Source: Tom 17

September 8, 1926

September 8.

Received your letter!

1) Our delegation in Berlin really conducted itself quite well. The AUCCTU report is good on the whole. The AUCCTU appeal is good. Tomsky's interview is good. As for the loan to the General Council or the Miners' Federation, I do not insist. I think we can postpone the question of the loan for now. I proposed the question of the loan in order to show "Europe" that we are not a republic of the "money bag" but people with calculation, that we know how to look after every kopeck, that we give a loan in order to get it back later, and so on. But this question can be postponed for now, and perhaps shelved altogether.

2) As for China, I have already sent a coded message. I am convinced that Kopp and Serebryakov will not carry out our policy; they will only give Zhang the opportunity to play on our shades of opinion and will ruin our cause. Sending Kopp back to Japan is in fact a reversal of the Politburo's decision regarding Kopp and Kamenev. It turns out badly when decisions of the Politburo with one composition are reversed by the same Politburo with a different composition without sufficient grounds. Of course, you see the situation more clearly now, but swinging from one extreme to the other because Zhang, emboldened by Kopp, decided to blackmail us a bit — that should be avoided.

Well, all the best.

I shake your hand.

J. St.

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Source: Letters of J.V. Stalin to V.M. Molotov. 1925–1936. P. 87.

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