Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Volume II

File No. 763.72119/3168

The Chargé in Russia (Poole) to the Secretary of State

No. 1258

Archangel, November 20, 1918.
[Received December 23.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to a telegraphic instruction which the Department addressed to me in care of the American Legation at Stockholm on the subject of the texts of the Brest Litovsk and certain other treaties, and which was repeated by the Legation to me at Archangel. Under date of November 14 I telegraphed the Legation at Stockholm as follows:

I believe that the complete texts of the Brest Litovsk treaties were sent to the Department by pouch from Moscow. Please ask Vice Consul Nielsen about this. The Finnish treaty is being sent from here. I do not recall having seen the Rumanian treaty. The German official publications, which should be obtainable through Copenhagen, are the most authoritative sources for the Brest Litovsk treaties, the Russian texts being but bad translations from the German. The supplementary treaties were published in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung about September 6.

It is presumed that the Legation at Stockholm communicated the substance of the foregoing to the Department.

I now have the honor to forward a translation of the treaty of March 1/February 16, 1918, between the socialist republics of Russia and Finland. This translation has been prepared from a pamphlet, also enclosed, found in the files of the Embassy. There is nothing to indicate its authority.

I have [etc.]

De W. C. Poole, Jr.

[Enclosure—Translation]

TREATY BETWEEN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLICS OF RUSSIA AND FINLAND¹

The Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic and the Council of People’s Delegates of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic, in order to strengthen the friendship and fraternity between the above-mentioned free republics, have concluded the following treaty.

Article 1

The Russian Federative Soviet Republic transfers to the independent Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic all real estate belonging to the Russian Republic or to Russian state establishments, whether by right of ownership or by right of use, that is: lands, stretches of water, urban districts, buildings, mills, factories, telegraph establishments, railroads, fortresses, lighthouses, beacons and buoys, situated within the limits of the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Finland.

Article 2

The Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic, on its part, transfers to the Russian Federative Soviet Republic all real estate belonging to the Finnish treasury or the state establishments of Finland whether by right of ownership or of use, that is: lands, stretches of water, urban districts, buildings, mills, factories, telegraph establishments, railroads, fortresses, lighthouses, beacons and buoys, situated within the limits of the territory of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic.

Article 3

The Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic agrees also to the acquisition of the other property not mentioned in Article 1 of the present treaty, belonging to the Russian Federative Soviet Republic and situated within the limits of the former Grand Duchy of Finland, and has a preferential right in acquiring such property, in so far as it does not infringe upon the interests of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic.

Article 4

From the above-mentioned properties subject to transfer to the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic are excluded those which, by decision of the Russian-Finnish Conciliation Commission, are transferred directly to workers’ organizations.

Article 5

In the interest of cooperation in the nationalization of the Finnish merchant marine the Russian Federative Soviet Republic transfers to the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic in their present condition all the ships belonging to the Finnish treasury, companies or private persons, requisitioned by the Russian Government before or during the war. All other requisitioned property will be turned over in a like degree in so far as it lies within the territorial limits of the Grand Duchy of Finland at the moment of the conclusion of this treaty.

Article 6

The effect of the preceding paragraphs does not extend to real properties which are necessary for the Russian Federative Soviet Republic on the territory of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic, and conversely those which are necessary for the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic on the territory of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic, for establishments and persons of the diplomatic, consular, or commercial services, as well as for educational and medical institutions.

Article 7

The scale of compensation for the properties transferred in accordance with Articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the present treaty is to be fixed by the special Russian-Finnish Conciliation Commission. A special account is to be carried for the payments imputed to these transfers, to be effected upon demand of the Russian Liquidation Commission for Finnish Affairs, and to be concluded at the time of the final accounting.

Article 8

The amounts owed by the Finnish state establishments and the Finnish treasury to the Russian state establishments and the Russian treasury and vice versa, as likewise the short-term obligations of Russia concluded through the medium of the Finnish Bank, are acknowledged as being in force by the governments of both socialist republics, and the means of their amortization, independently of the payments effected in accordance with Article 7, will be worked out by a special mixed financial subcommission, under the control of the Russian-Finnish Conciliation Commission.

Article 9

The contracting parties mutually guarantee at all times to all commercial vessels of the Russian and Finnish socialist republics free, unobstructed access to all sea, river, and lake ports, anchorages, and canals, giving the right to all above-mentioned vessels freely to load or unload their freight, and to make use of pilot service. The technical conditions of enjoyment of the above-mentioned rights will be defined by special arrangements.

