642. To V. M. MOLOTOV FOR ALL MEMBERS OF THE POLITBUREAU OF THE R.C.P.(B.) C.C.

First published in 1965 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 54. Printed from a text in Lydia Fotieva’s hand. · page 479

No copy

Comrade Molotov

Please show this letter to all members of the Politbureau and return it to me with their remarks. I think Chicherin is quite right that Radek has given fresh proof in this case that, for all his numerous merits, he is absolutely unfit to be a diplomatist.^[1]

Lenin

20/II.22.

Notes

[1] This is written on G. V. Chicherin’s letter of February 18, 1922, saying that K. B. Radek, in an interview published in She French bourgeois newspaper Le Matin, described the negotiations with the French Government, and in so doing made some attacks against Britain. Chicherin believed this was premature and said that Radek’s interview had done Soviet Russia diplomatic harm.

On the letter are remarks by members of the Politbureau of the R.C.P.(B.) C.C., expressing agreement with Lenin’s opinion.