File No. 861.00/3147
[Enclosure—Telegram—Translation]
Mr. Avksentiev and Mr. Vologodski to the Russian Ambassador
Omsk, undated.
[Received October 31, 1918.]
On behalf of the Directory, we request you to transmit the
following note to President Wilson as well as bring its contents to the
knowledge of our diplomatic representatives abroad.
The provisional government of Russia considers it necessary to
bring to the knowledge of President Wilson the following facts concerning the
situation of Russia:
Owing to the false promises and usurping of their power as well
as taking advantage of the reverses of the war, of the weariness
of the Russian Army and of the conditions of the revolution, the
Bolsheviks seized the power. Since then the country was thrust
under the regime of the most merciless terror. The new leaders
of Russia under the pretext of defending the interests of the
workmen and peasants destroy in the most barbarous manner all
the treasures of national culture, persecute the representatives
of intellectual classes and ruin industry and commerce. The
newspapers, except the official organs of the Soviets, are not
published. The libraries and museums are robbed and set afire.
Numbers of eminent persons—distinguished scientists, clergymen,
doctors, lawyers, not mentioning representatives of the bourgeoisie—are thrown into prison as
hostages and shot without investigation or trial. Women,
children, and the aged are not spared. The power of the
Bolsheviks which calls itself “democratic” has in reality
degenerated into party dictatorship, which, through all its
acts, tramples the principles of democracy. Universal suffrage,
basis of all true democracy, is abolished. The Constituent
Assembly as well as the Zemstvos and municipal councils, in
other words, all bodies elected by universal suffrage, have been
dissolved. Only delegates belonging to the Bolshevik Party are
admitted into the Soviets. Thus workmen who do not accept the
yoke of the Bolsheviks and who endeavor to insure the democratic
ideas and the principle of universal suffrage are shot in
hundreds by the Bolshevik government, as has happened at
Petrograd, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kolpino, Sormovo, and a number of
other Russian towns.
The population, exasperated by the injustice and tyranny of this
regime, has revolted in many places against the Bolshevik power
and everywhere the defeat of the Bolsheviks is unanimously
acclaimed with intense joy. The whole of Russia—all the classes
of the Russian people—have become enemies of the Bolsheviks and
Bolshevism would have long ago disappeared if not assisted by
foreign serviceable and powerful friends. These friends are
those who calculate to profit from the collapse of Russia and
who intend to enrich themselves to the detriment of other
nations. First among these are the Germans: in adroitly using
the extreme tendencies of the Bolshevik program, in greatly
helping the Bolsheviks with their money, their officers and
their soldiers, prisoners of war, Germany with threats and
demands has already managed to destroy the economic life of
European Russia, and, having weakened the Russian working
classes, is preparing for the absolute reign of her industry on
the Russian market.
At present the Bolsheviks and the Germans are approaching the
Ural Mountains, this last rampart, under the protection of which
the restitution of Russia’s national unity is still possible.
Triumph of Germany in the region of the Urals would give her new
unexhausted means to continue the war and
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would radically change the
correlation and direction of international forces not only in
the center of Europe but also in the Far East.
It is evident that the exit of Russia from the number of
belligerents and the process of dismemberment which it is
suffering, have a deep influence on the fate of all the other
countries. Furthermore, the problems of the future of Russia
should be considered by governments and nations of the universe
as a problem of their own future.
Russia will not perish. She is greatly suffering but not dead.
Her national forces are regaining remarkably quickly and her
effort to recover her unity and greatness will not cease until
she attains the sublime aim. Moreover, the reconstruction of a
powerful and prosperous Russia presents itself as a condition
necessary to the maintenance of order and international
equilibrium.
For this reason, the new provisional government, into whose hands
has been entrusted the supreme power by the people of Russia,
the regional governments, the convention and committee of the
members of the Constituent Assembly, the Zemstvos and
municipalities, addresses itself to the Allied powers. It
expects to receive their aid and considers itself in right to
demand insistently upon such help.
It is to the head of the great American democracy, recognized
apostle of peace and fraternity of the nations, that it makes
its appeal. All aid already extended to Russia by the Allies
would be in vain if the new help should arrive too late, or in
insufficient quantity.
Every hour of delay threatens with innumerable calamities Russia,
the Allies, and other nations.
- N. Avksentiev
- P. Vologodski
