Immediately after the October Revolution, the imperialists began to prepare an intervention against the Soviet Republic, hoping to drown the Land of the Soviets in blood and dismember the socialist State by means of armed intervention, with the help of internal counter-revolution and other military forces. The imperialists of Britain, the United States, France, and Japan assumed an active role as organizers and participants of the armed intervention. The question of its beginning was formally resolved at the Paris Conference, which opened at the end of November 1917, and was called to work out plans for the defeat of the Soviet state.

In the English archive of the Public Record Office, the author of these lines found a document in French-the original of the well-known agreement of December 23, 1917 between Britain and France on joint intervention and the division of "spheres of influence in Russia". This conference in Paris was attended by: from the British side - Secretary of War Lord A. Milner, Deputy Foreign Secretary R. Cecil, Major-General G. McDonogh, Sir J. McDonogh. The clerk, Lieutenant-Colonel Spears, and the interpreter, Captain Kish; on the French side, Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Clemenceau, Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Pichon, French Ambassador to London P. Cambon and General F. Foch. As a result of the negotiations, the "Convention between France and England concerning military operations in Russia"was signed. The spheres of intervention - referred to in the convention as the "spheres of influence" of England and France - were defined as: "the English zone: the territory of the Cossacks, the territory of the Caucasus, Armenia, Georgia, Kurdistan; the French zone: Bessarabia, Ukraine, Crimea"¹ . Later, additional agreements defined Siberia and the Far East as the spheres of intervention of the United States and Japan, while the British sphere included Central Asia and northern Russia (from Murmansk to the Urals). On December 24, 1917, the British and French governments issued an official statement promising to provide military assistance to all counter-revolutionaries and other anti-Soviet forces in Russia2 .

We now have at our disposal irrefutable documents showing which military forces and to which regions of Soviet Russia were sent by the imperialists, and what assistance they provided with weapons and equipment to the internal counter-revolution. Below are two documents from the same archive that shed additional light on the organization of the mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps in Russia and the military assistance provided to it by the Entente.

The Czechoslovak Corps, consisting of soldiers and officers captured in World War I on the Eastern Front, numbered 37,451 infantrymen and 638 cavalrymen in 1918 ^.3 The total number of Czechoslovak prisoners in Russia reached 200 thousand people. The Soviet government allowed these prisoners of war to travel to France via Siberia and the Far East. But already in November 1917, a secret meeting of representatives of the Entente powers was held in Iasi (Romania )with the participation of the Romanian and former Russian commanders, where the question of using the Czechoslovaks in the struggle against Soviet power was discussed. ⁴ As evidenced by

¹ "Public Record Office", CAB 24/69, Vol. LXIII, p. 219.

² See Lloyd George. Military Memoirs, vol. IV, Moscow, 1937, p. 85.

³ TsGAOR USSR, f. 200, op. 1, 25, l. 189. In the research of Soviet authors, the number of 60 thousand people is indicated, but this figure needs to be clarified.

⁴ See Documents of Foreign Policy of the USSR, vol. 1, Moscow, 1957, p. 721.

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The documents published below show that Britain and France were going to use the Czechoslovak corps not on the Western Front, as Clemenceau stated, but to fight the Soviet government.

The first of these documents is a memo from General J. S. Smuts to the British War Cabinet dated May ¹¹, 1918.5 On behalf of a special committee formed by the War Cabinet, it sets out measures aimed at strengthening intervention in Russia, including the use of the Czechoslovak corps for this purpose. "It appears... It is not natural, " Smuts pointed out,"that at a time when great efforts are being made to secure an intervention by Japan in Russia, Czechoslovak troops are going to be transferred from Russia to the Western Front." Smuts didn't think that was appropriate. "We have come to the conclusion,"he wrote," that the Czechoslovak troops now in Vladivostok or on their way to it must be led and organized there into effective military units by the French government." The rest of the Czechoslovak armed forces (in Russia) were proposed to be concentrated in Murmansk or Arkhangelsk: "From now on, until they are sent by sea, they should be used to hold these areas, as well as to participate in any allied intervention in Russia."

