Denmark to permit his sojourn here to be used for political purposes. Announcement concludes by stating that this diplomatic action. merely means that Allied Powers have taken no official cognizance of Litvinoff's démarche and that their action is in conformity with Great Britain's engagements toward Denmark. SCHOENFELD [For further information concerning the Soviet régime and the attitude of the Department toward it, see "Memorandum on Certain Aspects of the Bolshevik Movement in Russia ", Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919. This memorandum was transmitted by the Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations under cover of a letter dated October 27, 1919, and reprinted as Senate Document No. 172, 66th Congress, 2d session.] Refusal by the Government of the United States to Recognize the Mission of L. Martens, Russian Soviet Agent in the United States 701.6111/296 No. 1/a Mr. L. Martens to the Acting Secretary of State NEW YORK, March 18, 1919. SIR: I have the honor to hand you herewith original credentials of my appointment as representative of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic in the United States of North America, together with an English translation of the same. I also have the honor to submit a Memorandum of the present political and economic conditions of Soviet Russia based upon information supplied to me by my Government, and, furthermore, I enclose a translation of the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic." Holding myself entirely at the disposal of the United States Government for any additional information or for any conference, official or unofficial, I am [etc.] L. MARTENS Representative of the Russian Socialist in the United States of North America S. NUORTEVA Secretary of the Bureau "A translation of the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic is printed in Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, vol. 1, pp. 587–597. 118853-37--18 No. 9/k [Enclosure 1-Translation] Credentials presented by Mr. L. Martens Moscow, January 2, 1919. Be it known that the Russian citizen Ludwig Christian Alexander Carlovitch Martens, now living in the United States of North America, is hereby appointed Representative of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in the United States of North America. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Seal of the Commissariat "People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs " GEORGE CHICHERIN Secretary of the Bureau [Enclosure 2] Memorandum enclosed by Mr. L. Martens No. 1/b NEW YORK, March 18, 1919. The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic was established on the 6th of November by a spontaneous uprising of the toiling masses of Russia. Its Government, the Council of the People's Commissars, is a government controlled by and responsible to all such members of the population of Russia who are willing to perform useful work, physical or mental. Those who, while not being unable to work, deliberately refuse to exercise their productive abilities, choosing to live on the fruits of the labor of other people, are eliminated from participation in the control of my Government. Under present conditions those who are willing to work for the common good, number at least 90 per cent of the adult population in the area controlled by the Soviets. All such people have full political and civic rights. The basis for citizenship in Russia being industrial and economic rather than political, and the social system being of such a nature that every person engaged in useful social labor is bound to participate in public affairs, the percentage of people directly partici. pating in the management of society in Soviet Russia is higher than has been the case 'till now anywhere in the world. The Russian Soviet Republic affords thereby the widest possible field for a real expression of a conscious popular will. While the Soviet Government is a Government of the working class, the abolition of exploitation of labor and the elimination thereby of class divisions creates a productive community in which all able inhabitants are bound to become useful workers who have full political rights. My govern ment thus becomes the expression of fully 100 per cent of the people. It should also be noted that political rights are granted in Russia to every inhabitant engaged in useful work, though he be not a citizen of Russia but only temporarily working there. The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic was rapidly acclaimed by the vast majority of the laboring people throughout the former empire of Russia. It has maintained itself in the face of manifold plots and opposition on the part of small groups of the former ruling classes who in many cases enlisted foreign help and who employed the most unscrupulous methods in their fight against the Soviet institutions. Yet, nowhere in Russia could such elements on their own accord organize any noticeable resistance to the popular will, as expressed by the Soviet Government. Only in sparsely populated outlying districts and in such of those districts only where our opponents had access to foreign military help, has it been possible for them to maintain any organized opposition and to wrest from the control of Soviet Russia some territory. Today, after sixteen months of existence the Russian Soviet Republic finds itself more securely established than at any previous time. During the current year the Soviet Government has been particularly successful in retaking vast territories wrestled from its control during the preceding months. By February, 1919, the Soviet troops on the northern front had retaken the city of Shenkursk and adjoining territory. On the Eastern front they have lost Perm, but they have regained Pereufa, Ufa, Sterlitamak, Bellbey, Orenburg and Uralsk. The railroad connection with Central Asia is at present in the hands of the Soviet Government. On the Southern front they have taken the railroad stations of Pavorino, Alexikovo, Uriovpino, Polovaya, Kalatsk and Bogutchar, which have assured them of a control over the railroads of that region, while on the southeastern front the Ukrainian Soviet troops threaten the army of Krasnov from Lugansk in the rear. In the Ukraine the Soviet troops have acquired Kharkow, Yekaterinoslaw, Poltava, Krementchug, Tchernigow, and Obrutch. In