Establishment Sometime in January 1919 a courier acting on behalf of the government of
Soviet Russia contacted
Ludwig C.A.K. Martens, a respected editor of
Novyi Mir, the newspaper of the
Russian Socialist Federation of the
Socialist Party of America, appointing him its representative in the United States. Arrangements were made to organize an office staff, including a commercial department headed by industrialist
A.A. Heller, a diplomatic department headed by former head of the
Finnish Information Bureau,
Santeri Nuorteva, and a legal department headed by Socialist Party leader
Morris Hillquit. Chicherin authorized Martens to take over all real estate and property formerly held by the embassy and consulates of the
Russian Provisional Government, to receive and disburse money on behalf of the Soviet government, and to solicit and answer all legal claims on behalf of Soviet Russia. The Russian Soviet Government Bureau (RSGB) was the stop-gap organization established by Martens in lieu of a recognized diplomatic embassy. The Bureau maintained offices at the "World Tower Building," located at 110 West 40th Street in
Manhattan. A staff of 35 was hired, including a former editor of
Novyi Mir and partisan of the Communist Labor Party,
Gregory Weinstein, as office manager. As administrative head,
commercial attaché, and financial advisor, Julius Hammer, father of
Armand Hammer, was assigned to generate support for the Russian Soviet Government Bureau and funded the Bureau by
money laundering the proceeds from illegal sales of smuggled diamonds through his company Allied Drug while his Allied Drug partner, Abraham A. Heller, headed the Bureau's commercial department. The nature and activity of the Soviet Bureau ventured into uncharted water, as historian
Theodore Draper noted: "There were no precedents for Martens' bureau. It was set up as a diplomatic mission, without diplomatic recognition. It was made up mostly of Americans, and the others, like Martens himself, had been cut off for many years from direct contact with Russia.
Couriers constituted the only method of communication, but they were so slow and uncertain that it took two months for Martens to get in touch with the Soviet government."
Trade agency With its chances of gaining official recognition clearly dashed from the outset, the Soviet Bureau concentrated its efforts on building commercial contacts with American businesses. Martens sought to take over assets previously held by the Provisional Government and to use these funds as part of a $200 million program to acquire commodities and capital goods for the struggling Bolshevik government of Russia. Martens declared that with the overthrow of the Provisional Government in the
Russian Revolution of 1917, the position of ambassador
Boris Bakhmeteff had become vacant and the assets formerly held legally transferred to the new regime. This tempo was accelerated in April 1919, when the RSGB mailed letters of inquiry to 5,000 American firms and circulated press kits to 200 trade-oriented newspapers. Numerous firms took interest and sent their representatives to New York for direct discussions with Martens and his associates, including such industrial giants as the
Ford Motor Company, meatpackers
Armour and Company and
Swift and Company, agricultural machinery maker
International Harvester, cotton goods maker
Marshall Field and Company, and
Sears, Roebuck and Company. Indeed, during its brief period of active operations as a Soviet trade agency, terminated by a June 12, 1919 raid, the RSGB was contacted by an estimated 941 American companies seeking to sell products to or to obtain products from Soviet Russia. By the end of 1919, the Russian Soviet Government Bureau had signed contracts totaling nearly $25 million. This proved to be the first of a growing flood of commerce, with Soviet contracts with American companies topping the $300 million mark by May 1920. The Soviet Bureau published a weekly informational bulletin from its earliest days, moving to a magazine format with the title
Soviet Russia: A Weekly Devoted to the Spread of Truth About Russia effective June 9, 1919.
Soviet Russia included reprints of speeches by RSGB officials, news and commentary supporting the Soviet side in the ongoing
Russian Civil War, and the pronouncements of top Soviet government officials on matters of trade and world politics. While the publication of such fare seemed reasonable to the Soviet Bureau and its political supporters, the presence of a Bolshevik propaganda agency in the heart of New York City was a proverbial red flag to conservative opponents of the Soviet regime. The Russian Soviet Government Bureau became a top target of the so-called
Lusk Committee established by the New York state legislature to investigate radical activities in the state of New York.
Relationship with the American Communist movement Martens and his staff accepted a number of invitations to speak at radical meetings in New York City and elsewhere, activity which drew the ire of conservative forces in America. Martens retained close contact and warm relations with the Socialist Party of America (SPA) and the
Communist Labor Party of America (CLP) which emerged from the SPA's
organized left wing late in 1919. While Commissar of Foreign Affairs Chicherin ultimately sided with Martens in maintaining financial and organizational independence from the CPA, relations between the Soviet Bureau and the party were stilted. Information was provided as requested, with Soviet Bureau official
Evans Clark noting to assistant director of the War Trade Board G.M. Bodman at a meeting on April 25, 1919, that the bureau "had nothing to conceal" and was "glad to furnish information to those entitled to have it." While federal officials seem to have taken a "wait and see" attitude towards the Soviet Bureau, New York state politicians and law enforcement authorities were motivated by a more urgent agenda. On Thursday, June 12, 1919, the RSGB's offices on West 40th Street were suddenly raided by New York Police at the behest of the state legislature's newly established Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Seditious Activities (commonly known as the "Lusk Committee"). A
search warrant was served material which was later parsed at the Lusk Committee's leisure for evidence of illegal
seditious activity and further radical connections for the committee to explore. The Soviet Bureau vociferously protested the Lusk Committee's action: The invasion of the office of the Russian Soviet Government was altogether unwarranted and illegal. The Russian Soviet Government Bureau has conscientiously refrained from interfering in American affairs. Its activities have always been open to investigation by anyone honestly in search of information about Soviet Russia or about the activities of the Bureau. Only the existing state of hysterical reaction diligently nursed by a persistent campaign of slander against Soviet Russia can explain why such drastic steps were taken in a case where a simple inquiry would have brought out all the information necessary — without breaking the law and the first principles of international hospitality." Martens, who had gone underground and often hid at Julius Hammer's home, was subsequently
subpoenaed and called before the committee to give testimony.
Hearings The organization was a subject of hearings in
United States Senate from January through March 1920. On December 17, 1920, the
United States Department of Labor decided to deport Martens. In January 1921 Martens finally left the United States. Work of the organization stopped with the departure of its leader. ==Key participants==