970 Chapter 7
an international commission convene to assess the matter, consistent with the Hague
Conference of 1899. Great Britain and Russia agreed, and signed an agreement on
November 25, 1904, to appoint an international tribunal of naval authorities—from
Austria, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States—in order to determine
responsibility. The tribunal came to the unsurprising conclusion that the acts of the
Russian admiral who ordered the attack were not justified. Russia eventually paid an
indemnity to Great Britain, and the sailors who were harmed, closing the matter in
the process.
Coding changes: End Date changed from November 5, 1904.
MID#197
Dispute Number: 197
Date(s): November 23, 1917 to April 1, 1920
Participants: 2 United States of America, 200 United Kingdom, 220 France, 325
Italy, 740 Japan/365 Russia
Outcome (and Settlement): Victory for side B (None)
Fatalities: >999 deaths
Narrative: This dispute describes the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
On November 23, 1917, the new head of the Russian state, Vladimir Lenin, and Pro-
visional Commander in Chief, Nikolai Krylenko, called on all members of the army
to enter armistice negotiations with Germany to conclude a war that had become
disastrous in Russia and was unpopular from the beginning for the Bolsheviks that
had just seized the reins of the state. This overture from the new Russian government
toward the Germans was met with an immediate protest from the Allied representa-
tives in Petrograd. A letter was sent from the military attaches in Petrograd reminding
the Bolsheviks that the Russians had agreed, by treaty on September 5, 1914, to not
enter separate peace negotiations without multilateral participation from the rest of
the Allies. Leon Trotsky, foreign minister for the new Bolshevik party, replied that
the Allies had rejected previous proposals from the Bolshevik government for an
armistice in all fronts. It was at this point that a rupture between the Allies and the
Bolshevik government in Russia became apparent. Since Lenin’s government had
been in power for only two weeks, none of the Allies necessarily recognized Lenin’s
government and were not receptive to doing so. The British and French admonished
Lenin that his government would not be recognized as long as it continued pursuing
a peace with Germany.
A cable reply from Trotsky suggested that the original protest given by the Allied
representatives in Petrograd contained a thinly veiled threat against the new Russian
government, which hinted at punitive measures if the Bolsheviks proceeded any fur-
ther with a separate armistice with Germany. The note mentioned that violations of
the original agreement from September 5, 1914, “will be followed by most serious
consequences.” In particular, Sir George Buchanan (British ambassador to Russia at
the time) warned Nikolay Dukhonin, the previous Commander in Chief of the Rus-
sian armed forces replaced by Lenin for rejecting the call for armistice, that the Allied
threat would be an authorization of an attack by Japan if Russia proceeded any further.
This constituted an Allied threat to use force against Russia should Russia proceed