File No. 861.00/3072
It is interesting to recall the circumstances of the departure of the
Allied Ambassadors from Vologda in connection with the Commissar’s
confession in the second paragraph of his report that 300 German
soldiers in civil attire were admitted to Moscow to guard the German
Embassy. One of the reasons given by the Ambassadors for their
refusal to come to Moscow was the reported presence of enemy troops
in the city. Acting at Mr. Francis’s direction I inquired at the time of the
Commissar for Foreign Affairs respecting the truth of these reports
and was given the most solemn assurances that they were quite
unfounded.
This incident reveals what has always seemed to me the fundamental
reason for the failure of all the attempts of the Allies to maintain
working relations with the Bolshevik government, namely, complete
bad faith on the part of the latter. The impossibility of
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depending upon the
accuracy of any statement of the Commissar for Foreign Affairs and
the absence of any assurance that a promise once given would be
fulfilled undermined the structure of even our informal relations
and foredoomed to failure all attempts at practical cooperation.
I would also invite the Department’s attention to the paragraph
dealing with Ukrainian relations, which discloses the extent of the
German territorial aspirations in south Russia and the Caucasus.
The following passage is so important that I quote it in the body of
the despatch:
The attempt to separate the United States and Japan from the other
Allies and to embroil these two with each other has been a leitmotiv of Bolshevik foreign policy as has
been frequently remarked from this office. I trust that I have only
been fulfilling the desire of the Department in pursuing the policy
laid down by Mr. Summers of
counteracting in every way possible the impression of divergence in
the councils of the Allies which the Bolsheviki have aimed to give
to the Russian public.
[Enclosure—Translation—Extract]
Report of the Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs (
Chicherin) as published in “Izvestia” September 3,
1918
The moment when the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs
made its report to the Fifth Congress of the Soviets coincided
with the tragic death of Count
Mirbach. The fact that this action did not call
forth any complications in the relations between Germany and
Russia and did not even lead to the breaking off of negotiations
of a political and financial nature shows that not only we, but
also the Germans, wish most seriously to maintain friendly
relations. This tendency of the German policy, combined with the
firm decision of the majority of the Russian laborers to
maintain peace, assisted us to overcome the numerous
difficulties in the relations between the two parties.
After the murder of Mirbach the German Government wished to
introduce a battalion of German soldiers into Moscow to guard
the German Embassy. When we refused the Germans were content to
introduce 300 German soldiers into the building of the Embassy
without uniform. They also demanded that several houses in the
vicinity should be evacuated and occupied by guard of Russian
soldiers, numbering 1,000 men. This proved of the greatest
difficulty us it was impossible to find suitable accommodation
for the people who were
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to be evacuated. At the same time the Embassy was always
informing us that they had news of attempts which were being
prepared against them. There was a mysterious attack on the
fence of the garden once during the night. By special wish of
the counselor of the Embassy, Dr. Riezler,
the new German Ambassador was met at Kuntsevo and brought to
Moscow by automobile. Dr. Riezler wished
the fact to be known only to the members of the Council of
People’s Commissars. During his ten days’ stay in Moscow
Helfferich was almost entirely shut up in his house, until he
was called to take part in the conference at Berlin, after which
the Embassy left for Pskov via Petrograd and finally settled in
Revel. The Embassy stated that it had left so as to avoid any
complications which might have arisen if another attack had been
made on the Embassy or the Ambassador. The Germans were also
continually protesting against the fact that Russia had not
sufficiently punished the persons guilty of Mirbach’s death. The Germans
also imagined that the Moscow government was supporting the
strike of the railroad men in the Ukraine. The Germans also
protested against the agitation among German prisoners of war in
which official Soviet workers often took part. Lenin’s open letter to the
American workmen was also supposed to have had a bad influence
on the Germans as he speaks of the German imperialism as the
“robbers’” imperialism. These accusations are generally brought
under point 2 of the Brest treaty which prohibits each of the
parties to agitate among the people of the other party. In
reality we do keep to this point and if any organ of the Soviet
authority violates this rule we take measures against it. We
have taken strong measures against the assassins of Mirbach. We consider it
impossible to officially support the Ukrainian strike which is
against the German Government. Yet certainly we could not
prohibit private persons to collect for the strikers or for them
to spread revolutionary ideas. Some of the German demands
surpass anything that the Peasant-Workman Russia can do.
