‘Peace-Loving Countries, Unite!’ British Reception of Soviet Declarations on ‘Collective Security’ at the Turn of 1934

Abstract

Soviet-German relations were very conducive for both countries after the Rapallo Treaty was concluded in 1922. There were some signs of difficulties during the Great Depression but they did not influence the willingness of Berlin and Moscow to cooperate. After Adolf Hitler came to power, however, the deterioration of bilateral relations of the two countries became apparent. Finally, at the turn of 1934, a wave of official Soviet declarations on starting cooperation with the ‘peace-loving’ capitalist countries against the aggressor within the framework of the collective security system took place. The article’s aim is to explain whether or not the British Cabinet took notice of these speeches and what attention it paid them. It is important to determine how the British diplomats interpreted these declarations and what was the justification for their viewpoints. Previously, London had tried to separate Germany from the USSR. Hence, the question as to the British government’s understanding of the new situation arised as do the potential steps taken on the international scene once German-Soviet cooperation ceased to exist at the end of 1933. The deterioration of Soviet-German relations had the potential to influence British diplomacy, which was devoted to the idea of collective security.

Keywords:

• Soviet-German relations
• British government
• collective security
• Foreign Office

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See more in: Mirosław Kłusek, Polityka Gustawa Stresemanna wobec ZSRR w latach 1923-1929) (Toruń, 2007), 52–113, 154–90; Wojciech Materski, ZSRR i zbiorowe bezpieczeństwo (Liga Narodów–ONZ) (Warszawa, 1984), 17–8, 27–30, 39–47, 49–51; Andrzej Skrzypek, ‘Niemcy w polityce zagranicznej Związku Radzieckiego w latach dwudziestych XX w.’ in Stanisław Sierpowski (ed), Niemcy w polityce międzynarodowej 1919-1939, i (Poznań, 1990), 244–72.

2 Andrzej Skrzypek, ‘Niemcy w polityce Związku Radzieckiego w latach 1929-1935’ in Stanisław Sierpowski (ed), Niemcy w polityce międzynarodowej 1919–1939, ii (Poznań, 1992), 182–90. See also Lev Khinchuk (Soviet polpred in Berlin) report, 31 Dec. 1933, Sergei Slutsch and Carola Tischler (ed), D[eutschland] u[nd die] S[owjetunion, 1933–1941. Dokumente aus rusischen und deutschen Archiven], i/2 (München, 2014), 900–13.

3 George H. Stein, ‘Russo-German Military Collaboration: The Last Phase, 1933’, Political Science Quarterly, lxxvii (1962), 54–71; Stanisław Żerko, Niemiecka polityka zagraniczna 1933–1939 (Poznań, 2005), 99–104; Vladimir V. Poznjakov, ‘The Soviet Intelligence Service and the Government: Information and Military-Political Decision from the 1920s to the Early 1950s’ in Niels E. Rosenfeldt, Bengt Jensen, and Erik Kulavig (ed), Mechanism of Power in the Soviet Union (London–New York, 2000), 103–4.

4 Maksim Litvinov–Herbert Dirksen (German ambassador in Moscow) conversation, Moscow, 7 March 1933, F. P. Dol’a et al. (ed), D[okumenty] v[neshnei] p[olitiki SSSR], xvi (Moskva, 1970), 148–9; Fritz Twardowsky (German chargé d’affaires in the USSR) to A[uswärtiges] A[mt], Moscow, 17 Nov. 1933, Margarer Lambert et al. (ed), D[ocuments on] G[erman] F[oreign] P[olicy 1918–1945], C/vii (London, 1959), 14–5; David Stern (Head of the Narkomindel Second Western Department)–Twardowski conversation, Moscow, 13 Nov. 1933, Litvinov’s diary, 11, 13 Dec. 1933, and Rudolf Nadolny (new German ambassador in Moscow) to AA, Moscow, 14 Dec. 1933, DuS, i/2, 801, 881–3, 885–6; Litvinov–Nadolny conversation, Moscow, 3 Jan. 1934, Georgii N. Deev et al. (ed), DVP, xvii (Moskva, 1971), 17–9.

