Appendix II to C. F. 60.
“The Government over which I preside has been happy to learn
that the policy of the Allied and Associated Powers in
regard to
[Page 376]
Russia
is in perfect accord with the task which the Russian
Government itself has undertaken, that Government being
anxious above all things to re-establish peace in the
country and to assure to the Russian people the right to
decide their own destiny in freedom by means of a
Constituent Assembly. I appreciate highly the interest shown
by the Powers as regards the national movement and consider
their wish to make certain of the political convictions with
which we are inspired as legitimate; I am therefore ready to
confirm once more my previous declarations which I have
always regarded as irrevocable.
1. On November 18, 1918, I assumed power and I shall not
retain that power one day longer than is required by the
interest of the country; my first thought at the moment when
the Bolsheviks are definitely crushed will be to fix the
date for the elections of the Constituent Assembly. A
Commission is now at work on direct preparation for them on
the basis of universal suffrage. Considering myself as
responsible before that Constituent Assembly I shall hand
over to it all my powers in order that it may freely
determine the system of Government; I have, moreover, taken
the oath to do this before the Supreme Russian Tribunal, the
guardian of legality. All my efforts are aimed at concluding
the civil war as soon as possible by crushing Bolshevism in
order to put the Russian people effectively in a position to
express its free will. Any prolongation of this struggle
would only postpone that moment: the Government, however,
does not consider itself authorised to substitute for the
inalienable right of free and legal elections the mere
re-establishment of the Assembly of 1917, which was elected
under a régime of Bolshevik violence and the majority of
whose members are now in the Sovietist ranks. It is to the
legally elected Constituent Assembly alone, which my
Government will do its utmost to convoke promptly, that
there will belong the sovereign rights of deciding the
problems of the Russian State both in the internal and
external affairs of the country.
2. We gladly consent to discuss at once with the Powers all
international questions, and in doing so shall aim at the
free and peaceful development of peoples, the limitation of
armaments, and the measures calculated to prevent new wars,
of which the League of Nations is the highest
expression.
The Russian Government thinks, however, that it should recall
the fact that the final sanction of the decisions which may
be taken in the name of Russia, will belong to the
Constituent Assembly. Russia cannot now and cannot in future
ever be anything but a democratic State where all questions
involving modifications of the territorial frontiers and of
external relations must be ratified by a representative body
which is the natural expression of the people’s
sovereignty.
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3. Considering the creation of a unified Polish State to be
one of the chief of the normal and just consequences of the
world war, the Government thinks itself justified in
confirming the independence of Poland, proclaimed by the
Provisional Russian Government of 1917, all the pledges and
decrees of which we have accepted. The final solution of the
question of delimiting the frontiers between Russia and
Poland must, however, in conformity with the principles set
forth above, be postponed till the meeting of the
Constituent Assembly. We are disposed at once to recognise
the de facto Government of Finland,
but the final solution of the Finnish Question must belong
to the Constituent Assembly.
4. We are fully disposed at once to prepare for the solution
of the questions concerning the fate of the national groups
in Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and of the Caucasian and
Transcaspian countries, and we have every reason to believe
that a prompt settlement will be made, seeing that the
Government is assuring as from the present time, the
autonomy of the various nationalities. It goes without
saying that the limits and conditions of these autonomous
institutions will be settled separately as regards each of
the nationalities concerned.
And even in case difficulties should arise in regard to the
solution of these various questions, the Government is ready
to have recourse to the collaboration and good offices of
the League of Nations with a view to arriving at a
satisfactory settlement.
5. The above principle, implying the ratification of the
agreements by the Constituent Assembly should obviously be
applied to the question of Bessarabia.
6. The Russian Government once more repeats its declaration
of the 27th November, 1918, by which it accepted the burden
of the national debt of Russia.
7. As regards the question of internal politics which can
only interest the Powers in so far as they reflect the
political tendencies of the Russian Government, I make a
point of repeating that there cannot be a return to the
régime which existed in Russia before February 1917. The
provisional solution which my Government has adopted in
regard to the agrarian question aims at satisfying the
interests of the great mass of the population and is
inspired by the conviction that Russia can only be
flourishing and strong when the millions of Russian peasants
receive all guarantees for the possession of the land.
Similarly as regards the régime to be applied to the
liberated territories, the Government, far from placing
obstacles in the way of the free election of local
assemblies, municipalities and zemstvos, regards the
activities of these bodies and also the development of the
principle of self-government as the necessary conditions
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for the
reconstruction of the country, and is (already) actually
giving them its support and help by all the means (at its)
disposal.
8. Having set ourselves the task of re-establishing order and
justice and of ensuring individual security to the
persecuted population, which is tired of trials and
exactions, the Government affirms the equality before the
law of all classes and all citizens without any special
privilege; all shall receive, without distinction of origin
or of religion, the protection of the State and of the
Law.
The Government whose Head I am is concentrating all the
forces and all the resources at its disposal in order to
accomplish the task which it has set itself; at this
decisive hour I speak in the name of all National Russia. I
am confident that, Bolshevism once crushed, satisfactory
solutions will be found for all questions which equally
concern all those populations whose existence is bound up
with that of Russia. Koltchak.[”]
