Bolshevik Leaders correspondence

Bolshevik leadership Correspondence. 1912-1927
Collection of documents 1996.
Compiled by: A.V.Kvashonkin, L.P.Kosheleva, L.A.Rogovaya, O.V.Khlevnyuk.

G. V. Chicherin — L. B. Kamenev

July 30, 1921

Copy.

TOV. KAMENEV.

Dear Comrade.

It is necessary to introduce regularity and thoughtfulness into the published information about the state of the harvest and about the situation of the starving provinces. What is published in our country oscillates between extremely alarmist pictures and comforting indications that it’s not so bad at all, whether potatoes were successful or buckwheat was successful, etc. Reading our news radios, I consider myself not in the right to suspend official information of this kind . Moreover, I have no right to stop the transmission of this information by radio within Russia. Meanwhile, our domestic broadcasts, no less than our foreign radios, are tapped and intercepted in Western countries. I myself, reading our official information, in the end do not know whether there is a transformation of a dozen provinces into a continuous desert, or whether there is a partial crop shortage after the rains have corrected the situation. Our official information is inconsistent and thoughtless. This is heavily used abroad. Those who want to present our situation in a catastrophic way seize on our alarmist news, others seize on reassuring news. Lloyd George in the House, when questioned, declared that he had been baffled by radio-telegraphic news from Russia that the rains had passed and the situation had improved. Tov. Goldenberg has already agreed to take charge of our Information Bureau and Information Department. We should hasten to formalize this by a decision of the Central Committee, and then perhaps you will find it possible in some form to draw him closer to participation in the leadership of the cause of aid, so that he is aware of all the shades of our policy in this matter.one. At the present time I myself do not know whether to influence the radio passing through my hands in the sense of strengthening the pessimistic or optimistic stream. We need to know what we want and why in the matter of information and inspiration. We already have a number of telegrams from our plenipotentiaries to the effect that they themselves, and all sorts of philanthropists, and Red Cross and other societies are asking for information and more information, and more information. We do very little to meet this need. You should use the appearance of Comrade. Goldenberg to solve this paramount problem. As far as I know, so far, apart from me, no one in a conversation with Comrade. Goldenberg did not emphasize the colossal importance of this task, which he agreed to take on. It seems to me that he even gets the impression that we are not particularly interested in this.

At the same time, telegrams and radio telegrams are bombarding us with requests for telegraph and radio telegraph interviews. Some of these requests are addressed to Vladimir Ilyich, others to Gorky, others to me, and others to Comrade. Litvinov, etc. We must use this thirst for information, and not throw these requests into the basket. To ensure that the entire campaign to help the starving does not turn into a weapon against us, it is necessary to apply the maximum possible energy in this matter to the information business.

With communist greetings Chicherin

RTSKHIDNI. F. 5. Op. 2. D. 315. L. 113-114. Typewritten text. The signature is an autograph.

Notes:

On August 1 , 5, Lenin transmitted a telephone message to Molotov with a request to immediately confirm Goldenberg's appointment by questioning all members of the Politburo. On the same day, the Orgburo decided: “To propose to the Glavpolitprosvet to approve comrade. Goldenberg-Meshkovsky as the head of Rost. Assign simultaneously to Comrade. Goldenberg-Meshkovsky in charge of the Information Department of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs "(RTsKhIDNI. F. 17. Op. 112. D. 197. L. 3).