bout de papier, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2010) — Summer 2010 // Été 2010, pp. 17–19
Michel Gauvin was a decorated veteran who received the Distinguished Service Order for his valour while serving with Le Regiment de la Chaudiere in Northwestern Europe in the Second World War. While still in the army, he was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Office, then joined the Department of External Affairs as a Head Clerk in March 1947 after he had been discharged as a Major. After working again in the PMO, Gauvin served in a series of diplomatic posts, including a year as adviser to the Canadian Commissioners on the International Commissions for Supervision and Control in Indochina. He represented Canada as Acting Consul General and then Chargé d’Affaires a.i. in Léopoldville from February 1961 to July 1963. He later served Canada as its ambassador to Ethiopia (1965-69), Madagascar (1967-69), Somalia (1968-69), Portugal (1969-70), Greece (1970-75), Morocco (1978-80) and China (1980-84).
Not long after Gauvin arrived in the Congo, a departmental circular note requested reports on the activities of Soviet and other East Bloc diplomats. The reports below responded to that request. There is an excellent history of Canada’s involvement in the Congo by Kevin Spooner, Intervention in Africa: Canada, the Congo Crisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009), which makes effective use of Michel Gauvin’s reports. Gauvin has recounted his experiences in the Congo in an interview conducted by d’Iberville Fortier and printed in Special Trust and Confidence: Envoy Essays in Canadian Diplomacy by David Reece, which was published by Carleton University Press in 1996. With respect to the Soviet representative, according to the memoirs of the CIA’s station chief in Léopoldville, Larry Devlin, Leonid Podgornov had “been expelled from Congo when Mobutu declared all Soviets persona non grata in September 1960,” then resurfaced as head of a Soviet delegation to a meeting on government of the Belgian Congo under UN auspices at Lovanium University in July 1961.
Eventually, as reported in Numbered letter No. 442 of 2 October 1962 from the Canadian Embassy, Léopoldville, to the Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, Canada, a Soviet Ambassador, Sergei S. Nemtchina, presented his credentials to President Kasa-Vubu on 20 September 1962. There was no mention in that report or in any other on this file of the fate of Leonid Podgornov. The documents reprinted below may be found in the records of the Department of External Affairs (RG25) at Library and Archives Canada, Volume 5226, File 6836-0-40, part 1.
The Canadian Consulate General, Leopoldville, to the Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Numbered Letter No. 75, 1 February 1967, Confidential.
The French Ambassador, Mr. Charpentier, invited
• me yesterday to a small stag luncheon attended by the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires, Mr. Podgornov, the Chargé d’Affaires of Dahomey, Mr. Paul Fabo, and another Russian who was introduced as the First Secretary. fog the name of the Russian Firet Secretary, he sad he When I called the French Ambassador today to ask did not know. As the Russians usually like to come accompanied, Charpentier had suggested to the Soviet Charge that he bring a colleague of his. Personal cards received at this mission from the Chargé d’Affaires of the USSR to introduce his officers contained those of two second secre taries, Messers. Nicola Zaskov and Youlen Diselnikow, but there was no card for a first secretary. It may be that the first secretary was one of these two. (Mr. Charpentier was posted to Russia on two occasions, once as a junior officer and later as a counsellor. He speaks a bit of Russian and his wife speaks it fluently, being herself the daughter of a French diplomat who had been in Russia for many years.) By the way, Charpentier is due to leave shortly, at the beginning of March, and told me he expects to be appointed to an Iron Curtain country. Everything but politics, except that reference was made to the resignation of Dr. Linner as head of ONUC, and his replacement on a temporary basis by Robert Gardiner. The Russian Chargé commented that Gardiner was an excellent choice, that he knew him very well and that he had had long conversations with him back in 1960 shortly after the Congo’s independence. The conversation ranged from the way champagne was made to the popularity of Jules Verne’s books in Russia. The atmosphere was cordial all through and, at times, quite amusing.
