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The Life and Work of Harold Williams (1876-1928)

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Russian Liberalism and British Journalism: the life and work of Harold Williams (1876-1928) a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Charlotte Alston School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle-up on-Tyne May 2004 N[WCASTL[ UNIVCRSITY LIBRARY 203 02835 1 CONTENTS page Abstract Acknowledgements ii Preface III Illustrations lV Introduction 1 1. New Zealand, 1876-1900 13 2. Journalism, 1900-1914 46 3. Britain, Russia, War and Revolution, 1907-1917 101 4. From Revolution to Intervention, 1917-1921 158 5. The Times, 1921-1928 221 Conclusion 253 Bibliography 257 Abstract This thesis examines the career of Harold Williams (1876-1928), a journalist who, after training as a Methodist minister at home in New Zealand and taking a doctorate in philology in Germany, spent the years 1904-18 working as a foreign correspondent in Russia and in the 1920s became Foreign Editor of The Times in London. Although the thesis traces Williams's life as a whole, its particular concern is with his role as an interpreter of Russia to the British and the British to Russia. As a correspondent, Williams covered the 1905 revolution in Russia, the Duma period, the effect on Russia of the First World War, the fall of the tsarist monarchy and the coming of the Bolsheviks. Since, in 1917, his dispatches were appearing simultaneously in the Daily Chronicle, the Daily Telegraph and the New York Times, he played a not insignificant part in the fonnation of both British and American opinion about the Russian Revolution. Because he tended to take sides and pursue causes, his journalistic work was by no means entirely neutral. The thesis sheds light on his involvement in the Russian constitutional struggle, the movement for a rapprochement between Britain and Russia, the work of the British war-time propaganda bureau in Petro grad, the campaign by Russian emigres and western sympathisers to bring about western intervention in the Russian civil war, and the negotiation of the Locamo Treaty in the 1920s (which had the effect of isolating the Soviet Union). The proposition underlying the thesis is that although Williams was often admired for his modesty and his unassuming nature, he was nonetheless fiercely dedicated to the causes for which he chose to work. Sometimes, therefore, his journalism was a means to an end, a tool for the subtle promotion of the things in"which he believed. i Acknowledgements I could never have finished this thesis without the help I received from a lot of people, some of whom I doubt I'll ever be able to properly thank. I'd especially like to mention the following people. Katherine Lickwar gave me permission to use the Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams papers at Columbia University Library, and Tanya Chebotarev, the curator of the Bakhmeteff Archive, was very helpful while I was working there. Margareta Gee of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington helped me during my visit to consult the Harold Williams papers there. Margaret Lovell-Smith shared her notes on Harold Williams and copies of the Lovell-Smith family newspapers with me. Neena Williams provided me with information about the Williams family, as did Jane Teal, the Archivist at Christ's College, Christchurch, and Karen Rusbatch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists. I especially want to thank Rae Wilson, of the Methodist Archives of New Zealand, who came up with all kinds of pieces of information about Harold and Aubrey WiJliams. Paul Simmons, of Moscow State University, very kindly showed me drafts of his work on Williams's encounters with the Tsarist police, and gave me copies of his notes from Williams's police files in GARF. Pekka Antonnen of the Paivelehden Arkistosaatio in Helsinki located Williams's correspondence with Eero Erkko for me; Annika Granholm of the Finnish Institute in London helped me to find this archive in the first place, and Kati Blom helped me to read Williams's Finnish letters. Harvey Pitcher very generously gave me the newspaper cuttings of Williams's articles he had used to research and write Witnesses ofthe Russian Revolution. Michael Palmer and William Peters provided me with information on William Peters, Arthur Ransome ana Harold Williams. Alison Williams talked to me about her great-uncle, and gave me a copy of 'the Amazing Harold Williams' on tape. Elisabeth Sandschulte told me about the Tyrkov family's history, and supplied several of the photographs I have used as illustrations. Nick Mays helped me to find relevant material in and outside the Harold Williams collection at the News International Archive. Christopher Seton-Watson kindly gave me permission to consult the R. W. Seton-Watson papers at SSEES, and George Kolankiewicz gave me permission to consult the Bernard Pares papers there. Ann Farr and Malcolm