Background
Maksim Litvinov was born on July 17, 1876 in Belostok (then Russian Poland). Son of a merchant.
Maksim Litvinov was born on July 17, 1876 in Belostok (then Russian Poland). Son of a merchant.
Educated at Belostok Secondary School.
Attracted to socialist ideas from his teens, he joined the Russian Social Democratic party in 1898. He was arrested in 1901 and exiled. In 1902 he escaped to Switzerland, where he first met Lenin and fell under his spell. The following year he infiltrated back to Russia and took part in the 1905 revolution. After its failure he spent the next twelve years in exile in France and Britain, working closely with Lenin. A few days after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution he was appointed the Soviet agent in Britain, but was arrested by the British for propaganda activities and exchanged for the leader of the British expedition to Russia, Robert Bruce Lockhart.
By 1921 Litvinov had become deputy foreign minister of the Soviet Union under Georgi V. Chicherin. A year later he took part in the Rapallo Conference, which culminated with the signing of the German-Soviet treaty, ending the Soviet Union’s isolation from Europe. During the 1920s he participated in many international conferences and was active in disarmament negotiations. His policy was to ensure the growth of the Soviet Union and to remove threats of war. From 1928 to 1930 he was acting foreign minister and from 1930 to 1939 he served as foreign minister.
In 1933 he headed the Soviet delegation that negotiated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt the resumption of diplomatic relations with the United States. A fervent anti-Nazi, he urged the League of Nations to plan collective resistance against Nazi Germany. He resigned shortly before the signing of the 1939 German-Soviet nonaggression pact and was replaced by Vyacheslav M. Molotov. After the outbreak of World War II he returned to duty and, when Germany invaded Russia in June 1941 he was appointed ambassador to the United States. His excellent command of the English language and his vast diplomatic experience made him a popular figure in Washington, where he served until 1943. He was appointed deputy commissar of foreign affairs, but retired later that year. He supported the creation of the United Nations as a central instrument for preserving peace.
While he never hid his Jewish ancestry, Litvinov opposed Zionism.
Communist Party is the leading force of Soviet society, and the nucleus of all state and public organizations.
Communist Party member from 1898.
His wife, Ivy, was the niece of Sir Sidney Low (Loewe), a leading English historian and imperialist, and sister of Edith Eder, a leader of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization).
