ABSTRACT
For many in Britain, the Soviet Union was little different to its imperial predecessor. Chamberlain himself wrote of ‘[...] its likeness to a nightmare of Tsarist Russia.’2 Yet the Russian Revolution did mark a change in the way that the western powers treated Russia, for it shattered the entente, and created hostility between the former allies. Britain’s involvement in Russia’s civil war was an inauspicious start to Anglo-Soviet relations, and was subsequently resented by the Soviets. In May 1920, there was some improvement through trade negotiations which bore fruit in March of the following year when a commercial agreement was signed. However, the April 1922 Rapallo treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union soured relations, as did Curzon’s May 1923 protest about the treatment of churches and Britons in Russia, even though the Soviets satisfied the British government in their response. It was only when Labour came to power that Britain formally recognised the Soviet Union, after substantial pressure on MacDonald from party colleagues.3 Chamberlain, of course, had held office as Chancellor of the Exchequer when the trade agreement was negotiated. During Cabinet discussions, he aligned himself with Churchill, Curzon, Milner and Long, all of whom wanted clear assurances from the Soviets about subversive activities in British territories. When the Board of Trade put forward
a proposal which did not insist on this, and the Cabinet approved it, these five ministers asked that their dissent be recorded.4 For Chamberlain, this was consistent with the anti-socialist position he took as a coalitionist.5 Would he take a similar line, quasi-diehard, at the Foreign Office?
