ABSTRACT
The Soviet government also promised to respect China’s territorial integrity by abolishing all secret treaties, and, in particular, Russia’s secret treaty with China from 1896, as well as Russia’s secret treaties with Japan from 1907 to 1916 that divided Manchuria into Russian and Japanese spheres of influence. After China’s requests were rejected at the Paris Peace Conference, the Soviet government issued its manifesto on 25 July 1919, signed by the deputy people’s commissar, Lev Karakhan. The Soviet promises contained in the Karakhan Manifesto were virtually identical to the proposals that the Chinese delegation had presented to, and had had rejected by, the Paris Peace Conference. The order and type of promises which appeared in the Karakhan Manifesto leave little doubt that an important source for this declaration was the Chinese delegation’s failed proposals at the Versailles Peace Conference.
