Written: 28 November, 1921
First Published: First published, in abridged form. In 1923 in the book Dvenadtsaty syezd (Twelfth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks 1), April 17-25, 1923. Bulletins. Moscow, Publishing House at the All-Russia Central Executive Committee; Published in full for the first time, according to the manuscript, in this volume
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 33, page 127
Translated: David Skvirsky and George Hanna
Transcription\HTML Markup:
David Walters &
R. Cymbala
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
November 28
Comrade Stalin, in the main I agree with you, but I feel that the wording should be somewhat amended.
1) While a federation of Transcaucasian republics is absolutely correct in principle, and should be implemented without fail, its immediate practical realisation must be regarded as premature, i. e., a certain period of time will be required for its discussion, propagation and adoption by lower Soviet bodies;
2) the Central Committees of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan shall be instructed (through the Caucasian Bureau) to submit the federation question for broad discussion in the Party and by the worker and peasant masses, conduct vigorous propaganda in favour of a federation and secure decisions to that effect by the congresses of Soviets in each of these republics. Should serious opposition arise, the Political Bureau of the CC., H.C.P. must be informed accurately and in good time.
Lenin