ABSTRACT Title of Document: REPORTING FROM THE FRONTLINES OF THE FIRST COLD WAR: AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC DESPATCHES ABOUT THE INTERNAL CONDITIONS IN THE SOVIET UNION, 1917-1933 Asgar M. Asgarov, Ph.D., 2007 Directed By: Associate Professor Michael David-Fox, Department of History Following the Bolshevik Revolution in November of 1917, the United States ended diplomatic relations with Russia, and refused to recognize the Soviet regime until 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt reversed this policy. Given Russia’s vast size and importance on the world stage, Washington closely monitored the internal developments in that country during the non-recognition period. This dissertation is study of the American diplomatic despatches about the political, economic and social conditions in the USSR in its formative years. In addition to examining the despatches as a valuable record of the Soviet past, the dissertation also explores the ways in which the despatches shaped the early American attitudes toward the first Communist state and influenced the official policy. The American diplomats, stationed in revolutionary Russia and later, in the territories of friendlier nations surrounding the Soviet state, prepared regular reports addressing various aspects of life in the USSR. Following the evacuation of the American diplomatic personnel from Russia toward the end of the Civil War, the Western visitors to Russia, migrants, and Soviet publications became primary sources of knowledge about the Soviet internal affairs. Under the guidance of the Eastern European Affairs Division at the U.S. State Department, the Americans managed to compile great volumes of information about the Soviet state and society. In observing the chronological order, this dissertation focuses on issues of particular significance and intensity such as diplomatic observers’ treatment of political violence, repression and economic hardships that engulfed tumultuous periods of the Revolution, Civil War, New Economic Policy and Collectivization. The dissertation also examines the American recognition of the Soviet state in the context of the diplomatic despatches about the Soviet internal conditions. REPORTING FROM THE FRONTLINES OF THE FIRST COLD WAR: AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC DESPATCHES ABOUT THE INTERNAL CONDITIONS IN THE SOVIET UNION, 1917-1933. By Asgar M. Asgarov Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor Michael David-Fox, Chair Professor Keith Olson Professor John Lampe Professor Arthur Eckstein Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu © Copyright by Asgar M. Asgarov 2007 To the memory of my grandfather. ii Acknowledgements I am grateful for the assistance, encouragement, and guidance of a number of people as follows. For over six years, professor Michael David-Fox gave me valuable instructions in conducting historical research and introduced me to the wealth of literature on Russian/Soviet history. Above all, professor David-Fox taught me how to become a historian. Without his counsel and guidance, this dissertation would not have come to fruition. I appreciate professor John Lampe’s suggestions with regard to the functioning of the U.S. State Department, in particular, the Russian Section at the U.S. Legation in Riga, Latvia. I am also indebted to professor Keith Olson for his assistance with the revision of this dissertation and correction of certain facts pertaining to the history of American foreign policy. I wish to thank professor Arthur Eckstein and Jeanine Rutenburg for their strong intellectual support for this project. I appreciate the frequent exchange of ideas which nourished the spirit behind this research. I am grateful to professor Vladimir Tismaneanu for agreeing to serve as the Dean’s Representative in the committee. Finally, I am thankful for the support and love of my family members who provided vital emotional support during the research and writing of this dissertation. iii Table of Contents Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………..iv Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: The Rupture: Bolsheviks Seize Power…………………………………...10 Chapter 2: Civil War and Foreign Intervention……………………………………...52 Chapter 3: Consolidation of Power and the Beginning of New Economic Policy…107 Chapter 4: Era of Soviet Normalcy…………………………………………………166 Chapter 5: Revolution Resumed……………………………………………………225 Chapter 6: End of the First Cold War: America Recognizes the Soviet Union…….291 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….336 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..344 iv Introduction The United States of America broke off diplomatic relations with Russia immediately after the Bolsheviks seized power in November of 1917. Having denounced the Soviet regime as illegitimate, Washington withheld recognition for sixteen years until 1933, when the government of President Franklin Roosevelt reversed the policy course. This dissertation explores the diplomatic despatches of the monitors who supplied policymakers in Washington with vital information about the Soviet internal conditions during the non-recognition period. Issued from various diplomatic stations in and around Russia, the diplomatic despatches played an important role in determining the early attitudes among American officials toward the Soviet government and influenced the policy of non-recognition. In the form of observer reports, interviews, analyses, memorandums, and translated Soviet publications, the American diplomats composed despatches that sought to depict the political, economic and social aspects of life in the Soviet Union. As such, these despatches not only furnished policy makers with information on the conditions inside Russia under the new government, but they also comprise a valuable record of the Soviet past. Given the persistent ideological hostility between Washington and Moscow, what, in fact, constituted the “First Cold War”1 was the period during which the 1 The term “First Cold War” belongs to Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani whose book The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations (Columbia, MI: University of Missouri, 2002) addresses the early hostility between the American and Bolshevik governments. As for the historical narratives on the antagonism between the U.S. and Soviet Russia in the first sixteen years of the latter’s existence, the literature is vast. To cite just a few, one could point out Georg Schild, Between Ideology and Realpolitik: Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution , 1917-1921 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), Betty Unterberger, America’s Siberian Adventure, 1918- 1 Americans managed to obtain a great deal of knowledge about the Soviet regime. By 1920’s, the East European Division of the U.S. State Department contained the largest repository of information on the Soviet Union. The charismatic chief of this division, Robert F. Kelley, known as “Mr. Eastern Europe” among colleagues due to his superb knowledge of the Russian history, was keen on streamlining the information-gathering by diplomats and ensured that the despatches met the expected criteria for quality. Such oversight had become especially necessary after the American diplomats departed Russia in 1919 and the number of reliable sources on the ground diminished. In 1922, the United States upgraded the consulate in the Latvian capital Riga to the embassy status, and established a section within the embassy that focused on the Soviet Union. Situated 100 miles to the south-west of Petrograd, Riga provided a unique advantage to the American diplomats to observe the political processes in Russia. Staffed by the officers who had close experience with Soviet Russia, from 1922 until 1933, the Russian Section played a pivotal role in acquisition of information and its analysis. Authors Natalie Grant, Claudia Breuer, and Loy Henderson have produced narratives that specifically address the functions of the legation in Riga which served as a primary listening post for the United States.2 While a notable portion of the despatches utilized in this dissertation hail from the 1920: A Study of National Policy (Durham, NC: Duke University, 1956), John Richman, The United States and the Soviet Union: The Decision to Recognize (Raleigh, NC: Camberleigh and Hall, 1980). Two previous works that dealt with the topic of U.S.-Soviet tensions in the time frame of my focus were Melvin Goodman’s “The Diplomacy of Non-Recognition: Soviet American Relations, 1917- 1933” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1972) and David Singer’s “The United States Confronts the Soviet Union: The Rise and Fall of the Policy of Non-Recognition” (PhD diss., Loyola University, 1973). 2 See Natalie Grant, “The Russian Section: A Window on the Soviet Union,” Diplomatic History 2 (1978), Claudia Breuer, Die ‘Russische Section’ in Riga (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1995), George W. Baer ed., A Question of Trust: The Origins U.S. –Soviet Diplomatic Relations - The Memoirs of Loy W. Henderson (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1986). 2 Latvian capital, the American consulates in other countries, particularly those in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Finland, China, and Turkey richly contributed to the knowledge about the conditions in the Soviet Union. Yet much of these latter documents have rarely been incorporated into the small body of academic