Department confides in your judgment to present clearly the constant shifting of events. Hereafter Department proposes to send you at least once a week a résumé of information from other parts of Russia and of the chief events in the battle area to assist you in seeing as a whole the vast problem of which Russia forms such an important element. The last week has seen papers filled with reports from German sources of assassination of Tsar, overthrow of Bolsheviki at Moscow and establishment of counter-revolutionary government at Omsk under leadership of Grand Duke Michael, brother of Tsar. Japan signifies intention in Far East of acting only in harmony with Allies and specially with this Government and gives repeated evidences of good faith in this purpose. Please acknowledge receipt. LANSING Assassination of the German Ambassador, July 6, 1918; SocialistRevolutionist Revolt-Kerensky's Proposed Visit to America' File No. 701.6261/11 The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State 2 [Telegram] Moscow, July 6, 1918, 7 p. m. 702. Urgent for Secretary's attention. Smith of the Associated Press has just learned from an authoritative source that the German Ambassador, Count Mirbach, was assassinated between 2 and 3 this afternoon at his Embassy. Two persons arriving in machine threw bomb through window. Ambassador and Captain König wounded. Ambassador died in few minutes. Two arrests so far. Smith asks that Associated Press be informed. POOLE File No. 861.00/2237 The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State 3 [Telegram] Moscow, July 7, 1918, 1 p. m. German Ambassador Count Mirbach assassinated about 3 p. m. yesterday by two unknown persons who were admitted to his office on 2 See also ante, pp. 536, 563, 567, and 568. Sent via the Embassy in France (No. 4411); by wireless from Moscow to Paris. 3 Sent via the Embassy in France; by wireless from Moscow to Paris. presentation of paper, presumably forged, from a department of the Soviet government. Have not yet been arrested. Assassination comes as logical consequence of violent anti-German outburst by left Social Revolutionaries in All-Russian Soviet Congress. While characterizing act as provocation by "Russian, English, French imperialism," official Bolshevik announcement states that the assassin was member of legislation [left Socialist-Revolutionists]. Moscow telegraph station and apparently other strategic points in [hands] of left Social Revolutionary Party. Social Revolutionists have seized city. Fighting in progress. Impossible at present to estimate importance of outbreak. POOLE File No. 861.00/2364 The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State 1 [Telegram] Moscow, July 9, 1918. [Received July 28, 11.45 a. m.] Count Mirbach, the German Ambassador, was assassinated at his Embassy the afternoon of July 6. The act was committed by two Russians. The murder grew out of and was a logical consequence of strong anti-German feeling of the left Social Revolutionary Party in the All-[Russian] Soviet Congress. The Central Executive Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party has accepted full responsibility for the assassination of Mirbach and admitted that the deed was performed by its agents. The assassins have been declared outlaws but not as yet apprehended. All Social Revolutionists delegates to the Soviet Congress have been placed under arrest during the [day]. Following the assassination military forces of the Social Revolutionists numbering not more than thousand seized the telegraphic station and arrested certain of the Bolshevik leaders. Within a few hours they were driven out by the Bolshevik forces which 'Sent via the Consulate at Petrograd and the Legation in Norway. The Chargé in Norway, in his telegram of transmittal, No. 924, July 27, adds: Vice Consul [at Petrograd (Imbrie)] states in letter, dated Petrograd July 12, received here to-day that since the above telegram was received by him from Moscow direct communication between the Consulate General and the Embassy had been severed because of the cutting of the wire between Moscow and Vologda and that messages were being transmitted through his office only. Imbrie further states that at the time of writing Petrograd was surrounded on three sides by Germans and White Guard, their nearest point of approach being Beloostrov. He adds that absolute famine confronts Petrograd and that an epidemic of cholera was raging, there being about five hundred cases a day. About fifteen Americans were left in the city which was quiet. Imbrie states that apparently no means of communication is available from Petrograd . . since the Murman line is also cut. latter, by noon of the following day, were in complete control of Moscow. It has been officially announced by the Bolsheviks that all is quiet but it is known that rioting has occurred in Yaroslavl. It is reported by Imbrie from Petrograd that on the 7th the Bolsheviks stormed the headquarters of the Social Revolutionists and after an attack in which field artillery was used succeeded in taking headquarters, the combined casualties numbering hundred. For two days the Bolsheviks ordered the stoppage of passenger traffic as a defensive measure. Communication now reestablished with Petrograd. Bolsheviks announce English have seized Alexandrovsk. Embassy is being communicated with daily by Consulate General. While quiet has been reestablished in Moscow and the Bolsheviks claim that the prompt suppression of the uprising demonstrates their strength, disaffection among certain troops, the growing resistance of peasantry to the attempted requisition of food, creates critical situation. Turks have taken Baku. Tsaritsyn is reported in hands of the Cossacks. Soviet