Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Eastern Europe; Soviet Union; Eastern Mediterranean, Volume VIII

761.00/4–2154

No. 620
Memorandum by the Director of the Executive Secretariat (Scott) to the Acting Secretary of State

[Washington,] April 29, 1954.

On April 2 you wrote to Alexander Kerensky¹ suggesting that, prior to meeting together as he proposed, you would appreciate his putting his opinions and observations in writing.² (Tab G)

His reply (Tab C) with attachments (Tabs D, E, F), although including some broad analyses (Tab E), concerns principally the problem of uniting Russian and non-Russian émigrés into an anti-Soviet organization. He requests the opportunity to discuss the problem with you.³

Mr. Kerensky has been working to accomplish this under the auspices of the “Coordinating Center of Anti-Bolshevik Center” founded in October 1952. The Coordinating Center is opposed by the “Paris bloc”, the point of controversy being the Center’s insistence that self-determination of peoples in the Soviet Union take place after the overthrow of Bolshevism. (Tab D)

Mr. Kerensky is disturbed by the recent effort of the American Committee for the liberation from Bolshevism to solve this problem through creating a “Working Alliance”. (Tab F) He terms this “essentially American or at least American dominated”. (Its membership “shall be acceptable to” the Committee. Tab F, page 3, para. 4)

In response to Mr. Hennes’ acknowledgment⁴ (Tab B) Mr. Kerensky replied emphasizing the personal nature of his letter to you.⁵ (TabA)

W.K.S.

[Tab C]

Alexander Kerensky to the Under Secretary of State (Smith)

[New York,] April 21, 1954.

Dear General Smith: Please accept my warm thanks for your kind answer to my previous letter. I would have acknowledged it much earlier if it were not for some unforeseen circumstances, a reference to which you will find in the present letter.

You might recall that last November when I had the pleasure of seeing you in Washington,⁶ I informed you of the difficult situation in which had found itself the so-called Coordinating Center, an organization formed by political émigrés from Soviet Russia, both “old” and “new”. At that time, I also left a memorandum on this problem with Mr. Allen Dulles and Mr. C. D. Jackson. I am enclosing herewith a copy of this document which might be of some interest to you in case you have not seen (App. I⁷). In the concluding part of this memorandum, I pointed out how important it was to find some means of re-establishing the friendly cooperation between the American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism and the Coordinating Center.

Almost immediately after my meeting with you, I left for Europe where I remained until the end of March. I spent most of the time in Munich where I worked with the Coordinating Center, and from there I went to Paris and then to London. While watching the development of the relations between the western world, on the one hand, and the Communist Bloc, on the other, I could not help feeling that the situation was becoming more and more critical. This impression of mine was fully confirmed by the significant pronouncements made by President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles, on January 8,⁸ and January 12,⁹ respectively. In his pronouncement, Secretary Dulles gave what I believe to be an absolutely correct analysis of the strategic plan which for decades had been pursued by international Communism, under the direction of the Kremlin. Secretary Dulles also indicated that in his opinion, the continued Communist offensive could not be effectively checked by the old methods of containment.

On my part, I came to the conclusion that a moment had arrived for the Russian and non-Russian émigrés from the Soviet Union to revise their tactics of anti-Bolshevik struggle, in accordance with the new phase of international relations, as well as to devise the most effective forms of cooperation with America. I have tried to express my ideas on the present international situation and the tactical line it dictates in the memorandum—a copy of which I take the liberty of submitting to you herewith. (App. N2) As to the forms of cooperation between America and ourselves, this was precisely the problem I hoped to be able to discuss with you, remembering that at our last meeting you kindly expressed a desire to have a longer talk with me on some other occasion.

I wrote to you asking for an appointment on March 29, and a few days later, on April 1, I received a copy of the “Agreement for a Working Alliance” sent by the American Committee to the Chairman of the Coordinating Center. (I am enclosing herewith a copy of the “Agreement” in case you have not seen it—App. N.3). To me, the contents of this document was quite unexpected as it proposed a scheme of cooperation based on an entirely new principle of relationship between the two parties to the agreement. What it actually amounts to is the creation of an essentially American, or at least American-dominated, institution, with the participation of some consultant, chosen from among those more recent émigrés from the Soviet Union whose cooperation the American Committee would consider desirable.

Of course, the participation of such consultants in the work of the American Committee would be very useful, and I believe that the organized groups of the anti-Bolshevik Emigration would be glad to nominate properly qualified candidates. But the realization of this scheme by no means would solve the much broader problem of a fruitful cooperation between American agencies, on the one hand, and responsible representatives of émigré political organizations, on the other. It seems to me that in this critical moment such a cooperation becomes an immediate necessity. I am firmly convinced that it can be achieved if one approaches the émigrés with a willingness to respect their intellectual and moral independence as well as their sense of individual and national dignity. I am equally firmly convinced that only if this cooperation is conceived as cooperation of allies in a common struggle against a common enemy, could one expect from it any positive and beneficial results.

It was this problem that I had in mind when I asked you for an appointment. I would be very happy to have a chance of presenting to you my ideas on the subject if, in view of the circumstances, you would find such a discussion both feasible and desirable.

Believe me, dear General Smith,

Sincerely yours,

Alexander Kerensky

1. Alexander Kerensky, a prominent Russian exile leader who served as Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government, June–November 1917.

2. Under Secretary Smith’s letter of Apr. 2, to Kerensky reads as follows:

   “Thank you for your letter of March 29 which arrived while I was on a short vacation. I find on my return that my crowded desk and heavy schedule will not soon permit our having the long talk you suggest.

   “Because I am very much interested in your opinions and observations, I should be grateful if you would put them in writing. In that way, I could gain some of the benefit of your views prior to our talking together.”

   Kerensky’s letter of Mar. 29 has not been further identified.

3. Kerensky’s letter of Apr. 21 is printed below; none of the attachments to that letter is printed.
4. Hennes’ (Richard V. Hennes, Staff Assistant to the Under Secretary of State) brief letter indicated that Kerensky’s letter of Apr. 21 had been forwarded for reply to Walworth Barbour in view of Under Secretary Smith’s imminent absence from the country.
5. Kerensky’s brief handwritten letter of Apr. 23 is not printed.
6. No record has been found of this meeting between Under Secretary Smith and Kerensky.
7. None of the appendices is printed.
8. Presumably reference is to President Eisenhower’s State of the Union Message of Jan. 7.
9. Reference is to Secretary Dulles’ address made before the Council of Foreign Relations, New York, Jan. 12; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, Jan. 25, 1954, p. 107.