Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Volume I

File No. 861.00/1028

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

No. 212

Moscow, December 15, 1917.
[Received January 30, 1918.]

Sir: I have the honor to report to the Department in regard to political developments in Russia during the first half of December. This period has been marked by negotiations for an armistice; the issuance of decrees confiscating private property in land and buildings, repudiating the public debts contracted or held abroad and introducing the election of military officers; by the beginning of civil war in south Russia; and by the adoption by the Maximalist organization of measures designed to defer or prevent the assemblage of the Constitutional Convention.

The elections to the Constitutional Convention have not been finished. The Electoral Commission has been under arrest and is now hindered in its work. Up to December 13, according to returns published in the Utro Rossii of this city, 219 members have been returned. Of these 117 are Socialist Revolutionaries, 25 are other moderate socialists, 12 are Constitutional Democrats, 60 are Maximalists and 5 are scattering opponents of Maximalism. The Socialist Revolutionaries expect to elect not less than 350 of the entire membership of upwards of 800. They have declared through their press their firm resolve to act with the Constitutional Democrats in opposition to the Maximalists.

The elections are held under a decree giving every man or woman an equal voice. The balloting is conducted in the simplest manner. Summonses are distributed through the house committees in the cities and through the village authorities. After showing his summons the voter deposits a sheet on which is printed a number indicating which list of candidates he prefers. No changes are permitted. Where there is more than one member to be chosen the proportional system prevails.

When it began to appear that the Maximalists would be a decided minority in the Constitutional Convention, the Maximalist organization threw off the mask of friendship for the convention. It will be recalled that one of their devices when overthrowing the Provisional Government was to assure their followers that they were the only friends of the convention and that their success would assure its assembling. One of their first blows at the convention was the promulgation on December 5 of a decree introducing a form of recall for members. This decree declared:

The Council of Workingmen’s, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Delegates in each election district has the right to order new elections for all municipal, Zemstvo and other representative institutions, not excluding the Constitutional Convention. Upon the demand of more than half the electors the council must order new elections.

In announcing this decree “Lenin” (Ulyanov) explained that important party changes had been going on during the election campaign.

It soon became evident, however, that more radical steps would have to be taken to prevent the Constitutional Convention from fulfilling its functions. On December 11, when two or three score of deputies proceeded to the Tauride Palace in Petrograd they found Red Guards and garrison soldiers in command there, and they learned that three deputies, belonging to the Constitutionalist Democratic Party, had been arrested that morning in the home of Countess S. V. Panin, former Assistant Minister of Education, who was also placed in detention. The deputies assembled in the hall formerly occupied by the National Duma, found less than a quorum present, elected a provisional president, and adjourned till the following day. The members arrested were A. I. Shingarev, Prince P. D. Dolgorukov and Professor F. F. Kokoshkin, of the University of Moscow. In accepting election as provisional president, V. M. Chernov, former Minister of Agriculture and the present leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries, made an address that seemed to indicate a change of heart since he left the Kerensky cabinet, or else that he was misjudged at that time. Chernov had recently returned from Mogilev, where it had been reported that he was in conference with the army committees in regard to the formation of a government to replace the Maximalist organization. In his address he declared that the people expected the Constitutional Convention to assume all its rights. Only the Constitutional Convention could speak words that would not be mere fireworks. The convention should declare now that, with the opening of the convention, there was no other authority in Russia than itself.

On Wednesday, December 12, the deputies found the Tauride Palace occupied by 8,000 soldiers with machine guns. Orders had been issued to permit entry only upon passes issued by the military commandant of the palace, and to forbid any further meetings of the deputies until not less than 400 should be present. The sailors at the doors of the session hall wavered and the deputies succeeded in holding a brief meeting in which the arrival of two dozen or so more additional deputies was announced, and adjournment was taken until Thursday. The building was then cleared.

