CANADA AND THE SOVIET EXPERIMENT Essays on Canadian Encounters with Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900-1991 Contributing Authors David Bercuson Robert Bothwell David Davies Ian Drummond John English J.L. Granatstein Norman Hillmer William Rodney Leigh Sarty Edited by David Davies Published in association with Centre for Russian and East European Studies (University of Toronto) and Centre on Foreign Policy and Federalism (University of Waterloo) Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii About the Contributors 1 Introduction: Canadian-Soviet Relations in Historical Perspective David Davies 25 Borden and the Bolsheviks Robert Bothwell 39 Optimism and Illusion: Canada and the Soviet Union in the 1920s William Rodney 57 Canada and the "Godless Country": 1930-1939 Norman Hillmer 75 Changing Alliances: Canada and the Soviet Union, 1939-1945 J.L. Granatstein '~ 89 "A People So Ruthless as the Soviets": Canadian Images of the Cold War and the Soviet Union, 1946-1950 David J. Bercuson 105 Lester Pearson Encounters the Enigma John R. English 117 A Handshake Across the Pole: Canadian-Soviet Relations During the Era of Detente Leigh Sarty 137 Canadian-Soviet Trade and Competition from the Revolution to 1986 Ian M. Drummond 151 A Rivalry Transformed: Canadian-Soviet Relations to the 1990s Leigh Sarty Acknowledgements This book originated at a conference on Canadian-Soviet relations held in Elora, Ontario in August, 1987. The conference was conceived by Geoffrey Pearson; organized by Robert Bothwell, Nonnan Hillmer and John English, with the assistance on Irene Sage Knell; and supported with funds granted by the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security, the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, and the Centre for Foreign Policy and Federalism. With the exception of Chapters seven and nine, the chapters in this volume were first presented at this conference and benefited from discussion among the participants, including John Lewis Gaddis and Franklyn Griffiths. Mary Halloran prepared a summary of the presentations and discussions. The editor owes a special debt to Niveditha Logsetty for her help in preparing this volume for publication; to Brian Orend, Jan Weber and Dave Bartholomew for press arrangements; to Mildred Davies for editorial assis­ tance; to Gail Heideman and Irene Majer for typing the manuscript; to Leigh Sarty for suggesting the title; and to John English for wise counsel on many occasions. Any remaining errors are the editor's responsibility. About the Contributors David Berenson is Professor of History and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Calgary. Long a prominent Canadian labour historian, he has recently migrated to the study of foreign policy and defence with such books as Canada and the Birth of Israel (1985), and War and Peacekeeping (1991; with J.L. Granatstein). Robert Bothwell is Professor of History at the University of Toronto. He is the author of numerous books, including C.D. Howe: A Biography (1979; with William Kilbourn), Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium Company (1984), Nucleus: The History of Atomic Energy in Canada Limited (1988), and Canada and the United States: The Politics of Partnership (1992). David Davies is an Associate Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Waterloo. He is a specialist on Russian and Soviet History and has written on Canadian-Russian issues in the Canadian Historical Review and Canadian Slavonic Papers. Ian Drummond is Professor of History and Economics at the University of Toronto. He has published extensively on Canadian-Sovie,t trade and competi­ tion. He is also the author of British Economic Policy and the Empire, I919- 1939 (1972), Imperial Economic Policy, 1917-1939 (1974), Negotiating Freer Trade: The United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and the Trade Agreements of 1938 (1989; with Norman Hillmer) and Canada, 1900-1945 (1987), and Canada Since 1945 (1981, 1989) both with Robert Bothwell and John English. John English is Professor of History at the University of Waterloo and President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. He is best known for his prize-winning biography, Shadow of Heaven: The Life of Lester Pearson, volume I, 1887-1948 (1989) and The Worldly Years: The Life of Lester Pearson, volume II, 1949-1972 (1992). He has also written The Decline of Politics: The Conservatives and the Party System, 1901-1920 (1977) and, with Robert Bothwell and Ian M. Drummond, Canada, 1900-1945 (1987) and Canada Since 1945 (1981, 1989). iii 1 J.L. Granatst~in, Professor of History at York University, is the author of ~umerous stud1:s of Canadian ~~litics, defence, and foreign policy. His titles mclude Canada s War: The Polztzcs of the Mackenzie King Government, i939- i945 (1975), A Man of influence: Norman A. Robertson and Canadian Statecraft, i929-i968 (1981), The Ottawa Men: The Civil Service Mandarins i935-i957 (1982), Canada, i957-i967 (1986), and Pirouette: Pierre Trudea~ Introduction: and Canadian Foreign Policy (1990; with Robert Bothwell). No~man .Hill~er is Professor of History at Carleton University and a former Canadian-Soviet Relations in Semor H1stonan at the Department of National Defence. The editor of several books on Canadian foreign policy, he is also' the author of For Better or For Historical Perspective Worse: ~anada and the United States to the i990s (1991; with J.L. Granatstem) and Negotiating Freer Trade: The United Kingdom, the United David Davies States, Canada, and the Trade Agreements of i938 (1989; with Ian M. Drummond). The essays in this book offer historical perspectives on Canadian encounters William ~odney is Profess~r of History and former Dean of Arts at Royal with Russia and the Soviet Union throughout the twentieth century. An histori­ R~ads M1htary College. He IS the author of Soldiers of the international: A cal assessment at this time is particularly appropriate because the dissolution of Hzstory of the Communist Party of Canada (1958) and Joe Boyle King of the the Soviet Union and its ruling Communist Party has brought to a close a 75- Klondike (1974). year era in the history of Russia and its adjoining territories and is transforming the relationships between them and the countries of the rest of the world, Leigh Sarty is affiliated with Carleton University as a SSHRC postdoctoral including Canada. While historians are not privileged to know precisely what fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and a member these new relationships will mean for Canada (nor, it could be added, is any­ of the executive of the Research Centre for Canada and the Soviet Successor one else) it is especially timely for them to review what the past relationship States (CCSS). His wo:k on Canadian Soviet relations has been published in has been. Now that the "Soviet experiment" is complete, historians can begin J.L. Black and N. Hillmer, eds., Nearly Neighbours (1989), Queen's to provide an assessment of Canada's experience with that regime throughout Quarterly, and the CCSS Occasional Papers series. its entire existence and, in so doing, provide a historic~ perspective for an understanding of present issues. The relationship between Canada and the republics of the former Soviet Union, though much transformed, constitutes an on-going process still rooted in the past, in which elements of continuity will continue to co-exist with elements of change. Thus certain patterns and themes that have recurred throughout the previ­ ous hundred years may well endure into the future. One such example is the complex issue of Canadian perceptions (and misperceptions) of a part of the world seemingly so familiar yet in fundamental ways contrasting with the Canadian experience. Russia and the Soviet Union have been viewed by Canadians both as a threat and as an opportunity. Issues of northern develop­ ment, of trade, of immigration, as well as of security, have persisted in various forms since Canada's "discovery" of Russia one hundred years ago. Some of these themes, which derive from important milestones in the relationship between Canada and its immense northern neighbour, are appro­ priate to commemorate at the present time. 1991 marked the centenary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada, which was followed by subsequent waves of Eastern European emigration to the point where one in seven Canadians iv 2 David Davies Introduction: Canadian-Soviet Relations in Historical Perspective 3 now claims ancestry from that part of the world. 1992 marked the fiftieth is with persecuted minorities emigrating from the Russian Empire, and with anniversary of formal diplomatic recognition between Canada and the Soviet political exiles forming an emigre oppositional intelligentsia. Viewed through Union, though representation in each country traces further back to the estab­ the prism of Mennonites, Ukrainians, Poles, Finns, Jews, and Doukhobors who lishment of Russian consulates in Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver in 1900 migrated to Canada, "Russia" took on a particular colouring, as indeed it did in and the residency of Canadian Trade Commissioners in St. Petersburg and the presentations of intelligentsia critics of the tsarist regime. In 1903 Paul Omsk in the next decade. And, of course, 1992 was the twentieth anniversary Miliukov, a prominent historian and political activist from Russia, lectured in of the memorable 1972 Canada-USSR hockey series, itself a revealing indica­ Chicago on the dichotomy between official and unofficial Russia: "there exist tor of possibilities of change and detente in the very middle of the Cold War two Russias, one quite different from the other, and what pleases one is quite period. These quite different events - one social, one political and one cultural sure to displease the other ... Were I to label these two Russias, I would desig­ - representing as they do different levels of interaction between Canada and nate the one as the Russia of Leo Tolstoy, the great writer; and the other as that territory in Eastern Europe under Russian rule, further call attention to the on­ of Plehve, the late minister of the interior ..