Known in Europe, Unknown in Bulgaria (To the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Christian Rakovsky)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Christian Rakovsky (1873-1941) – a prominent figure in the international socialist movement, politician, statesman, diplomat, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of Ukraine (1919-1923), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR in London (1923-1925) and Paris (1925-1927), one of the leaders of the Trotskyite bloc, and an opponent of Stalin. While Rakovsky’s life has been the subject of some research, many of its aspects remain unexplored. Drawing on a wealth of new documents discovered in the archives of Bulgaria, Great Britain, France, Ukraine, and Russia, the author sheds new light on little-known episodes of Rakovsky’s life – particularly the years of his youth, when he joined the international student socialist movement and spoke at international congresses. The article considers Rakovsky’s contacts with Plekhanov’s Emancipation of Labor group in Geneva, where Rakovsky studied medicine and achieved some prominence among Russian social democrats. His connections with famous Western European revolutionaries are discussed – including Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Jules Guesde, Karl Kautsky, and other figures of the Second International. It is noted that Rakovsky was the only member of the Bolshevik government who was also a member of the Bureau of the Second International. The article touches on a subject that has long been neglected by historians – Rakovsky’s efforts to solve the problem of Russian-Romanian relations in 1918, the resulting bilateral treaty, and his special position regarding the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania. Considerable attention is given to the question of Rakovsky’s so-called ‘Jewish’ origin and his alleged membership in the worldwide Masonic lodge, disproven on the basis of Rakovsky’s papers in the Bulgarian Historical Archive. The author also dwells on the problem of the so-called ‘Rakovsky protocols’, published by Iosif Landovsky in the book “Red Symphony: Confessions of the Trotskyist Rakovsky.” The author draws on Rakovsky’s NKVD case file and interrogation records, which he has published in full in his book “The Bloody Farce,” to demonstrate that no such protocols exist. Finally, the author addresses the rumor that Rakovsky was not executed, but spent the last years of his life in the Soviet Union. This rumor is proven false based on the analysis of extensive archival materials and memoirs of Rakovsky’s comrades; most notably, Rakovsky’s case file in the Central Archives of the KGB of the USSR contains a certificate of his execution on 11 September 1941 in the Oryol Central Prison.