Page:Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin - Two Years of Foreign Policy (1920).pdf/19

 the German imperialist monster was becoming more restrained.

We were, however, attacked by the Entente. Concurrently with the assassination of Mirbach, insurrections took place in Moscow, Yaroslav and Murom, the insurrections in the two latter cities having been organized by Savinkov and the Entente agents. Bribed by the Entente, commander-in-chief Muraviev betrayed us and opened the front to the Czecho-Slovaks. The Moscow insurrection was followed by mutinies in certain army units, particularly at Lgov. The officers and other agents of the Entente were busy recruiting men for the Czecho-Slovak troops and for the Murman front. The net of underground conspiracies was constantly growing. The English plan was based on the seizure of the rectangle: the Murman railway—Archangel—Zvanka—Vologda, The question of the presence of the Entente embassies in Vologda became very acute; the counter-revolutionary elements, particularly the Serbians, Poles, and former czarist officers, were gathering in Vologda, taking advantage of our necessarily cautious attitude toward their presence there. An insurrection in Vologda would compel us to fire on the city, and our shells could make no distinction between ordinary buildings and the buildings of the embassies. The further presence of the Ambassadors in Vologda was therefore absolutely impossible. On July 10 we telegraphed to the principal embassies, inviting them to come to Moscow, and on the same day Comrade Radek was sent to Vologda to reach an understanding with the embassies as to their leaving Vologda to avoid complications. The main opposition to our proposals again came from our chief enemy Noulens, whom we considered a private person having no official standing. The embassies categorically refused to come to Moscow. But when, on July 22, we warned them most emphatically of the danger that threatened them, they agreed to leave for Archangel. The fact that this city was under martial law, and the expectation of a bombardment by the British, made their