Published:
First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 54.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1976,
Moscow,
Volume 45,
pages 449b-450a.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
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I have just received two letters from Chicherin (dated the 20th and 22nd). He has raised the question of whether we should agree, for a proper compensation, to some small changes in our Constitution, namely, representation for the parasitic elements on the Soviets. He says this should be done to please the Americans.
This proposal of Chicherin shows, I believe, that he should 1) be immediately sent to a sanatorium, as any connivance in this respect, any allowance of delay, etc., will, in my opinion, be the greatest threat to all negotiations.[1] 2) This shows how timely my proposal (which I here enclose) is to have a formulation at once of our preliminary and approximate, but precise terms, for all members of the Genoa delegation.[2]
| Dictated by phone on January 23, 1922 | |
| Published in 1961 in the book, Leninskiye idei zhivut i pobezhdayut, Moscow | |
| Printed from a typewritten copy |
This and the following letter from Chicherin clearly show that he is sick and very much so.[3] We shall be fools unless we force him to go to a sanatorium right away.
24/I.1922. Lenin
[1] See Document 586 of this volume.—Ed.
[2] See present edition, Vol. 42, pp. 390–93.—Ed.
[3] Written at the bottom of G. V. Chicherin’s letter of January 20, 1922. Chicherin had written to Lenin: “... If the Americans should harp on the demand for representative institutions, don’t you think that it could be possible, for a sizable compensation, to insert a small amendment into our Constitution...?” Lenin underscored the words “could be possible” with four lines, put three interrogation marks in the margin, and wrote: “This is madness!!” (Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee).
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