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  4. Document 48

File No. 861.51/269

The Ambassador in Russia (Francis) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]
Petrograd, February 8, 1918, 10 p.m.
[Received February 11, 12.40 p.m.]

2348. Also for Secretary of Treasury:

Central Executive Soviet Committee has approved decree of Council of Commissaries1 canceling all state loans and all guaranties concluded [Page 32] by previous governments, stating explicitly, “Absolutely and without exception all foreign loans are annulled.” This repudiates all foreign obligations to the extent present government has power.

Francis

  1. This decree was adopted by the Council of People’s Commissars, Jan. 1/14, 1918. It differed from the final text printed as enclosure to the following despatch in that it contained, in place of par. 5 of that text, two paragraphs as follows (File No. 861.51/293):

    5.
    Citizens of limited means, possessing the securities of the internal loan which are annulled for a sum not exceeding Rs. 10,000 (at normal value), receive a lifelong yearly annuity from the state amounting to the sum equivalent to the interest derived from the securities which belong to them.
    6.
    Citizens possessing the annulled securities for a sum exceeding Rs. 10,000, do not receive any indemnification for the annulled papers which belong to them.

    See also the Ambassador’s telegram No. 2292, Jan. 26, vol. i, p. 358.

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