Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (July 17, 1876–December 31, 1951) was a
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-Jewish
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary and prominent
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
diplomatDiplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war,...
.
Early life and first exile
Born
Meir Henoch Mojszewicz Wallach-Finkelstein (simplified into
Max Wallach, ) into a wealthy Jewish banking family in
BiałystokBiałystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the second most densely populated city of the country. It is located near Poland's border with Belarus and is the capital of the Podlachia region. In 2006, its population was 294,830...
in Podlasie Region of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at that time part of the Russian Empire (северо-западный край) (some sources say a poor Jewish family, ), the son of Moses and Anna Wallach, he joined the
Russian Social Democratic Labour PartyThe Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP , also known as the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the Russian Social-Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
(SDLP) in 1898. The party was an illegal organization, and it was customary for its members to use
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
s. He changed his name to Maxim Litvinov, but was also known as
Papasha and
Maximovich. Litvinov also wrote articles under the names
M.G. Harrison and
David Mordecai Finkelstein
His early responsibilities included carrying
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
work in Chernigiv region. In 1900 Litvinov became a member of
KievKiev or Kyiv , is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300...
party committee, but the entire committee was arrested in 1901. After 18 months of captivity, he led an escape of 11 inmates from Lukyanovskaya prison and lived in exile in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, where he was an editor for the revolutionary newspaper
IskraIskra means Spark, was a political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The first edition was published in Stuttgart on December 1,1900. Other editions were published in Munich, London, and Geneva. Initially it...
. In 1903, he joined the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
faction and returned to Russia. After the 1905 Revolution he became editor of the SDLP's first legal newspaper,
Novaya ZhiznNovaya Zhizn was the first legal newspaper of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Its first editor was Maxim Litvinov. It was edited by Bolsheviks during November-December 1905.-See also:*Iskra...
(New Life) in St. Petersburg.
Second emigration
When the Russian government began arresting
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
s in 1906, Litvinov left the country and spent the next ten years living in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, where he was active in the
International Socialist BureauThe International Socialist Bureau was the permanent organization of the Second International, established at the Paris congress of 1900. Before this there was no organizational infrastructure to the "Second International" beyond a series of periodical congresses, which weren't even given a uniform...
. In early 1918, he was frequently reported in the British and American press as the foreign representative of the Bolsheviks in the UK, a claim given some substance by
R. H. Bruce LockhartSir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart KCMG , was a journalist, author, secret agent, British diplomat in Moscow, and later in Prague, and footballer...
, a British agent in Moscow at the time.
In England he met and married Ivy Lowe, daughter of one of the most distinguished Jewish families in Britain. Miss Lowe’s ancestors emigrated from
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
to England following the unsuccessful
1848 revolutionFrom March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
. Her father, Walter Lowe, was a prominent writer and a close friend of H.G. Wells. They enjoyed frequent exchanges, Lowe espousing the Jewish point of view, and Wells a secular philosophy.
For a while Litvinov also lived in North Belfast in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
After the October Revolution
After the
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
of 1917, Litvinov was appointed by
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
as the Soviet government's representative in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
. His accreditation was never officially formalised, and his position as an unofficial diplomatic contact was analogous to that of
Robert LockhartSir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart KCMG , was a journalist, author, secret agent, British diplomat in Moscow, and later in Prague, and footballer...
. In 1918, Litvinov was arrested by the British government and held until exchanged for Lockhart, who had been imprisoned in Russia. The following year he published the English tract
The Bolshevik Revolution: Its Rise and Meaning, distributed by the British Socialist Party.
Litvinov was then employed as the Soviet government's roaming ambassador. It was largely through his efforts that Britain agreed to end its economic blockade of the Soviet Union. Litvinov also negotiated several trade agreements with European countries. In February 1929 he concluded the
Litvinov's PactLitvinov's Pact was concluded in February 1929 in Moscow. It was signed by the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Latvia and Estonia, in which those countries promised not to use force to settle their disputes . It is named after the Soviet diplomat who organized the negotiations, Maxim Litvinov....
in Moscow, signed by the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Latvia and Estonia, in which those countries promised not to use force to settle their disputes (this was seen as an 'Eastern
Kellogg-Briand PactThe Kellogg-Briand Pact was a multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as "an instrument of national policy."...
').
In 1930,
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
appointed Litvinov as Narkom (Minister) of Foreign Affairs. A firm believer in collective security, Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and Britain. In 1933 he successfully persuaded the United States to officially recognize the Soviet government.
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
sent comedian
Harpo MarxArthur Adolph "Harpo" Marx , born Adolph Arthur Marx, was the second-born of the Marx Brothers and a unique comic performer whose style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions...
to the Soviet Union as a good-will ambassador, and Litvinov and Marx became friends and even performed a routine on stage together . Litvinov also actively facilitated the acceptance of the USSR into the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
where he represented his country in 1934—1938.
