Source: Tom 17

August 9, 1929

Greetings, Comrade Molotov!

Voroshilov and I discussed your letter (Sergo left for Nalchik long ago) and came to the following conclusions.

1) On England. If Henderson does not give new grounds for concession (which is unlikely), it would be better to wait on the England question until a decisive upturn in grain procurement, i.e., until mid-October or the end of October. In mid-October or at the end of October, a regular session of the USSR Central Executive Committee [TsIK] could be convened, a NKID report heard, and approximately the following resolution adopted:

"1) To approve the course of action of the NKID;

2) To consider that there are no grounds for violating the generally accepted principle of the preliminary establishment of normal diplomatic relations, which constitutes the necessary legal basis for the subsequent settlement of all disputed questions, claims, and counterclaims;

3) To instruct the USSR Council of People's Commissars to organize a delegation for the Anglo-Soviet conference as soon as the exchange of ambassadors has been carried out."

I believe that this is the only resolution that can be adopted by us. To accept Henderson's proposal means to entangle ourselves and drive ourselves into a trap. To accept Henderson's proposal means:
a) to dishearten Italy, Germany, France, etc., who recognized us without preconditions, and push them toward a break with us;
b) to strengthen those elements in America who do not want to recognize us;
c) to justify the actions of the Conservatives, who broke with us;
d) to help all the Deterdings and Chamberlains shift the center of gravity from normal economic relations to the question of debts, claims of private individuals, and propaganda;
e) to silently agree that we will pay debts not only to England but also to Germany, France, etc., since agreement to Henderson's proposal creates a precedent that all will inevitably seize upon;
f) to facilitate the creation of a united anti-Soviet front.

The worst of all is that, even if we agree to Henderson's proposal, we will not achieve the restoration of relations, since we will never reach agreement on the disputed questions, because MacDonald, by all appearances, wants to seriously retreat from the 1924 treaty and impose completely unacceptable clauses on us.

Right now Henderson and MacDonald are in our hands, since we can denounce them for wanting to be a more bourgeois government than the fascists in Italy, than the capitalists of France and Germany, who recognized us without preconditions. Then (if we accept Henderson's proposal) we will be in their hands, since they will denounce us for not valuing the cause of peace and therefore not making concessions on disputed questions, for which reason they do not consider it possible to recognize the USSR, and so on.

To accept Henderson's conditions means to walk into a trap set for us by our enemies.

The proposed draft TsIK resolution is, in my opinion, the only acceptable answer to the swindling of the bourgeoisie and its lackeys from the "workers' government."

As for Bukharin (publication of the ECCI decision, etc.), we are fully in agreement with you.

Rakovsky should be sent somewhere farther into the interior, so that he cannot continue ranting in the press against the Bolsheviks.

Both of Bukharin's letters I consider fraudulent. This Kadet privat-docent apparently does not understand that you cannot fool Bolsheviks with swindling letters. A typical Kadet lawyer.

As for Komsomolskaya Pravda, things turned out not badly.

That is enough for now. I shake your hand.

August 9, 1929.

J. Stalin.

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Source: Letters of J.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925–1936. P. 139–141.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 1. D. 5388.