The article discusses the political course of President Wilson’s administration regarding issues of national self-determination in Russia during the First World War and 1917 revolution. It was a period when almost every national minority in the ‘Russian Space’ declared its desire for self-determination, and it seemed that this desire was fully consistent with Wilson’s philosophy and foreign policy aims. His approach, however, was significantly different from that of the Russian authorities, as was already evident during the discussion of the ‘Jewish’ and ‘Polish’ questions. The real prospects for national self-determination for minorities in the territory of the former Russian Empire opened up only after the overthrow of Tsarism. However, only the Poles and Finns gained real independence. Despite all disagreements with the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks, Wilson nevertheless outlined his goal to safeguard the territorial integrity of almost the entire former imperial space. Moreover, the American administration in 1917-1920 refused official recognition not only of the Bolsheviks, but also of a number of nation states that had declared their independence. This policy was enshrined in the key document known as Colby’s note (1920). The author substantiates the argument that Wilson wanted to preserve a united and democratic Russia as a strong partner of the United States in the international arena after the end of the First World War.

1. See Paul Kelly, “Liberalism and Nationalism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Liberalism, ed. Steven Wall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 329–352; Martin Griffiths, “Self-Determination, International Society and World Order,” MLJ 3, (2003): 29–30.
2. Л.С. Белоусова и А.С. Маныкина, ред., Первая мировая война и судьбы европейской цивилизации (Москва: Изд-во МГУ, 2014), 359–362; Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931 (New York: Viking, 2014), 3–5; Bence Bari, “From Theory to Practice: The New Europe and National Self-Determination in the First World War (1916–1920),” Essehist 8, no. 8 (2016): 85–86.
3. Mark Bassin et al. introduction to Space, Place and Power in Modern Russia: Essays in the New Spatial History, eds Mark Bassin et al. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2010), 6.
4. Allen Lynch, “Woodrow Wilson and the Principle of ‘National Self-Determination’: A Reconsideration,” RIS 28, no. 2 (Apr., 2002): 419–436.
5. Herfried Münkler, “The Proclamation of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination and Its Present-Day Repercussions,” ARCE, no. 1 (2018): 27.
6. See: Derek Heater, National Self-Determination: Woodrow Wilson and His Legacy (New York: St. Martin’s, 1994); Lloyd E. Ambrosius, “Dilemmas of National Self-Determination: Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy,” in Wilsonianism: Woodrow Wilson and His Legacy in American Foreign Relations, ed. Lloyd E. Ambrosius (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 125–143; Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism (Oxford, New York, Auckland: Oxford University Press, 2007).
7. Scot D. Bruce, “Woodrow Wilson’s Colonial Emissary: Edward M. House and the Origins of the Mandate System, 1917–1919” (PhD diss., University of Nebraska, 2013), 21.
8. Betty Miller Unterberger, “The United States and National Self-Determination: A Wilsonian Perspective,” PSQ 26, no. 4 (Fall, 1996): 926–941; Vladas Sirutavičius, “A Few Observations Regarding Woodrow Wilson’s Principle of National Self-Determination and Its Application,” LHS 13 (2008): 9–20.
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10. See: Aryeh Yodfat, “The Jewish Question in American-Russian Relations (1875–1917)” (PhD diss., American University, Washington DC, 1963); В. И. Журавлева, “Еврейский вопрос в России глазами американцев (Из истории российско-американских отношений конца XIX в.),” Вестник 3 (13) (1996): 64–87; В. В. Энгель «Еврейскийвопрос» в русско-американских отношениях. На примере «паспортного» вопроса»,1864–1913 (Москва: Наука, 1998).
11. Wilson to Bernstein, 6 July 1911, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, eds Arthur S. Link et al., (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966–1994), vol. 23, 191 (hereafter cited as The Papers).
12. Yodfat, “The Jewish Question,” 192–196.
13. Norman E. Saul, War and Revolution: The United States and Russia, 1914–1921 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 73.
14. Proclamation of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Grand Duke Nicholas], 14 August 1914, Documents of Russian History, 1914–1917, ed. Frank A. Golder (New York and London: Century Co., 1927), 37.
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17. В. И. Журавлева, “Национально-религиозный вопрос в российско-американских отношениях в период Первой мировой войны,” в Американский ежегодник, 2002, ред. Н. Н. Болховитинов (Москва: Наука, 2004), 225.
