File No. 861.00/1212

The Consul General at Moscow ( Summers) to the Secretary of State

No. 200

Sir: I have the honor to report to the Department that the secretary of the Bolshevik plenipotentiaries, Karakhan, has telegraphed as follows to the Petrograd Bolshevik organization:

There is being circulated among the German soldiers an appeal, signed by Lenin and Trotsky, in which it is stated, among other things, that in case German soldiers are compelled to go to the assistance of their base, the Russian soldiers will not advance. These sheets are being distributed among the German soldiers by the million. On this account members of the German delegation of plenipotentiaries made the following declaration to Karakhan:

The leaflet circulated among the German soldiers in the name of the Russian Government is an interference in the internal affairs of Germany. From the beginning of the Russian revolution Germany has repeatedly and officially declared that it will in no case interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, and that it categorically demands reciprocity for itself.

It is disloyal of the Russian Government to try to instigate open rebellion against the government with whose representatives it has concluded an armistice, or to incite sabotage, which would be useful only to the foreign enemies of Germany in the west.

Such double-dealing suggests that the apparent desire of the Russian Government to proceed from armistice to peace with Germany is not sincere.

The leaflet menaces the successful course of the negotiations and thus encourages the enemies of the armistice and of peace, who desire to break off the negotiations and continue military operations between Germany and Russia.

The Russians should be aware that wide circles in Germany doubt the legal qualifications of the Russians to carry on negotiations for armistice and peace, as the Russian Government has so far not obtained general recognition. Such disloyal conduct on the part of the Russian Government only increases the numbers of those sharing this view, and this might thus threaten the negotiations now in course. This sheet shows that its authors view the internal situation in Germany in a false light. But as this false light is one of the essential factors of their political calculation, it may turn out that this entire calculation will miscarry. And if this is so, it suggests doubt of the permanence of the Russian Government and thereby creates a doubt whether it will be able to bring the proposed negotiations with Germany to a conclusion.

I have [etc.]

Maddin Summers