Date: 1922-03-12
Source: ru:ND; en:Pipes

Note by V.I. Lenin

11/III

Comrade Trotsky!

Please read this and return it to me. Should we circulate directives on this matter within the Politburo? (I trust that you’ve already ordered the relevant data concerning the number of “cleansed” churches?)

Best regards!

Lenin.

Note by L.D. Trotsky

I have a roughly similar response from Comrade Krasin. It is perfectly clear that one cannot casually engage in trade worth hundreds of millions. I believe we will need to dispatch Fabergé and Moiseyev’s specialists abroad to assess market conditions, while simultaneously incentivizing them with prospects of profit.

12/III 1922.

Trotsky.

Fund 2, Inventory 2, File 1166 — autographs.

1V.I. Lenin forwarded to L.D. Trotsky a letter from L.B. Krasin dated March 10, 1922, concerning the export of antique treasures. Given that “a crisis prevails everywhere, and the bourgeoisie is in a state of profound distress,” and that it is impossible to sell precious jewels at their normal market value, Krasin proposed establishing a syndicate—jointly with some major firm—to handle such sales (see: RCHIDNI, Fund 2, Inventory 2, File 1166, pp. 1–2). This letter from Krasin was a reply to Lenin’s own letter of March 10, in which Lenin had asked Krasin: “During one of our most recent meetings, you mentioned that you had held discussions with an English merchant regarding the formation of a joint venture for the sale of precious stones and the like. I would be grateful if you could write me a few lines: Has anything come of this plan? The same question applies to Germany as well” (Lenin, V.I., Complete Collected Works, vol. 54, p. 205).

Lenin forwarded Krasin’s letter to Trotsky because Trotsky headed the commission tasked with the concentration and accounting of valuables—particularly those confiscated from churches. On May 26, at Trotsky’s suggestion, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) dissolved this commission.