18. An Address to the Senate, 22 January 1917, The Papers, vol. 40, 536–537.
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20. An Address to a Joint Session of Congress, 8 January 1918, The Papers, vol. 45, 534–537.
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22. Bernstein to Wilson, 23 March 1917, The Papers, vol. 41, 457.
23. From the Diary of J. Daniels, 23 March 1917, The Papers, vol. 41, 461.
24. The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Russia (David R. Francis), 20 March 1917, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918: Russia, vol. 1 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1918), 1, 12.
25. An Address to a Joint Session of Congress, 2 April 1917, The Papers, vol. 41, 524.
26. Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani, The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 34–35.
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28. Сборник Указов и Постановлений Временного правительства, Вып. 1, 27 февраля – 5 мая 1917 г. (Петроград: Государственная типография, 1917), 8, 46–47.
29. Ibid., 23–24, 423–424.
30. Революция и национальный вопрос: документы и материалы по истории национального вопроса в России и СССР в ХХ веке, ред. С. М. Диманштейна (Москва: Изд-во Коммунистической академии, 1930), 161–164, 211–214.
31. С. В. Листиков, США и революционная Россия в 1917 году: К вопросу об альтернативах американской политики от Февраля к Октябрю (Москва: Наука, 2006), 70.
32. Yevhen Kaminsky and Oleksiy Haran, “Ukraine in US Foreign Policy Doctrines,” in Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis, ed. Oleksandr Dergachov (Kyiv: Political Thought, 1996), 249–250.
33. Arnold D. Margolin, From a Political Diary: Russia, the Ukraine, and America: 1905–1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1946), 41.
34. Листиков, США и революционная Россия, 64.
35. Революция и национальный вопрос, 79–118; David G. Rowley, “Imperial versus National Discourse: The Case of Russia,” NN 6, no. 1 (2000): 27–29.
36. Петроградский совет рабочих и солдатских депутатов в 1917 году. Протоколы, стенограммы и отчеты, резолюции, постановления общих собраний, собраний секций, заседаний Исполнительного комитета и фракций 27 февраля - 25 октября 1917 года, ред. П. В. Волобуева, 5 томах (Ленинград: Наука, 1991), 1, 324–325.
37. Ibid., 318–321, 330.
38. Francis to Lansing, 11 May 1917, The Papers, vol. 42, 319.
39. И. Г. Церетели, Кризис власти. Воспоминания лидера меньшевиков, депутата II Государственной думы. 1917–1918 (Москва: Центрполиграф, 2007), 9–11.
40. Листиков, США и революционная Россия, 100–103.
41. “Russian Chaos,” Independent, 7 July 1917, 11.
42. Документы внешней политики СССР, т. 1 (Москва: Государственное издательство политической литературы, 1959), 11–13, 21.
43. Betty M. Unterberger, “Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution,” in Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913–1921, ed. Arthur S. Link (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982), 53–55.
44. An Address in Buffalo to the American Federation of Labor, 12 November 1917, The Papers, vol. 45, 14.
45. An Address to a Joint Session of Congress, 8 January 1918, The Papers, vol. 45, 534–537.
46. Документы внешней политики СССР, т. 1, 14–15.
47. Ibid., 34–35.
48. Tooze, The Deluge, 125–126.
49. The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul General at Moscow (M. Summers), 11 March 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, vol. 1, 395–396.
50. Wilson to Polk, 10 March 1918, The Papers, vol. 46, 595; Baker to Wilson, 23 November 1917, The Papers, vol. 45, 105.
51. The Secretary of State to Italian Ambassador (Baron Avezzana), 10 August 1920, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1920, vol. 3 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1936), 467.
52. Ibid., 468.
53. Lansing to Lithuanian National Council, 15 October 1919, The Papers, vol. 66, 25.
54. The Secretary of State to Italian Ambassador (Baron Avezzana), 10 August 1920, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1920, 468.
55. Ibid.
56. Ronald Radosh, “John Spargo and Wilson’s Russian Policy, 1920,” JAH 52, no. 3 (Dec., 1965): 548–565.
57. John Spargo, The Psychology of Bolshevism (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1919); John Spargo, Russia as an American Problem (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1920).
58. Документы внешней политики СССР, т. 3, 172–173.
59. An Address to a Joint Session of Congress, 2 April 1917, The Papers, vol. 41, 527.