A apperitir they would like we had just been served The Russians arrived last and when asked what a glass of Amer Picon) they replied whiskey. Since the Amer Picon came from an old bottle which had suffered from the tropics, we finally all switched to whiskey, which made the Russian Chargé say: “Russia wins again”. During the lunch, the French Ambassador served us champagne as well as red wine, explaining that many people did not like red wine in this country because it was often “bouchonné”. This happened to be the case with the red wine he served us and after our experience with the Amer Picon, the French Ambassador was teased about the quality of wine in the residence of the French Ambassador. Mr. Charpentier served us, in addition to the white champagne, a red champagne and explained how it was made, to which the Russian Charge said they were making champagne and cognac as well as other wines. He then told us an anecdote about the visit of a group of Frenchmen to a kholkoze in Armenia. They were offered Russian cognac. When the bottle was finished, the Frenchmen produced a larger bottle of French cognac which when tasted brought the Russians to comment: “Darn Frenchmen, not only do they beat us by having larger bottles, but it is of better quality and, this after having stolen the word Cognac from us”. The Russian First Secretary joined in to say that the French had also “stolen” the word “bistrot” ?. He said that at the time of the coalition against Napoleon, the Cossacks then in Paris went to the bars for drinks saying: “Bistro, Bistro” meaning “Quick, Quick”.
5 ment of african students and their facilty at learn- The conversation then centered around the achieve-ing foreign languages. The Chargé d’Affaires of Dahomey inferred jokingly that this facility was a superiority of the African over the white man. The Russian Chargé was asked how many Africans were at Lumumba University, and replied that there were relatively few, that the Lumumba University was open not only to Africans but to all foreigners.
O our coffee. The Russian Charge had two glasses. After lunch, we had Armagnac and Cognac with With the before luncheon drink, the quantity of wine and champagne at the table, he became quite loquacious. However, the First Secretary seemed to be holding his liquor much better. The conversation went on about the relative merits of pre Revolution Russian writers and their popularity at present in Russia. Dostoievsky was considered too negative by present day readers. On the other hand, Tourguéniev and Pouchkine were considered as acceptable bourgeois writers. This gave an occasion to the Dahomey Chargé d’Affaires to say that Pouchkine was a fellow African, his maternal grandfather being one of eleven children born from the marriage of an Ethiopian princeling, I believe Hannibal, “the Negro of Peter the Great” and a Balto-German gentle woman.
“some Americans in that they never miss a chance to Russians appear to have something in common with boast about their achievements. They said, for example, that Alexandre Dumas, Balzac, Maupassant and Jules Verne were read by a greater number of people in Russia than they were in France and that the Russian editions of their works were in the millions. This gave another occasion to the Dahomey Chargé d’Affaires to point out that Dumas was another African. By this time the Russian Chargé was on his second cognac and full of sentimental effusion about what French and Russians had in common, in war and peace, their panache, their generosity, their sense of grandeur, and the chivalrous conduct of the Normandy squadron in Russia during the war was mentioned as a case in point. The Russian Chargé said that all these qualities applied to me as a French-speaking Canadian who had served during the war. While speaking about the Normandy Squadron, Podgornov told us that he had fought during the war as an officer in the engineer corps in the southern part of Russia.
O physical exercise in tropical climates, Mr Podgorow At one point, when speaking of the necessity of mentioned that he swam regularly at the Athénée swimming pool and invited me to join him that afternoon. As I had another appointment, I had to decline. However, if he should suggest it again, I shall take him up on it.
9 Minister Adoula’s Chief of Cabinet, Mr. Kasongo, The USA Chargé d’Affaires told me that Prime had had the impression at a recent dinner party given by the Tunisian Embassy that Podgornov was quite tight. Although Podgornov’s friendliness and exuberance during the lunch were helped by alcohol, he was in full command of himself, and may have been putting on an act to encourage the Dahomey Chargé who had a reaction to alcohol common among Africans and who became quite embarrassing at times to the French Ambassador by his too pro-French declarations.