troops have abandoned Ufa. It is reported that Kühlmann will have to resign before the end of the week. [POOLE] File No. 861.00/2367 The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State1 [Telegram] Moscow, July 12, 1918, 7 p. m. 710. It is understood that the negotiations for [at] Kiev between Milyukov 2 and the German military party (see my No. 7073) are directed towards the establishment of a constitutional monarchy at Moscow or Petrograd to embrace the Ukraine as well as Great Russia. Whatever the precise project finally adopted, success will mean, in addition to the drafts already being made among Russian peasants for labor in Germany, the recruiting of Russian military units under German leadership. A subsequent Allied intervention would involve conflicts with Russian troops on Russian soil; and it is even probable that Russian man power might in time be applied directly on the western front. At the same time so bold a project as that discussed at Kiev will expose Germany to defeat in Russia, if only the 1 1 Sent via the Legation in Sweden; garbled versions already received via the Embassy in France, by wireless, July 16 and 21; another came Aug. 12, via the Consulate at Petrograd and the Legation in Norway (File Nos. 861.00/2277, 2316, 2474). 2 From March to May 1917 Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs. 3 Post, p. 619. Allies can promptly take advantage of the opportunity which the situation will offer them. While the Cadet leaders in Moscow profess to repudiate Milyukov's action, it must be recognized that, if the Germans appear as the champions of a reunited Russia under a reasonable form of monarchy and vigorously put their project into execution, they will find wide support among the intelligent nationalist elements. During an interview with Smith last night, General Brusilov said that Alexeev had already acceded to Milyukov's solicitations to join the German party and that he himself as a patriotic Russian, desiring the rehabilitation of the Russian state, would be forced into the same course in the absence immediate Allied intervention in force. The success of the Germans will depend not so much on their adroitness in utilizing the political opportunism of the educated classes as their ability to satisfy the populace. The supplantsmen [workmen] having command, who are much less numerous but more aggressive, are moved primarily by the food question. The peasantry are most nearly touched by the distribution of the land. It is possible that the experience of the Germans in the U[kraine] will induce a more vigil [liberal] treatment of the land problem, and the peasants are so disgusted with the disorders of the past year that some tact and moderation may produce temporary calm, even if a fundamental solution is not reached immediately. POOLE File No. 763.72/2367 The Consul at Moscow (Poole) to the Secretary of State 2 [Telegram] Moscow, July 13, 1918, 4 p. m. 711. The food question is more acute and, in the view of the Consulate General, the success or failure of Germany in Russia, and therefore possibly in the whole war, may depend upon its solution. Without the Siberian grain stores Russia may be self-supporting after the next harvest. Favorable weather conditions are tending to offset reduced acre plantation. But it is improbable that Germany can appropriate all of Russia's grain to Russia's own use as public opinion in the Central Empires will demand heavy shipments thither. I have conferred on this subject with the representatives of [an American corporation] here, and they agree that, as the Russian 'Presumably F. Willoughby Smith, Consul at Tiflis, at that time in Moscow. Sent via the Legation in Sweden; other copies sent via the Embassy in France, by wireless July 24, and via the Consulate at Petrograd and the Legation in Norway August 11 (File Nos. 861.00/2356, 2454). crop will not suffice for both Germany and Russia, the key to the food situation, which is in turn the key to German success or failure in Russia, is the stored grain of western Siberia. I therefore bring again most earnestly to the Department's attention the pressing need for immediate intervention in Siberia for the purpose supporting the Czecho-Slovaks and the new Siberian government and at the same time withholding Siberian grain from German use. If the new front can be drawn along a line running Harbin [from] Murman Peninsula southeastward [to the] Kama so as to include Vyatka and if possible Vologda, thence southward along the line of the Kama and Volga to Samara, whence operations may later be projected toward the Kuban as far as military considerations may admit, a German enterprise in central Russia of the kind indicated above may be changed from the means of enabling Germany to dominate Europe and the entire Eastern Hemisphere into an attribution [a disadvantage] eventuating in a collapse on the western front. Please refer to my 683 regarding the desirableness of having an under-fed German Russia beside a well-fed Allied Russia and to my No. 7002 regarding the humanitarian considerations involved. POOLE File No. 861.00/2078 The Secretary of State to the Consul General at London (Skinner) SIR: Your despatch No. 6230, dated May 31, 1918,3 enclosing copy of a pamphlet on the Bolshevik revolution written by Maxim Litvinov, Bolshevik representative in Great Britain, has been received. The pamphlet seems to be an able ex parte statement of the Bolshevik viewpoint and is filled with those inaccuracies which would be expected in the circumstances. In view of the attitude assumed by this Government the Department believes it is advisable that you should have no dealings whatever with Bolshevik representatives in Great Britain. |