Ø “Correct” US-Russian Diplomatic Relations;

Ø Key Factors: potential Geo-Political conflicts:

· Both competing expansionist Powers;

· Commercial & Trade competition;

· Major Ideological differences:

§ Democratic Republic versus

§ Old Autocracy/Czar;

Ø Russian Revolution- (March - November 1917):

· March Revolution – sudden;

§ Masses hate autocracy & its reform failures;

§ Soldiers support revolution;

· Woodrow Wilson’s Worldview;

§ US Strategic Objectives;

· Provisional Government limitations & blunders;

§ Impact: loss of popular support;

§ Golden opportunity for Bolsheviks;

Ø Bolshevik Take-over – November 1917;

· Key Players?

· Key Actions & Events;

· WW/US reactions: (Non-recognition);

Ø World War I: US Role & Potential;

· Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”?

· League of Nations’

Ø Soviet separate peace w/Germans:

· Treaty of Brest-Litovsk;

· WW/US reactions: (Non-recognition);

Ø Political & Ideological Gulf Widens:

· Bolsheviks repudiate past debts;

· Remove unpaid-for US provided supplies;

· US - Allied reaction;

Ø Allied Intervention:

· Wilson’s initial reluctance;

· British & French to Northern Russia;

· Japanese opportunistic agenda: expand into Siberia;

· USS Olympia to Murmansk;

Ø US Role in Russian Civil War:

· Expansion of American intervention (Wed.);