Spies and Commissars: The Bolshevik Revolution and the West (62 page)

The disputes range from the peaks of politics and philosophy to the lowly fates of individuals. An unexpected example of the Revolution’s lasting capacity to impinge on our current affairs was given in September 2005, when the General Procuracy of the Russian Federation reopened the posthumous case of Robert Bruce Lockhart. Ever since his trial
in absentia
in 1918, Lockhart had been a demonic figure in Soviet history textbooks – and the popular Soviet movie
Hostile Whirlwinds
, which was released in 1953, reinforced this image. At the turn of the millennium, the General Procuracy in Moscow was still busy reviewing historic cases of possible miscarriages of justice over the seven decades of Soviet communist dictatorship. Its verdict on Lockhart was flinty but fair: the British agent was found to have engaged in active subversion. He had therefore been guilty as charged at the time and did not qualify for posthumous rehabilitation.
⁴¹

NOTES

1. Troubling Journeys

1
.
The Times
, 19 March 1917;
Manchester Guardian
, 19 March 1917.

2
. I. Maisky,
Journey into the Past
, p. 241.

3
. I. Litvinov, ‘Letters to Viola’, autobiographical fragment, p. 32: St Antony’s RESC Archive; I. Litvinov, autobiographical fragment on 1917–1918: Ivy Litvinov Papers (HIA), box 11, folder 7.

4
. M. Litvinov, ‘From the Diary of a Russian Political Emigre, March 17th, London’ (typescript, apparently dictated to Ivy Litvinov):
ibid
., box 10, folder 5, p. 1.

5
. I. Litvinov, ‘Letters to Viola’, autobiographical fragment, p. 33: St Antony’s RESC Archive.

6
. D. Marquand,
Ramsay MacDonald
, p. 208.

7
. I. Litvinov, ‘Letters to Viola’, autobiographical fragment, p. 33: St Antony’s RESC Archive.

8
.
Ibid
.

9
. C. Nabokoff,
The Ordeal of a Diplomat
, pp. 83–4.

10
. I. Maisky,
Journey into the Past
, p. 245.

11
. On the Archangel route see H. Shukman,
War or Revolution: Russian Jews and Conscription in Britain, 1917
, pp. 88–9.

12
. C. Nabokoff,
The Ordeal of a Diplomat
, pp. 94–5.

13
.
New York Times
, 16 March 1917.

14
.
Ibid
., 17 March 1917.

15
. I. Maisky,
Journey into the Past
, p. 255.

16
. C. Nabokoff,
The Ordeal of a Diplomat
, pp. 95–7.

17
. I. Maisky,
Journey into the Past
, pp. 257–8.

18
.
Ibid
., p. 261.

19
. I. Litvinov, ‘Letters to Viola’, autobiographical fragment, p. 36: St Antony’s RESC Archive.

20
. HO 144/2158/322428. My thanks to Harry Shukman for sharing the documents in this and the next endnote.

21
. HO 144/2158/322428/6 and 9; see also H. Shukman,
War or Revolution: Russian Jews and Conscription in Britain, 1917
, p. 59.

22
. J. McHugh and B. J. Ripley, ‘Russian Political Internees in First World War
Britain: The Cases of George Chicherin and Peter Petroff’,
Historical Journal
, no. 3 (1985), pp. 733–4.

23
. A. E. Senn,
The Russian Revolution in Switzerland, 1914–1917
, pp. 224 and 228.

24
.
Ibid
., p. 228.

25
. See
here
.

26
. G. A. Hill,
Go Spy the Land
, pp. 81–2.

27
. N. Sukhanov,
Zapiski o revolyutsii
, vol. 2, book 3, p. 6.

28
. I. Getzler,
Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat
, p. 150.

29
. Sir G. Buchanan,
My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories
, pp. 120–1.

2. Russia on its Knees

1
. L. Bryant,
Six Red Months in Russia
, p. 44; J. Reed,
Ten Days that Shook the World
(1960), pp. 13, 219 and 331; G. A. Hill,
Go Spy the Land
, p. 84.

2
. J. Reed,
Ten Days that Shook the World
(1960), p. 14.

3
. See R. Service,
The Russian Revolution, 1900–1927
, p. 63.

4
. See R. Service,
The Bolshevik Party in Revolution: A Study in Organisational Change
, pp. 53–4 and 57.

5
. See K. Rose,
King George V
, pp. 211–15.

6
. Interview of A. F. Kerenski, N. A. Sokolov investigation (Paris, 14–20 August 1920), pp. 105–9: GARF item (unspecified as to catalogue reference), Volkogonov Papers, reel 15.

7
.
Protokoly Tsentral’nogo Komiteta
, p. 87.

