861.00/5477: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
3596. On the basis of past investigations the Department is disposed to regard the Ukrainian separatist movement as largely the result of Austrian and German propaganda seeking the disruption of Russia. It is unable to perceive an adequate ethnical basis for [Page 784] erecting a separate state and is not convinced that there is a real popular demand for anything more than such greater measure of local autonomy as will naturally result from the establishment in Russia of a modern democratic government whether federative or not. The Department feels, accordingly, that the policy of the United States, while leaving to future events the determination of the exact character of the relations to exist between Great and Little Russia, should tend in the meantime, rather to sustain the principle of essential Russian unity than to encourage separatism.
The summary of General Jadwin’s report transmitted in your 482931 suggests that his findings accord with the foregoing, but the Department would like to have from him, for its information, a definite statement on the points suggested as well as an expression of his opinion concerning the role being played by Petlura. Please express to General Jadwin the Department’s appreciation of the information he has gathered and say that it awaits with interest the full text of his report.