BRITAIN AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

BRITAIN AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

By the same author THE USSR: Portrait of a Super Power POLITICAL CULTURE AND SOVIET POLITICS

BRITAIN AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION A Study in the Politics of Diplomacy, 1920-1924 Stephen White Lecturer in Politics University of Glasgow

Stephen White 1979 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-25671-8 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1979 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melboume New York Singapore Tokyo Filmset in Great Brittzin by Vantage Photosetting Co., Lid, SoutJuzmpton and London British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data White, Stephen, b. 1945 Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution I. Great Britain-Foreign relations-russia 2. Russia-Foreign relations-great Britain 3. Great Britain-Foreign relations-19io- 1936 4. Russia-F oreign relations-1917-1945 I. Title 327-41'047 DA47 65 ISBN 978-1-349-04301-9 ISBN 978-1-349-04299-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04299-9 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions 0/ the Net Book Agreement

For my parents

Contents Preface List of Abbreviations ix xiii Part One: NEGOTIATION The Trade Agreement 2 Labour and Soviet Russia 3 Conferences 3 27 55 Part Two: IMPERIAL CONFRONTATION 4 Imperial Crisis and Soviet Russia 5 Soviet Russia and Revolution 79 81 110 6 The 'Curzon Note' 141 Part Three: LABOUR, BUSINESS AND RECOGNITION 173 7 'Entente Commerciale' 8 Soviet Russia and Labourism Conclusion: Class, Party and Foreign Policy 175 204 234 Notes Select Bibliography Index

Preface This study deals with the development of Anglo-Soviet relations from the revolution of 1917, when they began, to the recognition of the Soviet by the British government in 1924, when they reached an at least provisional terminus ad quem. As the immediate postrevolutionary years have been considered reasonably fully elsewhere I have preferred to concentrate upon the latter part of this period, and the bulk of the volume is accordingly devoted to an account of the short but turbulent years between the conclusion of the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement of March 1921 and the formal act of recognition of February 1924. So far from establishing fully 'normal' relations between the two countries, I shall argue, the trade agreement in fact gave rise to a series of diplomatic manoeuvres designed to undermine the Soviet government or otherwise commit it to Allied purposes which in political terms represented a continuation of the military intervention of the immediate post-revolutionary period. The first part of this volume deals with the attempt of the British government under Lloyd George to achieve this objective by direct negotiation; the second considers the attempt of the Conservative administration which succeeded it to achieve the same objective by more openly 'confrontationist' tactics. The third part, 'Recognition', deals with the change in business opinion regarding the desirability of closer relations with Russia in the latter part of 1923, a change which, it will be argued, is crucial to an understanding of the recognition of the Soviet government at the beginning of the following year by the first Labour government. The treatment which follows, accordingly, ranges somewhat more widely than diplomatic history as conventionally understood. In particular, I have tried to relate the development of formal inter-state relations to three broad themes: first, the politics of the labour movement towards revolutionary Russia, a variable factor which (though I shall argue it is somewhat sentimentally described as 'solidarity') did playa part in first limiting

x Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution British military involvement in Russia and then bringing about the recognition of the Soviet government at the beginning of 1924; second, the influence upon government of business and financial opinion; and third, the impact upon formal inter-state relations of the developing competition for hegemony in the colonial world, especially in Asia, where British imperial rule faced an assertive and increasingly radical nationalist opposition with which Soviet foreign policy appeared to have a close and pernicious association. To integrate these themes coherently within the overall argument has been a difficult task, but a necessary one; for it is the thesis of this study that to confine the study of British-Soviet relations to the exchange of communications between governments would be profoundly to misunderstand the nature of the relationship between what were essentially two rival and mutually incompatible conceptions of world order. This, then, is a study in the sociology of international politics rather than a record of diplomatic interchange; it deals, in the last resort, with relations between classes rather than with those between states. The plan of the book is briefly as follows. The first part, 'Negotiation', considers the evolution of Anglo-Soviet relations under the Premiership of Lloyd George. Successive chapters discuss the negotiation of the trade agreement of 1921; Labour 'solidarity' with Soviet Russia during this period; and the diplomatic conferences of Genoa and The Hague of 1922, which both summed up and completed this phase of relations between the two governments. The second part, 'Imperial Confrontation', examines the international dimension of British-Soviet relations under the more imperially-minded administration of Bonar Law. The new government's more traditional perception of the manner in which British interests might best be defended led to a series of sharply-worded communications to the Soviet government, culminating in the 'Curzon Note' of May 1923. Its greater preoccupation with imperial and colonial affairs, it is argued, reflected the temporary predominance of an 'agrarian-colonial-finance' section within British governing circles, although the threat to their interests which Soviet colonial intrigue in fact presented seems in retrospect to have been greatly exaggerated. The third part, 'Recognition', returns to the European context and considers the evidence of a growing conviction among merchants and manufacturers that their interests might more adequately be served by a policy of closer commercial relations with Russia, for which the

