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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Sept. 6, 1996
Contact: Jacquelyn Savani (609) 258-5729
Papers of Witness to Key Events of Russian Revolution Available at Princeton
Princeton, N.J.--The papers of one of the few Americans to witness several key events of the Russian Revolution are now available at Princeton University's Mudd Manuscript Library. Clinton A. Decker travelled to Russia as part of the American Advisory Commission of Railway Experts to Russia (AACRER) (1917) and later became a member of the Inter-Allied Technical Board (1917-1921). Both organizations were active in Russia at the time of its revolution. The Clinton A. Decker Papers contain personal and business correspondence and photographs documenting his travels in Russia, China, and Japan.Donated by his son, Charles Decker, much correspondence is to Clinton Decker's future wife, Gertrude V. O'Brien. The letters describe Decker's activities as a member of the AACRER and reveal his perspective on revolutionary Russia from 1917 to 1919. Included are detailed descriptions of Vladivostok, Harbin, and an account of the July Riots (July Days) in Petrograd, as well as a description of the Cossacks (and their leader Grigori Semenov) and their role in the revolution.
The Commission, led by John F. Stevens, was created by President Woodrow Wilson to assist Russia's Provisional Government by improving the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways. Coming to power after the February Revolution and amidst the fighting of World War I, the Provisional Government needed to supply the troops on the front to demonstrate that it was able to defend Russia from the German threat.
After the collapse of the Provisional Government and the new Bolshevik government ended Russian involvement in World War I, several Commission members, including Decker, went to Japan to await the arrival of the Russian Railway Service Corps (RRSC). The RRSC was an Army Reserve unit of railway experts invited by the Provisional Government to assist Russian railway operations. The Inter-Allied Technical Board was then formed by Stevens under the U.S. State Department to place the RRSC along the railway to protect Allied interests. Stevens was made president of the Board and Decker the Board's secretary. Decker returned to the United States in November 1919 and became the U.S. Representative to the Technical Board in Washington, D.C. The Board dissolved after the last Allied troops left Siberia in 1922.
Decker left the State Department in 1923 and moved to Lynbrook, NY, where he established an electrical contracting business. Decker married Gertrude O'Brien in 1920, and they had six children. He died in 1952. Most of this correspondence has been published in Mission to Russia: An American Journal (edited by Charles J. Decker, New York: 1994).
The business correspondence focuses on John F. Steven's work as President of the Inter-Allied Technical Board for which Decker served as secretary. The materials range from invitations to social events from Russian, Chinese and Japanese officials to letters from American and Canadian firms asking about possible business opportunities. The collection also contains copies of correspondence Stevens received from the American Representative to the Technical Board, C.H. Smith, from April 30, 1919, to June 8, 1921. Much of the correspondence discusses the Japanese presence in the region and the Allies' role in the internal conflicts of Russia. Also included are several detailed accounts of disturbances along the rail line such as impounding equipment and the harassment and murder of passengers.
The strength of this collection is its fact-filled and gripping first-person narratives, which will add to history's understanding of the early crucial chapters of the birth of the Soviet Union.
The collection is available at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library which is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Wednesday evenings the library is open until 8:00 pm. The Mudd Library is located at 65 Olden St., Princeton, NJ. For more information, call (609) 258-6345 or e-mail MUDD@PRINCETON.EDU or check the library's website at http://infoshare1.princeton.edu:2003/libraries/firestone/rbsc/mudd.html.