427. To MAXIM GORKY

Written in September, not earlier than 26, 1919 · First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51. Printed from the original. · page 286

Alexei Maximych,

Comrade Zinoviev will outline to you a plan of the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.^[1] We should try it. Will you please draft a letter after talking it over in detail with Zinoviev.

Greetings,
Yours,
Lenin

Notes

[1] In a letter to Lenin dated September 26, 1919, Chicherin asked that the question of a new peace proposal to the Entente should be discussed in the C.C., R.C.P.(B.). Chicherin wrote that an official proposal from the government could be addressed to the Entente, or Gorky could be asked to write a letter pointing out the Soviet Government’s invariable readiness to sign peace. Lenin wrote on Chicherin’s letter: “...Not in the name of the government.... Confine ourselves to Gorky’s letter....” = (See present edition, Vol. 42, p. 144.)