Among the deputies present there was not a single Constitutional Democrat, and not a single Maximalist. The Maximalist deputies were detained at the Smolny Institute in order to break a quorum, if necessary. Orders had been issued to admit no Constitutional Democrat and to arrest all their leaders. During Tuesday and Wednesday F. I. Rodichev, Mayor Shreider of Petrograd and former Minister of Trade Kutler were arrested. The arrest of the latter was accompanied by the discharge of firearms, though no resistance was offered. Mr. Kutler was wounded slightly. The proscription list is supposed to contain the names of P. N. Milyukov, M. M. Vinaver and V. M. Chernov. Milyukov and Vinaver are in hiding. About 200 other arrests were made in Petrograd. Some were conducted to the Smolny Institute, some to the Peter-Paul Fortress and some to the prison known as the “Kresty.” The prisoners are said to have been harshly treated, being threatened with the butts of rifles and being subjected to other insults. The Maximalist organization has ordered the trial of the Constitutionalist Democratic leaders before a revolutionary tribunal on a charge of complicity in the plans of Grand Ataman Kaledin of the Don Cossacks and of Generals Kornilov and Denikin, who are trying to join Kaledin.

The decree in regard to private property in land has been reported to the Department.¹

The decree in regard to private property in land and buildings in cities and towns was published on Thursday, December 13, in the Moscow organ of the Maximalists. It reads as follows:

Until otherwise ordered, it is decreed as follows:

1. Beginning with December 12 tenants of parcels of land and of buildings of every kind are forbidden to pay the agreed rental to the owners of such buildings. Tenants of rooms and beds are not affected by this order.

2. The administration of real estate is transferred to the house committees. Where they do not exist they must be formed at once.

3. House committees are authorized to receive not more than half of the rental to cover expenses of management. House committees are obliged to report their expenditures and to turn in the remainder of the money paid to them to the institutions to be designated in a later decree.

4. The remainder of the rental must be paid by the tenants into such offices as shall be designated in a later decree.

5. Tenants that pay rent to house-owners and house-owners receiving it are subject to ejectment after three days from the premises they occupy and to imprisonment up to three months.

The decrees in regard to the repudiation of the public debts, as far as held abroad,¹ and in regard to the election of military officers,² have been reported to the Department.

The terms of armistice signed at Brest Litovsk [on December 5] between plenipotentiaries from Russia and by representatives of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were as follows:³

1. To suspend all military operations, beginning from December 6 until noon of December 30 [December 17/4].

2. Both parties have the right to resume military operations after that date by giving a three days’ notice.

(a) The suspension of military operations embraces all land and aerial forces of the above-mentioned countries between the Baltic and the Black Seas and on the Russo-Turkish front in Asia.

(b) It also embraces the German land forces on the Moon Sound Islands.

(c) Hydro-aeroplane squadrons have the right to fly only over the sea.

(d) The shelling of land positions by naval forces is forbidden.

3. Advanced lines of defense will serve as demarcation lines on the European fronts. The space between these lines is neutral. On the Asiatic front demarcation lines will be established by agreement between the Commanders in Chief.

4. Both parties agree to issue strict orders against passing the demarcation lines.

5. During the whole period of the suspension of military operations only such dislocations of troops in units surpassing divisions may take place as were directed not later than December 4.

6. All separate truces heretofore made by individual units are void.

A report in regard to a protest made by the German authorities against the distribution of revolutionary leaflets among the German armies before and during the truce negotiations has been made to the Department.

On December 1 the Russian General Staff at Mogilev was holding out against the Maximalist organization, and it was supported by a General Army Committee, representing troops of the several sectors of the front. Owing to the refusal of Grand Ataman Kaledin to recognize the Maximalist regime, Red Guards and troops were moved from Petrograd and other places in the direction of Novocherkassk. It was reported that troops not considered trustworthy agents for the dispersal or coercion of the Constitutional Convention were selected for service against the Cossacks and against the General Staff, and that sailors and Lettish battalions were drawn into Petrograd to replace them.

