Document for November 21st:
Letter from Leon Trotsky, Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the newly formed Soviet government, to U.S. Ambassador David Francis, received at the Embassy on November 21, 1917.

Letter from Leon Trotsky, Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the newly formed Soviet government, to U.S. Ambassador David Francis, received at the Embassy on November 21, 1917.; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group 59; National Archives.

Two weeks after the November Revolution, the U.S. Embassy received this letter, the first formal notification of the establishment of a new Soviet regime. On December 1, U.S. Ambassador Francis was instructed to make no reply to this or any other Soviet communication. Viewing the Soviet power as illegitimate, as established by force and not representative of the Russian people, the United States offered no formal recognition of the Soviet Union until 1933.
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