Recognition of the Provisional Government

On 22 March 1917 (9 March by the Julian calendar) the United States ambassador in Petrograd, David R. Francis, officially recognised the Russian Provisional Government on behalf of his government. It was the first formal act of recognition of the new authorities, which had taken power a week earlier after the abdication of Nicholas II. The same day the British House of Commons sent greetings to the Duma and congratulations to the Russian people, and on 24 March the ambassadors of Britain, France and Italy called on the government of Prince Georgy Lvov and formally established relations with it.

American haste

Francis, a former governor of Missouri, had been in Petrograd for less than a year. On 18 March, after talks with Mikhail Rodzianko and the new foreign minister, Pavel Milyukov, he cabled Washington about “the most amazing revolution”, in which a nation of 200 million people, ruled for a thousand years by an absolute monarchy, had forced its emperor to abdicate in the middle of a war. He assured Washington that the country was calm and that the army recognised the new government. He also reported that the ambassadors of Britain, France and Italy were visiting Milyukov daily but had not yet recognised the government. He asked for immediate authority and argued that America should be first. The revolution, he wrote, was the practical realisation of the principle that the United States stood for: government by the consent of the governed. Recognition would, in his view, have a “stupendous moral effect”, especially if it came first.

Washington did not delay. The United States, which had broken off relations with Germany at the beginning of February, was already on the brink of war, and the fall of tsarism removed the fact, awkward for President Woodrow Wilson, that an autocracy was fighting on the side of the democracies. At noon on 20 March the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, instructed the ambassador to declare that the United States government recognised the new government of Russia. The telegram reached Petrograd on the morning of 22 March.

22 March

At eleven o’clock Francis called on Milyukov and conveyed Washington’s decision to him, and the minister, as the ambassador reported, was delighted that America was the first. At Francis’s request a formal reception was also arranged. At half past four in the afternoon the ambassador, with the whole staff of the embassy, including the military and naval attachés in full-dress uniform, stood before the assembled Council of Ministers. Only the war minister, Alexander Guchkov, who had left the city, was missing. Francis declared to the prime minister that the United States government recognised the new government of Russia and that he himself would be glad to maintain relations with Russia through it. Milyukov replied that this was the first formal recognition of the new government and that it would be of great moral significance.

In the evening Francis learnt that the British and French ambassadors had sent notes recognising the government to the ministry that same afternoon. He pointed out in his report that he himself had done so formally at eleven in the morning. A few days later Milyukov confirmed the course of both visits in an official letter and thanked him for the “proof of friendly sympathy” for Russia’s “new democratic system”.

The British, French and Italians

The British ambassador, George Buchanan, had London’s consent to recognise any government that actually took power, even before the question of the throne was resolved. When, however, Milyukov raised the question of recognition on 18 March, Buchanan first demanded an assurance that the new government would wage the war to the end and restore discipline in the army. Milyukov gave such an assurance but added that he had to act cautiously because of the extreme left. According to Francis, Buchanan was also waiting for his French and Italian colleagues to receive similar authority. The ambassador himself was ill in bed for several days and only on the afternoon of 24 March was he able to go, together with the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue and the Italian ambassador, the Marquis Andrea Carlotti, to the ministry, where Prince Lvov and the whole government were waiting for them.

As doyen of the diplomatic corps Buchanan spoke first. He said, in French, that at a moment when a new era was opening before Russia, Germany must not be lost sight of, because her triumph would destroy the “beautiful monument” that the Russian people had raised to liberty. Britain was holding out her hand to the Provisional Government in the conviction that it would honour the obligations of its predecessors and bring the war to victory, while maintaining order, national unity and discipline in the army. Milyukov, on behalf of the government, gave assurances that Russia would remain true to her alliances and fight to a victorious end. One of the Petrograd newspapers afterwards reproached the ambassador for speaking to the representatives of free Russia in the same language as to the “servants of the tsar”.

The Allies’ hopes

On 22 March in the House of Commons the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Andrew Bonar Law, moved on behalf of the prime minister a resolution in which the House sent the Duma “fraternal greetings” and the Russian people “heartiest congratulations” on the establishment of free institutions. It expressed at the same time its full confidence that they would lead to the war being prosecuted “with renewed steadfastness and vigour”. Bonar Law recalled how quickly the hopes of the French Revolution had faded and expressed sympathy for the former tsar, who had been a loyal ally for almost three years. The government nevertheless wanted the message to strengthen the new authorities. The former prime minister Herbert Henry Asquith said that Russia had taken her place beside the great democracies of the world.

Following the four powers, other states recognised the Provisional Government over the following days and weeks. In London, Paris and Rome it was hoped that Russia, freed from a discredited court, would fight with new energy. The ambassadors could see, however, that Lvov’s government shared power with the Petrograd Soviet, part of which proclaimed the slogan of peace at any price, and that Order No. 1 was undermining discipline in the army. In Washington the revolution made the decision for war easier. When on 2 April Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, he spoke of Russia as a country that had joined the forces fighting for freedom in the world.