Ivan Maisky
Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky was a Soviet diplomat, historian and politician who served as the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1932 to 1943, including much of the period of the Second World War.
Early career
Ivan Maisky was born Jan Lachowiecki in a nobleman's castle in Kirillov, near Nizhny Novgorod, where his father was working as a private tutor. His father was a Polish Jew who was a convert to Orthodox Christianity; his mother was Russian. He spent his childhood in Omsk, where his father worked as a military doctor. Maisky's youth was very strongly influenced by the humanism of the Russian intelligentsia, and his favorite authors as a young man were William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine and Lord Byron. Maisky's values were shaped by growing up in an atheist, bookish and intellectual family who read the works of Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Chernyshevsky. Like much of the Russian intelligentsia, the Maisky family were opposed to the social order of Imperial Russia and saw serving "the people" as the highest virtue.As a student at St. Petersburg University, he was profoundly influenced by the writings of Sidney and Beatrice Webb. While at university, he wrote poetry with his first poem being "I Wish To Be a Great Thunderstorm". In 1902, he was arrested for his political activities, and sent back to Omsk under police surveillance. In 1903 Maisky joined the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In January 1906 he was arrested for his part in the 1905 revolution and deported to Tobolsk. His sentence was later commuted and he was allowed to emigrate to Munich, where he obtained a degree in economics.
In November 1912, Maisky moved to London and shared a house in Golders Green with Maxim Litvinov and Georgy Chicherin. As his English improved his circle of friends expanded to include George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Beatrice Webb. Beatrice Webb wrote that he was "one of the most open minded of Marxists, and is fully aware of the misfits in Marxian terminology—scholastic and dogmatic. But then he has lived abroad among infidels and philistines and his mind has been perhaps slightly contaminated by the foreign sophistical agnostic outlook on the closed universe of the Moscow Marxians". After the outbreak of war in 1914, he supported the Menshevik Internationalists, who were opposed to the war in a passive manner, acting as their main representative at a socialist conference in London in February 1915. This caused friction in his relationship with Litvinov, a Bolshevik, who supported Lenin's policy line of 'revolutionary defeatism', namely that the Bolsheviks should work actively for Russia's defeat as the best way of bringing about a revolution.
Maisky returned to Russia after the February Revolution, and served as deputy minister for labour in the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. He opposed the Bolshevik Revolution, and as the Russian Civil War began, he moved to Samara. In July 1918, became minister for labor in the provisional government, known as the Komuch, who backed armed resistance to the Bolsheviks, for which he was expelled from the Menshevik party. He had to flee to Mongolia when Admiral Kolchak imposed a military dictatorship in Siberia in 1919. In Mongolia, he wrote a letter to Anatoly Lunacharsky praising the "boldness and originality" of the Bolsheviks, as compared with the "virtuous but talentless" Mensheviks, and on Lunacharsky's recommendation was allowed to join the Bolshevik party, and posted to Omsk as head of the Siberian section of Gosplan.
In January 1922, Maisky moved to Moscow as head of the press department of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, now headed by Chicherin and Litvinov, where he met Agnia Skripina, his third wife, but was later posted to Leningrad, where, in January 1924, he was appointed chief editor of the literary journal Zvezda. Under his editorship, the magazine was the only major publication in the Soviet Union not controlled by the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers to encourage 'proletarian' literature, and have a representative of their movement on its board, while tolerating a range of critical opinion. Maisky personally tried to adopt a middle position between RAPP and their main opponent, Aleksandr Voronsky.
File:Soviet-finnish-nonaggression-pact-1932.jpg|thumb|right|300px |The signing of the Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact in Helsinki on 21 January 1932. On the left the Finnish foreign minister Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen; on the right the Envoy of the Soviet Union in Helsinki Ivan Maisky.
