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

File No. 861.00/413

The Consul at Petrograd ( Winship) to the Secretary of State

No. 306

Petrograd, May 22, 1917.
[Received June 28.]

Sir: I have the honor to report further, referring to my despatch No. 274, dated March 20, 1917,¹ that on May 14 A. I. Guchkov, Minister of War and Navy, resigned, sending the following letter to the Prime Minister, Prince Lvov:

Seeing the condition in which the power of the Government is now placed, and particularly the power of the Minister of the Army and Navy over the army and fleet, conditions which I am unable to change and which threaten the defense, freedom and even the existence of Russia with fatal consequences, I can no more conscientiously continue my duties as Minister of War and Navy and share the responsibilities for the heavy sin which is being carried on against the fatherland. I therefore request the Temporary Government to release me of these duties.

This resignation brought forth the following declaration from the Temporary Government:

On account of A. I. Guchkov’s resignation as Minister of War and Navy and the motives given for such a decision, the Temporary Government wish to state that their view on the present political position as set forth in the invocation to the people, published April 26 [/May 9], 1916 [1917], was acceptable to Mr. Guchkov. In this invocation the Temporary Government declared to the country quite openly, and [in] definite terms, that the state was in danger and that for its salvation all the vital forces of the country must be brought into motion and full confidence manifested. At the same time the Government have unanimously decided to do their utmost in order to summon to their number those creative forces which heretofore have taken no part in the responsible state work. Not awaiting the settlement of this question Mr. Guchkov has found it practicable to relieve himself of his responsibility for Russia’s destiny by resigning (alone) from the Temporary Government.

Seeing clearly those dangers which stand now before Russia after the shock she has experienced, the Temporary Government do not feel that they have the right to discard their burden, and will remain at their posts.

The Temporary Government believe that, after the new representatives of the democracy will be summoned to the responsible state work, the unity and fullness of the power in which the country will find its salvation will be restored.

Guchkov not being versed in military and naval affairs was not sufficiently firm during the first days that the Temporary Government was in power, and the army and navy, where too much liberty cannot be given, got beyond his control.

On May 15 P. N. Milyukov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, resigned, stating that he could not continue with a Ministry whose views were so different to his own. Milyukov is a brilliant man, and well known abroad, especially in America, but at the time when the eyes of all were fixed on him, looking to a declaration of foreign policy, he exhibited little tact and was severely criticized for not making his statements more clear so that they might have been readily understood by the workmen and soldiers. It was, however, hoped that Milyukov would not leave the Ministry but he refused the Ministry of Education which was offered to him.

On May 15 it was feared that the entire Temporary Government might resign, which would have precipitated a new crisis, but on that day it was definitely understood that A. F. Kerensky, then Minister of Justice, would be appointed Minister of War and Navy and that M. I. Tereshchenko, then Minister of Finance, would be appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Coalition Government formed May 19,¹ 1917:

• Minister of Labor, M. I. Skobelev
• Minister of Justice, I. N. Perevertsev
• Minister of Agriculture, V. M. Chernov
• Minister of Provisions, A. V. Peshekhonov
• Minister of War and Navy, A. F. Kerensky
• Minister of Social Security, Professor D. I. Shakhovskoi
• Minister of Finance, A. I. Shingarev
• Minister of Post and Telegraph, I. G. Tseretelli
• Minister of Trade and Industry, A. I. Konovalov
• Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. I. Tereshchenko
• Minister of Ways of Communication, N. V. Nekrasov
• Minister of Education, A. A. Manuilov
• State Auditor, I. V. Godnev
• Chief Procurator of the Synod, V. N. Lvov
• Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister, G. E. Lvov

The following members are socialists: Skobelev, Chernov, Peshekhonov, Kerensky, Tseretelli. All the others are liberals (bourgeois).

The above-named Government was formed after four days of almost continual sitting of the Temporary Government and members of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies. The chief point of discussion at these conferences was the phrase, “Peace without annexations and contributions.”

