STALINS FOREIGN POLICY

RAPALLO (1922)

  • agreed to waive claims for compensations arising from WW1

  • reopened formal diplomatic relations

  • dealt with ‘mutual goodwill’ in commercial and economic relations

  • german army able to use the vastness of russian territory to carry through military developments which were fobridden under the treaty of Versailles

  • Junkers aircraft at Fili, near Moscow

  • A training school for German pilots at Lipetsk in Ukraine

  • a facility for practising tank warfare at kazan

  • a secret facility at Samara for developing poison gas weapons


TREATY OF BERLIN (1926)

  • affirmed but adapted the Rapallo treaty to a ‘new political situation’

  • if either country was attacked by a third the other would remain neutral

  • would not join any economic boycott of the other country

  • would remain in force for 5 years

  • Lenin gone and Streseman present

  • continued until the 1930s


THE ANGLO SOVIET TRADE AGREEMENT

  • signed pre Zinoviev letter (1921)

  • recognised RUssia as a world power and as an official country (gave RSFSR recognition by one of most powerful contemporary countries)

  • by 1924 britain distances itself (but carry on trade by 1925)

  • Zinoviev letter, put on hold but by 1926/7 realise need trade so continue and continues until 1927 (new gov)

  • but continues into 1930s by establishing new one with new gov


COOPERATION WITH GERMANY

  • intensive period of soviet military collaboration with germany was from 1929-1932

  • USSR benefitted from German technical expertise for the modernisation of industry and armaments production

  • Stalin made agreements with German armaments manufacturers in order to aquire modern weapons

  • In 1931 (pre Hitler) Germany and RUssia negotiated the coninuation of the Berlin treaty

  • By then it was clear that the Soviet - German relationship was beginning to come under strain

  • mid 1920s

  • less fo po as Germany doing better (stresmeann, Germany join LON in 1926)

  • great depression, RUssia isn’t hit so can help out



INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN 1928

  • by mid 1920s the USSR could be regarded as having been internationally isolated

  • In 1927, Bladwin’s conservative gov in Britain anulled the Soviet-Anglo trade agreement and broke off diplomatic relations

  • Mussolini had established a fascist gov in Italy

  • The Locarno treaties (Oct 1925) made between the victors of WW1 and the states of eastern and central europe had defined Europe’s new borders and paved the way for Germany’s admission into the LON

  • The Weimar regime in germany had by this point regained a measure of stability and sought integration into the new international system established by the allies

  • Germany’s reconciliation with the west and agreement with the USSR’s western neighbours led Stalin to fear the formation of anti-soviet coalition led by Britain and France


DETERIORATING RELATIONS

  • soviet-german trade slowed significantly in the early 1930s

  • relations affected by the changes in the policies of Comintern

  • the 1932 mass electerol gain by the Nazis also made it certain that political upheaval in Germany would force a change in soviet policy

  • Hitler viewed communism as the enemy of Nazism and was determined to purge it from Germany

  • Stalin was slow to react to the rise of Hitler

  • He did little to protest the repression of the German KPD and was willing to continue military and naval cooperation with Germany

  • It has been claimed that he was pleased about it because he thought it would accelerate the collapse of capitalism

  • But in 1933 and 1934 the ‘Rapallo period’ of cooperation with Germany was put to one side and Stalin showed interest in collective security and improved relations with the western democracies


SOVIET ENTRY INTO THE LON

  • 1933 diplomatic relations were established with the US and an american embassy opened in moscow

  • A combination of renewed US diplomatic recognition and the personal diplomacy of Litinov

  • Both Stalin and the Americans were also worried about the rise of Japan, following the invasion of Manchuria in 1931

  • Bringing the USSR into the LON appealed to the western powers as a desirable step towards strengthening the collective security against the threats of Japanese and German aggression

  • Stalin also saw benefits to joining

  • IN Sept 1934 in a move away from diplomatic isolation, the USSR joined the LON


FRANCO-SOVIET PACT OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE (1935)

  • more of a symbolic pact

  • by 1936 France lost interest

  • 1938 begins appeasement policies (eg 1938 Munich agreement) and dismemberment of the Czech so no collective security that Litinov wanted

  • aim is to envelop Nazi Germany and decrease the military threat from Eastern Europe, persued by Litinov and Barthou (Fr) who was assassinated in Oct 1934 before investigations finished

  • was sceptical but after the decleration of german rearmament in March 1935 the pact went ahead

  • ratified by the French in 1936

  • hollow diplomatic threat for Germany of war on 2 fronts

  • marked a move to more western orientated fo po

  • Hitler uses the pact to justify the remilitasrisation of the rhinelanf and even Lloyd George is sympathetic is due to this

  • military provisions are basically useless due to conditions (eg Brit and Italy have to agree)

  • Fr gov insist refusal to coordinate movements in event of war with Germany


CZECH SOVIET PACT (1935)

  • USSR agree to intervene militarily if Czech is attacked by a third party

  • agreement only valid as long as FR intervened

  • encourgaed into the pact by Fr who had a traditional policy of seeking allies in Central Europe (and Brit)

