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94-478: On March 19, 1919, the committee issued a declaration, in which it passed most of its authority to the Sovnarkom of Ukraine at that time headed by Christian Rakovsky . The committee was first elected at the 1st All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on December 24, 1917, under the name of TsVK of Soviet Ukraine. The first committee was accounted for 41 members among which 35 were Bolsheviks and four were Left SRs . One of

188-449: A Bulgarian -born socialist revolutionary , a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat and statesman; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist. Rakovsky's political career took him throughout the Balkans and into France and Imperial Russia ; for part of his life, he was also a Romanian citizen. A lifelong collaborator of Leon Trotsky , he was a prominent activist of

282-782: A "Peace without indemnities or annexations" as an alternative to " imperialist war". According to Rakovsky, tensions between the French SFIO and the German Social Democrats were reflecting not just context, but major ideological differences. Present in Italy in March 1915, he attended the Milan Congress of the Italian Socialist Party , during which he attempted to persuade it to condemn irredentist goals . In July, after convening

376-575: A final time during 1916, and again lost when contesting a seat in Covurlui County . Again arrested in 1916, after being accused of planning rebellion during a violent incident in Galaţi , he was, according to his own account, freed by a general strike which constituted "an outburst of indignation among the workers". Evaluating the situation in Romania, he identified the two main pro-Entente political forces of

470-813: A friendship with Guesde and becoming an opponent of Jean Jaurès ' reformist views. According to his own testimony, he became active in supporting the Anti-Ottoman upsurge in Crete and Macedonia , as well as Dashnak revolutionary activities. In 1896, he was the Bulgarian representative to the Second International's London Congress (part of his speech was published in Karl Kautsky 's Die Neue Zeit ). Although actively involved in many European countries' socialist movements, prior to 1917 Rakovsky's focus remained on

564-404: A gold standard that "conserved" gold stocks, with the gold remaining in the vaults and day-to-day transactions being conducted with representative paper notes. The partial return to the gold standard was accomplished by permitting central banks to keep part of their reserves in currencies, which were themselves directly exchangeable for gold coins. However, citizens would not receive gold coins of

658-484: A large proportion of its food supplies and its raw material, completely destroyed for all purposes of commerce; nations, instead of cooperating to restore, broken up by suspicions and creating difficulties and new artificial restrictions; great armies ready to march, and nations already overburdened with taxation having to bear the additional taxation which the maintenance of these huge armaments to avoid suspected dangers renders necessary. Lloyd George controversially sought

752-709: A relationship between European capitalist economies and the Bolshevik regime in Moscow . Germany and the Soviet Union predictably expressed loud dissent and stole the limelight by negotiating a separate bilateral agreement on the conference's sidelines, the Treaty of Rapallo . Even so, the conference further cemented the policy consensus on principles formed at the Brussels gathering two years before. The Economic and Financial Organization of

846-508: A second time, to Alexandrina Alexandrescu (also known as Ileana Pralea), a socialist militant and intellectual, who taught mathematics in Ploieşti . Alexandrescu was herself a friend of Dobrogeanu-Gherea and an acquaintance of Caragiale. She had previously been married to Filip Codreanu, a Narodnik activist born in Bessarabia, with whom she had a daughter, Elena, and a son, Radu. Rallying with

940-631: A series of important street clashes between his supporters and government forces. On 9 December 1909, a Romanian Railways employee named Stoenescu attempted to assassinate Brătianu. The event, which was attributed by Rakovsky to support for his return and by other sources to government manipulation, caused a clampdown on România Muncitoare (among those socialists arrested and interrogated were Gheorghe Cristescu , I. C. Frimu , and Dumitru Marinescu ). Rakovsky secretly returned to Romania in 1911, giving himself up in Bucharest . According to Rakovsky, he

1034-508: A sympathetic portrait of the socialist leader, based on his recollections from the early 1900s. Throughout these years, Rakovsky, was, according to Iosif and Anghel, "continuously bustling; disappearing and appearing in workers' centers, be it in Brăila , be it in Galaţi , be it in Iaşi , be it anywhere, always preaching with the same undaunted fervor and fanatical conviction his social credo". Rakovsky

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1128-756: A treaty with Romania regarding the evacuation of troops from Bessarabia, which Stelian Tănase claims allowed for the Moldavian Democratic Republic to join Romania. In May, Romania conceded to the demands of the Central Powers ( see Treaty of Bucharest, 1918 ). In April–May 1918, he negotiated with the Tsentral'na Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic , then with the Hetmanate of Pavlo Skoropadsky , as well as with German forces ( see Ukraine after

