V. I. Lenin to the Emir of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan. -letters
USSR foreign policy documents. Volume 4. p. 93. Moscow. State Political Publishing House. 1960
Between April 20 and early May 1921
The Government of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic expresses its gratitude to you for your handwritten letters and sincere and friendly high thoughts about the relations between the two great states - Afghanistan and Russia.
I am happy to inform you that the friendly treaty between the two states was signed in Moscow on February 28, 1921 by the representatives of both states and approved by the supreme body of the Russian Soviet Republic - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies.
The treaty between the two states formally consolidated friendship and mutual sympathy, which have been developing and strengthening between Afghanistan and Russia for two years now, and to strengthen which they put a lot of work Representative of the High Afghan State in Russia highly respected Mohammed Wali Khan and Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Kabul Yakov Zakharovich Surits.
The Russian Soviet Government and the High Afghan State have common interests in the East, both States value their independence and want to see each other and all the peoples of the East independent and free. Both states are brought together not only by the above circumstances, but especially by the fact that there are no issues between Afghanistan and Russia that could cause disagreements and cast at least a shadow over Russian-Afghan friendship. The old imperialist Russia has disappeared forever, and the northern neighbor of the High Afghan State is the new Soviet Russia, which has extended the hand of friendship and brotherhood to all the peoples of the East and the Afghan people in the first place.
The High Afghan State was one of the first states whose representatives we were happy to meet in Moscow, and we are happy to note that the first Treaty of Friendship that the Afghan people concluded was a Treaty with Russia.
We are confident that our sincere desire will be fulfilled and that Russia will forever remain the first friend of the High Afghan State for the benefit of both peoples.
The government of the RSFSR has taken measures to eliminate minor misunderstandings between Afghan officials and Russian local authorities, and, according to our information, relations on the ground have improved in accordance with the spirit of friendship that exists between the two High States.
Some thoughts touched upon by Your Majesty in the last letter concerning mutual sympathy for the liberation of the peoples of the East, have been accepted by us with great sympathy and joy. We took them with a seriousness corresponding to the lofty thoughts touched in them. We have commissioned our Extraordinary Representative Suritsu to personally explain our thoughts to you.
The Government of the RSFSR would like to note the merits of your Ambassador Extraordinary Mohammed Wali Khan, worthy of the greatest approval, in strengthening friendship between the two states and concluding a friendly Treaty.
Convinced of the further strengthening of the ties of friendship between Russia and Afghanistan, I allow myself to express to you my sympathy and confidence that the independence of the High Afghan State will not be shaken by anyone by force or cunning.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
This letter of V.I. Lenin was a response to two letters of Amanullah Khan dated November 6 and December 1, 1920, with a similar content. The last letter said:
“On the occasion that the last negotiations on the establishment of the foundations of good-neighborly friendly relations between
By the Government of the Russian Soviet Republic, under your High Chairmanship, and by my Royal Government, and that they ended in a friendly treaty, I congratulate my High Friend, Chairman Lenin, express my joy on this occasion and hope that the said treaty will be approved as soon as possible and contained in it. the regulations will take effect.
In view of the fact that the Government of the Russian Soviet Republic directed its benevolent intentions and feelings towards the overthrow of imperialism throughout the world, and especially towards the liberation of the peoples of the East from despotism and world imperialists, and towards strengthening the position that each people determines its own state destinies, these questions were the only ones. cause of the greatest desire for a settlement of relations between my Royal Government and the Government of the Russian Soviet Republic.
We also consider the mutual obligations in the concluded agreement in the sphere of the same policy regarding the provision and protection of the full independence of the Governments of Bukhara and Khiva as real proof of the same freedom-loving ideas.
From His Excellency Dzhemal Pasha 2, who arrived in our capital these days, we heard about all the noble thoughts and intentions of the Government of Soviet Russia to liberate the entire eastern world and that the said Government entered into an alliance with the Government of Turkey, which in this war was attacked by the most in an unfair way, and in strengthening this union provided her with material and moral assistance. These explanations and messages have strengthened and confirmed even more than before, our hopes and hopes for the actions of your State.
The Afghan Government cherishes good hopes regarding these common goals, to which it attaches great importance, bases its policy on this humane goal towards all mankind and is ready by all means and at all times to pursue the continuation of mutual friendship. Therefore, the Afghan Government hopes that this sincerity in its thoughts and hopes will be received from Your High Side with the respect and trust that it deserves, and I most firmly hope that, in order to translate these thoughts and hopes into action, you will in a special way with your On the high side, make it easier to endeavor to achieve some real-world opportunity.
The treaty we concluded established the foundations of our sincere relations, and we have no doubt that these foundations will be even more strengthened and consolidated in the future, and that the achievement of these lofty common goals will justify the wishes of both parties.