The following declaration was then published:

declaration of the (coalition) temporary government²

Reformed and strengthened by new representatives of the revolutionary democracy, the Temporary Government declares that it will resolutely put into life ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity under the guise of which the great Russian revolution has been made. The Temporary Government is especially united by the following platform which sets forth its plan of future activity:

1. In the foreign policy the Temporary Government renounces, in accordance with the people, all thought of a separate peace, and openly undertakes as its aim the attaining of universal peace in the shortest possible time. The basis of this peace will be neither the ruling of other nations, nor the taking of their national property, nor the forcible appropriation of foreign territories—a peace without annexations or contributions on a basis of the self-determination of nations. Being strongly confident that, with the fall of the Tsar’s régime in Russia and the establishment of democratic principles in the policy of the interior as well as in the foreign policy, a new factor for aspirations towards a lasting peace and fraternity of nations has been created for the Allied democracies. The Temporary Government will undertake preparatory steps for an agreement with the Allies, based on the declaration of the Temporary Government of March 27 [/April 9].

2. Being confident that the defeat of Russia and her Allies would not only be the beginning of a great calamity for the people, but that it would also delay or make impossible the conclusion of an universal peace on the above-stated principles, the Temporary Government strongly believes that Russia’s revolutionary army will not admit that the German army should destroy our allies on the west and then fall upon us with the whole strength of their arms. The main task of the Temporary Government is to strengthen the principles of democracy in the army, and to organize and strengthen its fighting force for defense as well as for offense.

3. The Temporary Government will resolutely and infallibly struggle with the economic difficulties confronting the country by a further development and organization of the state and public control over production, transportation, exchange, and distribution of provisions.

4. Measures regarding full protection of labor will receive a further energetic development.

5. The settlement of the question of the transition of land to the workingmen (peasants) will be left for the Constitutional Convention. In the meantime the Temporary Government will take all necessary measures, in order to obtain the greatest production of flour for the country, which is in great need, and in order to regulate the use of the land in the interests of the country’s economic development and of the working population.

6. Desiring to reform the financial system along democratic lines, the Temporary Government will give special attention to the increase of the direct taxation of the wealthy classes (the inheritance tax, the taxation of the war superprofits, property tax, etc.).

7. Work regarding the introduction and strengthening of democratic institutions of self-government will be continued with the utmost persistence and rapidity.

8. The Temporary Government will also do their utmost to arrange an early convocation of the Constitutional Convention in Petrograd.

Undertaking as their aim a resolute realization of the above program, the Temporary Government categorically states that success in its work is possible only under the condition that it has the full and absolute confidence of the whole revolutionary people, and the possibility to realize the complete power which is so necessary for the strengthening of the conquests of the revolution and for further development.

Addressing all citizens with a decisive and persistent appeal to maintain the unity of power, embodied in the Temporary Government, it adds that for the salvation of the country it will undertake the most energetic measures against all counter-revolutionary movements, as well as against anarchistic, antireligious, and violent acts, which might disorganize the country and create a good ground for a counter-revolution. The Temporary Government believes that in this way it will meet the decisive support of everyone to whom the freedom of Russia is dear.

(Signatures)

Just before being appointed Minister of War and Navy, Kerensky, then the only socialist member of the Cabinet, made a speech before the soldiers’ convention of delegates from the front in which he repeated Guchkov’s statement, given in last week’s report, that the country is on the verge of ruin, that too many people were acting like rebellious slaves rather than like free citizens, and that he regretted that he had not died two months ago when he believed that Russia had ideals and would live up to them.

It is very significant that in the Ministry above named there are Ministers of Provisions and Social Security (charity) but no Minister of Munitions and the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Navy have been given to one person. Out of the myriad of banners and placards exhibited during demonstrations not one reads, “Hurrah for Russia!”

It has been stated that out [one] of the causes of the length of the discussions was due to a declaration made by Mr. Shingarev that he would leave the Ministry entirely unless he were made Minister of Provisions. The socialists absolutely refused to accede, and unconditionally demanded this portfolio. This incident is already being exploited in the socialist press against the Constitutional Democratic Party (Party of the People’s Freedom), to which Mr. Shingarev belongs, asserting that this middle-class party wanted that portfolio in order to protect the grain dealers and landowners. If the socialist who is now Minister of Provisions adopts radical measures (as he may on the basis of the Government grain monopoly law), there is sure to be serious friction within the Ministry; and the bitterness of the press, that is toned down for the time being, will break out again. Every moment of friction and disagreement within the Ministry brings the dictatorship of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies nearer. It is significant that in entering the Ministry the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies did not insist on an equal division of portfolios by number. They feel that five socialists, with the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies behind them, have as much power in the coalition as the ten liberals, which is true.

Milyukov and Guchkov resigned because Russia’s foreign policy and the condition of the army were the first problems to arise. The new declaration of the coalition Ministry contains definite proposals affecting the Ministry of Finance which may soon bring that ministry into prominence. Questions that vitally interest the workmen, peasants and soldiers may arise at any moment and have an effect on other ministries.