1222-569: The Balkan Wars ; notably, Rakovsky expressed criticism of Romania's invasion of Bulgaria during the Second Balkan War , and called on Romanian authorities not to annex Southern Dobruja . Alongside Frimu, Bujor, Ecaterina Arbore and others, he lectured at the PSDR's propaganda school during the short period the latter was in existence (in 1910 and again in 1912–1913). In 1913, Rakovsky was married

1316-729: The Battleship Potemkin revolt (the events worsened relations between Russia and the Romanian Kingdom ), carried out a relief operation for the Potemkin crew as their ship sought refuge in Constanţa , and attempted to persuade them to set sail for Batumi and aid striking workers there. According to his own account, a parallel scandal occurred when an armed Bolshevik ship was captured in Romanian territorial waters; Rakovsky, who indicated that

1410-574: The Bulgarian Social Democratic Union and rejected the more radical Bulgarian Social Democratic Party . He soon became involved in distributing socialist propaganda inside Bulgaria, at a time when Stefan Stambolov organized a crackdown on political opposition. Later in 1893, Rakovsky enrolled in a medical school in Berlin, contributing articles for Vorwärts and becoming close to Wilhelm Liebknecht (the two corresponded regularly for

1504-723: The February Revolution , he was freed by the Russian Army on May 1, 1917, and immediately left for Odessa . Rakovsky moved to Petrograd (the new name of Saint Petersburg) in the spring of 1917. His anti-war activism almost got him arrested; Rakovsky managed to flee in August, and was present in Stockholm for the Third Zimmerwald Conference ; he remained there and, with Karl Radek , issued propaganda material in support of

1598-553: The Genoa Conference . He came to oppose Joseph Stalin and rallied with the Left Opposition , being marginalized inside the government and sent as Soviet ambassador to London and Paris, where he was involved in renegotiating financial settlements. He was ultimately recalled from France in autumn 1927, after signing his name to a controversial Trotskyist platform which endorsed world revolution . Credited with having developed

1692-628: The Kingdom of Romania in 1880, settling in Gherengic ( Northern Dobruja ), he completed his education in newly emancipated Bulgaria. Rakovsky was expelled from the gymnasium in Gabrovo for his political activities (in 1887 and then again, after organizing a riot, in 1890). It was around that time that he became a Marxist , and began collaborating with the socialist journalist Evtim Dabev , whom he aided in printing works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (at

1786-478: The National Liberal government, arguing that, having profited from the early antisemitic message of the revolt, it had violently repressed it from the moment peasants began to attack landowners. Supportive of the thesis according to which the peasantry had revolutionary importance inside Romanian society and Eastern Europe at large, Rakovsky publicized his perspective in the socialist press (writing articles on

1880-675: The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party , one he kept from 1903 to 1917; the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin was initially hostile to Rakovsky, and at one point wrote to Karl Radek that "we [the Bolsheviks] do not have the same road as his kind of people". Initially, Rakovsky was expelled from Russia and had to move back to Paris. Returning to the Russian capital in 1900, he remained there until 1902, when his wife's death and

1974-723: The Second International , involved in politics with the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party , Romanian Social Democratic Party , and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party . Rakovsky was expelled at different times from various countries as a result of his activities, and, during World War I, became a founding member of the Revolutionary Balkan Social Democratic Labor Federation while helping to organize

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2068-506: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was attended by representatives of the Soviet Ukraine. The delegation consisted of Vasyl Shakhrai and Yukhym Medvedev , members of the AUkrCEC. Christian Rakovsky Christian Georgiyevich Rakovsky (August 13 [ O.S. August 1] 1873 – September 11, 1941), Bulgarian name Krastyo Georgiev Rakovski , born Krastyo Georgiev Stanchov , was

2162-466: The Treaty of Versailles , which ended the war, were to be enforced or amended. The British thought that massive reconstruction costs laid upon Germany would undermine European economic recovery and the market for British exports of manufactured goods. The French believed that if Germany was allowed to skirt the severe financial obligations detailed in the peace treaty, its economic rise would be massively accelerated, and its political and military hegemony on

