Much has been written about Ukrainians who played a major role in setting a new course for the Ukrainian provinces of the former Russian Empire during the period of 1917-1921. However, very little of the published history has focused on the significant accomplishments of the Ukrainian Jewish lawyer, diplomat and public official Arnold Margolin.
Arnold D. Margolin, ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom 1919-1920. Source: Wikipedia
He actively participated in parties that helped shape the direction of political thought in the Ukrainian national movement. As a member of the delegation representing the Ukrainian National Republic (Ukrainska Narodnia Respublika, abbreviated UNR, and sometimes the Ukrainian People’s Republic) at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, he tried to enlist the direct support and military aid of the Entente Powers for the nascent Ukrainian state and to seek protection for the Jewish minority from anti-Semitic pogroms.
Margolin was born in Kyiv, on November 16, 1877. His father, David, was a prominent local businessman and a leader in the Jewish community in Kyiv. Arnold graduated from the faculty of law at Kyiv University and studied abroad until 1900. He was directly involved as a defense counsel in many political trials, including the 1913 trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis. The trial was overtly anti-Semitic and generated much publicity worldwide. Margolin was active in politics and led the South Russian Branch of the Union for Equal Rights for Jews in Russia (1905–1917) and was a founder of the Jewish Territorial Organization (JTO) (1906–1918). The JTO sought to find a new homeland for the Jews.
Events moved rapidly in Kyiv after the fall of the Russian Empire in February 1917. A Russian Provisional Government was established in March 1917 with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Its purpose was to organize elections to a Russian Constituent Assembly to establish a new government for the former Russian Empire. However, the rapidly deteriorating social and political situation in the provinces eventually led to the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917.
In March 1917, Ukrainians established their own organization in Kyiv– the Central Rada, which became a nascent parliament in Ukraine. The Rada had strong popular and political support and ultimately became the only legitimate Ukrainian government by the late fall of 1917. The proclamation of full Ukrainian independence in the Fourth Universal on January 22, 1918, by the UNR necessitated the establishment of government bodies to act as the ultimate authority in the new state.
Arnold D. Margolin in 1959 Source: The Annals of UVAN, Vol. VII, 1959, No. 1, 2 (23-24)
In the spring of 1918, the All-Russian People’s Socialist Labor Party nominated Margolin as a candidate for a judgeship in the new high court of appeals, the Supreme Court of Ukraine. He was elected by secret ballot on April 2, 1918, and enrolled as a criminologist in the Criminal Appeals Department. Although his native language was Russian, Margolin devoted himself to the study of Ukrainian. In order to play a greater role in the affairs of the new Ukrainian state, in June 1918 Margolin left his All-Russian People’s Socialist Labor Party and joined the very popular Ukrainian Socialist-Federalist Party led by the elite of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. He was asked to take on a key role as a member of its Central Committee.
At the end of April 1918, the government of the Central Rada and the UNR was dissolved by the Germans, who had been invited into Ukraine under a February treaty to help with the fight against the Bolsheviks. The Hetmanate headed by Gen. Pavlo Skorpadsky became the new government. The political and social direction of the state changed radically from its previous popular-socialist orientation. Margolin continued his work as a judge in the Supreme Court, although it was re-named State Senate under the Hetmanate.
By November 1918, the Germans were withdrawing their troops from Ukraine. Margolin was dispatched by his superior Senator Mankovskyi to a delegation that was tasked with securing the help of the Entente Powers. He was soon swept up in the wave of a November coup by the Directory under the leadership of Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petliura. That led immediately to the re-establishment of the Ukrainian National Republic.
Margolin was appointed as deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in the UNR early in January 1919. “…This assignment was particularly welcome to me, because of my conviction of the necessity of aid from the West…, ” he wrote in his 1922 memoir, “Ukraine and Policy of the Entente.” His tenure was short-lived. The Ukrainian army under Petliura began to disintegrate as the Bolsheviks advanced.
Margolin resigned his position with the Directory as deputy minister of foreign affairs on March 11, 1919, to protest the inability of the government to stop Jewish pogroms that were engulfing the country. However, he did not blame the Directory for the pogroms. “ … I know that the government is doing everything in its power in its struggle against pogroms…,” he wrote in his resignation statement. Margolin sincerely believed that aid from the West could still help end pogroms and the vicious downward spiral into anarchy. He decided to go to Paris to offer his own assistance to the Ukrainian delegation at the Peace Conference.
In the spring of 1919, Margolin was not an official representative of the Ukrainian mission to the Paris Peace Conference. His intention was to accompany the mission to help protect the interests of the Jewish population. He made his plea to the Entente Powers alongside the Ukrainian delegation’s entreaties for aid – but all of this fell on deaf ears.
In May 1919, Margolin agreed to do some work on behalf of the special Ukrainian Mission to the United Kingdom for a short period of time in London. His role was to meet with the Foreign Office assigned to Eastern European Affairs and familiarize them with the situation in Ukraine and the interests of the UNR and Ukrainians. By the fall of 1919, he was completely a free agent again.
Cover of the 1959 Annuals of UVAN, Arnold Margolin issue. Source: The Annals of UVAN, Vol. VII, 1959, No. 1, 2 (23-24)
After much discussion and personal concern on his part about the fate of his family still living in the Kyiv region and Yalta in Crimea, Margolin accepted a UNR appointment as head of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in London in November 1919. He would serve in this position until August 1920. Subsequently, he was appointed by the Directory’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as their jurisconsult for the Ukrainian Embassies in London and Berlin and at the League of Nations. He served in this position until February 1921.
It is best to sum up Marolin’s thoughts about Ukraine in his own words. “…Retrospectively I feel no regrets for the hard work of those three years of my life spent in the service of Ukraine. I feel that my duties were discharged, both as a citizen of Ukraine and a son of the Jewish nation.…”
In the fall of 1921, he came to the conclusion that the Soviets would survive for many years and there was no role for him in a Soviet Ukraine. He worked briefly as a consultant for the Hamburg-American Line shipping company, which hoped to establish a Black Sea and Baltic Sea Steamship company. In this capacity, Margolin had an opportunity to visit the U.S. He was impressed with what he saw there.
In 1922 he and his family emigrated to the United States. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1927. Margolin worked early on as a journalist, but later studied American law and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1929. He also lectured in history at a few universities and was active in several Ukrainian émigré scholarly organizations including the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S.
For all his life, Margolin worked tirelessly to promote Ukrainian-Jewish mutual understanding until his death in 1956. And, he played a key role in the Ukrainian national movement in the period 1917-1921 and the struggle to secure an independent and free Ukrainian state.
This is Arnold Margolin’s autobiography: Margolin, Arnold D. “From a Political Diary, Russia, the Ukraine and America, 1905-1945.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1946.
Mike Buryk is a Ukrainian American writer whose research and articles cover a wide variety of topics. He also hosts and produces two monthly podcasts. “Krynytsya”, (https://soundcloud.com/krynytsya) and “Made in Ukraine Tech Startup Edition” (https://soundcloud.com/ukrainetech). He may be reached at [email protected].