka, Deputy People’s Commissar for Justice of the RSFSR, addressed Lenin with a letter on this very issue. For further details on this matter, see V. I. Lenin, Complete Collected Works, Volume 52, p. 261.