War, revolution, and peace in Russia

About this book

The American historian Frank Golder's writings from Russia describe the momentous events he witnessed and record his encounters with a remarkable variety of individuals. From 1914 to 1927 he maintained relationships with the vanquished classes of the old regime and initiated new ones within the Bolshevik and Soviet establishment. A faithful diarist and prolific correspondent, Golder was unmatched among American observers of Russia for the range and depth of contacts in Moscow and Petrograd. During Golder's first trip to Russia in 1914, his writings revealed the internal stratification and cracks in the structure of imperial Russian society as it entered the world war. He returned to Russia in 1917, arriving in Petrograd, eleven days before the fall of Nicholas II. His diary records the drama of the initial months of the Russian Revolution and introduces us to some of the major players on the political scene, including principal figures in the Provisional Government such as Alexander Kerensky and Paul Miliukov. On his third visit to Russia, as a famine relief worker for the American Relief Administration (ARA) in 1921, Golder documented the fate of old regime intelligentsia. During the second year of this two-year stay, Golder took on a new assignment as unofficial political observer for U.S. secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover. His weekly letters to Hoover's office reveal the backdoor negotiations between Washington and Moscow on issues of trade and political recognition, and their publication here fills a gap in U.S.-Soviet diplomatic history. On his later trips to Russia in 1925 and 1927, Golder recorded his observations of the changes in Soviet society after the death of Lenin. Excerpts from his diary in Europe after his departure from the Soviet Union in 1925 describe his encounters with prominent Russian emigres. Taken together, Golder's diaries and letters offer a sustained narrative of the agony of Russia and of individual Russians in war, revolution, civil war, famine, and their aftermath.