Since it is my sovereign desire that some of the misunderstandings, which have so far been caused by officials of both sides in the current relations of both States, should be hastily eliminated, the necessary orders were given to the appropriate persons. I hope that you, on your High side, will deign to give identical orders to the appropriate persons in order to facilitate friendly relations.
Separately, I ask you not to refuse to give your orders that, as soon as possible, the proposals made by our Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs of your High Government regarding some additional agreements, such as: economic and consular representatives, will be accepted, which will strengthen and regulate relations between both States.
I hope that our pursuit of aspirations, the goal of which is the liberation of the entire eastern world, will be crowned with success, and I ask you to accept the expression of my utmost respect ”,
1 The original of the published message of V. I. Lenin is not dated (there is a photocopy of the original in the archive).
The CEC approved the Soviet-Afghan treaty (as mentioned in the message) on April 20, 1921.
The plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Afghanistan Ya. Z. Surits reported to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs on May 28, 1921 that an officer of the plenipotentiary mission delivered the text of the ratification instrument to Kabul on May 26.
In a letter from Ya. Z. Surits to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Mahmoud Tarzi dated June 12, 1921, it was said, in particular: of our Government, Comrade Lenin. "
Since the delivery of diplomatic mail from Moscow to Kabul at that time usually took 3-4 weeks, it is assumed that the secretary of the embassy left Moscow no later than early May 1921 and that, thus, the published message was written between April 20 and early May 1921
The letter from the Emir of Afghanistan dated December 1, 1920 (see pp. 94-95) 'refers to the draft Soviet-Afghan treaty, worked out by the parties in Kabul on September 13, 1920. The treaty was signed in Moscow on February 28, 1921.
2 In 1920, the Emir of Afghanistan invited Jemal Pasha, a former Turkish naval minister who had been in exile in Germany since 1918, to take up the post of military adviser to the Afghan government.
On the way to Afghanistan in the spring of 1920, Dzhemal Pasha stopped in Moscow, where he visited the leaders of the Soviet government and was informed about the friendly policy of Soviet Russia towards the oppressed peoples of the East who were fighting for their independence.
November 27, 1919
To His Majesty the Emir of Afghanistan
Having received your Majesty's highly valued letter through your Ambassador Extraordinary, Honorable Mohammed Wali Khan, I hasten to thank you for your greeting and for your initiative to establish friendship between the great peoples of Russia and Afghanistan.
From the first days of the glorious struggle of the Afghan people for their independence, the Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Russia did not hesitate to recognize the new order of things in Afghanistan, solemnly recognize its full independence and sent its embassy to create a permanent and unremitting connection between Moscow and Kabul. At present, flourishing Afghanistan is the only independent Muslim state in the world, and fate sends the Afghan people the great historical task of uniting all the enslaved Muslim peoples around them and leading them on the path of freedom and independence.
The Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Russia instructs its embassy in Afghanistan to enter into negotiations with the government of the Afghan people to conclude trade and other friendly agreements, the purpose of which is not only to strengthen good-neighborly relations for the greater benefit of both peoples, but also to jointly fight with Afghanistan against the most rapacious imperialist government in the world, Great Britain, whose intrigues, as you rightly point out in your letter, have hitherto hindered the peaceful and free development of the Afghan people and alienated them from their closest neighbors.
From conversations with your Ambassador Extraordinary, Honorable Mohammed Wali Khan, I learned that you are ready to begin negotiations on friendly agreements in Kabul, as well as the desire of the Afghan people to receive military assistance from the Russian people against England. The workers 'and peasants' government is inclined to provide the Afghan people with this assistance on the widest scale and, moreover, to restore justice trampled upon by the former governments of the Russian tsars. We have proposed to your ambassador and ordered our Turkestan authorities to form a mixed commission to rectify the Russian-Afghan border, in the sense of expanding Afghan territory, based on law, justice and the free will of the peoples inhabiting the border areas. We hope that this commission, with your approval, will immediately begin work,
Our government, at the request of your ambassador, communicated by radio with the governments of Russia's neighboring states in order to ensure the further passage of the Afghan embassy to Europe and America, but, unfortunately, the intrigues of the same interested power, which you mention in your highly valuable letter, did not made it possible for Your Highness to carry out this plan, and your embassy is forced to choose a different path. Releasing him with all the good wishes of the Russian people, I, on behalf of the Workers 'and Peasants' Government, bear my heartfelt greetings to you and the entire Afghan people.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
November 27, 1919
Kremlin, Moscow.
Published in part - "Pravda". No. 100, April 29, 1928
Fund 2. Op. 1.D. 11873. L. 5-6 - copy in Russian.
Lenin presented his letter on November 27, 1919 to the Afghan emergency mission headed by Ambassador Mohammed Wali Khan before her departure to her homeland. Together with a copy of Lenin's letter in the RCKHIDNI, there is a translation of the emir's letter marked by VI Lenin: "Secret in the archive" (f. 2, op. 1, d. 11873, p. 7).
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