Stalin and international relations

Question 1

What had previously established cooperation with Germany?

Answer 1

Treaty of Rapallo in 1922 and Treaty of Berlin in 1926

Question 2

When was the most intensive period of Soviet cooperation with Germany?

Answer 2

1929-31

The USSR benefitted from German technical expertise for the modernisation of industry and armaments production; Stalin made agreements with German armaments manufacturers to acquire modern weapons

In 1931, Germany and Russia negotiated the continuation of the Berlin treaty

Question 3

How did the Comintern put Russo-German cooperation under strain?

Answer 3

After the 1928 Comintern Congress, Stalin attacked democratic socialist movements, calling them ‘social fascists’; this meant that the German Communist Party should not cooperate with the German Social Democratic Party

Question 4

Evidence of Soviet-German military cooperation after the Treaty of Berlin

Answer 4

The vastness of Russia allowed the Germany Army (Reichswehr) to carry out military developments that were forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. Areas of operation included:
an aircraft factory at Fili,
a training school for German pilots at Lipetsk,
a facility for practicing tank warfare at Kazan and
a secret joint facility at Samara for developing poison gas weapons.

Question 5

How did Stalin initially react to the rise of Hitler?

Answer 5

Slow to react - was even pleased about it because it would accelerate the collapse of capitalism

Willing to continue military and naval cooperation

Question 6

How did the rise of Hitler impact Soviet foreign policy?

Answer 6

Stalin began to shift his interest to collective security and stable relations with Western democracies (however, Stalin kept his options open)

Question 7

Different views about the nature of Stalin’s foreign policy in the 1930s

Answer 7

‘Zig-zag policy’ - complicated and contradictory

Stalin had an obsession with security - the tactics were unpredictable but the overall objective was always the same

Alexandr Nekrich - always a consistent ‘Stalin Doctrine’ in the 30s of wanting a war between Germany and the capitalist West that would weaken both sides

Question 8

How did Soviet foreign policy evolve in 1933?

Answer 8

Moved away from isolationism by establishing diplomatic relations with the United States. An American embassy was opened in Moscow, allowing US diplomats to operate within the USSR rather than depending on ‘Riga Watchers’ (American foreign policy experts) who observed from nearby Latvia

e.g. of Riga Watchers - George Kennan and Charles Bohlen

Question 9

What factors were crucial for Soviet entry into the League of Nations?

Answer 9

US diplomatic recognition

Personal diplomacy of the Foreign Commissar, Maksim Litvinov

US-Soviet common interest

Question 10

How did Litvinov contribute to Soviet entry into the League of Nations?

Answer 10

Well established as the ‘acceptable face’ of the Soviet regime. His long experience of the West, as well as his polished social background, appealed to Western diplomats

It was a visit to Washington by Litvinov in November 1933 that finalised the agreement to re-open formal relations

Question 11

How did US-Soviet common interest contribute to Soviet entry into the League of Nations?

Answer 11

Both Stalin and the Americans were concerned about the rise of Japan

Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and seemed set on future militaristic expansion

Bringing the USSR into the League of Nations would strengthen collective security against Japanese aggression

Question 12

How did entering into the League of Nations represent a radical change in Soviet policy?

Answer 12

Move away from isolationism

Accompanied by him scrapping the hard-line Comintern policy set out in 1928: now announced (in Pravda in 1934) a new official policy to support broad-based ‘popular fronts’. Soviet communism became willing to cooperate with democratic socialism in the fight against fascism

Question 13

How could you argue that entry into the League of Nations was not necessarily radical?

Answer 13

Stalin was simply aiming to maximise the USSR’s security in response to the tense international situation

Question 14

When did Stalin sign a non-aggression pact with Czechoslovakia?

Answer 14

Negotiated in December 1932 and made into a 10-year agreement in 1934

Question 15

When did Stalin sign the Franco-Soviet ‘Pact of Mutual Assistance’?

Answer 15

Negotiated in December 1934 and signed in May 1935

No specific clauses on military cooperation and was vague on the circumstances under which it might be activated

Question 16

Why did France agree to sign the PMA with Russia?

Answer 16

Worried about the rise of Nazism, especially by Hitler’s public announcement of military rearmament in March 1935

Question 17

What quickly followed the Franco-Soviet PMA?

Answer 17

A similar pact between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, in which the USSR promised to intervene militarily if Czechoslovakia was attacked by a third party as long as the French did also

Question 18

When did Stalin’s new ‘collective security’ approach to international relations face a setback?

Answer 18

Stalin’s faith in the Franco-Soviet Pact of 1935 was weakened by France’s passive response to Hitler’s remilitarisation of the Rhineland in March 1936

Question 19

When did the Spanish Civil War begin?

Answer 19

July 1936, when right-wing army officers led by Franco launched a nationalist rebellion against the Spanish Republic.

Question 20

How did European powers initially respond to the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 20

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany sent military support to the Francoists (e.g. bombing civilian population in Guernica in April 1937)

France wanted to prevent the Spanish Civil War becoming internationalised, and so in August 1936, France proposed general agreement about non-intervention in Spain

Question 21

How did Stalin respond to the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 21

Initially went along with France’s non-intervention proposal, but was anxious about French and British weakness in combating fascism.

In September 1936, Stalin made the decision to intervene in Spain.

Question 22

How did Soviet intervention in Spain play out?

Answer 22

Hundreds of Soviet ‘advisors’ were sent to Spain, backed by troops, tanks and aircraft

Overall intervention package cost £88 million.

Question 23

How did the Soviets use the Spanish civil war to their advantage?

Answer 23

Soviet propaganda talked of the ‘anti-fascist crusade’ in Spain, with many posters, newsreels and a mass rally in Leningrad in 1937.

