An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia

by Dewitt Clinton Poole, Lorraine M. Lees (Editor), William S. Rodner (Editor)

Diplomat DeWitt Clinton Poole arrived for a new job at the United States consulate office in Moscow in September 1917, just two months before the Bolshevik Revolution. In the final year of World War I, as Russians were withdrawing and Americans were joining the war, Poole found himself in the midst of political turmoil in Russia. U.S. relations with the newly declared Soviet Union rapidly deteriorated as civil war erupted and as Allied forces intervened in northern Russia and Siberia. Thirty-five years later, in the climate of the Cold War, Poole recounted his experiences as a witness to that era in a series of interviews.
            Historians Lorraine M. Lees and William S. Rodner introduce and annotate Poole's recollections, which give a fresh, firsthand perspective on monumental events in world history and reveal the important impact DeWitt Clinton Poole (1885–1952) had on U.S.–Soviet relations. He was active in implementing U.S. policy, negotiating with the Bolshevik authorities, and supervising American intelligence operations that gathered information about conditions throughout Russia, especially monitoring anti-Bolshevik elements and areas of German influence. Departing Moscow in late 1918 via Petrograd, he was assigned to the port of Archangel, then occupied by Allied and American forces, and left Russia in June 1919.

Genres: Russia

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2015

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War which followed are two of the most momentous events of the 20th century. This book - whose author was an eyewitness to both events in his capacity as a U.S. diplomat of consular rank - is an absolute gem. It is a memoir that Poole (the author) had crafted in a series of oral interviews he gave months before his death at age 67 in September 1952. Any scholar of the Cold War and U.S.-Russian history will find much to admire about this book, which has been introduced and annotated by the historians Lorraine M. Lees and William S. Rodner. Footnotes populate this book, which for me, as a laymen, I found especially useful in enhancing my understanding of the history and personalities of these long ago events.

Poole arrived in Russia in September 1917 during the last months of the Provisional Government, which had assumed power there in March 1917 after the abdication of Czar Nicholas II. It kept Russia in the war on the Allied side. But this government proved unsustainable as the Russian Army failed to defeat German forces in a last gasp offensive, while contending with the Bolsheviks yapping at its heels.

Two months after Poole's arrival, the Bolsheviks seized control of the government and over the next 2 years sought to consolidate its power in Russia while fighting for its very survival against counter-revolutionary and Allied forces. Poole played an active part "in implementing U.S. policy, negotiating with the Bolshevik authorities, and supervising American intelligence operations that gathered information about conditions throughout Russia" inclusive of "monitoring anti-Bolshevik elements and areas of German influence" prior to the armistice that ended the First World War in November 1918. By this time, Poole was no longer residing in Moscow because it had become increasingly dangerous for him to remain there. He left the city the previous September for Petrograd (St. Petersburg). From there, he crossed the frontier to Finland, where he spent a short time before going on to Norway.

Poole returned to Russia early in 1919. He was now a Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador in Archangel, a city in the north (not far from the Arctic Circle) which was under Allied control. Both British and U.S. forces had been in Northern Russia since June 1918 to act as a possible buffer against German efforts from Finland (which was newly independent and host to a German division) to seize the nearby Murmansk-Petrograd railway, the port of Murmansk, and Archangel itself which had stockpiles of Allied war material. Now, with Germany defeated, there seemed to be little purpose in maintaining an Allied presence in Northern Russia -- unless a decision was made to align with anti-Bolshevik forces and overthrow Lenin's government. Poole shares with the reader the challenges he had to face, not just from the Bolsheviks, but also in curbing dissension among soldiers in the U.S. force who felt like they had been put on a fool's errand by Washington and simply wanted to go home. Indeed, he goes on to state that "[n]early all the American troops were evacuated in June [1919] in two transports. I had hoped to have leave when I came out from central Russia in September, 1918. The winter at Archangel hadn’t been too strenuous, in one sense, but it had been a strain, and now I asked for leave which was granted. I went to England on one of the troop ships, turning over the embassy to my very able colleague, Felix Cole."

There is more to this story. But I will leave it to any curious reader of this review to find out for him/herself by reading this truly remarkable eyewitness account of 2 historical events that rocked the world.