Thus, the political and military leaders of England - the Prime Minister D. Lloyd George, his Ministers W. Churchill and Milner, General J. R. R. Tolkien. Smuts and others advocated immediate, open intervention against the Soviet country. The British Government corresponded with the governments of the United States, Japan, and France about the intensification of military operations against the young Soviet Republic. To carry out their interventionist plans, the British imperialists decided to use the Czechoslovak corps as well, organizing "effective military units" on its basis, which were to become and became part of the interventionist forces of the United States, Britain, France, and Japan. Britain intended to use some of these troops to organize an intervention in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. It is known that the British landing force in Murmansk was landed in March 1918. Arkhangelsk was captured by the Anglo-American interventionists after they provoked an anti-Soviet mutiny there on August ², 1918.6 At the beginning of April 1918, an agreement was reached between the governments of Britain, the United States, Japan and France on the joint intervention of the Entente and the United States in the Far East and Siberia. In accordance with this agreement, the Japanese imperialists landed troops in Vladivostok on April 5. On the same day, an English landing party landed there from the cruiser Suffolk, which arrived in Vladivostok on January ¹⁴, 19187 .

As for the Czechoslovak revolt, it was part of the general plan of the struggle of the capitalist Powers against the Soviet Republic. The version of British politicians (for example, Lloyd George) and the military, picked up by bourgeois historians and consisting in the fact that the Allies were going to transfer the Czechs to the Western Front, as the published document shows, is untenable. Now it is clear why Vladivostok, where some Czechoslovaks arrived on April 4 and May 31, 1918, did not have ships to send them. These vessels, as can be seen from the same document, were intended to transport interventionist troops, in particular the United States. The ships were found only when the Czechoslovak corps began to ferment, due to the unwillingness to fight for the interests of the imperialists ^.8

In pursuance of the decision taken by the British Cabinet on May 11, 1918, on May 23, a meeting of the commanders of the Czechoslovak units was held in Chelyabinsk together with Anglo-French representatives, which developed a detailed plan of action ^.9

Deceived and provoked by the imperialists of the Entente and the United States, on May 25, 1918, the Czechoslovak legionnaires mutinied first in Chelyabinsk, and then along almost the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, along which they were traveling.

⁵ "Public Record Office". War Cabinet. Secret intervention to Russia. Note by general Smuts with reference to war Cabinet. GT 4519, Vol. 46, p. 57, 11 May 1918.

⁶ See F. D. Volkov. The collapse of the British policy of intervention and diplomatic isolation of the Soviet state. 1917-1924, Moscow, 1954, p. 42.

⁷ Ibid., p. 35.

⁸ Ibid., p. 36.

⁹ TsGAOR USSR, f. 130, d. 36, ll. 37-39.

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they were specially dispersed. The interventionists hoped that the revolt would serve as a signal for the uprising of Kulak elements in Siberia and on the Volga. The command of the Czechoslovak corps worked together with the counter-revolutionary "Provisional Siberian Government", created illegally by the Social Revolutionaries in February 1918 in Tomsk ^.10 But they failed to provoke many soldiers-prisoners of war, and among them the remarkable Czech writer J. Hasek. Detachments of internationalist Czechs, Slovaks and Austrians, numbering about 12 thousand people, sided with the Soviet government and fought together with the Red Army against the interventionists and White Guards ^.11 Thousands of Czechoslovak soldiers were disarmed, imprisoned, and many shot by the corps command for refusing to fight against their Russian brothers.

The diplomatic representatives of Britain, the United States and France, and this becomes clear in the light of the decisions taken by the British Cabinet, stated on behalf of their Governments that they considered the Czechoslovak legions as "allied troops" under the protection of the Entente ^.12 The British and American consuls in Irkutsk recognized that the Czechoslovaks were subordinate to the French command ^.13 Therefore, the governments of Britain, the United States and France not only prevented the Soviet authorities from disarming the Czechoslovak troops, but also provided these troops with weapons, ammunition and equipment in every possible way. The US imperialists played a decisive role in this.

The second document published below from the Public Record Office archive contains data on what weapons and equipment the United States provided to the Czechoslovak Corps ¹⁴ . It should be noted that the Czechoslovak legions also received 100 thousand Remington rifles, 100 Vickers machine guns and more than 4.7 million rounds of ammunition through the British , ¹⁵ and the US imperialists provided the Czechoslovak command with a loan of $ 12 million ^.16 The Czechoslovak revolt was eliminated along with the defeat of Kolchak at the end of 1919.

The published documents once again show that the mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps was provoked and supported by the imperialists of Britain, the United States, and France. They armed and equipped the rebels, hoping to significantly increase their forces. It was for this purpose that the United States and England supplied them with 350 thousand rifles, although there were only 38 thousand people in the corps. Therefore, attempts by some historians in the West to present the events related to the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps in a different aspect are falsifications.

Translated from English

N 1

Copy - it is forbidden to take photos without permission.

Colonel W. Dolly Jones

(This document is in the possession of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)

Classified

G.T.4519

¹⁰ Ibid., f. 200, op. 1, d. 26, ll. 4, 17.

