Maxim
Litvinov
was born into a prosperous Jewish
family
in Russia in 1876. He left school at seventeen
and joined the Russian Army.
After leaving
the army in 1900 Litvinov joined the illegal Social
Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) but was soon arrested by Okhrana.
After 18 months in captivity, Litvinov escaped and made his way to
Switzerland. He joined the SDLP in exile and joined the editorial
board of its journal, Iskra.
Litvinov
returned to Russia in 1903 and after the 1905 Revolution became editor
of the SDLP's first legal newspaper, Novaya
Zhizn (New Life).
When the
Russian government began arresting Bolsheviks
in 1906, Litvinov left the country and spent the next ten years living
in London where he was active in the International
Socialist Bureau.
After the
October Revolution, Litvinov was appointed
by Vladimir Lenin as the Soviet Government's
representative in Britain. However, in 1918, Litvinov was arrested
by the British Government and held until exchanged for Bruce
Lockhart, the British diplomat who had been imprisoned in Russia.
Litvinov
was then employed as the Soviet Government's roaming ambassador. It
was largely through his efforts that Britain agreed to end its economic
blockade of the Soviet Union. Litvinov also negotiated several trade
agreements with European countries.
In 1930
Joseph Stalin appointed Litvinov as Commissar
of Foreign Affairs. A firm believer in collective security, Litvinov
worked very hard to form a closer relationships with France and Britain.
He 1933 he successfully persuaded the United States to recognize the
Soviet government.
His Jewish
origins created problems for Stalin during his negotiations with Germany
in 1939 and was replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov
just before the signing of the Nazi-Soviet
Pact.
After the
outbreak of war with Germany, Joseph Stalin
appointed Litvinov as Deputy Commissar of Foreign Affairs. He also
served as Ambassador to the United States (1941-43).
Maxim
Litvinov
died in 1951.
(1)
In 1924 Maxim Litvinov wrote an autobiography for The
Granat Encyclopaedia of the Russian Revolution.
After the October Revolution I was appointed the first
ambassador to England. Ten months later I was arrested as a hostage
for Lockhart and we were later exchanged. I travelled to Sweden and
Denmark for negotiations with the bourgeois governments and concluded
a series of agreements on the exchange of prisoners of war. I achieved
the removal of the British blockade, made the first trade deals in
Europe and dispatched the first cargoes after the blockade had been
lifted.
(2) Neville
Chamberlain, letter to a friend (26th March, 1939)
I must confess to the most profound distrust of Russia.
I have no belief whatever in her ability to maintain an effective
offensive, even if she wanted to. And I distrust her motives, which
seem to me to have little connection with our ideas of liberty, and
to be concerned only with getting everyone else by the ears. Moreover,
she is both hated and suspected by many of the smaller States, notably
by Poland, Rumania and Finland.
(3) On 16th April, 1939, the Soviet Union suggested
a three-power military alliance with Great Britain and France. In
a speech on 4th May, Winston Churchill
urged the government to accept the offer.
Ten or twelve days have already passed since the Russian
offer was made. The British people, who have now, at the sacrifice
of honoured, ingrained custom, accepted the principle of compulsory
military service, have a right, in conjunction with the French Republic,
to call upon Poland not to place obstacles in the way of a common
cause. Not only must the full co-operation of Russia be accepted,
but the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, must also
be brought into association. To these three countries of warlike peoples,
possessing together armies totalling perhaps twenty divisions of virile
troops, a friendly Russia supplying munitions and other aid is essential.
There is
no means of maintaining an eastern front against Nazi aggression without
the active aid of Russia. Russian interests are deeply concerned in
preventing Herr Hitler's designs on eastern Europe. It should still
be possible to range all the States and peoples from the Baltic to
the Black sea in one solid front against a new outrage of invasion.
Such a front, if established in good heart, and with resolute and
efficient military arrangements, combined with the strength of the
Western Powers, may yet confront Hitler, Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop,
Goebbels and co. with forces the German people would be reluctant
to challenge.
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