2256-690: The Zimmerwald Conference . Imprisoned by Romanian authorities, he made his way to Russia, where he joined the Bolshevik Party after the October Revolution , and unsuccessfully attempted to generate a communist revolution in the Kingdom of Romania . Subsequently, he was a founding member of the Comintern , served as head of government in the Ukrainian SSR , and took part in negotiations at

2350-489: The 1920s, Rakovsky was still viewing the incident as a "blatantly illegal act". The action itself caused protests from leftist politicians and sympathizers, including, among others, the influential Marxist thinker Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (whose appeal in favor of Rakovsky was described by Iosif and Anghel as evidence of "an almost parental love"). The local socialists organized several rallies in his support, and

2444-621: The April conference was won, under terms that had been agreed to by the Briand government. Although antagonism between France and Britain had festered in the months immediately after the war, France found itself in the uncomfortable position of having to submit to British desires on the matter of an economic conference since without British support, France would have had little chance of collecting reparations from Germany or joining any potential strategic military alliance. The second potential hurdle to holding

2538-832: The Balkans and especially on his native country and Romania; his activities in support of the international socialist movement led to his expulsion, at different times, from Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, France and Russia. In 1897, he published Russiya na Istok ( Russia in the East ), a book sharply critical of the Russian Empire 's foreign policy, which, according to Rakovsky, followed one of Georgy Plekhanov 's guidelines ("Tsarist Russia must be isolated in its foreign relations"). On several occasions, he publicly criticized Russia's policies towards Romania and in Bessarabia (describing Russia's rule over

2632-572: The Bolsheviks to submit a list of delegates and support staff seeking to attend so that safe-conduct passes for travel and accommodation could be arranged. The opening ceremony of the Genoa Conference took place at 3 pm on 10 April 1922 at the Palazzo di San Giorgio , one of the oldest palaces in the city. Delegations entered at one end of the palace and ran a gauntlet of news photographers from around

2726-558: The Bucharest Conference, he and Vasil Kolarov established the Revolutionary Balkan Social Democratic Labor Federation (comprising the left-leaning socialist parties of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece), and Rakovsky was elected first secretary of its Central Bureau. Subsequently, together with the Italian Socialist delegates ( Oddino Morgari , Giacinto Menotti Serrati , and Angelica Balabanoff among them), Rakovsky

2820-483: The Genoa Conference has been assessed as having a lasting intellectual impact. It cemented a consensus on the need for a stable value of money to support Europe's economic reconstruction, building on the prior debates at the Brussels conference of 1920 . Its resolutions represent the first official endorsement of the need for international cooperation among central banks , paving the way for the creation several years later of

2914-554: The Genoa Conference surrounded participation of the new Bolshevik government of Russia, as the United States and most of Europe did not maintain formal diplomatic relations with the regime and harboured economic claims against it. That inconvenient situation had been effectively set aside by the Supreme Council itself, which approved a formal resolution at its meeting of 10 January 1922 that invited Soviet participation and called upon

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3008-648: The German advances and preparing to sign its own peace. Initially stalled by a much-criticized temporary armistice with Romanian Army leader Alexandru Averescu , Rakovsky ordered a fresh offensive in Moldavia , but had to retreat when the Central Powers , confronted with Trotsky's refusal to accept their version of a Russo-German peace, began their own military operation and occupied Odessa (setting free Romanians who had been imprisoned there). On 9 March 1918, Rakovsky signed

3102-654: The German-aligned Belarusian Democratic Republic , he caught news of the collapse of the German Empire and was selected as a delegate to the German workers' councils . He and all other envoys were arrested by German soldiers in Kaunas , and sent to Minsk , then to Homyel , before making their way to Moscow. Genoa Conference The Economic and Financial Conference was a formal conclave of representatives from 34 European countries held in

3196-509: The League of Nations (EFO) presented a report to the conference, which provided the first official articulation of the gold exchange standard , and also tackled novel fields for international financial cooperation such as capital flight , tax evasion , and double taxation . The conference also found agreement on the principle that financial stability must come first before trade restrictions could be beneficially lifted, even though no convergence

3290-663: The Ottomans in the Imperial Russian Army . Rakovsky's father was a merchant who belonged to the Democratic Party . He later stated that, as early as his childhood years, he had felt a special admiration towards Russia, and that he had been impressed by witnessing, at age 5, the Russo-Turkish War and Russian presence (he claimed to have met General Eduard Totleben during the conflict). Although his parents moved to

