Georgy Chicherin
Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (Russian: Георгий Васильевич Чичерин) (24 November [O.S. 12 November 1872] 1872– 7 July 1936) was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician. He served as People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from March 1918 to 1930.
Biography
A distant relative of Aleksandr Pushkin, Georgy Chicherin was born in an aristocratic family. His father, Vasily N. Chicherin, was a diplomat in the service of the Russian Empire. As a young man, Chicherin became fascinated with history as well as classical music, especially Richard Wagner (and indirectly Friedrich Nietzsche), two passions which he would pursue throughout his life. He spoke all major European languages and a number of Asian ones[1]. After graduating from St. Petersburg University with a degree in history and languages, Chicherin worked in the archival section of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1897 until 1903.
In 1904 Chicherin inherited the estate of his celebrated uncle — Boris Chicherin — in the Tambov region and became very wealthy. He immediately used his new found fortune to support revolutionary activities in the runup to the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was forced to flee abroad to avoid arrest later in the year. He spent the next 13 years in Western Europe, mostly London, Paris and Berlin, where he joined the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and was active in emigre politics.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Chicherin adopted an anti-war position, which brought him closer to Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks. In 1917 he was arrested by the British government for his anti-war writings and spent a few months in the Brixton prison. In the meantime, the Bolsheviks had come to power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and the first head of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (which had replaced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Leon Trotsky, secured Chicherin's release and safe passage to Russia in exchange for British subjects held in Russia at the time, including George Buchanan, the British ambassador.
Upon his return to Russia in early 1918, Chicherin formally joined the Bolsheviks and was appointed Trotsky's deputy during the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. After the treaty was signed in late February 1918, Trotsky, who had advocated a different policy, resigned his position in early March. Chicherin became the acting head of the Commissariat and was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs on May 30.
In 1922, Chicherin participated in the Genoa Conference and signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany. He pursued a policy of collaboration with Germany and developed a closer working relationship with Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau. During this period, he also held diplomatic negotiations with nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, on the status of the Roman Catholic Church in the newly formed Soviet Union.
Although known for his workaholic habits from 1918 and until the late 1920s, he became increasingly sidelined by an illness from 1928 on and was formally replaced by his deputy, Maxim Litvinov, in 1930. After his death his name was erased from the Communist Party's history[2]
Notes
- ^ See G. Gorodetsky. Soviet Foreign Policy 1917-1991: A Retrospective, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0-7146-4506-0, p.23
- ^ Roy Medvedev, Let History Judge, 1971
References
- Timothy Edward O'Connor. Diplomacy and Revolution: G.V. Chicherin and Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1918-1930, Ames, Iowa State University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-8138-0367-5, 250p.
- J. F. Van Agt, Alexandre Andreyev. Soviet Russia and Tibet: The Debacle of Secret Diplomacy, 1918-1930s, Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, ISBN 90-04-12952-9, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library v. 4, ISSN 1568-6183 , p.76.