After the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies issued its socialist-pacifist “Proclamation to the Peoples of the World”¹ the minds of the army and the people of Russia were almost exclusively occupied in discussing this document which they believed would precipitate an armistice. The socialists put all the emphasis of their widespread spoken and written agitation on how to end the war quickest, while the liberals emphasized how to end the war best. As Mr. Milyukov says in his speech of explanation, given in full in enclosure 1,² the soldiers “imagined that all these pacifist tendencies and manifestoes were equivalent to an armistice and that there was no more need of fighting.” The speech of Kerensky in the convention of delegates from the front, referred to earlier in this despatch, the appeal “To the Armies” issued by the Council of Workmen’s and Soldier’s Deputies on May 15, and the actual appointment of Kerensky to be Minister of War and of the Navy were all intended to counteract this illusion of the soldiers for which the socialist-pacifists are themselves responsible.

In giving the full text of the “Proclamation to the Armies” issued by the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, a commentary has been added² because the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies is to-day the only institution the overwhelming mass of the soldiers respect, and to show that the socialist leaders of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies are bound and fettered by their doctrinaire socialism and ingrained pacifism, to such an extent that in issuing this document they made a hearty patriotic appeal with one hand, and weakened it with the other.

The soldiers’ primitive way of thinking will not be able to follow the subtle reasoning of the document and will only be impressed by the catchwords shown below.

It begins by a general statement that the present regimé must work hand in hand to overcome the crime and neglect of the old régime, a statement that no Russian party contradicts to-day, and then at once plunges into the narrowly partisan and violent phraseology of the extreme socialist-pacifists: “The working class did not begin the war. The war was begun by the Tsars and capitalists of all countries.” This is the tone set in the opening words of the proclamation and runs through all the rest—the tone of Zimmerwald and Kienthal, which is condemned in all countries except Russia as a pro-German tone.

The good effect of such bold phrases as the one, “Can it be possible we have overthrown Nikolai only to fall at the feet of Wilhelm?” is ruined by the two following paragraphs with the frequent repetition of the phrase, “We are leading you to peace.”

The further facts that Messrs. Skobelev and Tseretelli, who are now in the coalition Ministry, are adherents of these ideas, and that the first paragraph [paragraph 1] of the new declaration of the Temporary Government contains the phrases, “The Temporary Government—openly undertakes as its aim the attaining of universal peace in the shortest possible time,” and “The Temporary Government will undertake preparatory steps for an agreement with the Allies based on the declaration of the Temporary Government of April 10 [9],” lead this Consulate to believe that the motto of the day here, “stiffen the army,” was launched in a way that paralyzes its effect at the very outset.

I have [etc.]

North Winship

[Enclosure—Translation]

Proclamation Issued by the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies

to the armies

Comrades, soldiers at the front!

We hereby make a warm appeal to you in the name of the revolutionary democracy of Russia.

Yours is a heavy task. You have paid a dear price, a price of blood, for the crimes of the Tsar, who sent you to fight and left you without arms, ammunition or food. For it is a fact that the privations you now suffer were caused by the Tsar and his satellites. And the revolution has a hard task before it to bring order out of the chaos left behind by the Tsar’s robbers and executioners.

The working class did not want the war. It did not begin the war. The war was begun by the tsars and capitalists of all countries. Every additional day of the war is an additional day of sorrow and suffering for the people. When it threw off the yoke of the Tsar the people’s first task was to put an end to the war.

The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies sent a proclamation to the peoples of the world, calling on them to end the slaughter. The Council sent this proclamation to the French and to the Germans and to the Austrians.

Russia is waiting for an answer to this appeal.

But remember that our appeal will be worth nothing if Wilhelm’s regiments crush Russia before our brother workmen and soldiers in other countries respond.

Our appeal is worth no more than an empty sheet of paper if all the strength of revolutionary Russia does not stand behind it and if Wilhelm triumphs on the ruins of Russian freedom. The ruin of Russian freedom would be a frightful calamity, impossible to make good again, not only for us but for the working-classes of the entire world. Comrade soldiers! Defend revolutionary Russia with all your strength!

The workmen and peasants of Russia are yearning for peace with all their souls. But the peace that is to come should be a peace set by the agreement of the people of the whole world. What will happen if we work for a separate peace? What will happen if the Russian Army sticks its bayonets into the ground to-day and declares that it does not want to fight any more and that what goes on in other parts of the wide world does not concern it?

