In June 1917 he was appointed
French ambassador to
Russia. Following the
October Revolution, he worked with
White Guards to undermine the
Bolshevik regime. In 1918 he proposed a two-tier operation to stabilise the economy of regime set up by General
Yevgeny Miller in North Russia. The scheme involved a loan of 15 million rubles, set against a lien of 20 million rubles worth of sawn wood. The second phase involved issuing 200 million rubles in back notes backed by the allies at a rate of 10 - 1 to the dollar. (i.e. 20 million dollars). However, as the security against this was to be $25million worth of concessions from the Russian forestry industry, concern about the instability of the regime led to an alternative plan involving the creation of a
currency board being adopted. this had been devised by
John Maynard Keynes. He was depicted with two other French members of a delegation in a poster issued by the
Russian Telegraph Agency (Glavpolitprosvet). They were shown laughing and planning to bring the return of the monarchy. After the failure of
Bruce Lockhart—Sidney Reilly conspiracy to assassinate
Vladimir Lenin, Noulens left Russia. In 1919 he became President of an international association of creditors of Russia, which agitated against diplomatic recognition of the Bolshevik regime but they did not accept responsibility for the old debts made by the
Russian Empire He later became leader of the
Society of French Interests in Russia. At a meeting in Paris in February 1922 they demanded a veto on negotiations with the
Soviet Union unless the latter acknowledged the old debts. This view was promoted at the
Genoa Conference held from 10 April to 19 May 1922. ==Books==