Sotheby's auctioned a letter of Joseph Stalin

[Евгений]

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Auction house Sotheby's auctioned a letter signed by Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov. Information about the item posted on the official site of the auction.
Letter signed by Stalin, dated January 8, 1940 and addressed to the head of the Mongolian People's Republic "to someone Choi Balsanu. In a letter to Stalin asked his colleague to "procure and sell the USSR 30 thousand tons of wool, 8 thousand tons of camel wool, a thousand tons of goat wool and down." In response to the Soviet Union promises to "take all measures to meet the requests" for assistance from the MPR.

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The accompanying commentary explains a lot, given that the wool then be dedicated to the manufacture of army uniforms for the Red Army was preparing "an invasion" of Germany. According to the organizers of the auction, Stalin, "order" from the MPR materials for production of winter clothing, learned a lesson from the Russo-Finnish War, during which Soviet troops were forced to fight in difficult climatic conditions.

The sale, which, in addition to the letters of Stalin, exhibited in 1930 Leon Trotsky's memoirs, "My Life", will be held in New York on 11 December. Preliminary assessment of Stalin's letter set at 15-25 thousand dollars. Estimate of Trotsky's memoirs is 4-6 thousand.