Instruction to the Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Afghanistan.
USSR foreign policy documents. Volume 4. p. 165. Moscow. State Political Publishing House. 1960
June 3, 1921
Dear comrade,
You are appointed to the post held until now by Comrade. Surits, just at the time of our conclusion of an agreement with England, obliging us, especially in relation to Afghanistan, to apply the regulations known to you. In your political work in Afghanistan, you are responsible for complying in the strictest manner with the resolutions of the Anglo-Russian agreement. However, the line outlined by the latter is only a partial manifestation of an even more important main factor in our policy. Both the domestic and foreign policies of Soviet Russia are now summed up in a single word: reconstruction.
All our efforts are directed towards the restoration of our economy and towards positive constructive work on the basis of our system. We will best work to fulfill our ideals by focusing our energies on positive constructive work and the economic recovery of Russia. This is even the only way that lies before us at the present time to fulfill our historical tasks. And in my reports at meetings of the Central Executive Committee and in the repeated speeches of Comrade. Lenin, the relationship between Soviet Russia and its capitalist encirclement was characterized as a peaceful duel on the basis of the restoration of the destroyed economy. The one who wins in the peaceful duel of economic creative work will be the winner in the field of realizing one or another ideals, implementing this or that system.
The dominant position of England in the world economy makes peaceful cooperation with Britain in the economic field especially important and valuable for us. In your political work in the East, you must take into account both our general position, which compels us to set first and foremost the tasks of restoring our economy, and the importance that England represents for this purpose.
You must proceed from the above-stated basic facts of our policy, approaching the tasks facing us in the East. Our policy is the policy of peace and cooperation among all peoples. At the present time, when the eastern peoples, as economically backward, painfully feel foreign economic oppression, socialist Soviet Russia is a natural friend for them.
Our policy in the East is not aggressive; it is a policy of peace and friendship. You must systematically put forward this main point in all your work and, in particular, in Kabul, set the development of our friendship with Afghanistan as the main goal of your activity. Friendship presupposes mutual assistance, and, proceeding from our desire to contribute to the development and prosperity of the friendly Afghan state as much as possible, we are ready to render it all the assistance in this peaceful arena in our power. You must study the needs and requirements of Afghanistan and find out the desires of its government so that in the development and implementation of the Russian-Afghan treaty we can provide it with all possible assistance in order to contribute to its development and well-being.
You are instructed to pay especially serious attention to the reformist program of the Emir. At the present stage of development of Afghanistan, enlightened absolutism of the type of our 18th century is for it a serious progressive phenomenon; we cannot and should not approach Afghanistan with the standards of economically developed countries. Of course, for a moment we must not forget and overshadow the enormous difference between the program of communism and between the program that is and can be carried out by the current Afghan government. We must not hide our face for a minute. But this does not prevent us from expressing sympathy and rendering full assistance to the reformist undertakings of the friendly Afghan government and the progressive creativity of enlightened absolutism in Afghanistan. We do not become monarchists for a minute, nor adherents of absolutism. This should be clear to everyone. But we render all possible assistance to the reformist undertakings of the progressive-minded emir.
You must in every possible way avoid the fatal mistake of artificial attempts to impose communism in the country. We say to the Afghan government: we have one system, you have another; we have some ideals, you have others; however, we are bound by a common desire for complete independence, independence and initiative of our peoples. We do not interfere in your internal affairs, we do not interfere with the initiative of your people; we assist every phenomenon that plays a progressive role in the development of your people. We do not think for a minute to impose on your people such a program that is alien to them at the current stage of their development.
On the other hand, you must reckon with some dangerous deviations for us in a certain section of the Afghan ruling circles, who dream of creating a coalition of reactionary Muslim states under Afghan hegemony. Until now, British agents have supported and developed in every possible way these aspirations that are dangerous to us on the part of the Afghan government. We are fulfilling the agreement with England with full loyalty, and we, for our part, have the right to demand the same loyalty from her. You are instructed to watch closely whether the British representatives are continuing the same attempts to play on the trickle of some Afghan politicians' aspirations for reactionary pan-Islamist hegemony, which is dangerous to us, and whether British agents continue to create difficulties for Soviet power in Central Asia in this way.
Peaceful cooperation between peoples is concretely presented to us primarily in the form of trade, and Afghanistan in this respect is of great value to us. This is not the place to go into the details of this issue, for this is the task of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. I will only point out that in this area there are dangerous deviations against which you should be on your guard, namely, the desire of some part of the Afghan trading circles to engage in speculation in Central Asia and seriously harm the economic situation of the latter. It is precisely the economic area of our cooperation with Afghanistan, with its enormous positive significance for us and with the seriousness of the harm that these dangerous deviations can cause us in this area, that makes us pay serious attention to the development of our consular network in Afghanistan. the right to which the Russian-Afghan treaty gives us. We need consuls in Afghanistan for the development of trade and are also necessary in order to fight against those negative phenomena that I mentioned above. We expect you to study this issue thoroughly and send us as soon as possible a comprehensive report on the economic prospects in Afghanistan and the challenges facing our consuls in this regard.
The main idea with which you should approach all the tasks facing you is the long-term nature of the current period of our development and world relations in general. Historical development is currently proceeding at a slower pace. The work we do is designed to last. Likewise, our relations with other states have the character of long, slow and painstaking work. Such is the political and economic work that is facing you in Afghanistan, extremely responsible and important for our entire life.
With communist greetings,
[Chicherin]
Translated by contribter of ML Blog
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