Maxim Litvinov - After The October Revolution

After The October Revolution

After the October Revolution of 1917, Litvinov was appointed by Vladimir Lenin as the Soviet government's representative in Britain. His accreditation was never officially formalised, and his position as an unofficial diplomatic contact was analogous to that of Robert Lockhart. 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 Pact 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 Pact').

In 1930, Joseph Stalin appointed Litvinov as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A firm believer in collective security, Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1933 he successfully persuaded the United States to officially recognize the Soviet government. Franklin D. Roosevelt sent comedian Harpo Marx 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 Nations where he represented his country in 1934—1938.