3384-413: The Romanian government of Ion I. C. Brătianu to hand in persons captured, indicating that he would otherwise encourage the communist activities of Romanian refugees on Russian soil, and receiving a reply according to which no such arrests had occurred. As Russia negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, he ordered Rumcherod troops to march towards Romania, which was by then giving in to

3478-611: The Russian Revolution ). Soon after, Rakovsky left for Austria (where the First Republic had been proclaimed), being received by Foreign Minister Victor Adler (a member of Karl Renner 's Social Democratic Party of Austria cabinet). Rakovsky's real goal was to reach Germany and negotiate the situation in Ukraine, but he was expelled upon arrival to that country. Escorted, together with Adolph Joffe and Nikolai Bukharin , to

3572-615: The Russian revolutionaries. Present in the internationalist faction of the Mensheviks, he joined the Bolsheviks in December 1917 or early 1918, after the October Revolution (although he was occasionally listed among the Old Bolsheviks ). Rakovsky later stated that he had friendly relations with the Bolsheviks from early autumn 1917, when, during the attempted putsch of Lavr Kornilov , he

3666-438: The Russian student E. P. Ryabova, was summoned to Romania in order to be drafted in the Romanian Army , and served as a medic in the 9th Cavalry Regiment stationed in Constanţa , Dobruja (1899–1900). He rose to the rank of lieutenant. Rakovsky subsequently rejoined his wife in Saint Petersburg , where he hoped to settle down and engage in revolutionary activities (he was probably expelled after an initial attempt to enter

3760-420: The Second Congress, held in Geneva during the fall of 1893. He was a founding editor of the Geneva-based Bulgarian-language magazine Sotsial-Demokrat and later a major contributor to the Bulgarian Marxist publications Den' , Rabotnik , and Drugar . At the time, Rakovsky and Balabanov, with Plekhanov's encouragement, stressed the importance for moderation in socialist policies— Sotsial-Demokrat rallied with

3854-427: The Second International, a situation from which emerged a circular letter that complemented the Zimmerwald Manifesto while being more radical in tone. In October 1915, he reportedly did not protest Bulgaria's entry into the war — this information was contradicted by Trotsky, who also indicated that the Tesniatsy had been the target of a government crackdown at that exact moment. Rakovsky ran for Parliament for

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3948-429: The Seventh Congress of the Second International ). He decided not to recognize it, and contended that his father had settled in Northern Dobruja before the Treaty of Berlin that had awarded the region to Romania; the plea was rejected by the Court of Appeal , based on evidence that Rakovsky's father was not in Dobruja before 1880, and that Rakovsky himself used a Bulgarian passport when moving across borders. During

4042-427: The Soviet power in the state. The committee was named as VUTsVK (for All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee), but often was referred to as TsIKUK. The new committee was almost twice as big while the number of its members continued to grow from one convocation of the congress to another. The committee was reorganized after the adoption of the Constitution of Ukrainian SSR of 1937. In total there were 14 convocations of

4136-442: The Treaty of Rapallo pulling Russia and Germany out of the main picture, the conference lapsed into a stalemate. The major powers at first agreed on a contingency package of financial aid to Russia, but the Allies could not agree on the final plan and so nothing was offered. The issue of German reparations went nowhere after Poincaré threatened to invade Germany unilaterally if Berlin defaulted on its next round of payments. Lloyd George

4230-442: The Trotskyist critique of Stalinism as "bureaucratic centrism", Rakovsky was subject to internal exile. Submitting to Stalin's leadership in 1934 and being briefly reinstated, he was nonetheless implicated in the Trial of the Twenty One (part of the Moscow Trials ), imprisoned, and executed by the NKVD during World War II. He was rehabilitated in 1988, during the Soviet Glasnost period. Rakovsky's original Bulgarian name

4324-457: The acquisition of foreign loans and the reduction of the overall reparations bill. British, American and Swiss bankers were adamant that necessary loans would not be available until a final achievable reparations bill and repayment schedule could be agreed upon by all of the main parties in the dispute. In the meantime, German authorities attempted to raise the foreign currency necessary for reparations by dumping paper currency unbacked by gold on

4418-424: The ancient Palazzo San Giorgio of Genoa , Italy , from 10 April to 19 May 1922. Unlike the previous international economic conference in Brussels (1920) , the Genoa conference was attended by heads of government and not only experts, which enhanced its authority but also the risks of politicization and grandstanding, at a time of contention on the unresolved issue of German war reparations. The conference

