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.
Activities and affiliations
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
Related historical events
The Afghan Mission and the 1921 Treaty of Friendship
In 1919 Yakov Surits was appointed the RSFSR’s plenipotentiary representative in Kabul, helping establish an early Soviet diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1919 and concluded a Treaty of Friendship on 28 February 1921. The negotiations concerned more than a declaration of friendship. Historian Yuri Tikhonov, drawing on newly published archival material, reports that Soviet diplomacy initially sought to make Afghanistan a base for subversive activity against British India, while the Afghan ruler Amanullah Khan sought Soviet military and financial aid for his struggle against Britain. Amanullah also aimed to create a Central Asian confederation under his leadership, including Turkestan.
Negotiations were repeatedly interrupted by rivalry over Bukhara and disagreements about the scale of Soviet assistance. According to the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs documents discussed by Tikhonov, the Soviet government was unwilling to pay the high price Amanullah sought. Nevertheless, both sides saw a partnership as useful to strengthening their international positions, and talks in Kabul and Moscow eventually produced the treaty. It was among the early international agreements of independent Afghanistan and gave Soviet Russia a foothold for expanding its position in Central Asia and counterbalancing British influence. Surits’s Kabul mission thus involved not only interstate bargaining but also revolutionary ambitions and competing regional interests.