Posted by Duncan on March 02, 2005 at 10:32:35 from 195.93.21.2 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Evgenia (was : Ransome & the British Secret Services) posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on March 01, 2005 at 12:24:33:
Obviously, as last time, I'm going to argue the other side of the case! I actually think some of the new information builds the case for suggesting that Ransome was sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and was - in so far as was possible - an honest broker.
I have two alternative scenarios (one that I find convincing, another that was suggested to me by someone with no great interest in AR but a lot of expertise in Russian political history, which - surprisingly - is so close to AR's own account of what he was up to, that I'm rather tempted to change my mind and believe that). In fact the two are not contradictory.
Evgenia wasn't a bolshevik. That, in itself, is not a controversial remark. She was a menshovik, but she supported the revolution and joined in working in various government offices. The memo quite clearly presents her potential usefulness in giving information about anti-German forces, should the Germans beat the Russians in the war. Even in this secret memo, there is nothing to suggest she was going to be a traitor against her government (indeed, if anyone believed she was a useful anti-bolshevik spy - it would clearly be more useful for her to stay where she was). Furthermore, one has to put this against Russian secret service files that suggested that she smuggled Romanov jewels out of the country to help raise funds for the comintern (and, whether that was true or not, it is clear that she was able to leave Russia with the support of bolshevik officials - not just of the British). Furthermore, one must remember that Moscow files claim that Lenin found AR very useful, also that - when in Stockholm - the bolshevik mission investigated AR as a possible British spy and were told by Lenin to stop doing so. It seems likely that AR - to secure cooperation in getting Evgenia out of Russia - was able to convince somebody that she would be useful to them in future. The alternative scenario, that these two British agents got to know each other in their dangerous double lives (pretending to be pro-Bolshevik) doesn't wash for me. I think, were you to go down that line, you would have to conclude that Radek and various others were agents as well, and if you weren't very careful you could end up half-justifying many of the Stalinist purges!! More likely by far that AR got the co-operation of friends in the British consulate to help him out, but they had to make the assistance seem worthwhile to their paymasters, and a touch of spin had to be added.
I'm going to write an article about this for my website - but I'll put the basic thrust of the two scenarios here.
Those who've read AR's autobiography will remember the time he was arrested on arrival in England, and the subsequent interview. The telling part of that discussion (the full implications of which may not have been apparent to AR when he wrote his autobiography) was when he was told that things could be made very difficult for him with the British left, if they were to learn that he had given useful information to British officials. This was a threat that had no impact on AR, as he had no political ambitions in the UK. However, it tells us two things: a) that domestic intelligence were aware of his 'usefulness' and b) this didn't prevent him from being considered a 'dangerous bolshevik' until 1937 (interesting that it was a Russian specialist who 'cleared' Ransome - his lack of sympathy for Stalin and Stalinism could have led to this 'clearing' without any readjustment of people's opinions of his earlier work in Russia). It also introduces the possibility that informal 'usefulness' could have been transformed into something rather more formal in the records in case it was required - at some future point - to make things difficult for AR with the British left. This is not an unthinkable proposition: by 1918/19 Britain was becoming paranoid about communism, and Ransome was - whether deliberately or not - involved in the potentially pro-bolshevik propaganda that a section of the British left were using. A film that he featured in prominently, about the Russian famine, was being shown in cinemas all around the country by the 'Hands off Russia' group (effectively a far-left front) and was receiving big audiences. The prospect of Ransome coming home and being a prominent UK journalist - stirring up Bolshevism at home (however absurd it might seem with hindsight) could well have seen the formation of a contingency plan (any records of the planning of which would be those that hit the shredder!)
However, a friend in Sweden - without ever reading AR's account of his time in Russia - suggested that AR may have been an official go-between (chosen by both sides because of his good relations in both camps) and that could explain a degree of protection coming his way from both leaderships. This of course is almost exactly what Ransome tells us himself.
The two scenarios are not, as I've suggested, mutually exclusive.
The least likely scenario for me - is that AR was a paid-up SIS spy, who formed his relationships with bolsheviks because of this job, fell in love with another agent and together they were smuggled out just in time. (Almost as unlikely that he was a 'double-agent'). People always write about AR 'rescuing' Evgenia - but it was a rescue from the prospect of a White Russian victory, not from the Bolsheviks. Ransome regularly returned to Russia, and met many of the prominent Bolsheviks after this time, with no apparent concern about his 'smuggling' of one of their civil servants.
I think all this information needs a lot more investigation before we reach a definite conclusion about it - but I do feel AR's own writing about this period (both contemporary writing in articles, pamphlets, private letters, etc. and his autobiography and other comments on politics) ought to be taken into account. The one consistent political thread throughout all AR's writing on politics is anti-imperialism (subscribers to mixed moss will remember his reaction to someone suggesting NATO had the right line about China, when AR was quite an old man) and he described his political work in Russia as 'trying to make imperialists see sense' in a letter to his daughter. His primary role appeared to be to get the UK to recognise the bolsheviks as Russia's official government and stop the civil war/wars of intervention (or do what he could to stop them). Anything he did needs to be seen in that context - it was not the cover story of an SIS agent.
(My article will appear on the link below, but it ain't there yet!)