Maxim Litvinov and his contribution to Russian revolutions?

Question

Do you think he contributed to the Russian Revolutions?

Answer 1

Yes he did. He joined the Russian Social Labour Party in 1898. His early works with the party included propaganda in the Chernigiv region. In 1900, he became a member of the Kiev party committee, but he and others were arrested in 1901. After serving 18 month in prison, he and others escaped and he fled to Switzerland. In 1903, he joined the Bolshevik faction and went back to Russia. After the 1905 Revolution, he became editor of the SDLP's first legal paper, Novaya Zhirn in Petrograd.

He left the country again in 1906, after Russia started arresting Bolsheviks and he spent the next 10 years in London.

After the Revolution of 1917, he was appointed by Lenin to be the Soviet representative in Britain. He was arrested by the British government and held hostage until exchanged for British diplomat Robert Lockhart. He then became a roaming ambassador for the Soviet Union. In 1930, Stalin appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs. He tried in this capacity to bring closer ties to the West, until the West rejected the Soviet demands concerning the Axis powers.