Cable, Filippov [Stalin] to Mao Zedong [via Kovalev]

[...]

Convey to c[omrade] Mao Zedong the following telegram:

"1. We consider your plan of the organization of the government and the further campaign to take over the west and the south to be sensible and fairly expedient. If we still say that intervention and blockade cannot be ruled out, then it is because when making a plan one should take into consideration not only the good, but the worst as well, so as to hedge against accidents and not to be caught unawares.

2. [We] advise to pay serious attention to Xinjiang, where there is oil in the subsoil and where you will be able to obtain cotton. It will be difficult for you without your own oil. If one were to begin work soon in Xinjiang, then after 2-3 years one could have one's own oil.

One could lay an oil pipeline from the area of extraction and processing of oil to the Qinzhou station, and from Qinzhou you could ship oil around China both by water and by the railroad. Therefore you should not delay for a long time the taking of Xinjiang. One army will be needed for this business. You exaggerate the forces of Ma Bufang. In accordance with our information, he is not that strong.

Filippov."

Telegraph implementation.

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