Anglo-Soviet relations, 1917-1924 : a study in the politics of diplomacy

The thesis discusses Anglo-Soviet relations - considered as a political interaction - between the years 1917, when the fall of Tsardom made necessary the re-consideration of British relations with the Russian government, and 1924, when the Soviet government was recognized de jure by the British government. It devotes particular attention to the influence of radical unrest in British colonies in Asia upon relations between the two countries' governments, as well as to the development of trade and the relations between business and government with regard to Russian policy, and to the labour movement. Chapter One considers the reaction of the British government and of the labour movement to the February and October revolutions, and the beginning of Allied intervention in Russia, the British role in which forms the substance of Chapter Two. Chapter Three surveys labour opinion and policy in regard to Soviet Russia until 1924, and labour's influence upon government policy. Chapter Four discusses the negotiations which led to the 1921 Angle-Russian Trade Agreement, an agreement which was closely related to the Cabinet's desire to restrain radical propaganda in British possessions in Asia, as Chapter Five attempts to make clear. Chapter Six considers early Soviet foreign policy, especially on the national and colonial question. The conferences at Genoa and the Hague in 1922 are discussed in Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight considers the policy of the Conservatives towards the Soviet government in 1922-3, and the growing disenchantment of business opinion with that policy throughout the latter part of 1923 is noted in Chapter Nine. Labour's policy towards Soviet Russia, and the factors contributing to the first Labour government's extension of diplomatic recognition to the Soviet government, are discussed in Chapter Ten. The thesis is based upon unpublished Cabinet and Foreign Office records, private papers, national and local organizational archives, government publications,reports and policy publications of bodies, contemporary pamphlets, newspapers and journals, memoirs, and modern journal and monograph publications.