Joseph Noulens

Joseph Noulens in 1919

Joseph Noulens(29 March 1864 – 9 September 1944) was aFrenchpolitician and diplomat.

Noulens became a member of theChamber of Deputiesin 1903 and served asMinister of Warfrom 1913 to 1914 and then asMinister of Financefrom 1914 to 1915. In 1920 he became aSenator.

Involvement in Russia

In June 1917 he was appointedFrench ambassadortoRussia.Following theOctober Revolution,he worked withWhite Guardsto undermine theBolshevikregime. In 1918 he proposed a two-tier operation to stabilise the economy of regime set up by GeneralYevgeny Millerin North Russia. The scheme involved a loan of 15 million rubles, set against a lien of 20 million rubles worth of sawn wood. The second phase involved issuing 200 million rubles in back notes backed by the allies at a rate of 10 - 1 to the dollar. (i.e. 20 million dollars). However, as the security against this was to be $25million worth of concessions from the Russian forestry industry, concern about the instability of the regime led to an alternative plan involving the creation of acurrency boardbeing adopted. this had been devised byJohn Maynard Keynes.

He was depicted with two other French members of a delegation in a poster issued by theRussian Telegraph Agency(Glavpolitprosvet). They were shown laughing and planning to bring the return of the monarchy.After the failure ofBruce Lockhart—Sidney Reillyconspiracy to assassinateVladimir Lenin,Noulens left Russia.

In 1919 he became President of an international association of creditors of Russia, which agitated against diplomatic recognition of the Bolshevik regime but they did not accept responsibility for the old debts made by theRussian EmpireHe later became leader of theSociety of French Interests in Russia.At a meeting in Paris in February 1922 they demanded a veto on negotiations with theSoviet Unionunless the latter acknowledged the old debts. This view was promoted at theGenoa Conferenceheld from 10 April to 19 May 1922.

Books

• My Mission in Soviet Russia(1933)