Foreign Relations Flashcards
foreign intervention 1918
Allies sent troops to help in CW
In the Noth, Brit troops attacked at Mamansk + the British navy also blockaded trade to Russia through the Baltic Sea
11000 US troops landed at Vladivostok
Japanese troops invaded eastern Siberia
Russian Oil was occupied by British
British + French navies blockaded trade through Black + Caspian sea
Reasons for Foreign Intervention
Allies wanted to help the whites keep Rus in the war to stop germ moving troops from e’ern to w’ern front
Allies sent huge amounts of ammunition and weapons during ww1- didn’t want Bolsh to get
After armistice w/ germ + the west became against Bolshevism
V confused aims… did not want to fight a major war. Little co-ord between foreign forces + who to sup
Britain strong call for Bolshevism in TU
Pub op div in Fr + Amer, Pres Wilson v hesitant to intervene
Impact of foreign intervention
Most too small scale to have an impact
Major Jap invasion in far east so didn’t threaten Bolsh control
For int at start of war helped whites achieve initial advances
Bolsh claimed they faced a major attack by for powers- west cont to isolate Russia (exemptions such as Br trade talks Nov 1920)
Comintern 1919, Moscow
Lenin promoted the soviet system as the best way of spreading Marxism
Positive. Despite the civil war and the suppression of the spartacist uprising in Germany, delegates were convinced world-wide communist revolution was imminent.
Second Comintern congress 1920, Petrograd
Lenin’s ‘21 conditions: the requirements that must be met to become a member of the Comintern
Mixed. Some parties broke away from the Comintern because of the 21 conditions. But Bolsh vic in CW looked certain.
3rd Comintern congress, 1921
The recovery of the bourgeoisie in countries like Poland and Germany.
Disappointed. Expected revolutions had turned instead into support for bourgeois democracies. Germany was ruled by the ‘bourgeois-democratic’ Weimar Republic. Bolsh Rus left alone in a capitalist world.
The Russo-Polish war
Lenin expec a proletariat rev to break out in Poland, in accordance with/ Marxist theory. When this failed, his plans for Russia were undermined
Faced attacks by non-Russian forces as well as White forces during the civil war.
Poland emerged as an independent country by the end of ww1 in Nov 1918
New borders were contested both Rus + Pol wanted more land
First conflicts between pol + Bolsh forces Feb 1919
May 1920 poles allied w/ Ukrainians to take Kiev from the Bolsh
RA counter-attack pushed pols back to Warsaw, where they mounted a suc def and the war settled in stale-mate
Peace terms formalised in T of Riga March 1921
Trade + econ conference
Countries disapproved of the Bolsh but when rev looked less likely spread… open to trade deals.
Brit reopened discussions ab trade in 1920
Rus + Germ excluded from LoN after WW!
In 1922 the Sov un dep commissar for for affairs; Chicherin was invited to an important econ conference held in Genoa
The Rapollo treaty
Chicherin + representatives from Germany held talks in Rapollo… Rapollo treaty April 1922
R+G agreed to waive any claims for compensation arriving from WW1
Formal diplomatic relations re-opened
‘Mutual goodwill’ was stressed in commercial + econ relations
Also secret treaty allowing germ to carry out military training on Rus land
International recognition + the Zinoviev letter
Brit granted dip rec to Russia in Nov 1920 + opened way for trade agreements, Rus remained isolated
1923 Lab gov formed in Brit- opp from Br est who loathed socialism
The Zinoviev letter Oct 1924 was a forgery promoted by RW- designed to reduce votes for lab
Letter sup to be from Zinoviev to one of lab leaders
Letter called for trade deals + said it was time to org a rev in Brit. Idea = people not vote lab after hearing Sov union giving orders to a lab gov
Impact on elec was small, damaged rel between Br + SU, contr to Rus cont diplomatic isolation
Involvement of foreign companies in Rus Soc developments
The Moscow Metro was des by Brit specialists recruited from the London Underground
Henry Ford advised the USSR on its car industry, trained Soviet engineers in the USA, and helped the design the car-plant at Gorky
The Dnieprostroi dam project used experience from Canadian and US engineers. Six American engineers were awarded the ‘Order of the Red Banner of Labour’ in recognition their ‘outstanding work’ in the construction of the dam
Benefits and negatives for foreign companies working in Rus
Relatively high wages and prestige of working on these mega-projects attracted Westerners to work in the USSR (especially during the Great Depression)
Dangers, for example the secret police arrested several British engineers working on the Moscow Metro for spying, the OGPU was concerned about their detailed knowledge of Moscow’s geography
Engineers for the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company were given a show trial and deported in 1933, ending the role of British business in the USSR
Cooperation w/ Germany 1929-32
German expertise helped industrialisation in the USSR- of around 9000 foreigners working in the USSR in 1930, 70% were German; most of the rest= American
The USSR benefitted from German military training; the Germans benefitted from access to areas in the USSR in which they could carry out military developments banned in the ToV
Germany was the USSRs biggest export market, while the USSR was a major customer for German manufacturing
In 1931, Germany and the USSR neg the continuation of the Berlin treaty
When Hitler became chancellor in 1933, Stalin moved away from cooperation with/ Germany
Stalin’s attitude to foreign powers
The USSR’s main representatives internationally were Chicherin and his dep, Litvinov. Both presented a moderate diplomatic image that helped reassure for powers ab doing business w/ the USSR. St saw them as imp in keeping relationships w/ cap for powers ‘safe’, especially Germany
China
After death of Pres in 1925… Chinese com party (CCP) and the nationalist Guomindang (GMD)
Trotsky sup the CCP, wanted to lead a Proletarian rev in China… believed another com state wld be a big step forward for a perm rev
St did not think CCP was strong enough to take control, unstable china wld threaten the USSR’s borders. The CCP had unorthodox ideas about peasant revolutionaries… backed bourgeois rev by GMD bc good financial backing
… Stalin urged the CCP to join w/ the GMD in its bourgeois rev … after which the CCP could start building up to a proletarian rev.
