V. I.

Lenin

758

To:   G. Y. ZINOVIEV

Comrade Zinoviev:

About the rapporteur I agree conditionally :
1) Trotsky
must also be there as a substitute ( and for his own report
as well);
2) I should be allowed to back out , but only if
my health or my work prevents me. [1]

Concerning Urquhart, I withdraw my hesitations. There are already some American proposals. Baku is much
better and more important. There is a decision by a C.C.

commission (Smilga + Andreyev + Krasin) which has been directly violated by Krasin. There are all the other minuses
(99 years; the immensity of the dimensions, etc.). [2]

P.S. Let the Politbureau members read this.

Yours,

Lenin

18/IX.

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Notes:
[1]
A reference to Lenin’s speech at the forthcoming Fourth
Congress of the Communist International.

At the morning sitting on November 13, 1922, Lenin gave
a report “Five Years of the Russian Revolution and the
Prospects of the World Revolution” (see present edition, Vol. 33,
pp. 418–32).

[2]
The talks with Leslie Urquhart, which he broke off in October
1921, were resumed in 1922. A preliminary agreement was
signed by L. B. Krasin on September 9, 1922 (for the terms see
this volume, Document 750). Having acquainted himself with
the agreement, Lenin found it to be patently disadvantageous
for the Soviet state, and in a letter to Politbureau members on
September 12 came out against its approval (see this volume, Document 754). Lenin wrote about this in the note to Zinoviev
here published.

The commission mentioned by Lenin was set up by the
Politbureau on August 24, 1922, to specify and put the finishing
touches to the draft agreement with Urquhart.

By “American proposals” Lenin apparently means the talks
between Krasin and the International Barnsdoll Corporation,
with which two agreements were signed on September 20, 1022:
one for the exploitation of the Balakhany oil wells in Baku for
15 1/2 years, and the other for the sinking of new wells. See also