Alternative Paths: Soviets and Americans, 1917-1920

459 Pages·1993·31.666 MB·English

by  David W. McFadden

Alternative Paths
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ALTERNATIVE PATHS
Soviets and Americans,
1917-1920
David W McFadden
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1993
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town
Melbourne Auckland Madrid
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1993 by David W. McFadden
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McFadden, David W.
Alternative paths : Soviets and Americans, 1917-1920 /
David W. McFadden
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-507187-5
1. United States—Foreign relations—Soviet Union.
2. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—United States.
3. Soviet Union—History—Revolution, 1917-1921.
4. United States—Foreign relations—1913-1921. I. Title.
E183.8.S65M378 1993
327.47073—dc20 92-17949
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To the memory of my father, who never
let me forget the reasons for my work.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the following individuals
and institutions, without which the research and writing of this book would
have been impossible:
Natalie Shiras, not only for living with this unfolding project in its various
stages for more than six years, but for her careful help with syntax, grammar,
and other problems a sprawling writer is subject to:
Alexander and Anne McShiras, for suffering their dad to spend far too
long at the computer and have less time for reading, playing, and more
exciting pursuits;
Diane Shaver Clemens, for untold hours of reading, writing, discussing,
critiquing, probing and encouraging;
Leon Litwack, George Breslauer, Alexander Dallin, Jim Kettner, and
Reggie Zelnik, for their encouragement, support, and numerous hours of
critiquing draft material;
George F. Kennan, for his early encouragement of this project, and for
sharing many boxes of private notes and other materials;
William Appleman Williams, Richard N. Debo, Alexander George, and
Barton Bernstein, for their excellent research suggestions at early stages of
the project;
Alan Greb, Jim Skelly, and the fellows of the Institute on Global Conflict
and Cooperation of the University of California, for believing in me, assisting
me, and holding me to a high standard of scholarship and instilling a sensitiv-
ity to other disciplines;
Mark Kleinman, Michael Bess, David Foglesong, Victor Silverman, Betty
Dessants, and Alan Lawrence, for their willingness to spend hours discussing
my work;
David Olsen, for his initial encouragement;
Jean-Luc Lebrun, for his assistance with French;
Krista Hanson, for her Russian tutoring and her calm insistence that I do
new research in Moscow;
Alan Greb, Tair Tairov, A. O. Chubar'ian, Galina Androchnikova,
Gennadi Alferenko, and the Foundation for Social Innovation, for making
my research in Moscow possible;
viii Acknowledgements
Oleg Tumin, Anatoli Belyayev, Ivan Krasnov, Ludmilla Evgeneva, Sasha,
and Tanya for assisting me so much during my stay in Moscow.
The Berlekey-Stanford Program on Soviet Studies; the Department of
History of the University of California, Berkeley; and the Institute on Global
Conflict and Cooperation, University of California; for support for research
trips to Boston, Washington, Albany, London, and Moscow;
Rick DeAngelis, Bill Abbott, David Danahar, John Thiel, Betsy Hoagg,
Egea Logan, the Research Committee of Fairfield University and the Humani-
ties Institute of Fairfield University for their encouragement and support
during the final stages of writing, editing, and revising;
Betty Unterberger, Lloyd Ambrosius, Linda Killen, Christine White,
Katherine Siegel, and Fred Travis, for their thoughtful suggestions and encour-
agement;
The archivists and librarians at the Missouri State Historical Society, St.
Louis; the Mudd Library, Princeton University; Sterling Library, Yale Univer-
sity; Harvard University Libraries; the Central Archive Administration of the
Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., Moscow; the Bodleian Library, Oxford
University; the House of Lords Records Office; the Public Records Office,
Kew; National Archive Administration, Washington; the Library of Con-
gress; Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison; Bancroft Library, Univer-
sity of California, Berkeley; Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and
Peace, Library and Archives; University of Chicago Library; Newberry Li-
brary, Chicago; Butler Library and Oral History Collection, Columbia Univer-
sity; New York Public Library; New York State Library and Archives, Albany.
Finally, many thanks to my editors at Oxford University Press, Sheldon
Meyer, Karen Wolny, and Gail Cooper, for seeing this project to completion.
If I have omitted anyone through error or oversight, my deepest apologies.
While I am fully cognizant of others' many contributions to this project, the
final wording and thinking, including any errors, remain my own.
Fairfield, Connecticut D.W.M.
My 10, 1992
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
PART ONE The Soviet-American Context
1. Lenin's American Policy 15
2. Many Actors in Search of a Policy: U.S.
Discussions About the Bolsheviks,
1917-1919 33
PART TWO Interactions in, Russia, 1917-1918
3. Judson, Trotsky, and Bolshevik-American
Military Collaboration, 1917-1918 57
4. Raymond Robins and Discussions on Political
and Economic Cooperation, 1917-1918 79
5. Chicherin-Poole Discussions,
May to August, 1918 725
PART THREE Isolation and the Search for Peace,
1918-1919
6. Isolation and the Struggle for Contact 153
1. Maksim Litvinov and the Bolshevik
Opening to the West 775
8, Paris I: The Prinkipo Failure 797
9. Paris II: Bullitt's Mission to Lenin 218
10. Paris III: Hoovcr-Nansen—The Politics
of Food Relief 244