Is there a phrase of assistant Woodlo Wilson about the division of Russia into several states?

On December 23, 2021, Vladimir Putin mentioned the quote from the US president’s adviser that “it will be calmer for the whole world” if five new countries appear on the site of Russia. We checked the reliability of this quote.

On the recently press conferences The journalist of the British television channel Skynews asked the Russian president the question: “What do you think, the West cannot understand about Russia or your intentions?” Putin replied that Russia and the West, as it seems to him, live "in different worlds", mentioned NATO expansionAnd then he said: “Here, look, back in 1918, one of the assistants to Woodlon Wilson, the President of the United States, said:“ It will be calmer for the whole world if the state will appear in Siberia and four more states in the European part in the place of today's huge Russia. ” In 1991, we divided ourselves into 12, in my opinion, parts, right? But it seems that our partners are not enough: too large Russia, in their opinion, for today, because the European countries themselves have turned into small states - not great empires, but into small states, 60–80 million people. But even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where we have only 146 million, and this is too much. It seems to me that only this can explain such constant pressure. ”

On the website of the Library of Yale University published The diaries of Edward House - an American diplomat and informal adviser to US President Woodro Wilson. House gained the greatest fame during the First World War, when at first became The representative of Wilson in the UK, France and Germany, and after the United States entered the war (1917), was an intermediary in interaction with the Entente. House also participated in the development of famous "Fourteen points", proposed by his cartridge as the basis for building the future world without war, and represented the United States at the conference of allies after concluding a ceasefire.

In the record from this diary of September 19, 1918 It is said: “She (Russia. - Approx. Ed.) Is too big and too homogeneous for the safety of the world. I would like to see Siberia with a separate republic, and European Russia - divided into three parts. The British Empire does not pose the same danger to the world as the Russian Empire under the leadership of the monarch. The components of the British Empire at any time can become autonomous, they will not be able to endlessly hold India in this form. Even now India is a source of weakness, not the forces of the empire. ”

However, the perception of this quote changes significantly, if you read the entire record entirely, and not just this fragment. At the very beginning of Haus Notesthat “almost completely disagree” with how President Wilson reacts to the situation in Russia. The American leader, in turn, did not support the idea of ​​separating Russia. On the contrary, at the end of May 1918, the American government sent a message to the US representative at the Entente, It was said: "The president believes that the disaster in Russia imposes on us the obligations of unshakable fidelity to the principles of territorial integrity and political independence of this country." Further, Wilson separately emphasizes that the idea that Japan could be conveyed by part of the Asian territory of Russia, “unacceptable”, and all military operations regarding opponents (Germany and its allies), which can be associated with ports in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, should take place “in the conditions of unequivocal approval of Russians and should not have their ultimate goal restore the“ old mode ”or any other intervention in Political freedom of the people of Russia. ”

Thus, in his response, President Putin mentioned a genuine quote taken from the diary of the American diplomat Edward Haus, distorting only the number of “states in the European part of Russia”. At the same time, the private opinion of Hauz, recorded in an unofficial document, at least in mid -1918, was seriously different from the position of US leadership. Being a torn out of context, the quote really sounds menacing, however, to draw conclusions on its basis that for more than a century, “Western partners” set themselves the goal of dividing Russia into several states - at least debatable.

We thank Boris Lionin for help In the preparation of the publication

True attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Yale University Library Digital Collections. Edward Mandell House Diaries
2. Is it true that the United States promised Gorbachev not to expand NATO east?
3. Did the US-US-Madlen Albright ex-user say that Siberia should not belong to only one Russia?