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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated on 1st and  2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.

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Note of the people’s commissioner for foreign affairs    of the RFSR  to the ministry of foreign affairs   of Great Britain

Transmitted on the radio on April 21, 1919.   No 531

After   an unprovoked attack by the British armed forces  on  Russian    territory,  the British military expedition  was    similarly  sent  in august last year to Baku,  one of the  most important  cities  of  the Russian Soviet republic,  by  agreement  with  some  treasonous elements  in the city itself. .  The pretext  ʹserved  the alleged  intention to defend  Baku  against the Turkish offensive,  equally  attacking  the Russian Soviet  republic,  the  appearance of  a  small  British  detachment  in  Baku  only helped  the Turks  justify  their  offensive,  and  when  they  began  to bombard      Baku, the British  fled at the first shot,  not even trying to defend the  city..  They took with  them      the Baku    commissioners      Shaumyan,  Japaridze  and  others  who  remained  faithful to their  duty towards the  Soviet  republic  and  resigned  when  British  troops  joined  Baku.

For all the negotiations that were held  last    fall  and later  on the  issue of the exchange  of  citizens of both    sides, the  Russian  Soviet  government has always  insisted on the  return to  Russia of the commissioners captured  in  Baku. .  The British government    never  confessed   to the  fate of  them,  and,  moreover,  carefully  concealed  their  fate,  concerning  which  only  gradually  obscure  and  sketchy information  began to reach  the  Soviet  republic.  British official       sources  in  Tiflis  were rumored that  Bakuʹs  commissioners  were  bastards,  which,  as it turned out   later,  was a completely  false  allegation.  A ‐ well‐known  socialist revolutionary  Chaikin,  a member  of the Baku socialist committee,  recently  published  in  Baku  newspapers a detailed report based  on  genuine  data, which lifted the veil  and  established the truth about the  fate of the commissioners,  with  no  doubt about the veracity of  this  report..

It was finally  established  that  after  the hasty  retreat of the British   from  Baku,  the English  officer  reginal  gig‐jones,  along  with  some  Russian Caspian counter‐revolutionaries,  fulfilling the  desire of the

British  military  mission,  decided to  secretly  kill  the commissioners taken away  from Baku..  An official   report    was issued that the commissioners were allegedly taken to India, while the training which   they were stationed was taken to    a secluded place in the desert, where an escort appointed by the British military    and the Caspian counterrevolutionaries was filled out. He was    ordered to shoot the captives, 26 in total, and buried the bodies of the dead victims in the sand. .  In committing this brutal and cowardly act, the    British military  authorities  carefully tried to cover it   up. General Thomson  asked  Chaikin  to give  him  the testimony  on which his  message was  based,   when  Chaikin  demanded that the safety of witnesses  be  guaranteed  and that the crime  be investigated by a mixed  commission  to  ensure  its  impartiality,  general Thomson rejected  these just  claims,  clearly  showing  that  the British authorities  sought  only  to  avenge  those who had disclosed their crime to  the  world. .

But the truth has   now been   revealed, no shenanigans can hide  it  or  save the perpetrators of this  brutal  crime  from  public  disgrace.  The British government, whose   representatives so often poured mud on the Russian workers‐peasant  government  for the so‐called red    terror.  For the necessary acts of self‐defense, distorted  and  immensely  exaggerated by slander, this  is  the most  British  government  publicly  exposed in the  low,  cowardly  and  treacherous  murder of defenseless  prisoners,  whose only  crime  was their loyalty to  their  workerspeasant  government.  The British government cannot    point to    such acts  by   the Russian  Soviet  government,  which  is incapable of such  inferiority  and  treachery.  After the British state   secretary      called the killers   the  Russian  Soviet  government,  fighting  not  for life,  but  for  death  against the advancing  enemies from everywhere,  any  honest  observer  can  now  see who  the killers are  actually .  

The Russian Soviet  government is protesting in the face   of the working  masses around the  world  against the shameful act   of the British  authorities,  and  in  particular calls out  to the conscious workers of Great Britain who will not  violate  their  duty on the side of honour,  true  justice  and the good of the people..

Peopleʹs commissioner   for foreign affairs

Chicherin

Itʹs a seal.    By arch.    The opoble.    To the gas.    ʺIzvestiaʺ  lq  85 (637), April 23,  1919 .