Diplomatic career
In 1925, Maisky was appointed counselor at the Soviet embassy in London, where he served during the turbulence of the Zinoviev letter, and the General Strike, acting up as de facto ambassador with the sudden death of the ambassador, Leonid Krasin, until he was forced to leave when Britain severed diplomatic relations with the USSR in May 1927. He was counsellor at the Soviet embassy in Tokyo in 1927–29. In April 1929, he became the Soviet Envoy to Finland.Arrival in London
In October 1932 he returned to London as the official Soviet ambassador to the Court of St James's, as the post was titled. He held it until 1943. The First Five Year Plan had been launched in 1928 intended to make the Soviet Union industrially and hence militarily self-sufficient, and as such Maisky's duties in London were at first primarily economic. The British cabinet minister whom Maisky negotiated the most was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, who told Maisky that his nation was the "most unfriendly country in the world" from the British viewpoint and he was not inclined to grant British trade credits to permit the exports of British machinery to assist with the First Five Year Plan. Chamberlain came to detest Maisky, whom he saw as sly trickster who never said what he meant and never meant what he said. In a letter to his sister Ida on 19 November 1932, Chamberlain condemned Maisky as difficult and dishonest, feelings that he was to retain when became prime minister in 1937.Maisky cultivated a close relationship with the left-wing British intelligentsia. Some of Maisky's close friends in London included the economist John Maynard Keynes, the writer H.G. Wells and the playwright George Bernard Shaw. Maisky always saw his mission in London as a way to win over British public opinion to favoring closer ties with the Soviet Union. The Australian historian Shelia Fitzpatrick wrote: "Ivan Maisky was the epitome of the cosmopolitan intellectual whom Stalin and his team both despised and envied, and on top of that, a former Menshevik. A gregarious man, once in London he quickly grasped the mores of the English upper classes and established an extraordinary network of contacts." Maisky's circle of friends included a collection of politicians, businessmen, and intellectuals such as Anthony Eden, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Ramsay MacDonald, Lord Beaverbrook, Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb and Lady Astor.
Shortly after arriving in London, Maisky wrote: "An ambassador without excellent personal contacts is not worthy of the name". Maisky reported to Litvinov that his aim in London was "extending as widely as possible the series of visits which diplomatic etiquette imposes on a newly appointed ambassador, and in doing so to include not only the narrow circle of persons connected with the Foreign Office but also a number of members of the government, prominent politicians, people of the City and representatives of the cultural world". Beatrice Webb described Maisky as "not a fanatical Marxist" but as a man who takes "a broad view' and sees "the fanatical metaphysics and repression of today" as "temporary, brought about by past horrors and the low level of culture out of which the revolution started".
Advocate of collective security
Starting in 1934 when the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations, the proclaimed policy of the Soviet government was support for collective security under the banner of the League of Nations against aggression. The major foreign policy-related fear of Moscow was of facing a two-front war with Germany attacking in Europe and Japan attacking in Asia. Maxim Litvinov, the Foreign Commissar from 1930 to 1939 favored a policy of creating a bloc of states meant to deter aggression in both Europe and Asia, and felt the League's policy of collective security was the ideal means for forming such a bloc. The policy of supporting collective security under the League was in effect was a roundabout way of supporting the international system established after World War in Europe and Asia without actually saying so. Maisky's task in London was to enlist British support for this policy. Maisky argued to the Foreign Office that both Japan and Germany were aggressive powers out to challenge the international order in Asia and Europe respectively, and that Britain should co-operate with the Soviet Union in upholding the international order against the "revisionist" powers. The same policy of resistance to fascist aggression under the League's collective security principles tended to be embraced by British anti-appeasers such as Winston Churchill as a way of defending the international order created by the Treaty of Versailles. That treaty was widely viewed by British public opinion in the interwar period as too harsh towards Germany, and insofar as Nazi foreign policy was aimed at revising its terms, British public opinion was broadly supportive of such efforts until March 1939.While ambassador, Maisky addressed as many British audiences as possible in order to break through the air of hostility towards the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1930s, a task which Litvinov "encouraged Maisky to undertake in every way possible". Maisky was such an Anglophile that he wept at the funeral of King George V in 1936, which astonished many.