Davis of the Brotherton Library, Leeds, Peter McNiven of the Guardian Archive at Manchester University Library, and Godfrey Waller of Cambridge University Library all helped me during my research in those archives. Jay Satterfield at Chicago University Library and Madeline Gibson at the University ofIllinois Library located papers relating to Harold Williams in the Samuel Harper and H. G. Wells archives. Katie Reid, Roger Alston and Rosy Phillipson all proof-read sections of my thesis, and Rosy also helped to put the illustrations together. Rosy, Nick Cott, Victoria Gardner, Zoe Colley, Laura Smith and Matthew Clark have all been through bits of the last four years with me. The Arts and Humanities Research Board, which funded my Ph.D. research, also gave me a grant to go to New York and consult the Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams papers at Columbia University. David Cannadine gave me a Jot of time at work to complete this thesis, without which I would have submitted it much later. Patrick Salmon and David Saunders, who jointly supervised this thesis, have given me lots of their time, advice and support. 11 PREFACE A note on dates Until February 1918 Russia used the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar, with the effect that the Russian calendar was twelve days behind the western calendar in the nineteenth century, and thirteen days behind at the beginning of the twentieth century. When referring to events in Russia prior to the change of calendars in 1918, I have given both dates, in the form 1st I 14th March. When referring to events in Britain, and to the date of publication of Williams's dispatches, I have always given the 'new-style' western date. If only one date appears, it can be assumed that it is the date according to the Gregorian calendar. A note on names Russian names for places and people used in this thesis are transliterated according to the Library of Congress system, but without diacritical marks. The only exceptions are names which have a particularly well-known and accepted western equivalent (e.g.: Tolstoy, Yasnaya Polyana). Since Williams and his contemporaries often used western forms for Russian names which are now outdated, some names appear in different forms in quotes and in my own text (eg. Izvolsky and Izvol'skii, Cadet party and Kadet party). Where places are referred to which now have a very different name, the current name appears in brackets - e.g. Reval (Tallinn), Lemberg (Lviv). Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, whose married name was Bonnan and whose maiden name was Tyrkova, is referred to throughout her time in Russia as Ariadna Tyrkova, as this was how she styled herself. In London in 1918 and after, and in reference to her writings after this date, I refer to her as Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, as again, this was what she usually called herself (although she occasionally used Tyrkova, and sometimes just Williams). r I "' The churches at Inglewood Midhurst and Waipuku, in the Waitara circuit, New Zealand. taken from William Morley. History ofMethodism in New Zealand (Wellington, 1900). Harold Williams in Berlin, circa 1900. Harold and Aubrey Williams in St. Petersburg, 1914. photograph courtesy of the New Zealand Methodist Archives Ariadna Tyrkova and her children. Sonya and Arkadii, 1904 In Constantinople, 1912 photographs courtesy of Elisabeth Sandschulte · . 191 Vergezha, the Tyrkov family's estate in the province of Nov go rod Yea W1a Bepzc a . 1914 1'0<1. TpC!m<.,Il CAt:8ll - CO~I>SI }(apAOt1/{{(, Mum!> Apual1>lbl BJraOU.llUpoeHbl; OOAIM - A.B. Twp/(o(J{l·Bu,lbIUtC; E JlCIIG JIa6AOIJH.a C MY)I('tJ.f. Ap1((l(}ue.\1 TbIP~Otlbl.~; HWla AIf€KceelSna KOKOPUHO, UINOAbHaJl y"ume.nblluqa; fep6epm lT3I1JfC; rapo.9w Bwr"~tc. B taU ,c. rna Itonpa Q: A.B. Tl.!tPI(06. f cp6epm Ya;vtc, H A. ROICopzma; Ha cnwo{e call U - AB. TbJpl ... 0ea·BUJlbR.IC; 8 u,cnmp rpomo pat/Juu, Ita 8mopo.w. TUlane - rapO.jb(J BW1bJt fC Harold Williams and Ariadna Tyrkova at Vergezha, with H. G. Wells, 1914 Harold Williams with Bernard Pares, in the province of Novgo rod taken from Bernard Pares, My Russian Memoirs (London 1931). -:-y _ •• -"••• --,---r .; ; .. iTU"'Uiil ~ nx~ n ,\.1.11'1 BY DR. HAROLD WILLIAMS. A dispatch by Harold Williams in the Daily Chronicle, 24th July 1917. Harold Williams and his family in London in the 1920s. Taken from http://www.bl.uklcollections/easteuropeanltyrkov.html, and http://www.nzedge.comlheroes/will iams.html. Introduction In 1935 Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, a prominent Russian liberal politician, writer, and one-time member of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democrat (Kadet) party, published a biography of her husband, the New Zealand-born journalist and linguist, Harold Williams. In a review for the Observer, Robert Seton- Watson summed up something of the appeal of the book, and of its subject.
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