British Intelligence and the Formation Of a Policy Toward Russia, 1917-18: Missing Dimension or Just Missing?

Internal collapse and a succession of varying Russian governments in 1917 necessitated the need for British policy makers to re-evaluate their attitudes toward Russia. It is well-known that this ultimately evolved into hostility towards Bolshevism. What is not so evident is how this decision was arrived at. Nor was it as clear-cut as one might believe.

This book makes use of both primary sources and primary sources contained within secondary ones to argue that Britain's policy towards Russia at this time cannot be understood without first exploring the "missing dimension" that intelligence played in shaping the policy makers' final decisions. Unfortunately, at precisely this time, when valid and verifiable information was required from intelligence gathering agencies, these same agencies were suffering from severe handicaps. Official diplomatic relations with the Bolsheviks had been cut off, unofficial representatives did not adequately replace the official presence, covert intelligence operated with little or no accountability to policy, and the system of independent analysis of intelligence designed to provide checks and balances in the decision-making process were inoperative during the First World War.

The study is not balanced. It concentrates much more carefully on the British than the Russian side, although Russian policy is explored where it illustrates the ineptitude of British intelligence. As such, it uses the Gregorian rather than the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.

By looking at intelligence and analysis related to the March and November Revolutions, Allied intervention, and the decline of British representatives from diplomat to spy the cognate essay confirms Professor Keith Neilson's thesis. Rather than looking at British questions during World War One through the two classic views of civil-military relations or easterners versus westerners, the alternative approach of exploring Britain's relations within its alliance system should be given more attention. As part of an alliance system, British decisions had to be made in light of those alliances. In the case of Russia, intelligence was vital in ascertaining the best possible approach to be taken in the fluid and teetering Russian internal situation. Intelligence thus took on a role even more important than it normally might.

"I have lived more places than Sinbad the Sailor."

Indeed, I have lived in every province in Canada -- other than the Maritime region -- and ten overseas countries.

International spy? Much more prosaic than that. Working as a trainer for Oil and Gas operations in the Middle East (including around Sinbad's home port of Basra), North Africa and Asia, alternated with instructing at a variety of North American universities, has necessitated it. Along the way, I have picked up sensibilities from numerous cultures and have taken the opportunity to write about them. Along with being a columnist for newspapers in Japan and Ontario, I have written a variety of fiction and non-fiction in periodicals, journals and online sites. My written works are housed in the national archives of both Canada and Japan.