DeWitt C. Poole. An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia. Edited by Lorraine M. Lees and William S. Rodner. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015. 332 pp. $21.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-299-30224-5.
Reviewed by William B. Whisenhunt
Published on H-Russia (July, 2017)
Commissioned by Eva M. Stolberg (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
With the arrival of the centennial of the Rus‐ 1950s, not long before his death, Poole gave an sian Revolution, there is a renewed interest in all oral account of his memories of the revolution aspects of the revolutionary era (1914-21). One called “The Reminiscences of DeWitt Clinton area that has received renewed attention is the Poole,” for the Columbia University Oral History role of Americans in Russia during the revolution. Project. Lorraine M. Lees and William S. Rodner There were many Americans in Russia during the have edited this more than 500-page transcript of Russian Revolution who published books soon af‐ that interview into An American Diplomat in Bol‐ ter their return to the United States. The most no‐ shevik Russia. Without question, this account was table of these were by sympathetic journalists like infuenced by the passage of more than thirty John Reed (Ten Days That Shook the World, 1919), years since the revolution and the events and pol‐ Louise Bryant (Six Red Months in Russia, 1918), itics of the mid-twentieth century world. Poole Bessie Beatty, (The Red Heart of Russia, 1918), and was a career diplomat who arrived in Russia in Albert Rhys Williams, (Through the Russian Revo‐ September 1917, just as events were heating up, lution, 1921).[1] These works were immediate and and this is where his account begins. generally positive reactions to the revolution and Poole’s account takes the reader through the its aftermath, while other works from that era events of the Russian Revolution from his arrival were more critical and even condemning of the in Vladivostok in the summer of 1917 to his re‐ Bolsheviks' coming to power. Nearly all of the turn to the United States two years later. Poole American accounts, though, were published be‐ generally held negative attitudes about the Bol‐ fore the end of the 1920s. shevik takeover, but he shows in the early part of DeWitt Clinton Poole (1885-1952) was one of the memoir that his primary concern was these witnesses to the Russian Revolution, but he whether the Russians would stay in the war and did not write his account at that time. In the help defeat Germany. Poole was in Russia to help H-Net Reviews negotiate a commercial treaty, but by 1918, he found himself in Moscow consulting with Ameri‐ can ofcials about how to work with the new Bol‐ shevik government. He chronicles the assassina‐ tion of German ambassador to Russia Wilhelm von Mirbach, Czech legions, and Allied interven‐ tion in the Russian civil war. His travels also took him far north to Archangel and back across Siberia during the tu‐ multuous times of the Russian civil war. Poole’s interactions were quite varied. His account in‐ cludes much on the Cheka and the Red Terror (as he called it), and his interactions with the Red Cross and YMCA ofcials who were trying to as‐ sess the importance of the Bolshevik takeover and the resulting chaos that ensued. It also covers the activities of British agent Robert Bruce Lockhart and American businessman and agent Zenophon Kalamantiano. Lees and Rodner have provided an expertly edited and annotated volume that is rich in detail. This volume brings into print for the frst time this valuable oral history record that illuminates the American role and reaction to the Russian Revolution and subsequent events. While it is clear that Poole’s view of these events was infu‐ enced by the thirty years that followed, it is an im‐ portant addition to the increasing historical litera‐ ture on Americans in the Russian Revolution. Note [1]. These, and ffteen other American ac‐ counts, are being republished in a new series, Americans in Revolutionary Russia, with expert introductions and annotations, by Slavica Publish‐ ers from 2016 to 2018.
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Citation: William B. Whisenhunt. Review of Poole, DeWitt C. An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia. H-Russia, H-Net Reviews. July, 2017.
2 H-Net Reviews
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=48815
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