5 Henryk Korczyk, Przyjęcie Polski i Niemiec do Rady Ligi Narodów w 1926 roku (Wrocław, 1986), 74–7, 206–31; Jon Jacobson, Locarno Diplomacy, Germany and the West 1925–1929 (Princeton, 1972), 21–4, 120–3.

6 Christopher Andrew, Secret Service. The Making of the British Intelligence Community (London, 1985), 273–6; Jakub Polit, ‘Wielka Brytania, Komintern i plany interwencji w Chinach, 1925-1926’, Arcana iv–v (2004), 93–111.

7 Adam Mordzak, ‘Nawiązanie stosunków brytyjsko-radzieckich w 1929 roku w świetle dokumentów brytyjskich’, Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Historica xcviii (2017), 143–58.

8 The most important series edited in the Soviet Union: DVP, (Moskva, 1970–1977); Vilnis Sipols (ed), God krizisa 1938–1939. Dokumenty i materialy (Moskva, 1990); Dokumenty i materialy kanuna wtoroi mirovoi voiny 1937–1939. Archiv Dirksena (Moskva, 1948); Andrei Gromyko et al. (ed), SSSR w borbe za mir nakanunie vtoroi mirovoi voiny (sentiabr 1938–avgust 1939). Dokumenty i materialy, (Moskva, 1971).

9 Geoffrey Roberts, The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War. Russo-German Relations and the Road to War, 1933–1939 (London, 1995).

10 Michael J. Carley, Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies against Hitler, 1930–1936 (Toronto, 2023); Id., ‘“A Fearful Concatenation of Circumstances”: The Anglo-Soviet Rapprochement, 1934–1936’, Contemporary European History v, no. 1 (1996), 29–69; Id., ‘A Soviet Eye on France from the Rue de Grenelle in Paris, 1924–1940’, Diplomacy & Statecraft xvii, no. 2 (2006), 295–346.

11 Gabriel Gorodetsky, Grand delusion: Stalin and the German invasion of Russia (Yale, 1999).

12 Jonathan Haslam, The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective Security in Europe, 1933–1939 (London, 1984).

13 Teddy J. Uldricks, ‘Politika bezopasnosti SSSR v 1930-yie gody’ in Aleksandr Chubarian et al. (ed) Sovetskaia vneshnaia politika v retrospektive, 1917–1991 (Moskwa, 1993), 70–9.

14 Stanislav V. Morozov, Polsko-czechoslovatskie otnoshenia, 1933–1939: Shto skryvalos za politikoi “ravnoudalennosti” ministra Iu. Beka (Moskva, 2004).

15 Mikhail Meltukhov, Sovetsko-polskie voiny (2nd ed., Moskva, 2004).

16 Rudolf Balandin and Sergei Mironov, Diplomaticheskie poiedinki Stalina. Ot Pilsudskogo do Mao Tsetunga (Moskva, 2004).

17 Andrei Gromyko et al., Historia dyplomacji 1914–1939, iii (Warszawa, 1973).

18 Vilnis Sipols, Vneshnaia politika Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1933–1935 gg. (Moskva, 1980); Id., Diplomaticheskaia bor’ba nakanune vtoroi mirovoi voiny (Moskva, 1979).

19 Richard C. Tucker, Stalin at Power. The Revolution from Above, 1928–1941 (New York–London, 1992); Gerhard L. Weinberg, ‘German Diplomacy toward the Soviet Union’ in Gerhard L. Weinberg (ed), Germany, Hitler and World War II (Cambridge, 1995), 153–67; Bernard J. Way, ‘Constants in Russian (Soviet) Diplomacy toward Germany: A Historic Survey of the Geopolitical Undercurrents in Russia’s Foreign Policy toward Europe’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Boston, 1998), available at http://proquest.umi (last access at 24 Apr. 2011); Aleksandr Nekrich, Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922–1941 (New York, 1997); Sergei E. Slutsch, ‘Długa droga Stalina do ugody z Hitlerem’, Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość no. 1 (2009), 27–45; Ivan Pfaff, Die Sowjetunion und die Verteidigung der Tschechoslovakei 1934–1938: Versuch der Revision einer Legende (Köln–Weimar–Wien, 1996); Stanisław Gregorowicz and Michał J. Zacharias, Polska–Związek Sowiecki. Stosunki polityczne 1925–1939 (Warszawa, 1995); Sven Allard, Stalin und Hitler. Die sowjetrussische Außenpolitik 1930–1941 (Bern–München, 1974).

