Following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the American government refused to grant de jure recognition to the Soviet regime. American courts likewise refuse to acknowledge the legal existence of the Soviet Union in matters concerning Russian property in the United States. In the 1933 Litvinov Assignment, when President Roosevelt granted conditional recognition to Moscow, the Soviets assigned its rights to Russian property in the U.S. to the American government. The assignment, however, proved to be difficult for courts to interpret and implement after 16 years of nonrecognition. In 1937, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v Belmont that the assignment had been an executive agreement with the same domestic legal effect as a treaty. Five years later, it ruled that the American government had a superior claim to disputed Russian property to that of any private claimants because of the 1933 executive agreement. A review of the cases concerning the legal effects of Soviet-American relations from 1917 to 1942 demonstrates the domestic impacts of foreign relations and the role of the courts as they influence the conduct of foreign relations.