An executive agreement concluded by President FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT as part of the agreements by which the United States recognized the Soviet Union. On December 6, 1917, the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Russia shortly after the Bolshevik Party took power from the Tsarist regime after the “October Revolution.” President Woodrow Wilson decided at the time to refuse recognition because the new Bolshevik government had refused to repay the Tsarist government`s previous debts to the United States, ignored existing treaty agreements with other nations, and confiscated American property in Russia after the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks had also concluded a separate peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, which ended Russian participation in World War I. Despite extensive trade relations between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Wilson`s successors stuck to his policy of not recognizing the Soviet Union. The Litvinov Order purported to transfer to the United States certain American assets in Russia that had already been nationalized by the Soviet Union. As a result, the United States has gone to court to establish its claim on the assets. In the famous case of United States v. Pink, 315 U.S. 203, 62 P.Ct. 552, 86 L.
Ed. 796 (1942), the Supreme Court upheld this title on the basis of the executive agreement. The court held that the agreement was an integral part of the government`s new recognition policy and an appropriate method of mitigating losses resulting from the nationalization of U.S. property in the Soviet Union. The Court held that the powers of the executive branch in the conduct of foreign policy were not limited by the need for Senate approval. Unfortunately, the spirit of cooperation embodied in the Roosevelt-Litvinov agreements proved to be short-lived. Shortly after his arrival in Moscow in December 1933, Bullitt was disillusioned by the Soviets when an agreement on the issue of debt repayment did not materialize. Moreover, evidence emerged that the Soviet government had violated its promise not to interfere in America`s internal affairs. Finally, the assassination of The leader of the Communist Party of Leningrad, Sergei Kirov, ushered in the first of the “great purges” that led to the death or imprisonment of millions of Soviet citizens when the Stalinist regime liquidated potential criticism of the government. The vast scope and public nature of the purges horrified both U.S. diplomatic personnel stationed in the Soviet Union and the world as a whole. Initially, the talks made little progress due to several outstanding issues: the Soviet Union`s unpaid debt to the United States, the restriction of religious freedom, and the legal rights of the United States.
Citizens living in the Soviet Union and Soviet involvement in communist subversion and propaganda in the United States. However, after a series of individual negotiations known as the Roosevelt-Litvinov Talks, Litvinov and the president drew up a “gentleman`s agreement” on November 15, 1933, which overcame the main obstacles to recognition. Under the terms of the Roosevelt-Litvinov Agreements, the Soviets pledged to participate in future negotiations to settle their outstanding financial debts to the United States. Four days earlier, after another private meeting with Litvinov, Roosevelt also managed to secure guarantees that the Soviet government would refrain from interfering in America`s internal affairs (i.e., aiding the American Communist Party) and granting certain religious and legal rights to American citizens living in the Soviet Union. After these agreements were concluded, President Roosevelt appointed William C. Bullitt as the first President of the United States. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Hoping to improve relations, President Roosevelt sent businessman Joseph E. Davies to Moscow in 1936 as Bullitt`s successor. While Davies managed to re-establish friendly relations with Soviet leaders, his opposition to the purges alienated other American diplomats.
In addition, Davies faced unprecedented new challenges due to the deteriorating political situation in Europe. U.S.-Soviet relations reached their lowest point in August 1939, when the Soviets signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany after the British and French rejected Soviet offers to form a military alliance against Germany. It was not until the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 that the United States and the Soviet Union would again find a way to make common cause on any significant issue. The document that accelerated the acceptance of the Kellogg-Briand principles became commonly known as the “Litvinov Protocol” or “Moscow Protocol.” [7] The official name of the document, as registered with the League of Nations, was the “Protocol for the Immediate Entry into Force of the Treaty of Paris of August 27, 1928 on the Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy.” [8] The Litvinov Protocol is the common name of an international peace treaty concluded in Moscow on February 9, 1929. Named after Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, the treaty provided for the immediate implementation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact by its signatories, officially renouncing war as part of domestic foreign policy. Poland was the first to respond to this Soviet initiative, making a counter-proposal to include its military ally Romania in the Additional Protocol, as well as the other Baltic States. [7] The Soviet government accepted this Polish proposal to expand the circle of regional nations that accelerated the adoption of the Treaty of Paris, and the communication circle was expanded to include Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Persia and Turkey in addition to the USSR, Poland and Lithuania. [7] The communist government of the Soviet Union was divided during the negotiation process on the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which was kept at bay by the capitalist powers behind the treaty and viewed the seriousness and intentions of these great powers with great cynicism. .