Note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR to the Ambassador of Turkey to the RSFSR Ali Fuad.

 A source: USSR foreign policy documents. Volume 4. p. 145. Moscow. State Political Publishing House. 1960

May 29, 1921

Mr. Ambassador,

In response to your personal and urgent letter No. 472 dated May 25, 1 , to which instructions are attached, I allow myself to inform you that our Government considers the issue raised in this letter to be extremely important. Unfortunately, I cannot immediately give you an answer on the question that is the main subject of this post. You are well aware of the extremely difficult financial situation our Republic is in. Consumption of gold on a colossal scale for us remains an expense, even if it takes on the character of a loan. We are well aware of the enormous political significance of the issue of the loan, which your Government should have concluded, and we cherish the hope that soon we will be able to put forward concrete proposals on this issue. Unfortunately, at the moment I am not able to inform you of them.

Once again I express my great surprise at the statement that Turkey did not receive any assistance from our side. According to the information we have and which we will soon be able to confirm with documentary evidence, the assistance provided to your Government before the conclusion of the Moscow Treaty was much more significant than it was then established. As for the assistance provided later, more than half of it is already outside the Soviet territory, and the necessary measures are being taken in order to successfully complete this operation.

Some new proposals, formulated in the attached instructions, will be considered by our Government with the same desire to do everything in our power in this direction.

Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, your sincere assurances of my highest consideration.

Chicherin

In connection with this note, Ali Fuad's note of June 6, 192 has been received! g. No. 511, which said:

"Mr. Commissioner,

I learned with pleasure that with the exception of cannons, artillery supplies and draft horses, the rest of the military materials and military supplies of the first part of the material aid promised by the Government of Soviet Russia to the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, that is, guns, machine guns and their equipment, were sent from Tuapse to Anatolia.

I have the honor to thank, on behalf of my Government, the sincere conduct of the Government of the RSFSR, which, despite the great difficulties of transport in Russia, paid serious attention to the urgent needs of our armies in military equipment and military supplies and did everything possible to send them to Turkey as soon as possible. way.

Please accept, Mr. Commissioner, the assurance of my sincere respect. "

 1 The instruction of the Turkish government, mentioned in the letter of May 25, 1921, obliged the Turkish ambassador to raise before the government of the RSFSR the issue of providing Turkey with financial assistance in the amount of 50 million rubles. gold "under the guise of a loan or in any other form", as well as the construction in Turkey of a powder factory and a smokeless powder factory.