V. I.   Lenin

26

To:   G. V. CHICHERIN

Written: Written on December 14, 1920
Published: First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 52. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, page 62^b.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
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14/XII.

Comrade Chicherin,

Yesterday Ter-Gabrielyan came to see me and he also spoke of the terrible danger of a pogrom.

(1) 600,000 Armenian refugees are said to be in danger of losing their lives.

(2) Without Kars, Baku is said to be threatened.^[1]

I think we should separate No. (1) from No. (2) and do everything to help in No. (1).

What is your opinion? and what are you doing on No. (1)?

With communist greetings,
Lenin

Notes

[1] On December 13, 1920, Lenin received S. M. Ter-Gabrielyan, who had been sent to Moscow by the Revolutionary Committee of Armenia to report to Lenin on the political and economic situation in Armenia.

As a result of the reckless policy of the Dashnaks, who had started a war against Turkey in late September 1920—with the approval of the Entente—the Turkish army occupied the towns of Sarykamysh, Kara, Alexandropol and others. On the occupied territory, the Turkish troops massacred great numbers of Armenians. Many Armenians died from starvation and epidemics, and thousands of families fled from their homes, seeking refuge in other parts of Armenia.

The Dashnak government of Armenia rejected the R.S.F.S.R.’s mediation and preferred to sign the enslaving Alexandropol Treaty on December 2, 1920, under which Armenia was declared a Turkish protectorate. But the treaty did not enter into force, because the Dashnak government was overthrown on November 29, 1920, and the Soviet power was proclaimed in Armenia. On March 16, 1921, the R.S.F.S.R. and Turkey signed a treaty which virtually nullified the Alexandropol Treaty. The question of   the Soviet-Turkish border in the Caucasus was fin illy settled with the signing of the Kars Treaty on October 13, 1921.