Foreign Policy 1929-1953

Question 1

Who were the ‘Riga Watchers’?

Answer 1

American foreign policy experts who used Riga, the capital of independent Latvia, as a listening post to observe Russia.

Question 2

Why would Stalin be pleased about the rise of Hitler?

Answer 2

it would accelerate the collapse of capitalism

Question 3

Why was the Rapallo period of cooperation with Germany put aside?

Answer 3

Stalin was more interested in collective security and improved relations with the West

Question 4

What was the Stalin Doctrine of foreign policy in the 1930s?

Answer 4

wanting a war between Germany and the capitalist West that would weaken both sides while the USSR remained neutral

Question 5

When were diplomatic relations established with the US? What happened?

Answer 5

1933

-An American embassy opened in Moscow

Question 6

Who was the Foreign Commissar when the USSR joined the league of nations?

Answer 6

Litvinov

Question 7

Who was Maksim Litvinov?

Answer 7

1. Foreign Commissar
2. Important in USSR joined league of nations
3. acceptable face of Soviet regime, due to his polished social background, giving him credibility with Western diplomats

Question 8

Why did the USSR join the League of Nations?

Answer 8

1. Stalin and Americans worried about the rise of Japan

2. collective security against aggression of Japan and Germany

Question 9

Where did Japan invade in 1931?

Answer 9

Manchuria

Question 10

How did Stalin take further steps to supporting collective security in 1934 and 1935?

Answer 10

hard-line policy enforced on the Comintern from 1928 was scrapped.

Question 11

What was the policy of popular fronts?

Answer 11

‘anti-fascist solidarity’ - divisions set aside to provide united action by liberals and the left.

Question 12

What became official policy at the Comintern Congress in 1935?

Answer 12

popular fronts

Question 13

What did the USSR negotiate in December 1932?

Answer 13

a non-aggression pact with Poland- made into a ten-year agreement in 1934

Question 14

When was the Franco-Soviet Pact of Mutual Assistance negotiated and signed?

Answer 14

Negotiated: December 1934
Signed: May 1935

Question 15

Why were the French worried about the rise of Nazism?

Answer 15

Hitler’s public announcement of re-armament in March 1935

Question 16

What were the issues with the Franco-Soviet Pact?

Answer 16

1. no specific clause on military cooperation

2. vague on the circumstances in which it might be activated

Question 17

What were the terms of the Soviet- Czechoslovakia Pact?

Answer 17

USSR would intervene militarily if Czechoslovakia was attacked by a third party as long as France did also

Question 18

Why did Stalin’s approach to international affairs and collective security face a set back in March 1936?

Answer 18

Remilitarisation of the Rhineland. France and Britain responded passively, which weakened Stalin’s faith in the Franco-Soviet Pact

Question 19

What did the Popular Front government of France want in terms of the Spanish Civil war?

Answer 19

to prevent it becoming internationalised, they proposed a general agreement of non intervention in August 1936

Question 20

What did France propose in 1936 with regards to the Spanish civil war and what did Stalin do?

Answer 20

a general agreement on non-intervention. Stalin when along with it at first but was anxious about French and British weakness in the face of fascism

Question 21

When did Stalin intervene in Spain?

Answer 21

September 1936

Question 22

When did the USSR enter the league of nations and why?

Answer 22

In 1934 as both the USA and Stalin concerned with japan

Question 23

Why was Stalin concerned about Japan?

Answer 23

They invaded Manchuria in 1931

Question 24

How did the USSR intervene in the Spanish civil war?

Answer 24

1. sent hundreds of advisors, tanks, troops and aircrafts

2. soviet forces operated independently of Spanish republican government

Question 25

What were the reasons for Stalin to intervene in the Spanish civil war?

Answer 25

1. propaganda gains (USSR only world power ready to defend democracy)
2. inaction lead to criticism from Trotskites
3. Trotskites killed by NKVD while fighting
4. diversion; powers not focused on terror, which was at its height

Question 26

When was the munich conference?

Answer 26

September 1938

Question 27

Key points of the Munich conference?

Answer 27

1. attended by Germany, France, Britain and Italy
2. Germany could annex protions of Czechslovakia
3. any hopes of an anti Hitler alliance containing USSR dented

Question 28

What were the foreign policy threats to Stalin by the end of 1937?

Answer 28

1. November 1937, Hitler told generals to prepare for war of aggression
2. 1937, Japan launched war of aggression in China
3. League of nations proving toothless
4. policies of appeasment in Britain and France

Question 29

Examples of Germany being appeased?

Answer 29

1. March 1938, allowed to impose Anschluss

2. Summer 1938, Sundenland transfered from Czechslovakia

Question 30

When and what was the anti commintern pact?

Answer 30

A pact aimed at taking joined action against interference in internal affairs by comintern. Signed by Germany and Japan in 1936 and joined by Italy in 1937

Question 31

What were the reasons not to interevene in the Spanish civil war?

Answer 31

1. Strategic issues (too far away to matter to USSR’s vital interests)
2. domestic considerations (weakened and preoccupied by purges)
3. reaction of Britain and France

Question 32

What were the outcomes of the Nazi soviet pact for the USSR?

Answer 32

1. protection from germany
2. territorial gains
3. Hitlers invasion of the west 1940 allowed stalin to seize baltic states
4. other countries would be economically and militarily weakened