the Baltic provinces and in Lithuania the Soviet power has been extended to a great part of the territory formerly occupied by Germans, with the large cities of Minsk, Vilna, Riga, Mitau, Dvinsk, Windau and others in the control of adherents of the Soviet. These last mentioned successes are largely due to the fact that after the evacuation by the German armies of the territories wrested from Russia during the war and by the peace treaty of Brest Litovsk, which the Soviet Republic was forced to sign under duress, the workers in such territories everywhere are rising to support the ideals and the social order represented by the Soviet Republic. The resentment against former ruling classes, who did not hesitate at inviting foreign military help against their own people has evinced itself by an ever increasing popular support of the Soviet Government, even among such people who at first were either hostile or indifferent to the Soviet rule. Men and women of literary or technical training and of other intellectual accomplishments are now in great numbers rallying to the support of the Soviet Government and cooperate with it in all administrative branches. The peasantry of Russia, the great majority of which from the very outset was supporting the workers revolution, has become more consciously attached to our social system, realizing that in the support of the workers republic lies the only guarantee for their remaining in control of the land which they have taken from their former oppressors. The economic isolation of Russia which so far has prevented the Soviet Government from adequately supplying the peasants with implements that they need so badly, is of course causing hardship among the peasantry, yet the peasants generally do not place the blame for this privation at the door of the Soviet Government, well realizing that it is due to the deliberate interference in the affairs of the Russian people by hostile groups and that a remedy for this privation is not a weakening but a strengthening of the Soviet power. They fully realized-and their experience in such instances where counter-revolutionary forces temporarily succeeded to overthrow Soviet institutions clearly demonstrated it--that an overthrow of the Soviet rule, if possible at all, would lead to the establishment of a tyrannical, reactionary bloody autocracy. The remarkable improvement in the internal situation of Soviet Russia appears from the negotiations which the members of the former Constituent Assembly have begun with the Soviet Government. Representatives of the former Constituent Assembly, as Tchernow, Rakitnikow, Sivatitzki, Volski, Bourevoy, Tchernenkow, Antonov, all of whom are also members of the Central Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party, recently arrived in Moscow to participate in a conference with the Soviet Government with the view of giving support to our republic. This conference has led to an understanding whereby these well known Social Revolutionists and former bitter opponents have ceased their opposition and declared themselves with great emphasis against the Entente intervention in Russia. An improvement of the Soviet Government's relations with the elements formerly hostile to it in Russian society is also indicated. by the change of the attitude of the Mensheviki, whose conference. has likewise protested against the Entente intervention. The army of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic has been successfully organized and numbers today over a million men. A system of universal military training has been inaugurated which steadily supplies the army with enforcements, with the view of creating a force numbering by the end of the current year three million men. The forces of the Government are led partly by officers of the former Russian armies who have proved their allegiance to the Soviet Government, and partly by officers developed from the rank and file by the military educational institutions established by my Government. The Commissariat of War has been successful in establishing and maintaining a strict discipline within the ranks of the army, a discipline not based on fear of punishment or on docile submission, but on the ardent conviction of the workers from whose ranks the army is recruited that it is their privilege as well as their duty to defend their social achievements against encroachments from any sources. This same conviction of the necessity of the defence of our revolutionary achievements has made it possible for us, in spite of all economic obstacles, efficiently to organize the production of military supplies. The Soviet Government inherited a legacy of utter financial disruption created by four years of war and a year of revolution. This state of affairs, and also the necessity of coordinating the financial system of Russia with the new industrial and economic system represented by my Government, necessitated a complete reorganization of the financial institutions on the basis of common property rights. This reorganization which aims at exchanging the money system for a system representing labor value is still in the state of formation. Regardless hereof the Soviet Government, in as far as financial relations with and obligations to other countries are concerned, is prepared to offer modes of financial transactions suitable for the financial systems of other countries. The period up till the establishment of the Soviet Government also badly disrupted the machinery for production and distribution. The Soviet Government inaugurated a system of public control and ownership of industries. It has actually taken over many important branches of industry, and has established the control of the Supreme Council of National Economy over all industries. Great handicaps have been faced because of the obstructionist methods of our opponents, lack of raw material and machinery, and because of the general confusion unavoidably coincident with the gigantic reorganization of the industrial life. In spite of these great handicaps, various branches of industry have been reestablished, even with an increase of productive efficiency. Many branches of industry, however, have not so far been able to recuperate, because of lack of raw material and lack of machinery. The needs of such industries offer a wide field for business transactions with Russia by other countries. |