The Soviet Bureau: A Bolshevik Strategy to Secure U.S. Diplomatic Recognition through Economic Trade

In: Diplomatic history, Band 27, Heft 2, S. 171-192

Abstract

Explores the role of the Soviet Bureau, the unrecognized Bolshevik embassy in the US established in Jan 1919 as part of V. I. Lenin's attempts to achieve diplomatic recognition of his regime. Ludwig C. A. K. Martens served as the unofficial Soviet ambassador to the US & led the activities of the bureau. When Martens could not obtain diplomatic recognition for Bolshevik Russia, he sought recognition by America's influential businessmen. He won concessions for eight individual investors in the early 1920s, the formation of the All-Russian Textile Syndicate in 1923, & the reestablishment of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce in 1926. The Red Scare in 1919 & 1923, however, had distanced US businessmen from the bureau. The US refused to recognize the Russian government between 1917 & 1933; the bureau was eventually closed, & Martens voluntarily returned to Russia in lieu of deportation. His efforts, however, remain a case study on how to secure diplomatic recognition through trade relations with private investors. 2 Figures. L. A. Hoffman