File No. 861.00/2364
The Consul at Moscow ( Poole) to the Secretary of State 1
[Received July 28, 11.45 a.m.]
Count Mirbach, the German Ambassador, was assassinated at his Embassy the afternoon of July 6. The act was committed by two Russians. The murder grew out of and was a logical consequence of strong anti-German feeling of the left Social Revolutionary Party in the All-[Russian] Soviet Congress. The Central Executive Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party has accepted full responsibility for the assassination of Mirbach and admitted that the deed was performed by its agents. The assassins have been declared outlaws but not as yet apprehended. All Social Revolutionists delegates to the Soviet Congress have been placed under arrest during the [day]. Following the assassination military forces of the Social Revolutionists numbering not more than thousand seized the telegraphic station and arrested certain of the Bolshevik leaders. Within a few hours they were driven out by the Bolshevik forces which [Page 574] latter, by noon of the following day, were in complete control of Moscow. It has been officially announced by the Bolsheviks that all is quiet but it is known that rioting has occurred in Yaroslavl.
It is reported by Imbrie from Petrograd that on the 7th the Bolsheviks stormed the headquarters of the Social Revolutionists and after an attack in which field artillery was used succeeded in taking headquarters, the combined casualties numbering hundred.
For two days the Bolsheviks ordered the stoppage of passenger traffic as a defensive measure. Communication now reestablished with Petrograd. Bolsheviks announce English have seized Alexandrovsk. Embassy is being communicated with daily by Consulate General. While quiet has been reestablished in Moscow and the Bolsheviks claim that the prompt suppression of the uprising demonstrates their strength, disaffection among certain troops, the growing resistance of peasantry to the attempted requisition of food, creates critical situation.
Turks have taken Baku. Tsaritsyn is reported in hands of the Cossacks. Soviet troops have abandoned Ufa.
It is reported that Kuhlmann will have to resign before the end of the week.
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Sent via the Consulate at Petrograd and the Legation in Norway. The Chargé in Norway, in his telegram of transmittal, No. 924, July 27. adds:
↩Vice Consul [at Petrograd (Imbrie)] states in letter, dated Petrograd July 12, received here to-day … that since the above telegram was received by him from Moscow direct communication between the Consulate General and the Embassy had been severed because of the cutting of the wire between Moscow and Vologda and that messages were being transmitted through his office only.
Imbrie further states that at the time of writing Petrograd was surrounded on three sides by Germans and White Guard, their nearest point of approach being Beloostrov. He adds that absolute famine confronts Petrograd and that an epidemic of cholera was raging, there being about five hundred cases a day. About fifteen Americans were left in the city which was quiet. Imbrie states that apparently no means of communication is available from Petrograd … since the Murman line is also cut.