861.00/4452: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
1946. Referring my 1920, May 9, 8 p.m.72 and Poole’s 106, May 7 to Mission, from Archangel,73 following extracts from various cables furnished Department from time to time by Russian Embassy may prove of interest. Kolchak’s oath of office January 29, 1919 contains following passage:
“I vow and swear to administer the supreme power vested in me by the Council of Ministers in accordance with the laws of the country until the establishment of a form of government by the freely expressed will of the people.”
On his return from a tour of the front in March, 1919, Kolchak addressed an assembly of the members of the Municipalities, the Zemstvos and the social organizations. His speech contained the following passage:
“During this tour I have frequently met representatives of the Zemstvos, Municipalities and social organizations. I can affirm with great satisfaction that there is no divergency between the Government’s and my own opinions and those expressed by the people in the country. The time has passed, never to return, when state authority places itself in opposition to public opinion as a force to which it was distant and even hostile. New free Russia must repose on the principles of a union between the government and the people. . . . . .74 I consider that in free Russia, there can only be a democratic rule. The principal aims pursued by the Government [Page 348] are universal suffrage and in questions of local autonomy the expansion of this autonomy on broad democratic lines; social legislation regarding the labor and land questions; the Government bases its reform on the principles of state necessity and of social impartiality. As to international relations, the Government is endeavoring to continue the relations established at the moment of Russia’s entry into the war and to strengthen the old ties of friendship. . . . . . .75 The Government penetrated by the idea of the regeneration of our country considers the Russian people the sole masters of their destiny and when the people, freed from the oppressing yoke of Bolshevism will have expressed, through representatives freely elected to the National Constituent Assembly, their free will concerning the principles upon which shall be based the political, national and social structure of the state, then my Government and myself will esteem it as our duty to transfer to the Government chosen by the National Constituent Assembly the full power now lodged in our hands.”
The following concluding passage is taken from the declaration of the Omsk Government, published February 10, in regard to the land question:
“Laws governing the questions of land and property, its utilization and the temporary possession of seized lands, the equitable repartition of the land as well as indemnities to the former proprietors, will be enacted in the near future. These laws will tend to transfer the land which formerly was cultivated by third persons, remunerated by the proprietors, to the population which cultivates it, and to contribute to the development of small rural properties whether they belong to individuals or to communities. In arranging for the transfer of the land to the tilling peasants, the Government will endeavor to give them the possibility of acquiring the land in entire ownership. The Government assumes the responsibility of this act of historical importance, fully convinced that such decisive measures will alone lead to re-establishment; and will secure and guarantee the prosperity of the Russian rural population numbering tens of millions; this prosperity acting as a strong and solid foundation on which will be built a free, regenerated and prosperous Russia.”
The Embassy has furnished me with statements showing that during March and April declarations of allegiance to the Omsk Government were presented by Municipalities, Political and Social Organizations, the Union of Cooperative Credit Societies and the Council of the Cooperative Societies of all Siberia, also numerous Zemstvos organizations and the Cossacks of the Amur.
I bring this to your attention to illustrate my belief that adequate assurances which will require prompt observance in practise will be furnished by the Omsk authorities as soon as the Allies indicate that we are prepared to give them definite support.