ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the clarification of several principal points, to better understand the impact of the Russian Revolution upon both the British official mind and public opinion after the collapse of the Tsardom in March and the downfall of the Provisional Government in November 1917. Both British and Russian newspapers along with private correspondence by many observers clearly indicated the non-involvement of British diplomats or the Secret Intelligence Service in the protest movement of Petrograd citizens, troops of the local garrison and the Baltic Fleet sailors. Many ordinary people, except for a handful of left-wing publicists, shared the view and fully condemned political chaos in Russia. All political forces in Britain, except a handful of left labourists, strongly supported this course, at least at its initial stage in 1918, as “an intervention by agreement” with the local anti-Bolshevik governments in the north, south and south-east of the former Russian empire.
