File No. 861.00/1849
The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 23, 9.10 p.m.]
525. Owing to some initial readjustments, the precise make-up of the new Ukrainian cabinet can not be reported for a day or two, but the following analysis arrangement may now be noted: (1) political complexion Cadet and Octobrist; (2) previous records of individual members pro-Ally rather than pro-German; (3) individual tendencies to judge by past records, not separatist or specifically Ukrainian but rather pan-Russian.
This is interesting from two points of view. First, it suggests that the Germans, having made use so far of the fiction of a Ukrainian nationality, may henceforth support a movement for the reconstruction of Russia through amalgamation of Great Russia with the Ukraine under government similar to that now seated at Kiev, which is strictly non-socialist and subservient to Germany. Secondly, the participation of men of moderate political views and previous pro-Ally tendencies in a government created by Germany shows concretely what has long been felt, namely, that in the continued absence of active Allied support, the non-socialist elements of Russia and even the more sane socialist elements will be forced into the German camp.
On May 12 at Moscow, the Central Committee of the Cadet Party adopted the following resolution:
Believing still that Russia must remain faithful to her allies, the Central Committee considers it absolutely inadmissible to take any step whatsoever to apply to the Germans for the formation of a new government, and finds it impossible to lend them any support.
It is plain from the composition of the Ukrainian cabinet, from the pro-German activities of certain insurgent Cadets in Petrograd, and from the general tone of political gossip in liberal circles that the pro-German drift which has called forth this resolution is rapidly becoming more marked. Apparently all the Allied observers here agree: (1) That the Russian people can not come out of their present difficulties without foreign aid; (2) that all parties, with the exception of possibly the extreme monarchists, look to the Allies to intervene; (3) that the present German drift is due almost solely to growing despair of a favorable response in that quarter; and (4) that, in the continued absence of any positive action by the Allies, the government which is to succeed the Bolsheviks will inevitably, like that in the Ukraine, be based upon German support and subservient to German dictation.
Kerensky, who has been hiding in Petrograd and latterly in Moscow, had a personal interview day before yesterday with. … He will endeavor shortly to leave Russia for the purpose of visiting England and United States and requesting direct Allied military assistance for Russia against Germany.