From Mistrust to Hostility: Perceptions of the Russian Revolutions Among French Political Circles (1917–1919)

Abstract

Dessberg recalls how the February revolution was unanimously viewed among the French political circles and military staff as a political, but also “patriotic” revolution that enabled the Russian ally to pursue war against the Central Empires. He focuses on the breaking up of Franco-Russian relations in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution and during the Russian withdrawal from the war. This situation occurred in France during 1917, in a context of aggravated social and moral crisis. Relying primarily on French Parliament reports, the author explains how domestic policy issues influenced the Parliament’s negative perception of Bolshevism, even among the Socialists. The military situation mattered above all, but the French hostility took on political significance only at the end of 1918 and during 1919, as legislative elections were approaching. The “treason” of Brest-Litovsk was a pivotal event in the mind of French public opinion, which remained obsessed by the security of the country and felt that a Russo-German rapprochement was a nightmare. The Communist threat not only meant the danger of social chaos but also the risk of the country weakening in the eyes of Germany.