From Ally to Adversary: President Woodrow Wilson and Russia, 1917-1920

This paper looks at President Woodrow Wilson’s diplomatic relations with Russia during 1917 to 1920. It discusses the ways in which Wilson helped to create Russia as an enemy of the US. Wilson’s recognition of Russia’s unstable Provisional Government as a great democratic ally in the fight against Germany made the Bolshevik Revolution seem like the destruction of a strong democratic government to the American people as opposed to the fall of a weak governing body. The paper also focuses on the ways that Wilson helped to unintentionally hasten the collapse of the Provisional Government. Moreover, the paper explores how Wilson brought the American people to fear the Bolsheviks even more through the public release of the Sisson documents during America’s participation in the Allied intervention in Russia