4512-495: The attention of officials. Christian Rakovsky also traveled to Bulgaria, where he eventually sided with the Tesnyatsi in their conflict with other socialist groups. In 1904, he was present at the Second International 's Congress in Amsterdam , where he gave a speech celebrating the assassination of Russian police chief Vyacheslav von Plehve by Socialist-Revolutionary Party members. Rakovsky became noted locally especially after 1905, when he organized rallies in support of

4606-476: The chairman's seat at the front of the room. As the chief architect of the gathering, he effectively dominated the conference's public sessions. Among the propositions formulated at the conference was the proposal that central banks make a partial return to the gold standard , which had been dropped to print money to pay for the war. Central banks wanted a return to a gold-based economy to ease international trade and facilitating economic stability, but they wanted

4700-450: The committee, 12 of which were taken place in Kharkiv . For almost 20 years from 1919 to 1938 head of the committee was Petrovsky. He however was overshadowed by more prominent Party leaders such as Vyacheslav Molotov , Lazar Kaganovich , Dmitriy Manuilsky , and others. The other chairmen of the committee served for less than a year. Since 1935 the committee changed back to the Central Executive Committee of Ukrainian SSR. The signing of

4794-428: The continent would be rapidly restored. France, among the main battlegrounds of the European conflagration, was particularly hard-hit and in need of external funds for reconstruction. Germany was seen as having largely escaped the destruction of infrastructure and economic capacity during the war and currently engaged in the systematic underestimation of its ability to pay. The political and economic weakness of Germany

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4888-432: The country, but was allowed to return). An adversary of Peter Berngardovich Struve after the latter moved towards market liberalism , he became acquainted with, among others, Nikolay Mikhaylovsky and Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky , while authoring articles for Nashe Slovo and helping distribute Iskra . His close relationship with Plekhanov led Rakovsky to a position between the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions of

4982-409: The country. When Bolsheviks were arrested and the move was overturned, he was probably responsible for ordering the arrest of Romania's representative to Petrograd, Constantin I. Diamandy , and his entire staff (all of whom were used as hostages , pending the release of prisoners taken in Iaşi). Trotsky, who was by then Russia's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs ( Foreign Minister ), called on

5076-474: The crackdown on socialist groups ordered by Emperor Nicholas II forced him to return to France. Working for a while as a physician in the village of Beaulieu, Haute-Loire , he asked French officials to review his case for naturalization , but was refused. In 1903, following the death of his father, Rakovsky again lived in Paris, where he followed developments of the Russo-Japanese War and spoke out against Russia, attracting, according to Rakovsky himself,

5170-403: The criticism of both Plekhanov and Jules Guesde . He voiced his opposition to the concession made by Karl Kautsky to Jean Jaurès , one which had allowed socialists to join " bourgeois " governments in times of crisis. He ultimately settled in Romania (1904) having inherited his father's estate near Mangalia . In 1913, his property, valued at some 40,000 United States dollars at the time,

5264-406: The final draft communiqué to Russia was signed only by Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, and Sweden and left out the key world powers except Britain itself. Russia, in turn, rejected this final document. The last decision was to set up another conference at The Hague to take up the same issues. The British historian Kenneth O. Morgan concluded: Despite its ending in failure,

5358-402: The goal of assassinating King Ferdinand I and organizing a coup. Eventually, Lenin decided in favor of a unified project, and called on Bujor and Rakovsky to form a single leadership (which also included the Romanian expatriates Alecu Constantinescu and Ion Dic Dicescu ). As the coup was under preparation in December 1917, Rakovsky was present on the border and waiting a signal to enter

5452-408: The inclusion of Germany and Soviet Russia to the international conference as equal members, which was met by particular opposition of France, which sought to neutralise and to isolate the two pariah nations of Europe by including them only in an inferior capacity. Any softening in the hardline stance towards Germany was perceived by France as a weakening of the Treaty of Versailles of which France

5546-416: The latter as " absolutist conquest", "mischievous action", and "abduction"). According to Rakovsky, " Russophile papers" in Bulgaria had begun to target him as a consequence. After completing his education as a physician at the University of Montpellier (with the thesis L'Éthiologie du crime et de la dégénérescence – "The Cause of Crime and Degeneration", submitted in 1897), Rakovsky, who had married

