In Grozny, the equipment was severely damaged by the civil war and its restoration will require an expenditure of 20–30 million gold rubles. The cost of materials necessary for current exploitation is determined for Grozny at the same amount. For Baku, where there are no major destructions, materials for proper exploitation would require 250–300 million gold rubles...

...Disruption of transport, shortage of wood, cement, pipes, ropes, iron, all kinds of auxiliary materials, general disruption of production and of all life in general as a consequence of the revolution and national strife... all these reasons sufficiently explain why no more than one third of the existing wells are working and being exploited in the fields...

[2–3]... Even with allocations of 200–300 million in gold, it is difficult to hope to quickly purchase a very diverse, largely American material...

[3] We must not forget that we have these funds in the form of gold *only* rubles, and the realization of such quantities of gold by ordinary methods would take at least six months.

Is it possible to radically change the situation by issuing concessions? It is possible, provided a sufficiently bold and decisive! * concession policy...

. . . Salvation is possible, I repeat, only with a very! bold! and decisive! policy, which should consist in granting three or four major syndicates competing in the world market, as well as the governments of Italy, and perhaps also France and Belgium, sufficiently attractive areas in respectable parts of the Baku and especially Grozny regions... Such a lease does not represent any capitulation to capitalism even in these areas, because the best and most extensive areas will still remain in the hands of Glavkneft [Main Oil Committee]! Concessions can and should be linked to the construction of oil pipelines, strengthening the composition of railways, the delivery of all necessary /YVYYYVYYvYYVV* materials and food for the workers to the industrial regions from abroad...

. . . Rational exploitation of existing wells and proper laying and drilling (as well as water pumping, plugging, etc.) of new wells can also be quite accurately! stipulated in the contract.

1 L. Krasin’s note is dated February 8; obviously, Lenin familiarized himself with it by the Politburo meeting (February 16), at which the issue of oil concessions was discussed.