¹¹ See G. Reichberg, R. Olsha. The International Proletariat in the Struggle against Intervention in the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1941, p. 17. See also Documents of the Foreign Policy of the U.S.S.R., vol. 1, p. 722.

¹² See Documents of the Foreign Policy of the USSR, vol. 1, p. 357.

¹³ TsGAOR USSR, f. 200, op. 1, d. 36, l. 78.

¹⁴ "Public Record Office". War Cabinet. Vol. 70, p. 252, doc. 6941 (This document is an annex to the "Memorandum on Allied Efforts to Support Loyal Russian Governments" of February 18, 1919).

¹⁵ TsGAOR USSR, f. 200, op. 3, ed. chr. 25, l. 13.

¹⁶ F. D. Volkov. Op. ed., p. 39.

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Military Cabinet

Intervention in Russia

(Memo from General Smuts to the British War Cabinet 409A).

The War Cabinet formed a committee this morning consisting of Lord Milner and myself, together with the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to consider steps that could be immediately taken to organize military resistance to the enemy in Russia while correspondence is being conducted with America and Japan regarding intervention. We met this afternoon and came to the following conclusion.

1. A great deal of confusion and conflicting correspondence is currently occurring due to the lack of any definition and distribution of military responsibility in Russia among the Allies. Therefore, it seemed desirable for us to share responsibility for certain territories among the Allies, as indicated below. It also seems unnatural that at a time when great efforts are being made to secure Japanese intervention in Russia, Czechoslovak troops are about to be transferred from Russia to the Western Front. The Shipping Inspector has reported that any troop transport can only divert the tonnage from the transport of an equivalent number of American troops, and therefore it seems undesirable to ask the Japanese for vessels for this purpose at the very time when we are putting pressure on Japan to intervene in Russia, which would take up its entire tonnage. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the Czechoslovak troops now stationed in Vladivostok or on their way to it should be led and organized there into effective military units by the French Government, which should be informed of the above-mentioned difficulties associated with their transportation to France, and which should be requested that henceforth, until such time as They would be delivered to France and could be used to reinforce the Japanese as part of the Allied interventionist forces in Russia. Similarly, the rest of the Czechoslovak armed forces in Russia should be concentrated in Murmansk or Archangel, preferably in the latter, and should be led and organized by the British government, and henceforth, until they are sent by sea, they should be used to hold these areas, as well as to participate in any allied intervention in Russia.

The Minister of War promised to send a telegram in the above sense to Monsieur Clemenceau, who asked him about the transportation of Czechoslovaks from Vladivostok in compliance with the resolution of the Supreme Military Council on this issue. It was considered that the concentration and organization of large contingents of troops in the above-mentioned ports would in itself be a warning against the movement of new divisions by Germany to the Western Front.

2. It was agreed that General Poole should go to Russia as soon as possible, as our military representative, to take charge of military affairs as far as the British Government was concerned, and to advise the War Office on all steps to be taken in connection with our intervention in Russia. In the meantime, his headquarters in London will select the necessary officers and non-commissioned officers, more or less in the spirit of the Densterville mission, to help him organize the Czechoslovaks and other intervention forces from Archangel and Murmansk. The First Lord of the Admiralty promised to send about 200 Marines to defend Archangel, and the War Office to provide the ammunition and equipment that General Poole believed would be needed to carry out his mission. General Poole must decide how far he can advance from Archangel in the direction of Vologda with the forces at his disposal, while simultaneously holding and securing positions in Murmansk and Archangel.

3. It is considered undesirable at this time to move American or other Allied forces from the West to Russia, although this issue may be reconsidered" at a later stage of the current enemy offensive on the Western Front.

* General Densterville led the British intervention in southern Russia, in Baku.

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4. After a discussion this morning in the military cabinet, in which the Prime Minister pointed out how difficult and almost impossible it is for Mr. Trotsky to achieve Allied intervention in Russia, however much he may want it, before the Allied armed forces arrive to defend it from the enemy, the Committee considers that excessive pressure is being applied to the Russian military. The emphasis was placed in the text of a recent correspondence on the desirability of receiving an invitation from the Bolshevik Government to intervene. It was therefore decided to recommend that the British Foreign Office inform the American and Japanese Governments of the difficulties encountered in carrying out the idea of such an invitation, and that pressure should be exerted on the said Governments to be satisfied with the very strong expressions that had already come from Trotsky and the Bolshevik Foreign Secretary, without waiting for a formal invitation, which it is impossible to get it from the Bolshevik government in its present helpless position.

(signed) D. S. Smuts

May 11, 1918

2, Whitehall Gardens, S. W. I.

Annex III

N 2

SUPPLIES FOR CZECHS MADE IN THE USA

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