763.72119/2749

The Russian Ambassador ( Bakhmeteff ) to the Secretary of State

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honour to enclose herewith an Aide-Mémoire with regard to the position of Russia in the forthcoming peace proceedings. The spirit of sympathy and justice, which has throughout animated the United States in its attitude towards Russia, leads me to believe that your Government will find a way to have the interests of the Russian people properly protected.

With this in mind, I respectfully request that the questions brought forward will be given favourable consideration and that I be informed of the position which the Government of the United States will feel inclined to take in this matter so vital to the whole future of my country.

I avail myself [etc.]

B. Bakhmeteff
[Enclosure]

Aide-Mémoire

The signing of the Armistice by German representatives has brought the armed struggle to an end and a period of general settlement has been initiated. With all the uncertainty, under conditions prevailing, as to the forms of the forthcoming peace proceedings, a new order of things and relations between people is to result which will determine the future of nations for many years.

The interests of Russia in this prospective settlement are of a character most important and vital:

It is in the East, where the greatest changes in territorial and national adjustment are to take place, most of which either affect Russia directly or materially influence her future development.

Russia’s role in the world struggle has made her a heavy partner to the great international arrangements of war finance and economics, the regularization and adjustment of which is imminent.

The vast territories invaded, with their millions of inhabitants, have been subject to untold suffering, spoliation and reprisals.

The Central Powers are holding nearly two million Russian prisoners of war.

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During the Bolsheviki period an ingenious net work of economic obligations had been imposed upon Russia by Germany for the purpose of peaceful conquest.

The sacrifices, which Russia contributed to the war, appear to justify that no discrimination should be applied toward a people unhappy enough to be the first victim of the social disease now threatening the world. It would be incommensurate with the momentous import of issues, which are to determine the fate of the country for the next generations, to be guided by considerations due to incidental and temporary disability. In order to be stable and complete the settlement has to account with the just interests and participation of Russia. Arrangements, which might be regarded in the future as unfair to the Russian people, would carry the prospect of trouble and disquietude.

Certain general principles might be formulated, which in a spirit of fairness and justice would determine the treatment which Russia is to receive in the peace proceedings:

1.
No questions, directly affecting Russia, to be settled definitely without her cognizance and consent.
2.
Russia to participate on terms equal and similar with regard to reparation and restitution due to spoliation and reprisals.
3.
Russian prisoners of war to receive treatment equal.
4.
No financial or economic arrangements, for readjusting the past or providing for the future, to be entered upon, which would not include Russia in full and equal participation.
5.
In all covenants, establishing the basis of future relations, Russia to receive full participation.

In order to render justice to the Russian people and to safeguard their interests in the future peace proceedings, Russia has to receive proper representation. The mere supposition to the contrary is inconceivable. With Russia’s voice unheard a wrong would persist—a source of permanent ill-feeling. In order to meet the imperative necessity of providing for a representation of Russia, difficulties of a formal character, arising from the disabled state of the country, should be overcome.

November 20, 1918.