What will happen will be this. After crushing our allies in the West, German imperialism will throw all its strength against us. The German Emperor, the German landowners and capitalists, will put their foot on our neck, will seize our cities and villages and burden us with a contribution.

Can it be possible that we have overthrown Nikolai only to fall at the feet of Wilhelm?

Comrade soldiers! The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies is leading you to peace by a different way. We are leading you to peace by calling on the workmen and peasants of Germany and Austria to rise in revolution.

We are leading you to peace by forcing our government to surrender annexationist policies and demanding the same surrender from our allies.

We are leading you to peace by calling an international conference of the socialists of the whole world to rebel against war. Time is needed for the people of the world to awake. Time is needed for them to rise and force with iron hands their tsars and capitalists to peace. Time is needed for the working class of all countries to unite with us to fight mercilessly against bandits and robbers.

But remember, comrade soldiers, that time will never come unless you hold back the enemy, or if your ranks are trampled under foot and the breathless body of the Russian revolution lies inert at Wilhelm’s feet.

Remember, comrades, at the front, in the trenches, you are guarding Russian liberty. Your blood is not defending the Tsar nor his Protopopovs or Rasputins, nor the riches of the landowners and capitalists. You are defending the revolution, you are defending your brothers, the workmen and peasants. May that defense be worthy of its aim and the sacrifices you have already made! The front can not be defended by merely sitting motionless in the trenches. There are times when the enemy’s attack can only be foiled by attacking him.

There are times when humbly waiting to be attacked is equivalent to awaiting death. There are times when an attack is the only way to save yourselves from death and to save your brothers on other parts of the front.

Remember this, comrade soldiers. You have sworn to defend Russian liberty and do not refuse to attack when it is demanded by the fortunes of war. The freedom and fate of Russia are in your hands.

Beware of traps and treachery while defending them. The fraternizing that is going on at the front may easily be turned into a trap. Revolutionary troops can fraternize but with whom? With another army that is also revolutionary, that has also decided to die for peace and liberty. But at the present the armies of Germany and Austria are not such armies, no matter how many honest and awakened individuals may be in them. Those armies are still following the lead of Wilhelm and Karl, the landowners and capitalists are still fighting for annexations, robbery and violence. In those armies the military staff will only make use of your good faith and the blind obedience of its own soldiers.

You go out of the trenches to fraternize with an open soul and officers of the enemy’s General Staff, disguised as privates, come out to meet you.

You talk simply and guilelessly with the enemy and during that time his superiors take photographs. You cease firing in order to fraternize and during that time artillery is being moved about behind the enemy’s trenches, fortifications are being built, troops are being moved.

Comrade soldiers! You will not secure peace by fraternizing nor by the silent treaties which are concluded at the front between companies, battalions, regiments. The triumph of the revolution and universal peace is not to be gained by a separate peace, nor by a separate armistice. The people who assure you that fraternizing is the way to gain peace are luring you to your own ruin and the ruin of our liberty. Do not believe them.

The road to peace is a different one. The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies has pointed that road out. Follow it. Throw aside everything that weakens your fighting power, everything that brings dissolution and falling spirits into the army. Your fighting strength is helping the cause of peace. The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies can only carry out its revolutionary work and develop its struggle for peace if it can rely on you and that you will not allow Russia to be crushed militarily.

Comrade soldiers! Not only the workmen and peasants of Russia, but also the workmen and peasants of the entire world are looking at you with confidence and enthusiasm. Soldiers of the revolution! You are going to be worthy of that confidence, knowing that your work of fighting is helping the cause of peace.

You will accomplish your military duty in the name of the happiness and freedom of revolutionary Russia and in the name of the fast-approaching brotherhood of man.

1. Ante, p. 7.
1. In the Delo Naroda of May 6/19, the list of the new ministry is dated May 5/18 and is followed by the declaration.
2. A translation of the first two paragraphs of this declaration, together with the introduction and conclusion, was received from the Russian Embassy, as telegraphed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, May 8/21 (File No. 861.00/362½). According to an attached memorandum, dated May 26, this copy was furnished at the personal request of the Assistant Secretary of State, who had learned of the communication unofficially; the Embassy declined to present it officially because it had no instructions to do so.
1. Quoted in despatch No. 283, Apr. 3, ante, p. 18.
2. Not printed.
2. Not printed.