From the very first Lenin has advocated this policy, with the expressed belief that Bolshevist-aided revolutions would soon overthrow all existing governments and release him from his obligations.
As early as February, 1919, Tchitcherin, the Soviet Commissary for Foreign Affairs, sent to the governments of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States a note in which he said:
Seeing the great interest which has always been shown by foreign capital for the exploitation of Russia's natural riches, the Russian Soviet Government is disposed to grant concessions upon mines, forests, and so on, to citizens of the Entente Powers, under conditions which must be carefully determined so that the economic and social order of Soviet Russia should not suffer from the internal rule of these concessions.
At the meeting of the Russian Communist Party on March 15th, 1921, Kameneff used an identical argument (Moscow Wireless, March 18, 1921):
… Can we without the assistance of foreign capital rapidly restore our economic life? No, we cannot. We must have the assistance of foreign experts. By heroic concentration of strength we might have restored our economic life independently but for this we would require a very long time.
Yes, the foreign capitalists will not assist us for nothing! We will have to pay them a liberal tribute. … World capital having received this tribute from us will increase the productive power cf Russia and will thus play the role predicted for it by Marx: Capital will dig for itself its historic grave.