On the morning of December 2 sailors and Red Guards arrived at Mogilev and occupied the staff headquarters without meeting with opposition. Shortly afterwards sailors murdered Commander in Chief Dukhonin, according to prearranged plan, it appears. The Maximalist Commander in Chief Krylenko protested against this act of barbarism. General Kornilov and General Denikin and other officers fled, the one from Bykhov, near Mogilev, in company with his faithful Tekkintsy guards, the others with six battalions of shock troops. They foresaw the surrender of the staff headquarters and got away the night of December 1. The shock battalions moved in six trains of 50 coaches each in the direction of Belgorod, with the object of effecting a junction with Kaledin at Novocherkassk. Maximalist troops occupied Belgorod. General Kornilov marched by land in the same general direction. Fighting began near Belgorod on December 7. The first echelon of the shock troops was forced to fall back, and it was reported that 80 men were taken by the Maximalists. The battle lasted the greater part of the day. Artillery was employed on both sides. The losses of the shock troops were very slight. The number of killed and wounded on the side of the Maximalists has not been reported, but it was not large. The shock troops were reported to be in a difficult situation with respect to locomotives, part of those at their disposal having broken down, and with respect to food supplies, which they were obliged to requisition from the peasants, and this stirred ill-will against them. It was reported on Thursday, December 13, that the shock troops had succeeded in slipping away from the Maximalists and were again in motion. General Kornilov does not seem to have effected a junction with General Denikin’s forces, and his whereabouts was not known at last accounts.

Events in the lower Don Basin have been leading up to a breach ever since the defeat of the Government forces at Moscow. Many of the officers and Junker’s of Moscow slipped away in civilian clothes and took refuge in the Don Territory. Hundreds of officers from the front and large numbers of Cossacks also went to the Don Territory, and Grand Ataman, or Hetman, Kaledin took measures to prevent their return to the front, anticipating the speedy cessation of military operations against Germany and Austria-Hungary and fearing that the Cossacks at the front would be involved in broils with Maximalist forces. He was also naturally desirous of strengthening his forces in order to repel expected invasion from the north.

On December 4, having received word that the Maximalists were moving considerable bodies of troops against the Don Cossacks, and that “Lenin” (Ulyanov) had proclaimed open war against the latter, Ageev, head of the civil administration of the Cossack territory, issued an appeal for all the Don Cossacks to take arms in defense of their land and liberty. On December 8 the Council of the General Cossack League, embracing representatives of all the twelve Cossack armies, adopted the following resolution:

The Council of the League of Cossack Armies …¹ adhering to the resolution of the Don government and of the Don group of the Cossack Congress at the front, declares:

1. The Cossacks seek and demand nothing for themselves beyond the bounds of their territories, but at the same time, being guided by the democratic principle of the autonomy of the peoples of Russia, will not tolerate in their territories any other authority than that of the people, organized through voluntary agreement on the part of the several nationalities, without outside pressure of any kind.

2. The sending of punitive expeditions against Cossack territories, particularly that of the Don, …¹ will interfere with the movement of trains of provisions, coal and naphtha to the cities of Russia.

3. The Cossacks protest against the movement of outside troops into Cossack territories without the consent of the military or territorial governments of these territories.

4. The Cossacks have made infinite sacrifices in the defense of the country, and they will not bear any responsibility for the consequences of any peace that may be concluded without the consent of the whole people, expressed through the Constitutional Convention.

The Maximalists in the lower basin of the Don demanded the submission of Hetman Kaledin and the entire Don government. The other elements of the Rostov Council of Workingmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies withdrew as a protest against the bloodshed, which was foreseen. After some negotiations between Kaledin’s representatives and the Maximalists, in the presence of the assistant mayor of Rostov, on December 7 a party of Cossacks and Junkers attempted to arrest the Maximalist rump of the council. Several persons were killed and a few others were wounded. The attempt did not succeed. Fighting was begun about the same time at the neighboring town, or suburb, of Nakhichevan, populated chiefly by Armenians. Infantry, artillery and machine guns were employed. Three trawlers of the Black Sea Fleet came up the Don River and bombarded Nakhichevan and Rostov, without much effect, it appears. There was at first no decided success of either party, but it appears that the Cossack general Pototski was captured at the Rostov railway station, the Maximalists disarming at the same time a party of Junkers from Kiev. In the beginning the Cossacks had only about 2.000 armed men in Rostov, it is reported, whereas the Maximalist regiments numbered about 15,000, in addition to Red Guards and Black Sea sailors. At the time that the Cossack government disarmed the 272d and 273d Regiments at Novocherkassk and that the Kuban government disarmed two brigades of artillery at Ekaterinodar, Hetman Kaledin seems to have planned the disarmament of the Maximalist garrisons at Rostov and Taganrog also, but he prudently delayed action that might provoke hostilities, on account of the somewhat complicated situation in these cities.