5640-442: The left wing of international social democracy during the early stages of World War I, Rakovsky later indicated that he had been purposely informed of the controversial pro-war stance taken by the Social Democratic Party of Germany by the pro- Entente Romanian Foreign Minister Emanoil Porumbaru . With staff of the Menshevik paper Nashe Slovo (edited by Leon Trotsky ), he was among the most prominent socialist pacifists of

5734-421: The market. That triggered a hyperinflation paralyzing the country's economy, which had a desired subsidiary effect of helping to make the case that the current schedule of reparations was untenable. It was hoped by Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and feared by France that the Genoa Conference would provide an opportunity for downward revision of the reparations schedule that had been set forth by

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5828-466: The members Yukhym Medvedev was the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Labour Party ( left deviation ). The committee did not last long and on April 18, 1918, was merged with the People's Secretariat into the Uprising Nine, a type of revkom . TsVK was reanimated once again by the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kharkiv on March 10, 1919. On the same session of the congress was adopted the Constitution of Ukrainian SSR which established legal basis for

5922-451: The moment, the groups led by Take Ionescu and Nicolae Filipescu , with, respectively, "corruption" and " reaction ". Suspicions also rose that he had been contacted by German intelligence, that his 1915 trip to Italy had served German interests, and that he was being subsidized with German money. Rakovsky also drew attention to himself after welcoming to Bucharest the pro-German maverick socialist Alexander Parvus . His independence

6016-443: The period. Reflecting his ideological priorities, România Muncitoare ' s title was changed into Jos Răsboiul! ("Down with war!")—it was later to be known as Lupta Zilnică (the "Daily combat"). Heavily critical of the French Socialist Party 's decision to join the René Viviani cabinet (deeming it "an abdication"), he stressed the responsibility of all European countries in provoking the war, and adhered to Trotsky's vision of

6110-551: The realm in exchange for their notes, unlike the prewar gold standard. Citizens of European countries had to redeem their banknotes in large gold bars, which were unsuitable for day-to-day transactions and largely achieved the goal of keeping the gold in the vaults. On 16 April 1922 on the sidelines of the Genoa Conference, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo . Ratifications were exchanged in Berlin on 31 January 1923. The treaty did not include secret military provisions, but secret military co-operation soon followed. With

6204-466: The rest of Liebknecht's life). As a Bulgarian delegate to the Second International Congress in Zürich , he also met with Engels and Jules Guesde . Six months later, he was arrested and expelled from the German Empire for maintaining close contacts with the Russian revolutionaries there. He finished his education in 1894–1896 in Zürich , Nancy and Montpellier , where he wrote for La Jeunesse Socialiste and La Petite République , maintaining

6298-537: The return of his citizenship was also backed by Take Ionescu 's opposition group, the Conservative-Democratic Party . In exile, Rakovsky authored the pamphlet Les persécutions politiques en Roumanie ("Political Persecutions in Romania") and two books ( La Roumanie des boyars – " Boyar Romania", and the since-lost From the Kingdom of Arbitrariness and Cowardice ). Eventually, he traveled back into Romania in October 1909, only to be arrested upon his transit through Brăila County . According to his recollections, he

6392-406: The side of the Entente in August 1916, having failed to attend the Kienthal Conference due to the closure of borders, he was placed under surveillance and ultimately imprisoned in September, based on the belief that he was acting as a German spy . As Bucharest fell to the Central Powers during the 1916 campaign , he was taken by Romanian authorities to their refuge in Iaşi. Held until after

6486-413: The subject for România Muncitoare , L'Humanité , Avanti! , Vorwärts and others). Rakovsky was also one of the journalists suspected of having greatly exaggerated the overall death toll in their accounts: his estimates speak of over 10,000 peasants killed, whereas the government data counted only 421. He became close to the influential dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale , who was living in Berlin at

6580-431: The time, Rakovsky and Sava Balabanov published their own newspaper, the clandestine Zerkalo ). Since, after having ultimately been banned from attending any public school in the country, he could not complete his education in Bulgaria, in September 1890, Rakovsky went to Geneva to begin his studies and become a physician. While in Switzerland, he joined the Socialist Student Circle at the University of Geneva , which

6674-559: The time. Caragiale authored his own virulent critique of the Romanian state and its handling of the revolt, an essay titled 1907, din primăvară până în toamnă ("1907, From Spring to Autumn"), which, in its final version, adopted some of Rakovsky's suggestions. After repeatedly condemning repression of the revolt, Rakovsky was, together with other socialists, officially accused of having agitated rebellious sentiment, and consequently expelled from Romanian soil (late 1907). He received news of this action while already abroad, in Stuttgart (at

