A STRANGE CAREER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19131, 28 September 1936, Page 12

A STRANGE CAREER

DEAD SOVIET COMMISSAR BOLSHEVIK ARISTOCRAT LONDON, July !». Strange was the career of the Soviet's former Commissar of Foreign Affairs, M. George Chieheriu, nho.se death was reported yesterday. An aristocrat who was a Russian diploma! of the Tsarist regime, he left his country to devote himself to revolutionary propaganda. A rich aunt died and bequeathe:- dim her fortune. Ho declined to accept it. The war found him engaged in the pacifist work organised by Lenin, and in 1017 he was interned in Brixton gaol. The British Government, anxious to deport him, could not find a country that would accept him. While he was still imprisoned he was appointed Russian Ambassador in England by the Maximalist Government at Petrograd. In 191 S he was returned to Russia, and there Lenin gave him a warm wel•ome and secured his appointment as Commissar for Foreign Affairs. VICTIM TO INSOMNIA Chicherin throughout his life had tried to rid himself of a serious nervous disease, but he failed, and, as a victim of insomnia, directed from 11V1S to 1922 the whole foreign policy of the Soviet Government. He had a dirty, stuffy little office, and he usually began work after midnight. He was indefatigable. In his small, crabbed handwriting he filled page after page of foolscap, writing all his endless notes and reports himself. Audiences to foreign diplomats were given at the extraordinary hour of three or four in the morning, and later confidential agents were interviewed and couriers arriving from abroad were examined.

Dawn was usually breaking through the dirty white blinds of Chicherin's study when at last he allowed himself to take a few moments' rest. Then began a series of meetings with brother commissars, which kept him busy until evening.

Work was Chicherin's only occupation and his sole interest. He never visited the theatre or indulged in the pleasures of the table. In 1930 he was relieved of his post at his own request, but for three years he had been of little account.