Maxim Litvinov: A Biography

Autographed photograph Russia Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (17 July 1876-31 December 1951) was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat. After the October Revolution of 1917, Litvinov was appointed by Vladimir Lenin as the Soviet government's representative in Britain. His accreditation was never officially formalised, and his position as an unofficial diplomatic contact was analogous to that of Robert Lockhart. In 1918, Litvinov was arrested by the British government and held until exchanged for Lockhart, who had been imprisoned in Russia. The following year he published the English tract The Bolshevik Revolution: Its Rise and Meaning, distributed by the British Socialist Party. After the Munich Agreement, German media derided Litvinov about his Jewish ancestry, referring to him as Finkelstein-Litvinov. On 3 May 1939, Stalin replaced Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov. That night, NKVD troops surrounded the offices of the commissariat of foreign affairs. The phone at Litvinov's dacha was disconnected and, the following morning, Molotov, Georgii Malenkov, and Lavrenty Beria arrived at the commissariat to inform Litvinov of his dismissal.[After Litvinov's dismissal, many of his aides were arrested and beaten, evidently in an attempt to extract compromising information.