Robert Vansittart, a senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, arranged a dinner at his home at which Maisky first met Winston Churchill. Later, after a state banquet in honour of King Leopold of Belgium, in the presence of King George VI and of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Churchill made a point of being seen to have a long conversation with Maisky. Maisky took to cultivating the Canadian-born Media mogul Lord Beaverbrook. Lord Beaverbrook was the owner of a chain of newspapers that took a populist right-wing line, the most successful of which was the Daily Express. Reflecting his Canadian origins, Beaverbrook believed in strengthening Britain's ties with the Commonwealth. He favored an isolationist line with regard to Europe, and therefore tended to support appeasement. However, Beaverbrook stated in a letter to Maisky in 1936 that he had a "friendly attitude" towards Stalin, and promised Maisky that "nothing shall be done or said by any newspaper controlled by me which is likely to disturb your tenure of office". Despite his support for "empire isolationism" and appeasement, Beaverbrook tended to take a fawning tone in his letters to Maisky and often called Stalin "your Great Leader". By contrast, the appeasers tended to dislike Maisky. Chamberlain called him a "revolting but clever little Jew." The American-born Conservative MP Henry "Chips" Cannon wrote in his diary that Maisky was the "ambassador of torture, murder and every crime in the calendar". Maisky for his part wrote in his diary that Chamberlain was a "consummate reactionary, with a sharply defined anti-Soviet position."
A close collaborator of Maxim Litvinov, Maisky was an active member and the Soviet envoy to the Committee of Non-Intervention during the Spanish Civil War. The Non-Intervention Committee, which met in London, was mostly made up of the various ambassadors in London. Both Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador in London, and Dino Grandi, the Italian ambassador in London, did their best to sabotage the Non-Intervention Committee as both Germany and Italy had intervened in the Spanish Civil War by sending forces to fight alongside the Spanish Nationalists against the Spanish Republic. At the first meeting of the Non-Intervention Committee on 9 September 1936, Maisky justified the Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War under the grounds that Germany and Italy had intervened in the war first. Maisky in his speech before the Committee stated that the Soviet Union would only observe the principles of the Non-Intervention Committee as much as the other powers represented in the Non-Intervention Committee did. Ribbentrop often visited Germany and during his absence from London, the chief German delegate on the committee was Prince Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck. The Non-Intervention Committee became a farce and a political theater as Maisky traded insults with Grandi, Ribbentrop and Bismarck for the benefit of the journalists present over which power was intervening the most in Spain.
Maisky's position became increasingly difficult as the British government committed itself to a policy of appeasement, and he was unable to get clear instructions about Soviet policy. Maisky was close to a number of anti-appeasement MPs such as Churchill and the National Labour MP Harold Nicolson. Maisky was a leading figure in a loose collection of public figures who opposed appeasement, which included not only Churchill, Nicolson and his wife Lady Vita Sackville-West, but also Robert Boothby; Brendan Bracken and the Czechoslovak minister-plenipotentiary Jan Masaryk. A favourite meeting place for them was the Soviet embassy, which Churchill's son Randolph Churchill called "a grim Victorian mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens", but Maisky was a popular host who was generous in filling the glasses of his guests with white wine, red wine, sherry, vodka, and Curaçao. Despite the nature of the parties hosted by Maisky, he himself would only drink water. The friendship between Maisky and Churchill surprised many. During the Russian Civil War, Churchill as the War Secretary in Lloyd George's government had been the leading supporter of the Whites, and consistently pressed for Britain to intervene more on the White side, much to the dismay of Lloyd George who privately favored a Red victory under the cynical grounds that Russia would be a weaker power under Red rule than under White rule. During the Russian Civil War, the British were by far the largest supporters of the White movement as the British contributed more arms to the Whites than all other nations combined, which was mostly due to Churchill. Given this background, many were surprised to see Churchill working with Maisky for a de facto Anglo-Soviet alliance. Churchill justified his support for a League-based collective security foreign policy, which meant a de facto Anglo-Soviet alliance, on the grounds of realpolitik. As he told Maisky: "Today, the greatest menace to the British empire is German Nazism, with its ideal of Berlin's global hegemony. That is why at the present time, I spare no effort in the struggle against Hitler." However, he went on to say if the "fascist menace" ended to be replaced once more with the "communist menace", then "I would raise the banner of struggle against you once more". In April 1936, Maisky wrote in his diary that Churchill had told him "We would be complete idiots were we to deny help to the Soviet Union at present out of a hypothetical danger of socialism which might threaten our children and grandchildren."