Preface diplomatic recognition of its government appeared to be a necessary prerequisite. It was this entente commerciale, it is argued, rather than a hypothetical community of socialist sentiment, which had most to do with the recognition of the Soviet government by the first Labour government at the beginning of the following year. The Conclusion considers the interaction of class, party and foreign policy more generally over the period as a whole. This study has been some time in gestation, and many people have helped to make it better than it would otherwise have been. In Glasgow, Alec Nove, the supervisor of the thesis upon which this study is based, commented most helpfully upon the earlier manuscript and offered a characteristic mixture of advice, encouragement and stimulation at all times. My colleagues in the Department of Politics and the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies have similarly been generous with their time, attention and assistance. Seminar audiences in Glasgow and Oxford heard parts of the manuscript at various times and in various guises, and I have benefited from the discussions which followed. The British Council made it possible for me to spend an academic year at Moscow State University and every effort was made there to facilitate my studies. Elsewhere, Walter Kendall was kind enough to read and discuss a number of chapters with me; Mary McAuley read and commented constructively upon an earlier version of the manuscript as a whole; Marcel Liebman, Kenneth Young and the late Barry Hollingsworth corresponded with me and sent useful material and advice; and Rajani Palme Dutt and Morgan Phillips Price (both now, alas, deceased) were good enough to discuss their recollections of the period with me. Grants in aid of research were provided by the University of Glasgow and by the Carnegie Trust of the Universities of Scotland. I am indebted to the librarians of the following institutions for permission to consult manuscript materials in their possession: Birmingham Public Library; Birmingham University Library; Bodleian Library, Oxford; British Library, London; British Library of Political and Economic Science, London; Cambridge University Library; Communist Party, London; Confederation of British Industry, London; Conservative Party Research Department, London; Council of Foreign Bondholders, London; Edinburgh Trades Council; Engineering Employers' Federation, Lon- xi

XlI Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution don; Glasgow University Library; Guildhall Library, London; Hoover Institution, Stanford, California; House of Lords Record Office, London; India Office Library, London; Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam; Labour Party, London; Leeds University Library; Liverpool Public Library; Manchester University Library; Mitchell Library, Glasgow; National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; Newcastle University Library; Nuffield College, Oxford; Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, London; Scottish Public Record Office, Edinburgh; Scottish Trades Union Congress, Glasgow; Sheepscar Library, Leeds; Sheffield Public Library; Sheffield Trades and Labour Council; Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, London; Trades Union Congress, London; and Warwick University Library, Coventry. Mr David Marquand permitted me to consult the MacDonald Papers while still in his possession, and Viscount Bridgeman and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede were kind enough to lend me manuscript material. Transcripts from Crown Copyright records in the Public Record Office appear by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. Finally, I must thank the departmental secretaries, Jean Beverly, Hazel Falconer, Elspeth Shaw and Celia Wallace, for coping swiftly and efficiently with various drafts of this volume, and my wife, Ishbel, for her patience, advice and encouragement. In this, as in so many ways, she makes it all worthwhile. Glasgow Stephen White July 1979

List of Abbreviations The following abbreviations have been employed in this study: BSP Cab DBFP DVP FBI F.O. H. C. Debs ILP NEP NKID NKVT Premo PSS RKP(B) TUC UDC British Socialist Party Cabinet Papers in the Public Record Office, London Documents on British Foreign Policy, First Series, ed. E. L. Woodward and R. Butler, vol. 1 - (London 1947- ) Dokumenty Vneshnei Politiki SSSR (Documents on the Foreign Policy of the USSR), ed. A. A. Gromyko et ai., vol. 1 - (Moscow 1957- ) Federation of British Industries Foreign Office Papers in the Public Record Office, London Parliamentary Debates, 5th series, House of Commons Independent Labour Party New Economic Policy Narodnyi Komissariat po Inostrannym Delam (People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs) Narodnyi Komissariat Vneshnei Torgovli (People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade) Prime Minister's Papers in the Public Record Office, London V. I. Lenin, Polnoe Sobranie Sochinenii (Complete Works), 55 vols (Moscow 1957-65) Rossiiskaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bol'- shevikov) (Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)) Trades Union Congress Union of Democratic Control