Robert Service - Spies and Commissars

Trotsky and Zalkind set up a Bureau of International Revolutionary Propaganda for the Commissariat under Boris Reinstein, one of the revolutionaries who had returned from America; and John Reed and Albert Rhys Williams were taken on to the staff to bring ‘American advertising psychology’ to the publications directed at the troops of the Central Powers. There was also a Department of Prisoners-of-War, led by Radek, as well as a Department of the Press. These bodies produced material in German, Hungarian and Romanian. 15Reed, Rhys Williams and others were paid about $50–$60 a month. 16The Propaganda Bureau printed tons of material for dispatch across the trenches of the eastern front. Half a million copies of the German daily newspaper Die Fackel (later called Der Völkfried ) were printed. The Hungarian print run was the same, while there were a quarter of a million copies each of the Czech, Romanian and Turkish versions. 17Even Rhys Williams helped out with Die Fackel despite his primitive grasp of German. He and Reed had little Russian but they possessed all the skills needed to sub-edit English translations of Soviet announcements. 18The Decree on Peace was hurriedly translated into German, French and English. Yakov Peters, the Latvian who oversaw the work, admitted that his own fluency in English and even Russian was inadequate — and Reinstein, Reed and Rhys Williams became as active in the Bolshevik cause as it was possible to be without joining the Bolshevik party. 19

Allied diplomats tried to make sense of all this for their governments. On 19 November 1917 the American ambassador David Francis issued an appeal to ‘the People of Russia’: ‘I address you because there is no official in the Foreign Office with whom I can communicate, and all of the members of the government or ministry with which I had official relations are inaccessible, being in flight or in prison, according to my best information.’ 20He emphasized that the US had signed no secret treaties and he repeated President Wilson’s hope of preserving good relations with Russia. 21On 27 November Sir George Buchanan fired off a telegram saying that it was unrealistic to expect the beaten and exhausted Russians to stay in the war. He proposed a change of policy. Russia should be released from its contractual obligations to keep up the fight on the eastern front. Buchanan argued that this would make a rapprochement between Russia and Germany less likely and might even induce the Russians to continue other kinds of resistance to the Germans. 22He did not recommend recognition for Sovnarkom. The Bolsheviks were not to be allowed privileges until their policies changed. But talks had to be held with them. Buchanan advocated using informal intermediaries for this purpose, and the Foreign Secretary A. J. Balfour agreed. 23

The Petrograd ambassadors have a reputation for being stupid old fogeys who lacked the intellectual and cultural depth to understand Soviet communism. Although some were indeed fogeyish and a couple were elderly, none was unintelligent. They thought seriously about Bolshevism as they witnessed it. Italy’s Marchese della Torretta knew about the breakdown of order from direct experience after being robbed late at night on his way back to the Hôtel de l’Europe. 24Leading diplomats, whether they represented the Allies or neutral countries, expressed revulsion at the end to civilities they had thought they could take for granted in Russia. They understood what Lenin and Trotsky wanted to do in the world. They saw from the start that religion, nationhood, civil peace, legality and civic freedoms were under threat. They observed for themselves how ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’ brought about state terror. They came from a different world, and they preferred their world, warts and all.

Sovnarkom, however, had kept hold of some bargaining chips. On 28 November Trotsky sent a note to Buchanan saying that if the United Kingdom continued to imprison Chicherin and Petrov, British citizens conducting counter-revolutionary propaganda in Russia would not go unpunished. In gaol, Chicherin had cut his ties with the Mensheviks and become a Bolshevik. He announced that he would return to Russia only ‘as a free man’. He hired a lawyer. He demanded that he should be allowed visits by Joseph King MP; he intimated that he had personal friends including Consul-General Onou in the Russian embassy. He sent demands for the Mensheviks to repay the money he had lent them in the past — and he expressed the wish that his associates should buy him marmalade and golden syrup to supplement the poor prison diet. 25Consul-General Onou flatly refused to help. He thought there were ‘already enough dangerous madmen in Russia’ and did not want to add to the number. 26Chicherin hated having to rise early in the morning. He complained often about the injustice being done to him; but as the weeks passed he repeated that he would strenuously object to being released if the plan was to deport him straight away. When he left Brixton prison, he intended put his affairs in order before moving on to Russia. 27

The cabinet in London at first refused to yield to Trotsky’s intimidation even though there seemed no national interest in holding on to Chicherin or bringing him to trial. 28When Buchanan made no reply to Trotsky, the People’s Commissariat indicated that exit visas from Russia would no longer be issued to British subjects, including diplomats; Trotsky also threatened to take ‘counter-revolutionaries’ from Britain into custody. 29When in mid-December Trotsky demanded an interview with Noulens it was difficult to refuse him after he threatened that otherwise he would expel the military mission. 30Trotsky complained that France had sent agents to talk to the Central Rada in Kiev. Noulens replied that the French initiative was simply a reaction to Ukrainian national independence and that the Bolsheviks themselves had decreed the right of non-Russians to secede from the old multinational state. That the current governments in Petrograd and Kiev were enemies was not the fault of the French. Noulens added that the military mission had been instructed to avoid interference in Ukrainian politics and to stay out of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. 31

Lloyd George and Balfour soon yielded on the treatment of Chicherin and Petrov, and Buchanan relayed the news to the Soviet authorities. Trotsky exulted: ‘Sir Buchanan [ sic ] is a practical man with whom one can come to an understanding.’ 32By the end of the month Buchanan had also conceded Sovnarkom’s freedom to send its couriers without hindrance to London. 33The British government edged towards putting Anglo-Russian relations on a fresh footing.

On 21 December the War Cabinet approved a memorandum on the Russian question for consultation with the French. Buchanan’s request for sick leave for his vertigo was to be granted, and Sir Francis Lindley would become chargé d’affaires in Petrograd. 34The ambassador’s departure was desirable on political as well as medical grounds: he was too closely associated in the Bolshevik mind with the Kadets to be able to liaise with Sovnarkom. ‘Unofficial agents’ would be used to conduct relations. British diplomacy should emphasize that the United Kingdom would not meddle in Russia’s internal politics or favour a counter-revolution. The Foreign Office would not even highlight its displeasure at Russia opening negotiations with the Central Powers. But the British reserved the right to stay in contact with Ukraine and other parts of the former empire not ruled by the Bolsheviks. Balfour’s idea was for France to take care of Ukraine while Britain busied itself with the other borderlands. He stressed the priority of facilitating the transport of Ukrainian supplies to Romania, and he wanted the Bolsheviks to accept the need to prevent foodstuffs and munitions reaching Germany from its territory. 35The French welcomed the memorandum two days later. 36