  • St put pressure on Fr communist party to support the act


STALIN THE PEACEKEEPER

  • 934/5 St took further steps towards supporting collective security

  • hard line policy enforced in the Comintern from 1928 was scrapped

  • St now announced a new official policy to support broad based ‘popular fronts’ in other countries

  • soviet communism cooperate with democratic socialists in the fight against fascism

  • St announced this new line in Pravda in 1934

  • became official policy at the comintern in Moscow in 1935

  • Dec 1932 the USSR negotiated a non agression oact w/ poland, made into a ten year agreement in 1934

  • March 1936 Hitler orders German troops to march into the RHineland (demiliatarised zone under Versailled in 1919), Br and Fr don’t intervene due to appeasement


JAPANESE AGGRESSION

  • Russia deeply involved in the far east from the 1890s with the building of the trans siberian railwat and russiaas expansionist ambitions in Manchuria to exploit the weaknesses of the chinese empire

  • Rivalry led to the russo-Japanese war in 1904 which was settled through the american mediation in 1905

  • continued the rise of japanese military power and Japan’s occupation of Manchuria which by 931 was a major concern for both St and the western powers (esp US)


SPANISH CIVIL WAR

  • Hitler breaking the treaty of Versailles and remilitarisng the Rhineland

  • oppose the rise of the right in Europe

  • chance to weaken the fascist armies in Germany and Italy

  • Fr and Br turn a blind eye to these activites

  • soviet communism was less popualr in european politics

  • communist forces divided in Sp

  • Madrid did not fall to the republicans

  • S knows the right will support the right so he supports the left, St isn’t trying to spread communism (communism in one country) but wants to protect his interests

  • made communism look bad and weak


WESTERN APPEASEMENT

  • USSR and Fr not involved as Sudetenland was contested land anyway

  • believed in negotiations to meet ‘legitimate german grievances’

  • Br and Fr attempts to check Hitlers expansionist ambitions were ineffective especially due to the remilitarisation in the Rhineland (1936) and the Anschluss (joining) of Austria with Germnay in March 1938

  • lack of backlash led Hitler to incorporate the ethnically German Sudetenland 9aprt of czech) onto his expanding Reich

  • Br and Fr doesn’t respond with force but Litinov offers to activate the FCS treaty but the Polish refuse to allow the red army through its territory (don’t want to risk soviet occupation)

  • not directly involved in the FCS pact, Chamberlain took the lead in 1938, strong anti communist stance and firmly believed the way to achieve peace was negotiating with Hitler which led to the munich conference


THE MUNICH CONFERENCE

  • September 1938, attended by ger, Fr, Br and It, decided Hitler was permitted to occupy the Sudetenland

  • on the condition he would claim no more territory

  • Czech not invited despite being the subject of discussion, USSR also joined

  • USSR concluded that thus there was little hope of an anti-Hitler alliance involving the USSR

  • after Munich the danger of St turning his back on the west and making a deal with Hitler should have been obvious


RUSSO JAPANESE WAR

  • russian army purged at this point

  • Japan and nazi germany signed the first anti-comintern pact in Nov 1936, an agreement to take joint action against interference in their intenal affairs by Comintern - though the real enemy was the USSR . Italy joined the pact in Nov 1937 forming the thre power alliance that later became the axis

  • Japans military dicatorship had built up a powerful war machine

  • occupartion of Manchuria in 1931 was followed by a Japanese invasion of the rest of China in 1937 (want to weaken china and Japan has very few natural resources)

  • Japan and Germany signed the anti-comintern pact in Nov 1936

  • From 1938 there were numerous border confrontations with the USSR military forces on the Mnchurain border

  • tensuons became a major war tha raged from May-Sept 939

  • involved more than 100k troops and 1k tanks and aircraft

  • japanese encircled and defeated at khalkin Gol in Soviet Mongolia in Aug 1939 led by Zhukov the soviets killed 75% of Japanese troops in the battle


NAZI-SOVIET PACT

  • 23rd Aug 1939

  • they wouldn’t fight and would divide eastern Europe between them (ger - Lithuania, western Poland and Russia - Estonia, Finaldn, Ltvai, Bessarabia and Eastern Poland)

  • Hitler anxious to prevent an effcetive alliance between Br, Fr and USSr which would hinder his plans to invade Poland

  • temporary convience

  • prevents two cpnflict conflict for both countries

  • Litinovs attmept at collective security had failed

  • leaves USSR neutral whislt the two ideolgies exhaust themselces militarily and economically


INVASION OF POLAND

  • st Sept 1939

  • Br and Fr declare war 2 days later

  • 17th Sept USSR invade with 200k polish troops and end resistance by the end of the month

  • from November, fought in Finland


THE WINTER WAR (1939-40)

  • Nov-March

  • secure Leningrad and Murmansk against a possible invasion

  • very costly and demonstrated the damage that had been done to the soviet military in the purges

  • Peace treaty agreed and 10% of Finfland’s territory ceded to the USSR

  • war would resume in 1941 with the German invasion (continuation war) and lasts until the armistice in Sept 1944

  • dead russian soldiers propped upright in the cold