Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Russian Revolution=== {{Main|Russian Revolution|Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War|Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|Red Terror|Russian famine of 1921–1922}} [[File:Wladiwostok Parade 1918.jpg|thumb|[[Allies of World War I|Allied]] troops in [[Vladivostok]], August 1918, during the [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War]]]] While most historians trace the origins of the Cold War to the period immediately following World War II, some argue that it began with the 1917 [[October Revolution]] in the [[Russian Republic]] when the [[Bolsheviks]] overthrew the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. In [[Diplomatic history of World War I|World War I]], the British, French and [[Russian Empire]]s had composed the major [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]] from the start, and the US joined them as a self-styled Associated Power in April 1917. After the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, the bloody [[Red Terror]] was initiated to shut down all opposition, both perceived and real.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/red-terror-set-macabre-course-soviet-union | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222175025/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/red-terror-set-macabre-course-soviet-union | url-status=dead | archive-date=22 February 2021 | title=How Lenin's Red Terror set a macabre course for the Soviet Union | website=[[National Geographic Society]] | date=2 September 2020 }}</ref> In December, the Bolsheviks signed an [[armistice]] with the [[Central Powers]], though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the [[separate peace]] [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. As a result, German armies advanced rapidly across the borderlands. The Allies responded with an economic blockade against the new Russian regime.{{sfn|Tucker|2016|p=608}} In the eyes of some Allies, Russia now was helping Germany to win the war by freeing up a million German soldiers for the Western Front{{sfn|Combs|2015|pp=97–101}} and by relinquishing much of Russia's food supply, industrial base, fuel supplies, and communications with Western Europe.{{sfn|Chretien|2017|p=129}}{{sfn|Senior|2016|p=176}} According to historian [[Spencer C. Tucker|Spencer Tucker]], the Allies felt, "The treaty was the ultimate betrayal of the Allied cause and sowed the seeds for the Cold War. With Brest-Litovsk the spectre of German domination in Eastern Europe threatened to become reality, and the Allies now began to think seriously about military intervention," and proceeded to step up their "[[economic warfare]]" against the Bolsheviks.{{sfn|Tucker|2016|p=608}} [[Left communism|Some Bolsheviks]] saw Russia as only the first step, planning to incite revolutions against capitalism in every western country, but the need for peace with Germany led Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] away from this position.{{efn-ua|{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Left-Communist |title= Left Communist {{!}} Russian political faction |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=30 September 2018}}}} In 1918, Britain provided money and troops to support the [[White movement]], a loose confederation of anti-Bolshevik forces. This policy was spearheaded by Minister of War [[Winston Churchill]], a committed [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]].{{sfn|Kinvig|2007|p=91–95}} A long and bloody [[Russian Civil War|Civil War]] ensued between the [[Red Army|Reds]] and the [[White Army|Whites]], starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It included [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|foreign intervention]], the [[Execution of the Romanov family|execution of the former Emperor and his family]], and the [[Russian famine of 1921|famine of 1921]], which killed about five million people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mawdsley |first=Evan |url=https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan |title=The Russian Civil War |date=1 March 2007 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-933648-15-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan/page/287 287] |author-link=Evan Mawdsley |url-access=registration}}</ref> Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former Empire, although their success was limited. [[Estonian War of Independence|Estonia]], [[Finnish Civil War|Finland]], [[Latvian War of Independence|Latvia]], and [[Lithuanian–Soviet War|Lithuania]] all repelled Soviet invasions, while [[Ukrainian–Soviet War|Ukraine]], Belarus (as a result of the [[Polish–Soviet War]]), [[Red Army invasion of Armenia|Armenia]], [[Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]] and [[Red Army invasion of Georgia|Georgia]] were occupied by the Red Army. [[File:American Relief Administration in Russia in 1922.jpg|thumb|right|American Relief Administration operations in Russia, 1922]] Large scale food relief was distributed to Europe after the war through the [[American Relief Administration]] run by [[Herbert Hoover]]. In 1921, to ease the devastating famine in the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] that was triggered by the Soviet government's [[war communism]] policies,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/War-Communism|title=War Communism|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |date=8 June 2023 }}</ref> the ARA's director in Europe, [[Walter Lyman Brown]], began negotiating with the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|Russian People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs]], [[Maxim Litvinov]], in [[Riga]], [[Latvia]] (at that time not yet annexed by the USSR). An agreement was reached on 21 August 1921, and an additional implementation agreement was signed by Brown and People's Commissar for Foreign Trade [[Leonid Krasin]] on 30 December 1921. The U.S. Congress appropriated $20,000,000 for relief under the [[Russian Famine Relief Act]] of late 1921. Hoover strongly detested Bolshevism and felt the American aid would demonstrate the superiority of Western capitalism and thus help contain the spread of communism.<ref>Benjamin M. Weissman, "Herbert Hoover and the famine in Soviet Russia, 1921–23" in Mark Hatfield, ed. ''Herbert Hoover Reassessed'' (1981) pp 390–396.