Foreign Business and Revolution: The British Engineering Company of Russia and Siberia, 1918–1921

Abstract

This article examines the activities of the British Engineering Company of Russia and Siberia and of its managing director, Arthur Marshall, in the almost three years between the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power and the signing of the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement. Sources from the Leeds Russian Archive outline how the company attempted to continue operations in Russia after the establishment of the Soviet government. In Great Britain, meanwhile, the managing director sought compensation for losses incurred during the Revolution and attempted to influence government policy towards permitting commerce with Soviet Russia. This article argues that although Marshall was unsuccessful in securing recompense for his company’s losses, his outward support for establishing Anglo-Soviet trade contributed to the pressures which, some interpretations conclude, make the 1921 agreement chiefly an economically rather than politically motivated arrangement from Britain’s perspective.