Published:
First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI.
Printed from the original, verified with a typewritten copy.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
pages 253c-254a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
You may freely copy, distribute,
display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
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• README
In view of the fact that the low-down American hucksters are trying to create the impression that we could be expected to cheat,
I propose that we should immediately telegraph them officially, on behalf of the government, over the signatures of Kamenev and Chicherin (and if necessary Kalinin’s and mine as well),
the following:
we shall deposit with a New York bank an amount in gold constituting 120 per cent of what they will supply in the course of a month for one million starving children and sick persons. But in that case, considering such a complete material guarantee, we stipulate that the Americans must absolutely refrain not only from political but also from administrative interference, and must make no claims whatsoever. This means that in that case all the terms of the treaty giving them the least right to interfere even if only administratively shall be void. On-the-spot check-ups are to be made by parity commissions (representing our government and them).[1]
This proposal will show the hucksters just where they stand, and subsequently disgrace them in the eyes of the whole world.
We should not forget that we have never had rationing of any kind in the countryside. If we are to make no mistake on this score, I suggest we invite someone from the People’s Commissariat for Food to discuss the matter.
13/VIII-21
[1] The telegram proposed by Lenin was sent to M. M. Litvinov to Riga the same day, August 13, with some editorial changes. Litvinov was negotiating with ARA on behalf of the Soviet Government. See also this volume, Document 310.
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