In the course of the next two days the fighting seems to have gained intensity, and it is reported that the Maximalists suffered great losses at Nakhichevan. The Junkers and older Cossacks, arriving from Novocherkassk, proved to be well-disciplined and steadfast troops. The Cossacks in and around Rostov and Taganrog had been to a certain extent gained over by the Bolsheviki, or at least were made to waver in their loyalty to the Cossack government. The new forces drove the Red Guards from the Rostov railway station.

The last information from the scene of hostilities is contradictory. Usually well-informed circles in Kiev, which is in constant communication with Novocherkassk, is to the effect that the Cossacks have gained the upper hand [sic]. The Maximalists are, however, drawing reinforcements from Moscow, Kharkov and elsewhere. They are trying to get support from Odessa, but the Ukrainians do not seem disposed to permit the passage of troops through territory they control.

The Maximalist organization in Petrograd is spreading reports that their forces have beaten the Cossacks. They declare that Rostov, Nakhichevan and Taganrog are in the hands of their troops, and they assert that there is discontent among the older Cossacks on account of their mobilization. This is, however, discredited. On the contrary, they are represented to be the firmest friends of Hetman Kaledin.

In the meantime the bureau of the Central Cossack League at Petrograd has been visited by the Maximalists and all the officers and attaches were arrested.

A well-informed business man of Rostov has called at this office and furnished some additional information as to the situation in the Cossack territories before his departure from Rostov, immediately preceding hostilities. He said that the population of the Don Territory numbered about 5,000,000, of whom about half were Cossacks. The latter are for the most part well off. The Russian peasants in their territory are also comparatively prosperous and contented. The Russian workingmen of the cities are, however, partly under Maximalist influence, and the miners in the Donets coal basin are always giving trouble. Owing to disagreements between the miners and the coal companies, Kaledin some time ago introduced martial law in the territory, applying it chiefly in the coal basin. This caused estrangement with the city administration of Rostov, largely autonomous, and with the Ukrainists at Kiev. In general, however, relations between the territorial and the city governments were fairly good, and it is now planned to introduce modifications of the territorial government that will satisfy the city and the non-Cossack population of the territory. The large Jewish population of Rostov was in certain ways a source of weakness to Kaledin, as the Cossacks felt indisposed to exert themselves to defend the safety of men that are reputed to be war profiteers above all else. The Cossack government disposed recently of only 16 of the 56 Cossack regiments, the remainder being at the front. The Maximalists have or recently had 15,000 men in Rostov and 10,000 men in Taganrog, in regular army formations. The strength derived by the Maximalists from Red Guard reinforcements could not be easily estimated, but the best of the Maximalist troops were sailors from the Black Sea and Baltic Fleets. The Cossacks have greatly improved their military qualities under Kaledin’s popular administration. They now have artillery, infantry and even aeroplanes, as well as automobiles-blindés. They had good guns but perhaps lacked ammunition, though they control the supplies that had been stored in the territory. The relations between the Cossacks and the Constitutional Democrats are close. The Rostov informant stated that Milyukov, Alexander Guchkov, Rodzyanko and Generals Alexeev and Euzski are at Novocherkassk, the first two incognito. The Maximalists state that Generals Lubomirski and Denikin are also there. The relations between the Don, the Kuban and the Terek Cossacks are particularly close, and there is a good understanding for mutual support with the Orenburg, Ural and Siberian Cossacks. The Cossacks of the Don would like to improve their communications with these farther removed allies by constructing a railway from Rostov to Orenburg, which has railway communication with Siberia. The Rostov informant stated that the question had been broached to an American military attaché and other Americans who were recently at Novocherkassk.

The relations of the Cossacks and the Ukrainists do not seem to be as good as they were some time ago, according to this informant. The Ukrainists have been dissatisfied over the proclamation of martial law in the coal basin, on which they are dependent for fuel, disagreeing with Kaledin as to the necessity and wisdom of the maintenance of martial law. On this point Kaledin has so far been unyielding, refusing to permit outside interference. The presence of dangerous Maximalist agitators among the miners probably justifies his attitude amply.