He was well informed about the state of British politics, reporting that Chamberlain via his close friend, the government's Chief Industrial Adviser, Sir Horace Wilson, had constructed an alternative Foreign Office to by-pass the Foreign Office as he noted that there were differences of opinion between the prime minister and the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. Maisky wrote that Chamberlain had found Eden "to be a much tougher nut than the PM had expected." In February 1938, Eden resigned in protest following serious differences of opinion with Chamberlain about the policy to be pursued towards Italy. Eden was replaced as Foreign Secretary by Lord Halifax.
On 6 August 1938, Maisky reported to Moscow that he had met Masaryk, who lashed out at the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, charging that the British were applying strong pressure on Czechoslovakia "to make the maximum number of concessions to the Sudeten Germans". Masaryk complained to Maisky that Halifax was not being "even-handed" as he constantly pressured the Czechoslovak government to make more and more concessions to Konrad Henlein while not applying pressure to Henlein to make any concessions. On 8 August 1938, Maisky met with Lancelot Oliphant, the assistant permanent undersecretary for foreign affairs, where the Soviet ambassador stated that "all the actions of British diplomacy in Czechoslovakia were directed not at bridling aggression, but rather bridling the victims of aggression". Oliphant responded by stating that his government was committed to being "even-handed" in finding a solution that would be equally acceptable to both sides, through he admitted that many people shared Maisky's views of his government's policy. A week later, Maisky met with Lord Halifax, when he attacked Halifax for his government's "weak and shortsighted" policy as he accused the British on putting all the pressure for concessions on President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia and none on Adolf Hitler. Much to Maisky's surprise, Halifax did not seek to defend his government's policy, instead falling silent.
After meeting Maisky earlier that day, Nicolson wrote in his diary on 26 August 1938: "if Maisky can be induced to promise Russian support if we take a strong line on Czechoslovakia, the weak will of the Prime Minister may be strengthened". During the Sudetenland crisis, Maisky together with Masaryk were in close contact with Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, which was the Official Opposition to the Conservative-dominated National Government. Much of the information which Attlee used in his speeches in the House of Commons during the crisis was supplied by Maisky and Masaryk. On 3 September 1938, Maisky met with Charles Corbin, the French ambassador in London. Corbin complained at length to Maisky about the attitude of the Chamberlain government to the Sudetenland crisis, charging that the vague and evasive statements about what Britain might do if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia were making war more likely. Corbin informed Maisky that the Deuxième Bureau had intelligence to the effect that Hitler was convinced that Britain would not intervene if the crisis should lead to war. Corbin concluded by telling Maisky that France would declare war if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. The next day, Maisky leaked to Churchill a private statement from Litvinov that the Soviet Union would honor its alliance with Czechoslovakia if France declared war.
After learning of the Berchtesgaden summit between Chamberlain and Hitler that ended with the agreement that the Sudetenland would "go home to the Reich", Maisky expressed much anger at the French Premier Édouard Daladier and Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet for not opposing the results of the Berchtesgaden summit more. Maisky believed the Franco-Soviet alliance of 1935 was effectively null and void as he privately declared that the alliance with France "is not worth a twopence". On 22 September 1938, another Anglo-German summit took place in Bad Godesberg, where Hitler rejected the Anglo-French plan to cede the Sudetenland after 1 October 1938 and demanded that Germany take possession of the Sudetenland before 1 October 1938, a demand that Chamberlain rejected. In the last days of September 1938, Europe was on the brink of war. On 26 September 1938, the Foreign Office issued a statement warning that if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, then both Britain and the Soviet Union would intervene. To resolve the crisis, it was announced on 28 September that an emergency summit would be held in Munich on 30 to be attended by Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier. Maisky reported to Moscow: "In the air, it feels like Chamberlain is preparing for a new capitulation". On 29 September, Halifax told Maisky that Chamberlain had agreed to go to the Munich summit without consulting Daladier and did not want the Soviet government to be represented at the Munich conference. The Munich conference ended the crisis in a compromise with the Sudetenland to go to Germany, but 1 October. After the Munich agreement, Maisky reported to Moscow: "The League of Nations and collective security are dead".
In November 1938, Maisky told Charles Theodore Te Water, the South African high commissioner in London, about his "unutterable disgust with the Chamberlain policy" and stated his fears that the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938 was a start of a four-power alliance of Britain, Italy, France and Germany meant to isolate the Soviet Union.