Article 10

A direct, constant, and through train service between the railroads of Russia and Finland shall be established.

Article 11

The conditions of use by the Russian Federative Soviet Republic of the telegraphs and roads on the territory of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic and, correspondingly, by the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic on the territory of the Russian Federal Republic, will be settled by special arrangements; among these, by exception from the general application of Article 1, applicable to existing international understandings and agreements, three cables (Nos. 13, 60 and 42) running through the territory of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic and connecting Petrograd with Stockholm, Newcastle, and Frideritsiya, and one direct cable connecting uninterruptedly Petrograd–Vartniemi–Alexandrovsk (Murmanski), running through Viborg, Kuopio, Kemi, and Royaniemi, will remain the property of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic for fifty years with the right of extraterritoriality; and also the Russian Federative Soviet Republic maintains all the rights obtained by the agreement with the Danish company in three direct cables from Nystad to Sweden via the Åland Islands.

Article 12

Both contracting parties will immediately appoint a subcommission of the Russian-Finnish Conciliation Commission for the drafting of a commercial treaty between the two republics.

Article 13

Russian citizens of Finnish descent in Russia, as likewise Finnish citizens of Russian descent in Finland, shall be accorded the same rights as other citizens of these respective countries.

Finnish, citizens in Russia, as likewise Russian citizens in Finland, shall enjoy in the same measure as the citizens of these respective countries, all private rights, civil liberties, and general rights.

The Russian Federative Soviet Republic allows to Finnish citizens in Russia all the political rights, of Russian citizens belonging to the working class or to peasants who do not exploit the labor of others, if they reside on Russian territory for the purpose of laboring occupations.

For its part the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic pledges itself to allow-to citizens of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic in Finland the easiest possible conditions for the enjoyment of all political rights, especially taking into consideration the interests of the laboring population not always having a constant residence.

Article 14

The Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic pledges itself not to hinder and promises to cooperate in the continuation and the most rapid completion of the evacuation, already begun, from the territory of the Finnish Socialist Republic of all the land and naval forces and the establishments of military and naval departments of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic.

Article 15

The Russian Federative Soviet Republic cedes in full ownership to the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic the territory delimited below, provided the consent of the local population is obtained by free consultation.

Henceforth the Russian-Finnish state frontier will be the line which runs from Korve Tunturi (on the present Russian-Finnish frontier) by a straight line to the sources of the River Pechenga (Petsamo), from there by the eastern watershed of the River Pechenga (Petsamo) it curves round the Motovski Gulf (Muotko Fjord) and Rybachi Peninsula and by a straight line it comes out on the coast of the Arctic Ocean near Zubov (Supuski).

The commission provided for in Article 17 is charged to draw up special provisions guaranteeing:

(1) The rights of the Russian population engaged in the fishing and other industries on the alienated territory;

(2) The rights of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic to an unhindered commercial transit to and from Norway; and

(3) The rights resulting from treaties concluded and in effect between Russia and Norway.

The payments resulting from the cession of the above-mentioned territory shall be effected according to the principles set forth in Article 7 of the present treaty.

Article 16

The contracting parties shall establish a subcommission of the Russian-Finnish Conciliation Commission, for the purpose of defining exactly the changes in the Russian-Finnish frontier. Nevertheless the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic immediately cedes in full ownership to the Russian Federal Republic the territory of Fort Ino, situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, and guarantees the necessary transit to this fort.

Article 17

In the development of the articles of this fundamental treaty, drafts of detailed agreements will be worked out by the Conciliation Commission, established by the governments of both contracting parties, which drafts will be subject to ratification by the governments of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic and the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic.

Article 18

Disagreements arising during the preparation of the above-mentioned detailed agreements and during the discussion of the present treaty and of the detailed arrangements included in its development, as likewise any cases of infraction of the provisions of the treaty and the agreements, shall be submitted to the judgment of an arbitration court, the president of which is appointed by the administration of the Swedish Left Social Democratic Party, unless later determined otherwise.

Article 19

The present treaty goes into legal effect from the moment of its signature by the plenipotentiaries of the governments of both socialist republics.

Article 20

The plenipotentiaries of the governments of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic and of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic have signed and affixed their seals to two copies of the treaty in the Russian and Finnish languages.

Signed in Petrograd March 1/February 16, 1918.

1. The translation has been left substantially in the form in which it was received. Verbal corrections have been made upon comparison with the Russian text above described.