From Menshevik to the Soviet Union's longest-serving ambassador: a revolutionary diplomat who crossed six postings from Kabul to Rio
Time magazine declared in 1940: "Since 1919 bulging, bearded Jacob Suritz has been No. 1 Soviet diplomat, with a brilliant record in Afghanistan, Turkey, Germany and League of Nations wrangles."
A Soviet diplomat who crossed from Menshevism to Bolshevism. Recruited into the Narkomindel in 1918 for his fluency in German and French, he went on to represent the Soviet Union in seven countries: Denmark, Afghanistan, Norway, Turkey, Germany, France, and Brazil. His defining posting was Ankara, where over eleven years he built close ties with Atatürk, negotiated the 1925 Soviet-Turkish Treaty of Friendship and Neutrality, and erected the first embassy in the new capital. As ambassador to Berlin from 1934 he managed Soviet-German economic relations during the early Nazi years, and from Paris after 1937 he steered Soviet diplomacy through the Danzig crisis, the collapse of collective security, and the Winter War expulsion from the League of Nations. His career spanned the transformation of Soviet diplomacy from a partisan improvisation into a professional foreign service.
Career Timeline
- 1902Joined the General Jewish Labour Bund
- 1903Joined RSDLP, Menshevik faction
- 1907–1910Arrested for revolutionary activity, exiled to Tobolsk Governorate
- 1910–1917Exile in Germany; studied philosophy and law at Heidelberg and Berlin
- 1917Returned to Russia; joined RSDLP(b), Bolshevik faction
- 1918–1919Deputy Representative of the RSFSR diplomatic mission to Denmark
- 1919–1921Plenipotentiary Representative to Afghanistan; prepared Soviet-Afghan treaty
- 1920–1922Member of Turkestan Commission of VTsIK; NKID plenipotentiary for Turkestan and Central Asia
- 1922–1923Diplomatic Representative to Norway
- 1923–1934Plenipotentiary Representative to Turkey; signed Soviet-Turkish Treaty of Friendship and Neutrality (1925), opened Ankara embassy (1926)
- 1934Led negotiations establishing diplomatic relations with Bulgaria
- 1934–1937Plenipotentiary Representative to Germany; managed Soviet-German economic relations in early Nazi era
- 1937–1940Plenipotentiary Representative to France; member of Soviet delegation to the League of Nations
- 1940Declared persona non grata by the French government
- 1940–1945Adviser to NKID with ambassadorial rank
- 1946–1947First Soviet ambassador to Brazil
- 1948Retired