Marx-Engels |  Lenin  | Stalin |  Home Page

  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.

Download PDF
 

Letter from the Peopleʹs Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR to the Official Representative of the USSR in Great Britain

October 17, 1923

Dear comrade,

Has the British government paid any attention to our protest, expressed through Comrade Berzin, against the withdrawal of Soviet ships from Constantinople by the French *? In view of the fact that the occupation was collective, the responsibility falls on England. I didn’t notice anything about this in print. Comrade Berzin conveyed a general protest and, apparently, limited himself to this. Meanwhile, the fact of the withdrawal of ships from an area where England is also responsible, had to be widely communicated to the English public.

The Russian shipping and trade society was nationalized, but a few fugitive board members usurped the rights in Paris with the support of the French government, which soon placed its commissars over them. Constantinople was home to the ships of Ropit, which the French government allegedly chartered under an agreement with these fugitive members of the former government. In our note of protest, we indicated that no deals made with these traitors and usurpers are valid. Some kind of sympathy was expressed from Italian sources, but in London everything was limited to filing a protest

See doc. No. 264.

Berznna. Meanwhile, the French were doing real outrage. The captains and sailors were almost all on our side and wanted to return to Russia. The French military authorities subjected them to all kinds of repression. On the Ayu‐Dag steamer, Captain Morshchnkov and mechanic Ivanov were put in a French military prison and subjected to all kinds of abuse there. Others were also beaten and abused. The Zarya steamer belonging to the Russian Maritime Department was also taken away, although all of its papers were in Comrade Zalkindʹs. The French flag was forcibly raised on it. In total, the following 7 ships were taken away by the French: ʺAskoldʺ, ʺBesh‐tauʺ, ‐ ʺAyu‐dagʺ, ʺZaryaʺ, ʺLazarevʺ, ʺBraveʺ and ʺDreamʺ. The Turks bought two ships ‐ ʺAraratʺ and ʺVestaʺ and took as a prize one ship ‐ ʺQueen Olgaʺ. Turk was detained for debts one ship ‐ ʺRumyantsevʺ. In addition, the ships ʺKornilovʺ and ʺTruvorʺ are in the hands of the French off the coast of Syria.

All this was done in the area of collective allied occupation. All this took place in an atmosphere of violent protests from the teams and most of the captains and wild repression against them by the French military authorities.

With comradely greetings

Chicherin