Birth of Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin, Soviet Statesman, Diplomat, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR and the USSR

Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin was born on November 12 (24), 1872 in the Karaul estate in Kirsanovsky District of Tambov Governorate (currently the village of Inzhavinsky District of Tambov Region) in a noble family. His father, Vasily Nikolayevich Chicherin (1829-1882) was the brother of the legal historian Boris Nikolayevich Chicherin and worked as a diplomat. Chicherin’s mother, Baroness Georgina Yegorovna Meyendorff (1836-1897) came from the ancient Ostsee noble family of Meyendorff.

As a child, Georgy Chicherin seriously studied music, was fond of history, and showed extraordinary intellectual abilities: phenomenal memory and predisposition to learn foreign languages. In 1891, he graduated with a gold medal from the gymnasium in St. Petersburg, in 1895 – from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Imperial St. Petersburg University (1891-1895). In 1898, following the advice of his uncle, he joined the St. Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he took part in the preparation of the publication Essay on the History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1802-1902 (1902) under the leadership of N. P. Pavlov-Silvansky.

Since 1904, he began to participate in the revolutionary movement. That same year, he left the service and emigrated to Germany, where he joined the RSDLP in 1905. At first, he joined the Mensheviks, but soon moved to the Bolshevik Berlin Section of the Committee of Foreign Organizations. Since January 1907, he served as Secretary of the RSDLP Foreign Bureau. Using the inheritance left after the death of his mother, he provided financial assistance to the party. At the end of 1907, he was arrested in Berlin and in 1908 – expelled from Prussia. He lived in Paris (1908-1914) and London (1904-1917), participated in the work of the French and British Socialist Parties.

During World War I, he adopted the position of internationalism, led anti-war propaganda and became close to left-wing groups in European socialist parties. He participated in the establishment of the Committee for Assistance to Russian Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers, and then became its Secretary (1915-1917). At the end of 1917, he was arrested by the British government for anti-war propaganda and imprisoned in Brixton Prison. He was released in January 1918 in exchange for the British Ambassador D. Buchanan, whom the Soviet government, along with other British subjects, detained in Russia, suspending the issuance of exit visas.

Upon returning to Russia, Georgy Chicherin joined the RSDLP(b). On January 8, 1918, he was appointed a companion of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and was basically in charge of the work of the Commissariat, since its head, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, was conducting negotiations with Germany in Brest-Litovsk at the time. On February 24, Chicherin headed the Soviet delegation at peace talks with Germany, and on March 3, he participated in the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies. From May 30, 1918, he headed the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR (in 1923-1930 – the USSR), which he led until his resignation on July 21, 1930.

Over the years, Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin has proved himself a talented diplomat. Distinguished by his education, excellent linguistic abilities (he spoke in all European and several Asian languages), he contributed to the breakthrough of the diplomatic and economic blockade of the RSFSR. In 1920, he signed the Treaty of Tartu with Estonia, in 1921 – the Soviet-Turkish, Soviet-Iranian and Soviet-Afghan treaties – the first equal treaties of the Soviet state with the countries of the East. In May-April 1922, he led the Soviet delegation first at the Genoa Conference, during which he signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany, establishing diplomatic relations between the countries, and then in 1922-1923 – at the Lausanne Conference, which discussed the problem of the Black Sea Straits. In 1925, he signed a pact of friendship and neutrality with Turkey, in 1927 – a pact of guarantee and neutrality with Iran. The 1920s witnessed a series of international legal recognitions of the Soviet State by the countries of Europe, Asia, and South America. Having no family and being obsessed with work, according to the recollections of contemporaries, Georgy Chicherin practically lived in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affais.

At the same time, the establishment of normal diplomatic and economic relations was hindered by the actions of the Comintern aimed at provoking revolutions abroad and the state security agencies that carried out arrests and executions of foreigners without the consent of the People's Commissariat. In addition, the position often taken by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs himself at international conferences, aimed not so much at building a constructive dialogue with foreign partners as at sabotaging their proposals, did not contribute to the normalization of international relations.

The work of the People's Commissariat was also complicated by Georgy Chicherin’s being on bad terms with his deputy Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, “purges” and staff reductions under the flag of the fight against the “right bias”.

At the end of the 1920s, Georgy Chicherin's diabetes, polyneuritis, and mental disorder intensified. In 1928, he went abroad for medical treatment, handing his powers over to Deputy M. M. Litvinov, who officially headed the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs on July 21, 1930 after the resignation of Chicherin. Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin himself wanted to see Valerian Vladimirovich Kuybyshev as his successor instead.

Shortly before his retirement, he finished a book about Mozart entitled Mozart: a Research Study (published in 1970, 5th ed., 1987). “I had the revolution and Mozart...”, – Chicherin wrote at the end of his life.

Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin died on July 7, 1936 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

In 1987, the Chicherin House-Museum was opened in Tambov in the former Chicherin estate. Since 2002, Chicherin readings have been held at Tambov State University.

Lit.: Горохов И. М., Замятин Л. М., Земсков И. Н. Г. В. Чичерин – дипломат ленинской школы. М., 1974; Дипломатический словарь / гл. ред. А. Я. Вышинский и С. А. Лозовский. М., 1948; Залесский К. А. Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь. М., 2000; Орлов А. С., Георгиева Н. Г., Георгиев В. А. Исторический словарь. М., 2012. С. 563–564; Политические деятели России 1917: биографический словарь. М., 1993; Полынов М. Ф. Г. В. Чичерин: известный и неизвестный // Мавродинские чтения. СПб., 2002; Советская историческая энциклопедия. В 16 томах. Том 16. ЧЖАН ВЭНЬ - ТЯНЬ-ЯШТУХ. М., 1976; Статьи и речи по вопросам международной политики. М., 1961; Томас Л. Я. Жизнь Г. В. Чичерин. М., 2010; Чичерин Георгий Васильевич (1872–1936) // Большая российская энциклопедия; Шикман А. П. Деятели отечественной истории. Биографический справочник. М., 1997.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Георгий Васильевич Чичерин: [комплект открыток]. М., 1972;

Майский И. М. Внешняя политика РСФСР: 1917–1922. М., 1923;

Радек К. Б. Внешняя политика Советской России. М.; Пг., 1923.