A typed letter, signed by Soviet leader Josef Stalin and head of government Vyacheslav Molotov, has been sold for $12,500 at an auction in New York, the Sotheby's auction house said.

In the letter addressed to Mongolian leader Choibalsan, Stalin and Molotov request thousands of tons of wool and down to clothe the Red Army troops in exchange for aid to the Mongolian Republic.

Although Sotheby's said "a document signed by Stalin and Molotov addressed to a head of state is of the utmost rarity," it was sold at the auction on Friday less than its estimate of up to $25,000.

In December 2006, Sotheby's sold Stalin's short handwritten note to his close associate Kliment Voroshilov for $39,000.

The auction house said in a commentary that the note to Voroshilov illustrated Stalin's "method of working without the aid of a secretary or a typewriter."

NEW YORK, December 12 (RIA Novosti)