20 Walter Krivitsky, I Was Stalin’s Agent (London, 1940), 13–28.

21 DGFP, C–D; Akten zur deutschen Auswärtigen Politik, C–D.

22 Roberts, Soviet Union, 2–3.

23 Lev Besymensky, ‘Geheimmission in Stalin’s Auftrag? David Kandelaki und die sowjetische-deutschen Beziehungen Mitte der dreißiger Jahre’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte xl, no. 3 (1992), 339–57.

24 Zara Steiner, ‘The Soviet Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the Czechoslovakian Crisis in 1938. New Material from Soviet Archives’, The Historical Journal xlii, no. 3 (1999), 751–79.

25 The last series is a fruit of cooperation between the Russian and German historians. Both sides agreed to focus on German-Soviet relations in 1930s. Till now two volumes (each consists of two parts) were issued and the researchers received a lot of new materials unknown so far – see DuS, i–ii (München, 2014, 2019).

26 Jiři Hochman, The Soviet Union and the Failure of Collective Security, 1934–1938 (Ithaca, 1984).

27 George F. Kennan, ‘Some Thoughts on Stalin’s Foreign Policy’, Slavic Review xxxvi, no. 4 (1977), 590–1.

28 Richard C. Raack, ‘Stalin’s Plans for World War II’, Journal of Contemporary History xxvi, no. 2 (1991), 215–27.

29 Dariusz Jeziorny, ‘Once More on British and Soviet Foreign Policy in 1930s’ in Gyula Lengyel and Attila Kolontári (ed), MOSZT könyvek 3. Utak és alternatívák. Előadások és tanulmányok az 1917-es orosz forradalom 90 éves évfordulója alkalmából (Pécs, 2009), 243–55.

30 Iosif Stalin, Dzieła, vii (Warszawa, 1950), 21–4.

31 Silvio Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War, 1936–1941 (London, 2002).

32 Details in Mariusz Wołos, Francja–ZSRR: stosunki polityczne w latach 1924–1932 (Toruń, 2004), 474–605.

33 Michał J. Zacharias, Polska wobec zmian w układzie sił politycznych w Europie w latach 1932–1936 (Wrocław, 1981), 71–5, 82–5; Oleg Ken, ‘Karl Radek i Biuro Mezhdunarodnoi Informatsi TsK VKP(b), 1932–1934 gg.’, Cahier du Monde russe, xliv (2003), 152–63.

34 Two paragraphs based on Dariusz Jeziorny, British Diplomacy and the Concept of the Eastern Pact (1933–1935). Analyses, Projects, Activities (Stuttgart, 2017), 54–82.

35 Memo Shone, 5 Dec. 1933, [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Record Office], F[oreign] O[ffice] 371/17250, N8704/101/38.

36 Memo Collier, 5 Dec., FO 371/17257, N8705/232/38. On Litvinov’s allusion see Strang to Simon, Moscow, 5 Oct., Donald Cameron Watt and Kenneth Bourne (ed), B[ritish] D[ocuments on] F[oreign] A[ffairs], A/ii, xi (London 1986), 282; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 18 Dec. 1933, FO 371/17276, N9136/3529/38.

37 More in Gordon W. Morrell, Britain Confronts the Stalin Revolution: Anglo-Soviet Relations and the Metro-Vickers Crisis (Waterloo, 1995).

38 Valerian Dovgalevski (Soviet polpred in France) to Narkomindel, Paris, 6 Dec. 1933, DVP, xvi, 724–5; Oleg Ken and Aleksandr Rupasov, Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i otnoshenia SSSR s zapadnymi sosednimi gosudarstvami (konec 1920–30-kh gg.). Problemy. Dokumenty. Opyt Kommentariia, i (Sankt Peterburg, 2000), 406–7; Twardowsky to AA, Moscow, 26, 27 Dec. 1933, DGFP, C/vii, 274–6, 278–80.