Question 24

Was Soviet intervention successful?

Answer 24

Significant impact on the early stages of the war - probably prevented Madrid from falling to Franco

Question 25

When and how did Soviet policy in Spain change?

Answer 25

After the early months of 1937, the goal was no longer to help the Republic to victory, it was to prolong the war in order to wear down Italian and German forces

Question 26

Example of rivalries within left-wing elements in Spain

Answer 26

POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) was a Trotskyist party hostile to Stalin.

The PCE (Spanish Communist Party) and the PSUC (United Socialist Party of Catalonia) were intensely loyal to Stalin and the Comintern.

Question 27

Example of Stalin’s paranoia regarding intervention in Spain

Answer 27

Many of the Soviet personnel who served in Spain were repressed when they returned home

Question 28

Quote to show that the remilitarisation of the Rhineland was significant?

Answer 28

Historian George Kennan argued ‘from the moment of the German entry into the Rhineland, Stalin must have reckoned that it was only a matter of time before he must either fight Hitler or make a deal with him’.

Question 29

Why was the security of the USSR threatened by 1938?

Answer 29

Stalin knew from Secret intelligence reports from Germany that Hitler had told his generals in November 1937 to prepare for a war of aggression and territorial expansion in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

In 1937, Japan had launched a war of aggression in China.

Question 30

Why had the League of Nations proved useless in dealing with aggression?

Answer 30

Weak response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931

The policies of Britain and France were dominated by appeasement

Question 31

Example to show that Britain and France were weak to respond to German aggression?

Answer 31

In March 1938, German forces marched into Austria and imposed the Anschluss, incorporating Austria into the German Reich.

Question 32

What was the significance of the Munich conference?

Answer 32

Both Czechoslovakia and the USSR were excluded

Question 33

Example to show that it was obvious that Stalin would make a deal with Hitler

Answer 33

Comments of Joseph Davies, the former US Ambassador in Moscow in a letter on January 1939

‘Chamberlain’s peace is a flop’

‘The Chamberlain policy (…) may drive Russia into an economic agreement and even an ideological truce with Hitler’

Question 34

What examples show that Japan was a serious threat to the USSR?

Answer 34

Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931

Japan’s invasion of the rest of China in 1937

Question 35

What happened in November 1936 which made the threat of Japan more urgent?

Answer 35

Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Germany, which was an agreement to take joint action against interference in their internal affairs by the Comintern

Italy joined this pact in November 1937

Question 36

How did the USSR initially respond to Japanese threat?

Answer 36

Stationed substantial military forces on the Manchurian frontier, and from the summer of 1938 there were numerous border confrontations

Question 37

When did Japanese-Soviet tensions spill over into war?

Answer 37

May-September 1939

Question 38

Examples to show the large scale of the war between Japan and the USSR?

Answer 38

The war involved over 100,000 troops and 1000 tanks and aircraft

Question 39

What was the decisive battle of the Japanese-Soviet conflict?

Answer 39

Battle of Khalkhin Gol in August 1939, where the Japanese army was encircled and defeated by Soviet troops led by General Zhukov.

75% of Japanese forces in the battle were killed

Question 40

Consequences of the war between Japan and the USSR

Answer 40

Japan suffered a heavy defeat, leading to them later concentrating on targets in the Pacific rather than the Soviet Union

For the USSR, the war confirmed the need to remain militarily strong in the Far East

Question 41

When was the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed?

Answer 41

23rd August 1939

Question 42

Why can it be argued that the Nazi-Soviet Pact should not have come as a surprise?

Answer 42

Advantages to both sides

Hitler - gave him a free hand to invade Poland, also provided Germany with vital raw materials from Russia on very favourable terms

Stalin - offered great territorial gains in eastern Poland and the Baltic States. Also guaranteed Stalin some breathing space to consolidate the economic changes in Russia

Question 43

Explain the French-British lack of urgency

Answer 43

The Anglo-French Military Mission assumed that they had time to reach Russia and thus arrived far too late to reach agreements.

The fact that Litvinov (a pro-West foreign commissar) had been replaced by Molotov should have provided a clear sign of Stalin’s intentions

Question 44

Positive outcomes of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Answer 44

Gave Stalin protection from a war against Germany at a time when the USSR was militarily weak (as shown by Winter War)

Enabled huge territorial gains, e.g. by allowing him to seize Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and take over parts of Poland

Expected the result of the war to be an economically and militarily exhausted Britain, France and Germany

Question 45

First problem that arose after the Nazi-Soviet pact?

Answer 45

Stalin had hoped that the coming war would last for years and weaken Germany. However, the rapid fall of France in June 1940 did not weaken the German war machine, but rather made it more powerful than ever

Question 46

When did the Winter War start?

Answer 46

November 1939 - went badly at first (despite the fact that Stalin’s 750,000 troops should have easily put down Finland’s 300,000), partly due to the fact that Stalin’s purges had weakened the Red Army.

Question 47

What were the outcomes of the Winter War?

Answer 47

A peace agreement was signed in March 1940 (giving 10% of Finland’s territory to Russia).

When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, war between Finland and the USSR resumed, which lasted until an Armistice was agreed in September 1944

Question 48

Evidence that Stalin thought he could trust Hitler

Answer 48

Trade agreements were further developed, the USSR always paid promptly, trainloads of foodstuffs and raw materials continued rolling into Germany (at the same time as Hitler was beginning to prepare for an invasion).

Allied intelligence services tried to warn Stalin about Hitler’s intentions but he refused to believe them

Question 49

When did Hitler invade the USSR?

Answer 49

22nd June 1941