– M. Gauvin Acting Consul General
Canadian Consulate General Leopoldville to the Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Numbered Letter No. 131, 15 March 1962, Confidential.
Podgornov is in trouble with his government and that is the reason why he left last night.
• NO. 75 of February 1, 1962, I mentioned that You will recall that in paragraph 6 of my letter
Podgornov liked his liquor. This has since been noticed on several occasions at official receptions but has become more evident in the last week or so. On March 10, at the I a.m. Memorial Service at Nojili airport for the thirteen Italians killed at Kindu, Podgornov’s behaviour attracted everyone’s attention. He arrived late and instead of standing quietly at his place while mass was being said, he went to the front row and shook hands with all heads of mission, as if going through a receiving line. The USA ambassador thought he was probably suffering from a bad hang over. Others, less charitable, said they believed he was already drunk. In the evening, at a reception given by the Tunisian Charge, Podgornov was in an advanced state of inebriety. He spoke loudly and to the dismay of all passed disparaging remarks on the Congolese in front of some of them. The Indian Chargé, Mr. Rahman, who saw more of Podgornov than anyone else commented to me: “Poor Podgornov, he has been hitting the bottle heavily these days”
O-consul General on the occasion of the King’s birth. The following day at a reception given by the Danish day, I noticed Podgornov’s absence. Mr. Vladimir Silkine, the First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy (he is the one who had accompanied Podgornov to the lunch at the French Embassy, reference my letter No. 75 of February 1) told me that Podgornov was not well and was preparing to leave for home. When asked if he were going for good, he said no, that he was simply going on normal home leave after ten months in Africa. Later during the conversation I asked Silkine if they had found a house for the head of mission since Podgornov had told me he had looked for one because he planned to have his family join him. I said I presumed his family would accompany him on his return here. Silkine replied that Podgornov’s family would most probably accompany him “if’ he came back to the Congo.
I and that he is in disgrace with his government as a The consensus is that Podgornov will not return result of the turn of events in the Congo which certainly has not been in favour of the Russians. They have suffered a number of setbacks probably due in part to Podgornov’s bad advice and overestimation of the nationalists’ strength and reliability. When the Soviets came here from Stanleyville, it took more than a month before they were “accepted” by the Central Government. At the time of the flood at Stanleyville the Russians sent a medical and relief mission for propaganda purposes in Orientale province. It turned into a complete flop. Its personnel was not allowed to proceed to Stanleyville, instead they were divided in two groups and sent to isolated spots, Oshwe and Kahemba, in Leopoldville province. Furthermore, the Congolese authorities refused to send the whole of the relief to Stanleyville. Most of it went to the Equateur province and was distributed through UN channels. Podgornov was unsuccessful in preventing the “unprofitable” use to the Soviet cause of their personnel and relief. During his time here he made no headway with Prime Minister Adoula and probably overestimated the latter’s dependence on the nationalists; hence the Soviet move to call a Security Council emergency meeting on the Congo which brought a strong protest from Adoula on the grounds that the Soviets had not even had the decency of consulting him. It has recently been announced that the Congo would establish diplomatic missions in Washington, Brussels, Paris, London, Bonn, Belgrade, Tunis, Cairo and Lagos but there has been no mention of opening a mission in Moscow or in any of the Iron curtain countries. Secretary of State Lengema confirmed to me that there is no intention for the time being to open missions in latter countries. As for the Congolese “nationalists”, they have proven to be as fickle as the “moderates” with result that the Soviets cannot even rely on them at the very least as a “loyal” and dependable minority to oppose Adoula. The Katanga problem, although still unsolved, has lost much of its usefulness as a means of exploiting differences existing within the Congo.
Door having at times painted too rosy a picture which All this is not Podgornov’s fault but he may be guilty led to unprofitable Soviet initiatives.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2010) — Summer 2010 // Été 2010, pp. 17–19. Read the rest of this issue →
