Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia, Georgy Chicherin, sent a note with a proposal for a peace treaty. It was a de facto recognition of the Lithuanian state. Similar proposals were delivered to Latvia and Estonia. On September 14 and 15, the Baltic states held a trilateral meeting in Tallinn and agreed to begin simultaneous peace talks with the Soviets. However, Lithuania delayed contacting Moscow and the collective negotiations did not take place. Lithuanian feared that negotiations with communist Russia, which was isolated from European politics, would damage its relationships with the western powers that had not yet recognized Lithuania. While Lithuania was preparing for the first democratic elections to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania, election campaigns urged the government to start negotiations. On March 31, 1920, Augustinas Voldemaras, the Lithuanian minister of foreign affairs, informed Soviet diplomats that Lithuania was ready to open the talks if Moscow recognized Lithuania within its ethnic lands and acknowledged Vilnius as its capital. The Soviets agreed to discuss the situation and suggested for preliminary negotiations to begin on April 15. The talks in Moscow did not begin until May 7. Positions The Lithuanian delegation, led by Tomas Naruševičius, demanded for Russia to recognise the independent Lithuania as a legal successor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but the Soviet delegation, led by Adolph Joffe, was prepared to recognize Lithuania only based on the self-determination principle. Territorial disputes were the most contentious issue. Lithuania demanded the territories of former Kovno, Vilna, Grodno and Suwałki Governorates. Those areas, according to the Lithuanians, were ethnically Lithuanian. M. Balinsky's census of 1857 was provided as evidence that the territory was inhabited primarily by Lithuanians. Lithuanians asserted that the large Jewish and Belarusian populations in the region wanted to be part of Lithuania. They brought a representative of each group, Simon Rosenbaum and Dominyk Semashko, to support that case. It was agreed that the territory of Lithuania could be easily identified, as it was inhabited by Litvaks. The Second Polish Republic also laid claim to the territory and had actual control over it at the time, especially Vilnius Region, and a few years later, the Republic of Central Lithuania was established. The Soviets agreed to recognize the territory to Lithuania if it agreed to form a military alliance against Poland, which was engaged in the Kiev Offensive against Soviet Russia. The Lithuanians were tempted by the opportunity to regain