</ref><ref>Bertrand M. Patenaude, "A Race against Anarchy: Even after the Great War ended, famine and chaos threatened Europe. Herbert Hoover rescued the continent, reviving trade, rebuilding infrastructure, and restoring economic order, holding a budding Bolshevism in check." ''Hoover Digest'' 2 (2020): 183–200 [https://www.hoover.org/research/race-against-anarchy online]</ref> At its peak, the ARA employed 300 Americans, more than 120,000 Russians and fed 10.5 million people daily. Its Russian operations were headed by Col. [[William N. Haskell]]. The Medical Division of the ARA functioned from November 1921 to June 1923 and helped overcome the [[typhus]] epidemic then ravaging Russia. The ARA's famine relief operations ran in parallel with much smaller [[Mennonite]], Jewish and [[Quaker]] famine relief operations in Russia.<ref>See Lance Yoder's "Historical Sketch" in the online [http://www.mcusa-archives.org/MCC/ix-13201(russia%20photos).html Mennonite Central Committee Photograph Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204033520/http://www.mcusa-archives.org/MCC/ix-13201(russia%20photos).html |date=February 4, 2012 }}</ref><ref>See David McFadden et al., ''Constructive Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia'' (2004).</ref> [[File:19191107-lenin second anniversary october revolution moscow.jpg|thumb|[[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] and [[Lev Kamenev|Kamenev]] celebrating the second anniversary of the [[October Revolution]]]] The ARA's operations in Russia were shut down on 15 June 1923, after it was discovered that Russia under Lenin renewed the export of grain.<ref>Charles M. Edmondson, "An Inquiry into the Termination of Soviet Famine Relief Programmes and the Renewal of Grain Export, 1922–23", ''Soviet Studies,'' Vol. 33, No. 3 (1981), pp. 370–385</ref> Western powers proceeded to diplomatically isolate the Soviet government. Lenin stated that [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] was surrounded by a "hostile capitalist encirclement" and he viewed diplomacy as a weapon to keep Soviet enemies divided.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert English|title=Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qA_uT6GrcxEC&pg=PA26|date=2000|page=26|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50474-4|access-date=30 November 2019|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729150207/https://books.google.com/books?id=qA_uT6GrcxEC&pg=PA26|url-status=live}}</ref> He set up an organization to promote sister revolutions worldwide, the [[Communist International|Comintern]]. It failed everywhere; it failed badly when it tried to start revolutions in [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|Germany]], its province of [[Bavarian Soviet Republic|Bavaria]], and [[Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–1920)|Hungary]].<ref>Kevin McDermott and Jeremy Agnew, ''The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin'' (1996)</ref> The failures led to an inward turn by Moscow. Leaders of American foreign policy remained convinced that the Soviet Union, which was founded by Soviet Russia in 1922, was a hostile threat to American values. Republican Secretary of State [[Charles Evans Hughes]] rejected recognition, telling labor union leaders that, "those in control of Moscow have not given up their original purpose of destroying existing governments wherever they can do so throughout the world."<ref>Douglas Little, "Anti-Bolshevism and American Foreign Policy, 1919–1939" ''American Quarterly'' (1983) 35#4 pp 376–390 at p 378.</ref> Under President [[Calvin Coolidge]], Secretary of State [[Frank B. Kellogg]] warned that the Kremlin's international agency, the [[Communist International]] (Comintern) was aggressively planning subversion against other nations, including the United States, to "overthrow the existing order."<ref>Little, p 178</ref> Herbert Hoover in 1919 warned [[Woodrow Wilson]] that, "We cannot even remotely recognize this murderous tyranny without stimulating action is to radicalism in every country in Europe and without transgressing on every National ideal of our own."<ref>Little, p 378–79.</ref> Inside the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]], the Division of Eastern European Affairs by 1924 was dominated by [[Robert F. Kelley]], a dedicated opponent of communism who trained a generation of specialists including [[George Kennan]] and [[Charles Bohlen]].<ref>Little, p 379.</ref> Britain and other Western powers—unlike the United States—did business and sometimes recognized the new Soviet Union. Outside Washington, there was some American support for renewed relationships, especially in terms of technology.<ref>Kendall E. Bailes, "The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to the Soviet Union, 1917–1941." ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 23#3 (1981): 421–448.</ref> [[Henry Ford]], committed to the belief that international trade was the best way to avoid warfare, used his [[Ford Motor Company]] to build a truck industry and introduce tractors into Russia. Architect [[Albert Kahn (architect)|Albert Kahn]] became a consultant for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union in 1930.<ref>Dana G. Dalrymple, "The American tractor comes to Soviet agriculture: The transfer of a technology." ''Technology and Culture'' 5.2 (1964): 191–214.</ref> By 1933, the American business community, as well as newspaper editors, were calling for diplomatic recognition. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] used presidential authority to normalize relations in November 1933.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=341–343}} However, there was no progress on the Tsarist debts Washington wanted Moscow to repay. Expectations of expanded trade proved unrealistic. Historians Justus D. Doenecke and Mark A. Stoler note that, "Both nations were soon disillusioned by the accord."{{sfn|Doenecke|Stoler|2005|pp=18, 121}} Roosevelt named [[William Christian Bullitt Jr.|William Bullitt]] as ambassador from 1933 to 1936. Bullitt arrived in Moscow with high hopes for Soviet–American relations, but his view of the Soviet leadership soured on closer inspection. By the end of his tenure, Bullitt was openly hostile to the Soviet government, and he remained an outspoken anti-communist for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Brownell|Billings|1987}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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