File No. 861.00/2407
The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State1
[Received August 3, 1.10 p.m.]
43. Supplementing information on the military side forwarded through British Embassy, following important statements respecting political situation in Volga-Ural region are quoted from a report of Vice Consul Williams, dated Samara, July 19:
Since July 1 there has been no communication with Moscow or Vladivostok and the whole region east of the Volga is isolated from the rest of the world. A central executive governing body has been created around the nucleus of fifteen of the thirty members of the all-Russian committee chosen by the Constitutional Assembly in Petrograd last January to arrange for its next meeting. The whole thought of the new army and of this governing body is now directed to the establishment of another front against Germany, and it is a source of great regret that the continued hostility of the Bolsheviks makes necessary further civil war. In this move against the Central powers all look to the Allies for help, particularly to America through Vladivostok.
[Page 318]We must not, however, make the error of thinking that even here in Samara all are in sympathy with the turn of events which overthrew the Bolshevik power. Every day in the bazaars and on the streets one may hear the advantages of the former regime set forth. Prices are mounting steadily higher and to peasants who think in terms of their stomachs the former condition seems preferable. The other night proclamations advocating the return of the Bolsheviki were thrown around the streets under cover darkness. This sentiment must be reckoned with.
The success of such action as the Allies may take in Russia will largely depend upon the attitude of the Russian people thereto. The motives of the Allies must not be misunderstood. At the outset a clear statement of purposes should be issued in which care should be taken to set forth that any action here is only against the common enemy, Germany; that we sympathize with the Russians in their sufferings from a scarcity of food, and that these food conditions will continue as long as Germany continues to take the food in Russia which belongs to the Russian people; and that in part to save the crop this year for the Russians, the Allies are coming here and that all their actions will be based only on a desire to help deliver the Russians from their oppressor. Please communicate to Allied missions, Paris.
For Department: The foregoing is recommended to the Department’s very special consideration. Please compare my No. 683, June 30, 10 p.m.1 Also I beg once more to urge the need for immediate inauguration of an intensive publicity campaign from an eastern base. German Ambassador arrived 28th.