File No. 861.00/2005
The Russian Ambassador (Bakhmeteff) to the Secretary of State
Washington, June 10,
1918.
[Received June
11.]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I take pleasure in
forwarding to you a copy of the extract of the resolution recently
adopted by the central committee of the Constitutional Democratic
(Cadet) Party concerning Allied intervention in Russia which has
been transmitted to me by cable from Paris with the request that
this message be respectfully submitted to the President.
I understand that the Cadet Party considers it imperative that their
loyal feelings be emphasized because of the recent rumors concerning
the presumed pro-German views of the Russian intellectual and
well-to-do classes.
I avail myself [etc.]
[Enclosure]
Extract of the Resolution Adopted by the
Central Committee of the Cadet Party Concerning Allied
Intervention in Russia
We never recognized the conditions of the Brest Litovsk peace and
consider that the disastrous situation in which they have placed
Russia can only be ameliorated with the aid of the Allies.
The movement of the Germans on Russian soil, their perpetual
seizure of new regions, still continues and there seems to be no
limit to such occupation. Under such conditions we cannot
restrain from appealing to our Allies to whom we have frequently
given proof of the loyalty of our feelings.
[Page 199]
We proclaim our conviction that the appearance of a new powerful
factor on the scene of struggle undoubtedly will have a decisive
bearing on the issues of the war and on the conditions of
peace.
We can assure in the most conclusive manner that the information
picturing that the Russian democracy does not approve of Allied
aid is false. If such information has reached the President of
the United States it must originate from Bolshevik sources. The
Bolsheviki in no way are representative of the Russian
democracy. Their regime, a fictitious rule of democracy, is
really oligarchy, demagogy and despotism, which at the present
moment relies only on physical force and daily becomes more and
more odious to the popular masses.
Nevertheless, we consider it our duty to emphasize that the
attitude of the Russian public opinion towards the Allied action
is conditioned by the forms of its realization. Its success
depends on the whole-hearted support of national feeling in
Russia. It is furthermore imperative for the Russian public
opinion to receive assurances that the compensations due to
Japan and to the other powers who will take part in the
expedition be coordinated with the inviolability of rights and
interests of Russia and that the actions of all the Allies on
Russian territory be performed under international control.