Negotiations regarding Germany and dismissal
After the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
between Britain, France and Germany in September 1938 and Western inaction after Germany's occupation of what remained of
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in March 1939 had clearly demonstrated the unwillingness of the Western Powers to participate in collective security against the
Axis PowersThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
together with the Soviet Union, Soviet foreign policy was adjusted to face the new realities. In addition, German media derided Litvinov about his Jewish ancestry, referring to him as "Finkelstein-Litvinov."
On May 3, 1939 Stalin replaced Litvinov with
Vyacheslav MolotovVyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
. That night, NKVD troops surrounded the offices of the commissariat of foreign affairs. The phone at Litvinov's dacha was disconnected and, the following morning, Molotov, Georgii Malenkov, and Lavrenty Beria arrived at the commissariat to inform Litvinov of his dismissal. After Litvinov's dismissal, many of his aides were arrested and beaten, evidently in an attempt to extract compromising information.
The replacement of Litvinov with Molotov significantly increased Stalin's freedom to maneuver in foreign policy. The dismissal of Litvinov, whose Jewish ethnicity was viewed disfavorably by
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
, removed an obstacle to negotiations with Germany. Stalin immediately directed Molotov to "purge the ministry of Jews." Recalling Stalin’ s order, Molotov commented: `Thank God for these words! Jews formed an absolute majority in the leadership and among the ambassadors. It wasn’t good."
Given Litvinov's prior attempts to create of an anti-fascist coalition, association with the doctrine of
collective securityCollective security can be understood as a security arrangement in which all states cooperate collectively to provide security for all by the actions of all against any states within the groups which might challenge the existing order by using force...
with France and Britain, and pro-Western orientation by Kremlin standards, his dismissal indicated the existence of a Soviet option of rapprochement with Germany. Likewise, Molotov's appointment was a signal to Germany that the USSR was open to offers. The dismissal also signaled to France and Britain the existence of a potential negotiation option with Germany. One British official wrote that Litvinov's disappearance also meant the loss of an admirable technician or shock-absorber, while Molotov's "modus operandi" was "more truly Bolshevik than diplomatic or cosmopolitan."
With regard to the signing of a
German-Soviet nonaggression pact with secret protocols dividing eastern EuropeThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
three months later, Hitler remarked to military commanders that "Litvinov's replacement was decisive." A German official told the Soviet Ambassador that Hitler was also pleased that Litvinov's replacement, Molotov, was not Jewish. Hitler also wrote to Mussolini that Litvinov's dismissal demonstrated that Kremlin's readiness to alter relations with Berlin, which lead to "the most extensive nonaggression pact in existence." When Litvinov was later asked about the reasons for his dismissal, he stated "Do you really think that I was the right person to sign a treaty with Hitler."
Litvinov, like Churchill, had misgivings about Munich. Following the invasion of the U.S.S.R. on June 22, 1941, Litvinov said on a radio broadcast to Britain and the U.S., "We always realized the danger which a Hitler victory in the West could constitute for us," which one commentator described as, "in the tactful language which underlings must apply to dictators... tantamount to 'I told you so.'" . With the Soviet Union embroiled in the Great Patriotic War, Joseph Stalin appointed Litvinov as Deputy Commissar of Foreign Affairs. Litvinov also served as Ambassador to the United States from 1941 to 1943 and significantly contributed to the lend lease agreement signed in 1941.
Legacy
Perhaps more than anyone else, the businesslike diplomat helped to bring the Soviet Union out of its post-revolutionary isolation; however, Litvinov bluntly condemned Stalin's policies during and after the war with Germany , although he was supportive of the general Soviet policy during the
Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33The Holodomor refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people were starved to death due to Soviet policies. There were no natural causes for starvation and in fact, Ukraine - unlike other Soviet Republics - enjoyed a bumper wheat crop in 1932...
as evidenced by
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
journalist
Gareth JonesGareth Richard Vaughan Jones , was a Welsh journalist who first publicised the existence of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, the Holodomor, in the Western world...
who interviewed him while in Moscow.
After Litvinov's death his wife returned to live in Britain. His last words, directed at his wife, were "Englishwoman go home".
His grandson
Pavel LitvinovPavel Litvinov is a Russian physicist, writer, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident. He is the grandson of Maxim Litvinov, Joseph Stalin's foreign minister during the 1930s, and as such was born and raised amongst the Soviet elite...
is a Russian physicist, writer and a Soviet-era dissident.
External links
Biography six versions from various resources
The Bolshevik revolution : its rise and meaning by Maxim Litvinov