V. I.

Lenin

Note to J. V. Stalin with a Draft Decision for the Politbureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) on the Question of the Foreign Trade Monopoly [1]

Comrade Stalin, In view of this, please get a directive passed through the Politbureau
by collecting the votes of members that “The C.C. reaffirms the
monopoly of foreign trade and resolves that a stop be put everywhere to the
working up of the question of merging the Supreme Economic Council with the
Commissariat for Foreign Trade. All People’s Commissars to sign
confidentially” and return the original to Stalin. No copies to be made.

15/V.

Lenin

---
Notes:
[1]
This document was written in connection with the discussion of the
question of the foreign trade monopoly which was taking place in leading
Party circles at the end of 1921 and during 1922.

The monopoly of foreign trade, established by Decree of the Council of
People’s Commissars of April 22, 1918, was repeatedly reconfirmed in
decisions of the Soviet Government. The adoption of the New Economic Policy
and expansion of trade relations with foreign countries necessitated,
legislative amendments in the sphere of foreign trade. The Theses on
Foreign Trade, which A. M. Lezhava, Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign
Trade, drafted at Lenin’s request, stressed the need for strengthening the monopoly of foreign trade and determined the conditions for the export
and import of goods under the new conditions. Lenin approved the Theses,
which were accepted on January 4, 1922, by the Supreme Economic Commission
of the C.P.C. G. Y. Sokolnikov, N. I. Bukharin and G. L. Pyatakov were
against retaining the monopoly of foreign trade. Sokolnikov proposed that
it he abolished and replaced by a system of trade concessions. J. V. Stalin, G. Y. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev stood for a
relaxation of the monopoly of foreign trade. The Politbureau of the C.C.,
R.C.P. approved the Theses on March 4, 1922, with certain amendments. The
final version of the Theses was endorsed on March 10. On the basis of these
Theses the Presidium of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on March
13, 1922, passed its decision “On Foreign Trade” (published in
Izvestia No. 60, March 15, 1922).

Despite the decision of the Politbureau, Sokolnikov continued to press
his point of view and proposed a plan under which the state corporations,
co-operatives, etc. were to he allowed to buy food abroad; M. I. Frumkin,
Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade, also stood for a relaxation of
the foreign trade monopoly and proposed leaving only 4 or 5 items of
wholesale trade in the hands of the state on the basis of a firm monopoly.

Following the receipt of documents from N. N. Krestinsky the
R.S.F.S.R. Ambassador in Germany, testifying to the adverse influence which
the Party controversy on the foreign trade monopoly was having on the
business negotiations with foreign capitalists, Lenin on May 15 wrote the
draft decision printed here, together with a letter to Stalin and Frumkin
in which he pointed out that “a formal ban should be put on all
talk and negotiations and commissions, etc. concerning the relaxation of