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Special pages :
Note to Georgy Chicherin and Remarks on a Draft Soviet Government Declaration on Debt Recognition, October 24, 1921
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, pages 356-358.
The question of repaying Russiaâs old debts was raised at the Brussels Conference, which was held from October 6 to 8, 1921, and was attended by 19 states, including Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Rumania, China and others, and also by representatives of the International Red Cross and ARA.
The conference recommended that the governments should extend credits to Soviet Russia to combat the famine only if she recognised the debts of the old governments and allowed a commission to control the distribution of food.
On October 27, the question of recognising the debts of the old governments was discussed by the Politbureau of the RCP(b) Central Committee, which decided âto adopt the text proposed by Comrade Chicherin, with Comrade Leninâs amendments as a basis, and to authorise Comrade Chicherin to publish it over his signatureâ (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU Central Committee). The Soviet Governmentâs statement on the recognition of the old debts, with Leninâs amendments, was sent to the Governments of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the U.S.A. on October 28 (see Pravda No. 243 of October 29, 1921). The official text differs slightly from the wording of the draft published in this volume.
October 24
Comrade Chicherin:
I am sending you my amendments and request you to return thorn with your comment.
No. 1) We do not have 150 but 130 million including the Far-Eastern Republic.
No. 2) Not to âyieldâ, but to make a number of concessions.
No. 3) The main thing: our claims to them should be stated subtly and precisely.
With communist greetings,
Lenin
Drawing the attention of the toiling masses in all countries and of all citizens who cherish humanitarian considerations, to these acts of the Brussels Conference, the Government of Russia hereby declares that the proposal to have the old debts recognised on certain terms now meets its own intentions. Since its inception, the Soviet Government has set itself economic co-operation with other Powers as one of the main aims of its policy. It has always declared its readiness to make available sufficient profit to foreign capitalists who would help it to work Russiaâs natural resources and rehabilitate her economic apparatus. At present, it says that the official statements of the President of the United States of America and of the Ministers of Great Britain have repeatedly expressed the idea that three years after the end of the world war there is still no real peace, the plight of the masses is becoming ever more acute, state debts are increasing and there is growing economic dislocation. It is quite obvious that it is inconceivable to establish full peace without Russia, with her 150 million population, that the economic dislocation cannot be overcome, so long as Russia is left in ruins, |
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and that the question of relations between Russia and the rest of the world, which is a paramount world question, cannot be solved without an agreement with the Soviet Government. From the standpoint of | || No. 1 130 |
the long-term interests and constant requirements of all states and all peoples, the economic rehabilitation of Russia is a prime necessity not only for her but for them as well. Without economic co-operation with other countries, the task of Russiaâs economic revival proves to be exceptionally difficult, and its fulfilment is sure to be dragged out over a much longer period.
This task can be best carried out by a workersâ and peasantsâ government. It is not hampered in its work of rehabilitating the national economy by the private self-seeking interests of separate groups of capitalists. A workersâ and peasantsâ power is guided immediately by the interests of the broadest masses of people which, in essence, amount to the interests of society as a whole. With its purpose of satisfying the interests of all the toiling people of Russia, the workersâ and peasantsâ power, which has emerged victorious from the incredible ordeals of the Civil War, holds out to private initiative and capital the opportunity of co-operating with the workersâ and peasantsâ power in developing Russiaâs natural resources. The Soviet Government has restored private trade, private property in small enterprises, and the right of concession and lease of large enterprises. The Soviet power holds out to foreign capital a sufficient part of the profit to satisfy its interests, so as to attract it to participation in economic work in Russia. Following this path, the Soviet Government strives to have economic agreements with all the Powers, for which purpose there is ultimately a need to conclude a final peace settlement between Russia and other states. With this task before it, the Soviet power has met with the demand on the part of the other Powers for recognition of the tsarist governmentâs old debts. |
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The Soviet Government declares that it is firmly convinced that no people is obliged to pay the cost of the chains it has worn for centuries. But in its firm resolve to reach full agreement with the other Powers, the Government of Russia is prepared to yield on this cardinal question. In this way it also meets the desires of many small holders of Russian state loans, especially in France, for whom its recognition of tsarist debts is of substantial interest. | || No. 2 make a number of substantial concessions |
On the strength of these considerations, the Government of Russia declares that it is prepared to recognise its obligations to other states and their citizens on state loans contracted by the tsarist government before 1914, provided it is granted easy terms, giving it a practical possibility of meeting these obligations.
It goes without saying that an indispensable prerequisite of such recognition shall be the simultaneous obligation on the part of the Great Powers unconditionally to end all acts threatening the security of the Soviet Republics and the immunity of their boundaries. In other words, the Soviet Republic will undertake these obligations only in the event the Great Powers conclude with it a final general peace, and if its government is recognised by the other Powers. |
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With that end in view, the Government of Russia proposes the early convocation of an international conference to deal with the tasks indicated above, to examine the reciprocal demands of the other Powers â and the Government of Russia â and work out a final peace treaty between them. Only after the convocation of this conference will it be possible to reach a general peace settlement. This will in no sense be achieved by the Washington Conference, whose decisions will not be recognised by the Republic of Russia, which has not been invited to attend the conference. |
No. 3 reciprocal claims
â on each other â on each other Powers |
On the fourth anniversary of the Soviet Government, to be marked in a few days, everyone will have to recognise that the efforts of its numerous external and internal enemies have merely served to consolidate the workersâ and peasantsâ power in Russia, as the true defender and representative of the interests of the toiling masses of Russia, and of her independence. The fresh interventionist designs against Soviet Russia, whose existence is evident from the numerous statements by the leading organs of the press in the Entente countries, will merely help to strengthen the indissoluble bonds between the toiling masses of Russia and the workersâ and peasantsâ power, which represents their will, but any attempt to implement these schemes can merely increase the suffering of the toiling masses, and delay the moment of Russiaâs eventual economic rehabilitation, thereby also delivering a blow at the economic interests of all other peoples.
The proposal being put forward by the Government of Russia is the best evidence of its urge for peace with all states, and the establishing with them of undisturbed economic relations. It is in the interests of all states and peoples that this proposal should be realised. The Government of Russia expresses the firm hope that its proposal will shortly result in the achievement of a final settlement of economic and political relations between Russia and the other states. |