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,
page 456b.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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I quite agree with Trotsky.[1]
I propose:
1) Radek should be censured for giving in to the Mensheviks.
2) The reprisals against the Mensheviks should be intensified, and our courts should be instructed to intensify them.
3) Accept this proposal of Trotsky’s.
4) Authorise Trotsky to accelerate in every way a fierce attack on the Mensheviks over Georgia.[2]
30/I.1922. Lenin
[1] On January 29, 1922, the newspapers carried two radio messages from the Italian Foreign Minister Torretta addressed to G. V. Chicherin, one dated January 22, containing a reply to Chicherin’s inquiry about the agenda of the Genoa Conference, and the other dated January 27, on the composition of the conference. In the latter he said that, in accordance with the Cannes decisions of the Supreme Council, among those invited to the conference were “apart from the members of the Supreme Council and Russia, all the stales of Europe with de jure recognition” (Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, Vol. V, Moscow, 1961, p. 59). This “explanation” of Torretta’s was taken by some quarters to imply the invitation to the conference of the expelled whiteguard governments of Kolchak and Denikin, the Menshevik government of Georgia, the Dashnak government of Armenia, the Musavat government of Azerbaijan and others (which had earlier been recognised by the Entente, and whose recognition had not been revoked). In this context, L. D. Trotsky proposed a categorical declaration saying that the invitation of émigré counter-revolutionary organisations would make it quite impossible for the R.S.F.S.R. to attend such a conference.
[2] The Menshevik leaders were carrying on a malicious campaign of lies and slander against Soviet Russia, accusing her of violating “democracy”, “the self-determination of nations”, expulsion of the “legitimate” (Menshevik) government of Georgia, and “occupation” of her territory, etc. In view of the forthcoming Genoa Conference, the Mensheviks intensified their attacks on the R.S.F.S.R., demanding the Red Army’s withdrawal from Georgia, the staging there of a referendum, etc. The Mensheviks in Russia were supported by émigré Mensheviks.
Lenin’s proposals published here were adopted by the Politbureau of the R.C.P.(B.) C.C.
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