The Trust - Part VI: The Trust and the MOTsR

Over the years, some writers have questioned whether the MOTsR ever existed as an independent monarchist organization. The former Polish intelligence official mentioned previously, for instance, claims that from the very beginning the organization was a legend designed to entrap foreign and domestic monarchists. Although this lay well within the realm of the possible, considering the conspiratorial ability of the Cheka-OGPU, there appears to be sufficient indirect evidence to negate this thesis. As it is, the evidence supplied by the Polish official is scant, and consists merely of an unsubstantiated presentation of alleged OGPU communications and by the fact that Yakushev was employed by a Soviet economic department, which was under the control of OGPU Chief Dzerzhinsky.
The latter point is of only minor significance, since in 1921 Dzerzhinsky had been appointed head of the VSNKh - the All-Russian National Economic Council - and in this capacity was the de facto head of the entire Soviet economic apparatus. As for the alleged OGPU communications, it must be admitted that almost the entire history of what would be the Trust consists of allegations, with no one set commanding greater claim to the truth than any other. For the most part, the only real deciding point is through the use of textual analysis and deference given to what constitutes the most logical sequence of events, given the available information and considering the opposing interests involved. In this case, however, we have recourse to an interesting set of articles, which directly impacts upon the problem in question. In the 1950s, an anonymous contributor to one of the emigre journals published a number of documents pertaining to the MOTsR, many of them corresponding to early 1922, the same period of time in which the OGPU was interrogating Yakushev and coming to grips with the nature and extent of the monarchist organization of which he was a member. Most of these documents apparently passed through the hands of Artomonov in Reval, who was operating under the codename Lipsky.
The first of these cited documents - a letter sent by the chief liaison of the MOTsR, who went by the codename Polyak - was received in May 1922 and covers the period of time roughly corresponding to that of Yakushev's detention. In this letter, Polyak reported that the MOTsR still lacked any significant organizational structure and had only recently begun establishing contact with monarchist groups outside of Moscow. He described the Moscow organization as having roughly 280 members, with the toal strength of the movement being roughly 400. Polyak also related that the MOTsR had had its founding congress on March 1st in Moscow, with some 21 delegates in attendance, and that the congress had been employed to determine the structure and tactics of the organization.
Another letter, received in June and written by the head of the MOTsR - Boyarin Vassily, outlined the financial condition of the organization. According to Vassily, the MOTsR, relying upon the meager resources of its own membership, was experiencing monthly deficits since at least April and required immediate assistance from the emigres in the West if they were to continue their attempts at expansion. Vassily's letter ended on a pathetic note, with the observation that "thousands of persons devoted to Russia and the Throne find themselves hourly under the threat of death and are waiting for only a paltry degree of financial support. Is it true that the emigres will refuse this?"
In addition to financial and organizational difficulties, these documents also have the MOTsR putting a damper on the previous rosy prognostications made by Yakushev in November. Captain Uznik, a member of the ruling Political Council of the MOTsR, in a letter received September 12, related that the Moscow monarchists had originally believed that the Soviet regime would soon collapse as a result of its economic policies. As a result, they had hastily expanded the scope of their organizational work to take advantage of this possibility. In the following months, however, the Soviet regime was able to strengthen its position due to the stabilization of the economy. As a result, Uznik continued, "the hope has disappeared from us regarding the possibility of overthrowing the Soviet government in the near future." Instead, the MOTsR was now re-evaluating the program and tactics it had adopted at its founding congress.
The above-mentioned communications could hardly have designed to impress the monarchist emigres operating abroad. Overall, they present the MOTsR as a cash-starved, fledgling organization operating under conditions that were becoming progressively more disadvantageous - a far cry from an organization, which was supposed to have penetrated almost every major Soviet institution as claimed by Stetskevich. The most likely case is that the actual Monarchist Association of Central Russia was merely that - an association: a loose gathering of like-minded officials and specialists. One imagines those traditional liberal opposition groups from before the Revolution - clusters of well-meaning intelligentsia who would engage in literary circles and subscription dinners, in which active conspiracy against the government was usually not on the menu. Indeed, the "conspiratorial" aspect of the actual MOTsR seems merely to have been one of waiting for the Bolshevik regime to collapse on its own accord.
In order to serve the purposes of the OGPU, however, this vague and nebulous association would have to be tempered into a solid - at least on paper - counter-revolutionary organization; an extensive government in waiting which would command the respect of both emigre organizations and foreign governments. Stetskevich's report about the MOTsR having now penetrated the OGPU et al was likely the first attempt on the part of Dzerzhinsky's lieutenants to effect this transformation4. A more substantial effort would be undertaken by Yakushev himself. Given the codename Fedorov by his handlers, he would be entrusted with the task of impressing upon both the MOTsR Political Council and the foreign monarchist organizations the need to change their program and tactics in favour of ones which ultimately originated behind the ornate walls of the Lubyanka.

4. Evidence of the correctness of this claim may be found in the OGPU's national intelligence assessments for 1922. These assessments corroborate the information provided to the foreign monarchists by Yakushev, Captain Uznik, Boyar Vassily, and Polyak. While the situation in Russia was indeed favourable to the goals of the monarchists at the time Yakushev was meeting Artomonov in Reval, in late 1921, the situation changed significantly duing 1922, improving in the Soviet's favour. By September 1922, during the time of Captain Uznik's last cited letter, the combination of a good harvest and restored economic connections between the industrial and agricultural sectors had brought about a significant drop in worker and peasant discontent, thus corroborating the information provided by Uznik, regarding the declining possibilities for the monarchists. The claims made by Stetskevich to Artomonov in the spring of 1922, however, lay in start contrast, suggesting internal conditions so at variance with actual improving situation that Stetskevich's comments can only be considered as a willful attempt at disinformation and provocation.