Letter to the Politbureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) with a Draft of Directives to Comrades Travelling Abroad

Written March 17, 1922 · First published in 1964 in the Fifth Russian Edition of the Collected Works, Vol. 45. Printed from the manuscript. · page 407 · Translated by Bernard Isaacs

Comrade Molotov for members of the Politbureau

In view of Comrade Radek’s trip abroad, and Comrade Sosnovsky’s, too, I hear,

—in view of the fact that a flair for diplomacy is not one of the strong points of these most valuable and important workers, I propose that the following directive be issued by the Politbureau:

“The Politbureau impresses upon all comrades travelling abroad that the present moment calls, on the one hand, for the greatest restraint in utterances and talks about the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and, on the other hand, for a relentless struggle against and the greatest distrust towards them (as the most dangerous de facto accomplices of the whiteguards)”.

17/III. Lenin

P.S. Please get this voted by telephone.^[1]

Lenin

---

[1] The Politbureau adopted Lenin’s proposal on March 15, 1922.