LETTER FROM CHICHERIN TO SUN YAT-SEN 1 August 1918 Izvestia, 9 March 1918     The Council of People's Commissars has entrusted me with the honourable duty of thanking you, honoured teacher, for the greetings to the workers' and peasants' Government from the South Chinese Assembly, and of greeting you as the leader of the Chinese revolution and as the man who, since 19 11, has continued in exceptionally difficult circumstances to march at the head of the Chinese democracy against the enslavers, the North Chinese and foreign imperialist Governments.     When you sent greetings to the workers' and peasants' Government of Russia you, honoured teacher, pointed out that the Russian and Chinese revolutions had common aims, that they are leading to the liberation of the peoples and to the establishment of enduring peace, based on the recognition of the community of interests of the two great proletariats, the Russian and the Chinese.     This great aim, which we interpret as the establishment of universal peace following from the universal brotherhood of the labouring classes of the nations, has been the basis of the entire activity of the workers' and peasants' Government from the moment when power passed from the hands of the bourgeois Government into the hands of the labouring people. This programme of ours was set forth in the decree on peace which is known to you, honoured teacher, and was repeated in our declaration to the peoples of the East at the Fifth All-Russian Soviet Congress.     Like you, we are encountering incredible difficulties on our path. Surrounded by an iron ring of the bayonets of the imperialist Governments, the hirelings of the bourgeoisie, the Czecho-Slovak hordes, and the Russian bourgeoisie, who desire to restore the monarchy in Russia, we are cut off from our friends, the proletariat of South China. It is now two months since communication with you has been broken. In the East absurd rumours are 14eing spread by our common enemies through the medium of the press in the pay of banks and capitalists, designed to conceal from the Chinese people the truth that the workers' and peasants' Government is in existence, is holding firm, and, wearied by the struggle, now as before is carrying the banner of the victory of the proletariat over the world bourgeoisie, the European robbers and invaders.     Our lot is hard, and the struggle unequal. At a time of so great trial, when the imperialist Governments are stretching out greedy hands from the west and the east, the north and the south, to strangle the Russian revolution and to take away from the Russian peasants and workers what they won for themselves by a revolution such as the world has never seen before, when the Peking Government, the creature of foreign bankers, is prepared to join these robbers-the Russian working classes turn to their Chinese brothers and call them on to the common fight.     For our victory is your victory. Our defeat is your defeat. Let us close the ranks in the great fight for the common interests of the world proletariat. Long live the labouring peasants of China; long live the Chinese workers; long live the alliance of the Russian and Chinese proletariat. Documents on Soviet Foreign Policy [Subject] [Author] [Date]