8
. L. de Robien,
The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia
, pp. 127–8.

9
.
Ibid
., p. 121.

10
.
Ibid.
, p. 122.

11
.
Ibid.

3. The Allied Agenda

1
. G. A. Hill,
Go Spy the Land
, p. 77.

2
.
Ibid
., pp. 78–9.

3
. L. de Robien,
The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia
, p. 33.

4
.
Ibid
., p. 41.

5
.
New York Times
, 21 June 1917.

6
. D. Marquand,
Ramsay MacDonald
, pp. 213 and 215.

7
. B. Beatty,
The Red Heart of Russia
, p. 37.

8
.
New York Times
, 17 May 1917.

9
.
Ibid
., 15 June 1917.

10
. B. Beatty,
The Red Heart of Russia
, pp. 37, 41 and 44.

11
.
New York Times
, 16 August 1917.

12
.
Ibid
., 18 August 1917.

13
. US Consulate – Leningrad [
sic
]: Dispatches to the Secretary of State (HIA), dispatches 274, 293, 330 and 339.

14
. R. H. Bruce Lockhart,
Memoirs of a British Agent, Being an Account of the Author’s Early Life in Many Lands and of his Official Mission to Moscow in 1918
, pp. 153–4.

15
. J. Noulens,
Mon ambassade en Russie Soviétique, 1917–1919
, vol. 1, p. 89.

16
.
Ibid
., vol. 2, p. 243.

17
.
Ibid.

18
.
Ibid.
, p. 242.

19
.
Ibid.
, pp. 243–4.

20
.
Ibid.
, vol. 1, pp. 9 and 21.

21
. D. S. Foglesong,
America’s Secret War against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1917–1920
, pp. 108–9.

22
. C. Andrew,
For the President’s Eyes Only
, pp. 38–9.

23
.
Ibid
., pp. 46–7.

24
.
Ibid.
, p. 47.

25
. G. R. Swain, ‘Maugham, Masaryk and the “Mensheviks” ’,
Revolutionary Russia
, no. 1 (1994), pp. 83–5.

26
. J. Noulens,
Mon ambassade en Russie Soviétique, 1917–1919
, vol. 1, p. 177.

27
. L. Bryant,
Six Red Months in Russia
, p. 65.

28
. D. S. Foglesong,
America’s Secret War against Bolshevism
, pp. 108–9.

29
.
Bolshevik Propaganda: Hearings before a Subcommittee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Sixty-Fifth Congress, Third Session and Thereafter Pursuant to Senate Resolutions 439 and 469 – February 11, 1919 to March 10, 1919
, p. 779 (Robins).

30
.
Ibid
.

31
. C. Nabokoff,
The Ordeal of a Diplomat
, p. 64.

32
. Sir George Buchanan,
My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories
, pp. 192–3; J. Noulens,
Mon ambassade en Russie Soviétique, 1917–1919
, vol. 1, pp. 89–91.

33
. W. Hard,
Raymond Robins’ Own Story
, pp. 49–50.

34
.
Bolshevik Propaganda: Hearings before a Subcommittee on the Judiciary,
United States Senate
, p. 790.

35
. W. Hard,
Raymond Robins’ Own Story
, p. 52.

4. Cheering for the Soviets

1
. R. Chambers,
The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome
, pp. 72–82.

2
. MI5g1: S.F. 39/9/150[?]: Extract from A. Ransome’s letter to his wife Ivy, 1 July 1917.

3
.
Ibid
.

4
. R. Chambers,
The Last Englishman
, p. 166.

5
.
‘Svidetel’stvo’, 7 August 1917: Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart Papers (HIA), folder: Robin Bruce Lockhart, ‘2 Reilly: Documentary Material’, folder 2.

6
. R. H. Bruce Lockhart,
Memoirs of a British Agent, Being an Account of the Author’s Early Life in Many Lands and of his Official Mission to Moscow in 1918
, p. 122.

7
. W. F. Ryan, ‘The Great Beast in Russia: Aleister Crowley’s Theatrical Tour in 1913 and his Beastly Writings on Russia’, in A. McMillin (ed.),
Symbolism
and After: Essays on Russian Poetry in Honour of Georgette Donchin
, p. 155.

8
. ‘Svidetel’stvo’, 7 August 1917: Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart Papers (HIA), folder: Robin Bruce Lockhart, ‘2 Reilly: Documentary Material’, folder 2.

9
. J. Noulens,
Mon ambassade en Russie Soviétique, 1917–1919
, vol. 2, p. 115.

10
. M. Philips Price (ed.),
The Diplomatic History of the War
, p. 46.

11
. J. Reed, ‘Almost Thirty’,
New Republic
, April 1936, pp. 267–70.