39 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 6 Nov., FO 371/17275, N8086/2822/38; Chilston to FO, 16 Nov., FO 371/17252, N8411/113/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 29 Dec., FO 371/17252, N9137/113/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 11 Dec. 1933, FO 371/17243, N8840/5/38.

40 Phipps to Simon, Berlin, 5 Dec. and minute Collier, 8 Dec. 1933, FO 371/17250, N8732/101/38; Phipps to Simon, Berlin, 9 Dec. 1933, FO 371/17264, N8822/1149/38.

41 Ken, Rupasow, Politburo TsK, 27–9.

42 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 30 Dec., Ernest L. Woodward and Rohan Butler (ed), D[ocuments on] B[ritish]F[oreign] P[olicy], 2/vii (London, 1958), 624-5; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 30 Dec. 1933, FO 371/18297, N3/1/38; Eric Drummond (British ambassador in Italy) to Orme Sargent (assistant-undersecretary in FO), Rome, 13 Jan. and minutes Collier and Vansittart, 26–7 Jan., FO 371/18298, N478/2/38; Harold Patteson (British consul general in Geneva) to Simon, Geneva, 15 Jan. and minute Collier, 16 Jan. 1934, FO 371/18315, N309/53/38.

43 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 15 Nov. 1933, FO 371/17152, F7355/116/23.

44 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 18 Nov. 1933, FO 371/17152, F7356/116/23.

45 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 16 Dec. 1933, FO 371/17152, F9130/113/23.

46 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 10 Feb. 1934, FO 371/18301, N1083/4/38.

47 Memo Randall, 9 Feb. and minutes Orde, Collier, Wigram, Stanhope and Vansittart, 16-26 Feb. 1934, FO 371/18176, F823/316/23.

48 Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 15 Jan., FO 371/18298, N472/2/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 20 Jan., FO 371/18298, N755/2/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 24 Jan. 1934, FO 371/18298, N618/2/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 28, 29, 31 Dec. 1933, BDFA, A/ii, xi, 364–6, 369–71, 372–85; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 2, 8, 15, 27 Jan. 1934, BDFA, A/ii, xii (London, 1986), 1–3, 7–8, 18, 28–31; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 30–31 Dec. 1933 and 5, 7 Jan. 1934, DBFP, 2/vii, 624–7, 631–2, 634; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 11 Jan., FO 371/18323, N429/429/38; Chilston to Simon, Moscow, 30 Jan. 1934, FO 371/18323, N758/429/38; Stalin’s interview, 25 Dec. 1933, Stalin, Dzieła, xiii (Warszawa, 1951), 286; Litvinov’s speech, 29 Dec. 1933, DVP, xvi, 781–97. The whole issue of Moscow Daily News, covering Stalin’s report did not survive, but there is a trace in the FO papers that Chilston sent it to London.

49 Litvinov’s note, 1 Feb. 1934, Euzebiusz Basiński et al. (ed), Dokumenty i materiały do historii stosunków polsko-radzieckich, vi (Warszawa, 1967), 174–5.

50 Jeziorny, ‘Once More’, 250–4.

51 Minutes Shone and Howe, 30 Jan. 1933, FO 371/18298, N618/2/38; minute Shone, 8 Feb., FO 371/18298, N754/2/38; minute Howe, 9 Feb., FO 371/18298, N755/2/38; minute Shone, 8 Feb. 1934, FO 371/18323, N758/429/38.

52 Edward Coote (counsellor in the British embassy in Moscow) to Simon, Moscow, 7 Sep. 1933, BDFA, A/ii, xii, 238–40.

53 Two paragraphs based on minute Shone, 1 Jan., TNA FO 371/17262, N9135/748/38; minutes Shone, Howe, Collier and Oliphant, 1–2 Jan., FO 371/18297, N1/1/38; minute Howe, 2 Jan., FO 371/18297, N14/2/38; minute Shone, 16 Jan., FO 371/18315, N309/53/38; minute Collier, 24 Jan. 1934, FO 371/18298, N472/2/38.