Misunderstanding can arise by reason of the different form of
the two governments. The wish of both parties to live in peace,
notwithstanding all misunderstandings, cannot be more clearly
expressed than in the fact that negotiations regarding the
agreement continued and terminated on August 27, when three
treaties were signed.
Even the numerous incidents on the frontier have not changed the
will of both countries. About the time of Mirbach’s murder a detachment
of German cyclists was captured at Vederin by Red Guards, yet
the left Social Revolutionists captured and killed them all. The
Social Revolutionary Party has organized several incidents.
Disturbances took place in Orsha not long ago and Helfferich was
obliged to wait until all was quiet once again. Incidents on the
line of demarcation often lead to serious repressions on the
part of the Germans. Violations of the line of demarcation were
very frequent both from the side of the Germans and also from
the side of the Ukrainians. On August 4, the Germans fired at
the villages near Rylsk. The violation was especially noticeable
after harvest. The Germans often advanced to requisition cattle
and grain. Recently there have been cases when Germans have
crossed the line of demarcation and occupied villages. A
squadron of cavalry of Von der Goltz occupied a village to the
west of Evstratovki. The life on the line is in constant danger,
as the Germans often advance. In some places they take seven
eighths of the harvest.
It must be noticed that since the Brest treaty was signed the
Germans have advanced considerably to the east in many points.
For settling these conflicts it was decided to establish special
commissions consisting of representatives of
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Russia and Germany. In this way it
will be possible to settle all misunderstandings arising on the
spot.
Serious friction arose between us and the Germans in the Baltic
Sea, where the Germans accused us of laying new mines and where
they were prepared to remove them even in the interior waters of
the Finnish Gulf to a point of three miles from our shore. The
arrival of the German ship Anna Hugo
Stinnes in Petrograd loaded with coal and its return
loaded with our goods establishes the exchange of commodities
between the two countries, which is the best guarantee of
peaceful relations. The German Government was seriously
displeased by our decree of July 15, which made it rather
difficult for persons living in territory now occupied by the
Germans to change their citizenship. A special agreement will be
made with Germany in this matter.
The Turkish Army has lately been advancing on our territory.
Notwithstanding the frequent promises of the German Government
the Turkish Army has now advanced to Baku, which fact led to the
temporary victory of the lourgeoisie and
compromisers. With the ignorant sailors of the Caspian Sea they
treacherously called the English to Baku. However, they [the
English] will not be able to defend Baku from the advance of the
Turks if our negotiations with Germany will not lead to the
retreat of the latter army. We shall send troops to Baku to
drive out the English as well as the Turks.
Notwithstanding the friction of the Germans with our Government
we were able to attain some agreement, but the Ukrainian-German
government continues to propose impossible conditions.
Negotiations are continuing as the Ukraine demands great
territories to be surrendered. The so-called political frontier,
which Germany demands for the Ukraine, passes by Kursk not far
from Voronezh and encloses a large part of the Donets Basin,
leaving us a territory of 12 per cent of the production of the
basin. At the same time negotiations are taking place in Kiev
between numerous representatives of People’s Commissariats and
various supply and purchase committees regarding a goods
exchange. The chief difficulties are the outward obstacles which
do not permit the Ukraine to give us grain for textiles of which
she is in great need. The final obstacle for any sort of
political agreement lies in the fact that the Hetman government
entered into negotiations with the so-called Don government of
Krasnov and refused to establish the eastern frontier of the
Ukraine where it borders, with the Don region.
Negotiations with the Finnish government in Berlin have
temporarily stopped. Finnish representatives demanded the entire
coast from the Norwegian frontier, including Kola and Solovka to
Alexandrovsk, then along the railroad to Lake Onega, along the
lake to Lake Ladoga and further to the present frontier. Against
evident facts the Finnish representatives insist that a state of
war exists between Russia and Finland, drawing corresponding
conclusions for retaining military booty. As result they
demanded that all Russian military ships captured by Finland
should be given to her gratis as well as all Russian military
property. Finland likewise demanded that all the government
property of Russia should be given to Finland gratis, excluding
telegraph and telephone wires and land bought for money. The
representatives also demanded that all obligations of Finland to
Russia should be annulled, not only government debts, to which
point we agreed, but that we should pay part of their military
expenses, indemnification of losses caused by Russian troops
after Finland’s independence was recognized. At the same time
they refuse to pay losses of the Russian Government. As the
Finns consider that there has been a state of war with Russia we
attempted to agree on several points temporarily: establishment
of a demarcation line, protection of private and property rights
of citizens, to recognize in principle the rights of private
persons to receive
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recompense for their losses. We proposed that these matters
should be discussed by a commission formed of Russian and
Finnish representatives, as well as the establishment of
consulates, renewal of direct telegraph, postal, railroad and
water communication and protection of trade. No answer was
received for several days to our proposal and it was decided to
postpone the work of the conference.
