Is there a phrase by Woodrow Wilson's assistant about dividing Russia into several states?

On December 23, 2021, Vladimir Putin mentioned a quote from the US Presidential Advisor that “the whole world will be calmer” if five new countries appear in Russia’s place. We have verified the accuracy of this quote.

At the recent press conferences A journalist from the British television channel SkyNews asked the Russian president a question: “What do you think the West cannot understand about Russia or your intentions?” Putin responded that Russia and the West, as it seems to him, live “in a different world,” mentioned NATO expansion, and then stated: “Look, back in 1918, one of the assistants of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, said: “The whole world will be calmer if, in place of today’s huge Russia, a state appears in Siberia and four more states in the European part.” In 1991, we divided ourselves into 12, I think, parts, right? But it seems that this is not enough for our partners: Russia is too big, in their opinion, today, because the European countries themselves have turned into small states - not great empires, but small states, 60-80 million people. But even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where we only had 146 million left, and that’s too many. It seems to me that this is the only way to explain such constant pressure.”

On the Yale University Library website published diaries of Edward House, an American diplomat and informal adviser to US President Woodrow Wilson. House gained his greatest fame during the First World War, when he became Wilson's representative in Great Britain, France and Germany, and after the US entered the war (1917) he was a mediator in interaction with the Entente. House also participated in the development of the famous "Fourteen Points", proposed by his patron as the basis for building a future world without war, and represented the United States at the Allied Conference after the Armistice.

In an entry from this diary dated September 19, 1918 it says: “It (Russia. - Ed.) is too big and too homogeneous for the security of the world. I would like to see Siberia as 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 a monarch. The constituent parts of the British Empire can become autonomous at any time; they cannot keep India in this form indefinitely. Even now India is a source of weakness, not strength, of the empire.”

However, the perception of this quote changes significantly if you read the entire entry, and not just this fragment. At its very beginning House notes, that he “disagrees almost completely” with how President Wilson is responding to the situation in Russia. The American leader, in turn, did not support the idea of ​​dividing Russia. On the contrary, at the end of May 1918, the American government sent a message to the US representative to the Entente in which it was said: “The President believes that the disaster in Russia imposes on us an obligation of unwavering fidelity to the principles of territorial integrity and political independence of this country.” Wilson further emphasizes that the idea that Japan could be transferred to part of the Asian territory of Russia is “unacceptable,” and all military actions against opponents (Germany and its allies) that may be associated with the ports in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk must take place “with the unequivocal approval of the Russians and should not have as their ultimate goal the restoration of the “old regime” or any other interference in the political freedom of the people of Russia.”

Thus, in his response, President Putin mentioned an authentic quote taken from the diary of American diplomat Edward House, distorting only the number of “states in the European part of Russia.” At the same time, House’s private opinion, recorded in an unofficial document, at least in mid-1918, seriously differed from the position of the US leadership. Taken out of context, the quote indeed sounds menacing, but to draw conclusions based on it that for more than a century “Western partners” have set themselves the goal of dividing Russia into several states is, at the very least, controversial.

We thank Boris Lvin for help in preparation of publication

Correct quote attribution

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 to the east?
3. Did former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright say that Siberia should not belong to Russia alone?