George Solomon on the Work of the First Soviet Consulate in Hamburg in 1918–1919

Abstract

Recently, 2018 marked the centenary of such dates as the signing of the Brest peace, the establishment of diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and Germany, and the November revolution in Germany. However, the details of the activities of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Berlin and especially in Hamburg, where the Consulate was opened, are still not fully disclosed. Discovered in the Russian state archive of socio-political history (RGASPI), the memo of Consul George Solomon touches on various aspects and aspects, including behindthe-scenes communications and negotiations, of the activities of the first soviet diplomats. The conclusion of a contract with a coal syndicate for the supply of fuel to Petrograd, assistance to fellow prisoners of war, pictures of the November revolution and the January events of 1919, the arrests of employees of the Soviet mission — all this the reader will find in the memo of Solomon, who later became a non-returning emigrant and made his name.