All the numerous above-mentioned causes of friction between
Russia and Germany have not altered the tendency in principle to
live in peace, and during negotiations regarding new agreements
Germany was prepared to make some concessions. Parallel to this
our relations with the Allies became worse. The successes of the
Czechs, who acted under the protection of the Allies, as their
political weapon against the Soviet, gave them the idea that the
moment for liquidating the Soviet authority in Russia had
arrived and that they would be able to form a pro-English bourgeois government, abolish the
annulment of the loans and our other revolutionary legislation
and form a new eastern front against Germany. The enormous
Anglo-French counter-revolutionary intrigue, with its numerous
branches and large sums of money, which was revealed to a
certain extent by documents obtained, changed into an open
attack for which preparation had been made in secret for a long
period of time. Simultaneously with the murder of Mirbach, as though by signal,
the following facts took place: The treason of Muraviev, bought
by England and undoubtedly connected with an Anglo-French
conspiracy, the White Guard rising in Yaroslavl and the rising
in various points of the line of demarcation. The increase of
underground work of the Anglo-French agents forced us to demand
the departure of the Ambassadors from Vologda where a new
“Yaroslavl” was being prepared. The news of the intended English
expedition on the Murman forced us to demand some time before
the withdrawal of the Allied military vessels; after the
Anglo-French descent we made firm protests against this act of
violence; we once more made a decided declaration that we
considered the Kerensky
convention regarding the compulsory service of Russian citizens
in the English army invalid, and once more stated the
criminality of Russian citizens’ serving in the French army; at
the further advance of the Anglo-French, we issued an appeal to
the toiling masses of England, France, America, Italy and Japan
and we have already information that parts of it have filtered
through to England and France. We are now issuing English and
French literature which is intended to be distributed for the
purpose of agitation among the soldiers of those countries who
are advancing into our territory. The acts of violence of
England and France and the discovery of their underhand
intrigues and extensive counter-revolutionary plots have caused
the internment of English and French citizens. At present
negotiations are being carried on with regard to the departure
of the Allied diplomats in exchange for Comrade
Litvinov and other Soviet officials,
and the departure of their military men in exchange for the
return of our soldiers from France, which should take place
under the control of the International Red Cross and three
members of the Russian Red Cross, cessation of measures of
reprisal on both sides, including the region of Czecho-Slovak
occupation, and the permission for the citizens of both
countries to return home, including Russian citizens serving in
the British Army. It must be added that our attitude is entirely
different with regard to the American citizens, to whom these
measures did not extend, because, although the United States
Government was compelled by its Allies to agree to participate
in intervention, so far only formally, its decision is not
regarded by us as irrevocable. It must also be noted that the
policy of Japan is not noted for its solidarity with the other
Allied powers, which could be seen from the statements of the
Japanese representatives in Russia.
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On the whole, in spite of the great difference between the
political organization of Russia and Germany and the fundamental
tendencies of both governments, the peaceful relations between
the two peoples, which has always been the object of our workmen
and peasants’ state, is at present equally desirable to the
German ruling circles. The close alliance between Russian and
English capital, which rapidly developed in the few years
preceding the war, is the reason for the present predominance of
English orientation among the Russian bourgeoisie. The interests of the struggle against
Germany, whom Anglo-French imperialism wants to compel to
withdraw part of her forces from the west front by the
establishment of a new eastern front, and the interests of the
struggle against a class opponent who has been able to find
expression in Soviet Russia, both demand intervention in Russia
on the part of Anglo-French imperialism and the strangling of
the Russian revolution. In turning our front against advancing
Anglo-French imperialism, we declare, however, that the toiling
masses of Russia are striving towards the maintenance of peace
with all people and that we are ready at any moment to establish
peaceful relations with the Allied people. Precisely in the
interests of peaceful relations with Germany, did we sign those
agreements which are to-day submitted to the Central Executive
Committee for ratification.
