The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-30


Of capitalism. Krassins whole
career as a Soviet diplomat gives
the lie to this propaganda. Soviet
diplomacy is revealed instead as
one OF the necessary factors in de-
veloping the social revolution and
strengthening it in that part of the
world, where it has already gained
foothold, while capitalism prevails
as an enemy fopce elsewhere.
Krassin Joined the revolution in
1891 while still a student. He was
arrested while an undergraduate at
the st. Petersburg Technical School
and was sent to Siberia. Much of
his time thereafter was spent be-
tween Jail and exile. The triumph
of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917
found him in Moscow as engineer
for large concern. He Immediately
associated himself with Lenin in
helping to create the Soviet govern
ment.
He accompanied Lenin and
Trotsky when they went to Brest-
Litovsk to negotiate the peace
treaty with Germany. He became
food commissar for the Red Army.
AS early as May, 1918. the Swed-
ish legation at Petrograd (now
Leningrad) began looking for trade
with Russia. Later, in 1920, Krassin
signed a private treaty with a
Swedish Exporters Association.
Similarly the Danish government
was active in seeking trade in 1918,
and in April, 1920, a private agree
ment was drawn up at Copenhagen
between Krassin and Danish bank
ing and industrial elements. In 1922,
Krassin was elected a member of
the central executive committee of
the All-Russian Soviet Congress.
Krassin was a member Of the So
Wet delegation at the Genoa con-
ference, in April, 1922, during which
the important Rapollo treaty was
concluded with Germany. Other
members of the delegation were
Chitcherin, Liavinov, Joffe, Vorov-
sky and Rakovsky. Chitcherin is
now commissar of foreign affairs,
with Litvinov closely associated
with him. Joffe is in Japan and
Rakovsky in Paris. Vorovsky was
assassinated in Switzerland during
the Geneva conference, in which the
Soviet Union had been invited to
participate.
1t was also as Soviet commissar
of foreign trade and commerce that
Krassin worked to break down the
capitalist blockade against the So
Wet Union. He visited the various
capitals of Europe opening trade
negotiations. He became the Soviet
ambassador to Paris and later
changed places with Rakovsky at
London.
The role of Soviet diplomat in
London has been a difficult one.
Forged copies of Communist news
papers in the Soviet Union and
forged "Zinoviev letters" as instru-
ments Of anti-Soviet propaganda,
continuous complaints against Dol
shevik propaganda" in India and
other treasured British colonial pos
sessions, and lastly the bitter COM
plant of the British ruling class
against the millions of dollars of
strike relief sent by the workers of
the Soviet Union in aid of the Brit
ish miners struggle, have kept the
relations of Moscow and London
continuously before the workers of
the world.
Concerning the results of this
clash of rising Communism with DIS
migrating capitalism, we have but
to quote again from an attack by
Gompers on Krassin, in which the
American Tabor lieutenant of capt.
talism" declared:
There can be no doubt that the
Soviet-British trade agreement was
a tremendous victory for Soviet
prestige, both in Russia and in every
country OF the world"
Soviet diplomacy is a strong
weapon In the armory OF the social
revolution. Krassin knew how to
WELD that weapon as an able soldier
of the social revolution.