The Ukrainists, according to this Rostov information, are bent on independence and are more disposed to lean upon Austria-Hungary than any Russian party. This makes them unreliable allies of the Cossacks, yet they cannot afford to join in any attack on the Cossacks, lest their turn should come next. Whether they will actively assist the Cossacks in their proposed march to the north in the late winter or spring remains to be seen.

Rostov, like the remainder of Russia, is feeling a scarcity of currency, the peasants hoarding all the paper money that bears the Emperor’s portrait, and was thus issued prior to the revolution. There is said to be only five millions of rubles in the Rostov banks, and there are plans to issue notes under the joint guaranty of the territorial and city governments, of the Treasury and of the branch of the State Bank. These institutions have not recognized the Maximalist organization.

Events have also been ripening at Kiev recently. All the Maximalist military formations there were disarmed on December 12. The aviation park offered resistance and there was some bloodshed. The pontoon battalion, the reserve mountain battery and the heavy artillery, parked across the Dnieper, offered no resistance. The Ukrainists captured quantities of guns and ammunition. The Ukrainists also arrested eight Maximalist leaders, who were trying to organize an attack on the Ukrainian government. From last accounts the Ukrainists seem to have liquidated the Maximalist organization in their capital.

There has been fighting of a severe character between Kuban Cossacks and mountaineers of their neighborhood, who seem to have been instigated by the Maximalists to make a diversion and hinder the Kuban Cossacks from going to the assistance of the Don Cossacks. It is even hinted that German influence has been made felt against the Kuban Cossacks, and it is said that similar intrigues were begun in the Orenburg Cossack Territory, but that the energetic measures of the Orenburg administration made an end of the game. But in a time of general lawlessness it does not require much outside suggestion to send the Caucasus mountaineers again on plundering raids of the Cossack settlements.

The Odessa Maximalists are striving to sow trouble between the Russians and the Rumanians, spreading reports that the Rumanians are planning a separate peace with Germany. What they really aim at is a revolution in Rumania. Of this there are no indications in the Russian press.

In the Moscow Maximalist Council Commissar Friche reported what steps had been taken in concert with the foreign consuls to protect the interests of foreign residents. The council seems to have felt that too much had been done, declaring that any distinction in favor of foreigners was inadmissible, and particularly, that foreign landowners must lose their land, buildings, livestock and equipment along with other landowners.

At Harbin, according to reports dated December 12, as a result of an insult to the American Consul by soldiers at the railway station, the foreign consuls were disposed to take matters into their own hands, and the Russian residents were looking forward with satisfaction to this change. It is to be borne in mind, of course, that the Russian news is now highly colored by party view and interest.

The conservative and opposition socialist press of Moscow has published the names of quite a number of former agents of the secret police under the autocracy that have taken service under the Maximalists, and it is even said that overtures have been made to former Minister of Justice Shcheglovitov, the intellectual leader of the Imperial Council in the period preceding the fall of the autocracy. Shcheglovitov is a jurist of solid attainments and would be able to afford valuable technical assistance. The Maximalists served the autocracy as secret agents, managing to get on better with the old regime, through their common hatred of the more moderate parties, than any other opposition group. It is believed that many Black Hundred leaders are also working with the Maximalists, sabotage against the middle-class parties suiting them exactly.

In the period under review great disorders have taken place, including the plunder of the Winter Palace wine cellars by a regiment of the garrison, apparently with the connivance of the Maximalist leaders, and by the rougher element of the population. There was an orgy of drunkenness for several days. Other wine depots in Petrograd have also been plundered one by one, and the Tsarskoe Selo Palace has been pretty thoroughly looted, according to newspaper accounts.

In the long list of armed attacks on business houses and residences, usually undertaken by persons presenting counterfeit orders to conduct a house search, the most productive in loot recently was made on the home of Countess Ribopierre on December 12. Thirty men ransacked the place and carried off valuables estimated at 300,000 rubles. The general public is convinced that the Red Guards are concerned in many of these exploits.

The Maximalists have destroyed the municipal administration of most Russian cities, having nowhere found formal recognition. They have succeeded in disrupting some of the Zemstvos, or county and state administrations; have dissolved the Military Industrial Committee, and have brought the work of the Zemstvo League for military preparations to a practical standstill. The latter organizations have of course realized for some time that the continuance of military operations on the Russian front was more than problematical, and they were directing their energies toward preparations for the orderly demobilization of industry and the ancillary enterprises of the Zemstvo and Municipal Leagues.