6768-634: The treaty. The apparent softening the economic terms of the peace, which had taken place at Cannes , had led to the toppling of the government of the French Prime Minister Aristide Briand and threatened the conference by leaving his successor, Raymond Poincaré , with little appetite for participation. It was only through a dedicated diplomatic offensive by Lloyd George towards the French government in February 1922 that its participation at

6862-459: The weapons on board were to be used in Batumi, faced allegations in the Romanian press that he was preparing a Dobrujan insurrection. His head was injured during street clashes with police forces over the Potemkin issue; while recovering, Rakovsky befriended the Romanian poets Ștefan Octavian Iosif and Dimitrie Anghel , who were publishing works under a common signature—one of the two authored

6956-402: The world. At the opposite end, guests, journalists and members of the delegations' support staffs disembarked from a column of automobiles to go inside the building. Admission to journalists was through tickets distributed ahead of the event, which were strictly limited. The entrance of Lloyd George was met with a great ovation from those assembled in the hall as he took his seat to the left of

7050-511: Was Krastyo Georgiev Stanchev (Кръстьо Георгиев Станчев), which he himself changed to Krastyo Rakovski (Кръстьо Раковски), being a grandnephew of the Bulgarian national hero Georgi Rakovski . The usual form his first name took in Romanian was Cristian (occasionally rendered as Christian ), while his last name was spelled Racovski , Racovschi , or Rakovski . His given name was occasionally rendered as Ristache , an antiquated hypocoristic —he

7144-478: Was a prime beneficiary and to which it was immutably committed. Two great issues lay as impediments to convocation of a multilateral convention to plan the economic reconstruction of Europe. One was the issue of reparations, which was regarded as the primary matter of contention between the Triple Entente powers of France and Britain in the postwar era. At issue was whether the terms of economic reparations in

7238-810: Was achieved on trade liberalization measures as the EFO had recommended. The idea for a general economic and financial conference of European nations had roots in a January 1922 session of the Supreme War Council , held in Cannes . With Europe facing an economic catastrophe brought about by the half-decade First World War , marked by millions of deaths, shattered infrastructure and vast sums of squandered economic resources, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George sought an authoritative international gathering to set Europe's political and financial house in order and to establish his leadership firmly at home. The formal proposal

7332-617: Was again expelled, holding a Romanian passport, to Istanbul , where he was swiftly arrested by the Young Turks government but released soon after. He subsequently left for Sofia , where he established the Bulgarian socialist journal Napred . Ultimately, the new Petre P. Carp Conservative cabinet agreed to allow his return to Romania, following pressures from the French Premier Georges Clemenceau (who answered an appeal by Jean Jaurès ). According to Rakovsky, this

7426-553: Was also determined by the Conservative change in policies towards the peasantry. He unsuccessfully ran for Parliament during the elections of that year (and several others in succession), being fully reinstated as a citizen in April 1912. Romanian journalist Stelian Tănase contends that the expulsion had instilled resentment in Rakovsky; earlier, the leading National Liberal politician Ion G. Duca himself had argued that Rakovsky

7520-674: Was also known under the pseudonyms H. Insarov and Grigoriev , which he used in signing several articles for the Russian-language press. Christian Rakovsky was born to a wealthy Bulgarian family in Gradets — near Kotel — at the time still part of Ottoman -ruled Rumelia . He was, on his mother's side, the grandnephew of Georgi Sava Rakovski , a revolutionary hero of the Bulgarian National Revival ; that side of his family also included Georgi Mamarchev , who had fought against

7614-487: Was at the point of collapse, as Lloyd George noted: If European countries had gathered together their mobile wealth accumulated by centuries of industry and thrift on to one pyramid and then set fire to it, the result could hardly have been more complete. International trade has been disorganized through and through. The recognized medium of commerce, exchange based upon currency, has become almost worthless and unworkable; vast areas, upon which Europe has hitherto depended for

7708-457: Was consequently challenged by the interventionist paper Adevărul , a former socialist venue, who called Rakovsky "an adventurer without scruples", and viewed him as employed by Parvus and other German socialists. Rakovsky himself alleged that, "under the mask of independence", Adevărul and its editor Constantin Mille were in the pay of Take Ionescu. After Romania's entry into the conflict on

