Memoirs of an Official Agent: Part I, Trading With Russia, 1921-23
On March 16, 1921 the first Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was signed; Sir Robert Hodgson headed Britain’s Commercial Mission to Moscow.
On January 16th, 1920 the Supreme Council lifted the blockade imposed on Russia. “Hands off Russia” became a popular slogan in England and Lloyd George’s ambition to bring Russia back to the comity of nations became realizable. Towards the end of the year Kamenev, Trotsky’s brother-in-law and a member of the “Politburo,” which controls Soviet policy, internal and external, with Leonid Krassin, who was to be the first representative of the Soviet Government in Britain,1 visited London for the purpose of negotiating an agreement on commercial matters as a preliminary to a political understanding. But there were features of the newly established regime in Russia which were intensely repugnant to British public opinion and it was an uphill task that awaited the Soviet Government’s delegates.
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