Among the developments expected in the early future is a campaign against the universities and secondary educational institutions. Madame Kolontai, who was once under arrest on account of her financial role but is now Minister of Education, is expected with trepidation by the Moscow gymnasium principals and teachers. No evidence has been offered to disprove the charges made against Madame Kolontai of serving as the medium through which German Government funds were poured into Russia for the disorganization of the Russian Army and country. But naturally this does not discredit her with “Lenin” and “Trotsky.” Her present ambition seems to be to socialize educational institutions, by which she seems to mean making personal addresses on socialism and the like to the pupils, including those in grammar grades. The Maximalists have not announced their plans with respect to cultural studies, but are supposed to have no sympathy with them. It is feared that they intend, if possible, to close the universities and secondary schools or to make them purely practical and technical institutions.

The old established liberal newspaper, the Russkiya Vedomosti of this city, rises to its traditions in a criticism yesterday of the Maximalist decree in regard to urban real estate, pointing out its glaring inconsistencies with itself, with other decrees of the Moscow Maximalists and with every elementary notion of justice. It is pointed out that the decree provides for payment of half the house rent to the house committee and half into some public treasury, yet does not decide which half shall enjoy the stay of six months recently granted rent payers by the same authorities for half of rent payments; that a tax of 20 per cent has just been announced on Moscow real estate, yet there is no provision for relieving the house owner of this burden; that the majority of urban houses are mortgaged, yet there is no provision for payment of interests. This criticism may seem superfluous, as the faults of the Maximalist decrees are self-evident. But it is just such patient explanation that counts in the long run. What is needed now in Russia is the Finnish spirit not to yield an inch, not to recognize illegality, and to hold out indefinitely, as the Finns held out for nearly two decades. The effects of repeated blows at all public and private credit will soon be felt with accumulative force.

It would be a mistake, however, to judge the Maximalist organization by its crude legislation. It is in a hurry and it does not have to reckon yet with intelligent criticism. The Maximalist leaders are not stupid. “Trotsky” (Bronstein), who seems to exceed “Lenin” in qualities of leadership, has displayed an intellect as acute as his will is daring. His policy is becoming clearer daily. It is to gain adherents among as wide classes as possible by means of bribery, and thus make enemies of the Constitutional Assembly, which would surely undo much of his work. The peasants have been invited to help themselves to the landlords’ lands and livestock and implements and stores, and they have done so. The workingmen have been promised the control of factories, and many of them have been seized. The middle-class tenants are offered the control of the houses they live in, deferred rent payments and the suggestion that rent will be largely abolished, and many of the rent payers will be tempted.

Having been convinced that the Maximalists will be in a minority in the Constitutional Convention, Bronstein has boldly announced that the Maximalists will override that institution.

The more remote plans of the Maximalist leaders seem to be outlining themselves more clearly. Of course they realize that the chances are against the realization of their dreams of a socialist democracy, but they are working for it. If they fail they will at least have done their utmost to destroy the present capitalistic structure of society and thus to facilitate, as they believe, the future advances of socialism. And, if they should succeed now in their ultimate aims, they believe that their sabotage would not be disadvantageous to the social structure they design. Take the repudiation of foreign debt, for example. In spite of the “cheerful idiot” remark of the Social Democrat that this measure will improve Russian credit, the Maximalist leaders of course know that the contrary is true. But they calculate that the Russian workingmen and peasants, with their crude tastes, do not require many foreign importations and can produce the foodstuffs and textiles, machinery, tools, nails and the like that they require, or the bulk of them. What is not to be had at home they can get from Germany, exporting in exchange timber, flax and foodstuffs. Their main concern now is to give the soldiers the peace they have promised, making the best terms they can, and to put down opposition at home. According to present prospects both of these tasks will tax every resource at their disposal. A critical moment seems to be approaching.

I have [etc.]

Maddin Summers

1. Ante, p. 299.
1. See despatch dated Dec. 13, 1917, vol. iii, chap. i.
2. Not printed.
3. For the terms of armistice of Dec. 15, see ante, p. 261.
1. Omission indicated in the original.
1. Omission indicated in the original.