7802-482: Was developing a "hatred for Romania". Alongside Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor and Frimu, Rakovsky was one of the founders of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), serving as its president. In May 1912, he helped organize a mourning session for the centennial of Russian rule in Bessarabia, and authored numerous new articles on the matter. He was afterwards involved in calling for peace during

7896-429: Was drawn into a polemic with the Romanian authorities, facing public accusations that, as a Bulgarian, he lacked patriotism. In return, he commented that, if patriotism meant " race prejudice , international and civil war, political tyranny and plutocratic domination", he refused to be identified with it. Upon the outbreak of Romanian Peasants' Revolt of 1907, Rakovsky was especially vocal: he launched accusations at

7990-463: Was emphasized by its new Weimar government, which effectively made the argument that it would be unable to maintain the specified payment schedule. Germany's position came to be regarded as reasonably correct by British, American and other policymakers despite quiet indications from even some German authorities that some substantial portion of the reparations bill could be safely managed. German politicians sought to minimise their country's tax burden by

8084-529: Was for long left stranded on the border with Austria-Hungary , as officials in the latter country refused to let him pass; the situation had to be settled by negotiations between the two countries. Also according to Rakovsky, the arrest was hidden by the Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinet until it leaked to the press — this, coupled with rumors that he was about to be killed, and Brătianu's statement that he would "rather destroy [Rakovsky] than let [him] back into Rumania", caused

8178-605: Was hidden by these in Sestroretsk . His rise in influence and his approval of world revolution led him to seek Lenin's support for a Bolshevik government over Romania, at a time when a similar attempt was being made by the Odessa-based Romanian Social Democratic Action Committee , under the guidance of Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor ; Stelian Tănase claims that during the period, a group of one hundred Russian Bolsheviks had infiltrated Iaşi with

8272-461: Was home to Leon Trotsky when the latter visited the Balkans as a press envoy during the Balkan Wars . He was usually present in Bucharest on a weekly basis, and started an intense activity as a journalist, doctor and lawyer. The Balkans correspondent for L'Humanité , he was also personally responsible for reviving România Muncitoare , the defunct journal of the Romanian socialist group, provoking successful strike actions which brought him to

8366-462: Was increasingly undercut by heavy attacks from the London newspapers but offered a final series of linked proposals, which would reduce Germany's liabilities for reparations, increase the French share of payments and float an international loan to finance German payments, with the money from the loan going directly to France. However, nothing was approved, Germany was expelled, France and Belgium withdrew and

8460-532: Was instrumental in convening the anti-war international socialist Zimmerwald Conference in September 1915. During the congress, he came into open conflict with Lenin, after the latter voiced the Zimmerwald Left 's opposition to the resolution (at one point, Rakovsky reportedly lost his temper and grabbed Lenin, causing him to temporarily leave the hall in protest). Later, he continued to mediate between Lenin and

8554-546: Was intended by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to resolve the major economic and political issues facing Europe and to address the pariah status of Germany and the Soviet Union , both of which had been excluded from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 . The conference was particularly intended to develop a strategy to rebuild a defeated Germany, as well as Central and Eastern European states, and to negotiate

8648-518: Was known as such to his acquaintance, writer Ion Luca Caragiale . In Russian, his full name, including patronymic , was Khristian Georgievich Rakovsky (Христиан Георгиевич Раковский). Christian (as well as Cristian and Kristian ) is an approximate rendition of Krastyo (the Bulgarian for "cross"), as used by Rakovsky himself. In Ukrainian , Rakovsky's name is rendered as Християн Георгійович Раковський, and usually transliterated as Khrystyian Heorhiiovych Rakovskyi . During his lifetime, he

8742-492: Was largely composed of non-Swiss youth. A polyglot , Rakovsky became close to Georgy Plekhanov , the founder of Russian Marxism, and his circle, eventually writing a number of articles and a book in Russian. He briefly worked with Rosa Luxemburg , Pavel Axelrod , and Vera Zasulich . Unable to attend the First International Congress of Socialist Students in Brussels (1892), he became involved in organizing

8836-480: Was made at Cannes on 6 January 1922 in the form of a draft resolution calling for such a conference that was presented by Lloyd George and was approved unanimously the same date. Lloyd George told the British Parliament that the primary intent of the conference was to provide for the "reconstruction of economic Europe, devastated and broken into fragments by the desolating agency of war". The economy of Europe

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