Alliance failed, instead w/ USSR funding, The GMD built up its army, violently suppressed workers revolts and massacred CCP membs.
Party congress of 1927 criticised St for his actions over China.
Treaty of Berlin
Signed in 1926.
Aimed at building ‘trustful cooperations between the German people and the peoples of the USSR’
For ex, article 2 stated if one of the two countries was attacked by a third country, the other would remain neutral in the conflict. Article 3 stated neither country would join in in an econ boycott organised against either of them.
The USSR benefitted econ from the treaty, receiving large financial credits from the German banks in June 1926
Streseman died in 1929… + rise of hitler rel became more strained in the 30s
Changes in the Comintern before 1929
Low priority for Stalin as he focused on gaining control of the party.
His commitment was to developing socialism in one country; the Comintern was strongly assosciated w/ Trotsky and his opposing theory of permanent revolution.
Changes in the Comintern after 1929
Stalin identified a new phase for the Comintern; an all-out attack on anti-communist, social democratic parties in Europe (‘social fascism’)
The Comintern would ready itself for this renewed fight by:
Ensuring all foreign communist parties purged themselves of ‘weak’ elements
Imposing strict party disclipline on foreign communist parties
Making sure all communist parties followed the line on policy handed to them by the USSR
Soviet control of the Comintern became tighter as Stalin appointed ‘yes men’ to lead it
Soviet entry in the League of Nations
Invited to join sept 1934
Bringing the USSR into the league strengthened collective security against aggression from Germany or Japan (both of whom had withdrawn from the league in 1933)
Offered the potential for international cooperation against the anti-communist Hitler
Gave the USSR the opportunity to influence the actions of Britain and France.
Pacts w/ France and Czechoslovakia
St slow to react from the blatant threat of Hitler’s regime.. possibly may have hoped for Germ, Britain + Fr to weaken
However, St did seek new alliance w/ other countries threatened by German aggression
Nov 1932 non-aggression pact w/ Fr
Dec 1932 Non-aggression pact w/ Pol
May 1935 mutual assistance pacts w/ France and Czechoslovakia- USSR wld intervene militarily if Czechoslovakia was attacked by another country- only if Fr wld do the same.
Soviet intervention in the Spanish civil war
Civil war broke out July 1936, as fascist-supported nationalists aimed to overthrow the socialist republic
St decided to intervene in Sept, Sov support (consisting of military equipment and Sov ‘advisors’) was sig in helping the rep to hold off nationalists in the first part of the war.
In 1937, St moved to a strategy of prolonging the sp civil war in the hope of wearing down German and Italian forces fighting on nationalist side
St was disappointed by the weak response to the civil war from France + Britain… indicated would continue to be weak against Nazi Germany
Soviet intervention exacerbated fear and dislike of Sov communism in the W, weakening prospects of future collaboration
Western appeasement and the Munich conference
Fr + Britain protested against the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, took no other action. Britain’s PM Chamberlain believed the appeasement of Hitler was the best way to achieve peace in Europe.
At the Munich conference (September 1938), Germany, France, Britain and Italy discussed how to deal w/ Germany’s claims to the Sudetenland… Czechoslovakia itself and the USSR were excluded from the conference.
Hitler claimed it should be ‘protected’, used this as the reason for germs invasion of C in March 1939
This approach sent a clear signal to the USSR that it should not expect any robust opposition of the west to stop further German aggression
The soviet response to Japanese aggression
Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937 was a significant threat to the USSR
Japan and Germany signed the anti-Comintern pact in 1936 w/ Italy joining in 1937. Threatened joint action against Comintern interference in their country
Minor border confrontations between Japan and the USSR became a major war in May 1939
The USSR defeated Japan at Khalkhin Gol in Soviet Mongolia, August 1939
75% of Japanese forces at Khalkhin Gol were killed.
The terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact
Signed on 23 August 1939 agreed that Germany and the USSR would respect each other’s territories, incr trade and settle disputes peacefully
A secret part f the Pact divided Eastern Europe into a German sphere of influence and a Sov sphere of influence
Even after the pact, St kept up a dialogue w/ Western democracies and the USSR continued anti-Nazi propaganda campaigns