54 Dariusz Jeziorny, ‘Brytyjskie Foreign Office wobec sowieckich inicjatyw na rzecz zagwarantowania niepodległości państwom bałtyckim (1933-1934)’, Studia z Dziejów Rosji i Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, xliv (2009), 101–24.

55 Four paragraphs based on minutes Shone, Howe, Collier, Oliphant and Vansittart, 9-15 Jan., FO 371/18297, N140/2/38; minutes Shone, Howe and Collier, 9 Jan., FO 371/18315, N176/53/38; minute Shone, 26 Jan., FO 371/18298, N478/2/38; minute Howe, 21 Mar. 1934, FO 371/18298, N1741/2/38.

56 Tyrrell to Simon, Paris, 8 Jan. 1934, FO 371/17744, C198/138/18.

57 Phipps to Simon, Berlin, 31 Jan. and minutes Wigram and Vansittart, 8, 10 Feb. 1934, FO 371/17761, C842/842/18; Leeper to A. Leeper (Father), 12 Sep., 18 Oct., 14 Dec. 1933, Cambridge, Churchill Archives, Leeper Papers 3/21.

58 Memo Collier, 11 Dec. 1933, BDFA, A/ii, xi, 338–40.

59 Foreign Office List for 1936 (London, n.d.), 197.

60 Michael Hughes, Inside the Enigma. British Officials in Russia. 1930–1939 (London–Rio Grande, 1997), 231–7.

61 CID, Foreign Armaments Industries, Mar. 1933, [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Record Office], Cab[inet Papers] 4/22, 1106-B, 7.

62 CID, Annual Review of Imperial Defence (1933), 30 June 1933, CAB 4/22, 1112-B, 32.

63 COS, Annual Review (1933), 12 Oct. 1933, CAB 4/22, 1113-B, 12–3.

64 COS, Soviet Preparations for War, 17 Jan. 1934, CAB 4/22, 1127-B. Full list of the Soviet factories producing for the armament industry was prepared by the IIC – see IIC, USSR Armament Industry, 12 Sep. 1933 (the list consists of 60 pages), CAB 21/395.

65 War Office comments on ‘USSR development of industry’, 11 May 1932 and ‘USSR limiting factors of the munition supply in war’, 25 July 1933, CAB 4/22, 1127-B, 1–7.

66 Compare Nikita Eliseeva, ‘Plans for the Development of the Workers and Peasants Red Army (RKKA) on the Eve of the War’, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, viii (1995), 356–65; Marian Zgórniak, Europa w przededniu wojny. Sytuacja militarna w latach 1938–1939 (Kraków, 1993), 204–27; Gunnar Åselius, ‘The Naval Theaters in Soviet Grand Strategy during the Interwar Period’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, viii (2000), 68–84.

67 Michael L. Roi, Alternative to Appeasement. Sir Robert Vansittart and Alliance Diplomacy, 1934–1937 (Westpork–London, 1997), 16–7, 40–4, 69–71; Ian Colvin, Vansittart in Office. A Historical Survey of the Origins of the Second World War Based on the Papers of Sir Robert Vansittart, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1930–1937 (London, 1956), 22–9.

68 Marek Kornat, Polityka równowagi 1934-1939. Polska między wschodem a Zachodem (Kraków, 2007), 23–56.

69 More in Robert Manne, ‘The Foreign Office and the Failure of Anglo-Soviet Rapprochement’, Journal of Contemporary History, xvi (1981), 725–55.

70 Keith Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 1919–1939 (Cambridge, 2006), 4, 64.

71 Brian J. C. McKercher, ‘Old Diplomacy and New: The Foreign Office and the Foreign Policy, 1919–1939’ in Michael Dockrill and Brian B. C. McKercher (ed), Diplomacy and World Power. Studies in British Policy, 1890–1950 (Cambridge, 1996), 103–4.

72 Curtis Keeble, Britain and the Soviet Union, 1917–89 (Basingstoke–London, 1990), 122–3.

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Dariusz Jeziorny

Dariusz Jeziorny is the Associate Professor at the University of Łódź; his research lays in contemporary world history, particularly in history of diplomacy, East Central European problems and national minorities questions. He has written on the foreign policies of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Austria, and Poland in interwar period, as well as on contemporary political thought – liberalism. He is the author of four books.