‘My task is to get into the French army’: Soviet strategy and the origins of Soviet-French military cooperation in the 1930s

ABSTRACT

This article is about the first attempts of Soviet-French rapprochement in the military sphere in the early 1930s. It is based largely upon unpublished documents from the Soviet foreign policy (AVPRF), military (RGVA) and the communist party (RGASPI) archives in Moscow. It contends that for the top leadership of the USSR the political rapprochement with France did not necessarily lead to making a fully-fledged military alliance. Despite the attitude of Soviet diplomats in Paris, Moscow remained distrustful of the French. It considered military cooperation with them as a way to reinforce the Red Army and strengthen international positions of the USSR without taking excessive obligations.

KEYWORDS:

• Litvinov
• Stalin
• France

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ F. Guelton, ‘Les relations militaires franco-soviétiques dans les années trente’, M.M. Narinski, E. du Réau, G.-H. Soutou, A.O. Tchoubarian (eds.), La France et l’URSS dans l’Europe des années 30, (Paris: Presse de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2005), 72.

² S.A. Gorlov, Sovershenno sekretno: al’yans Moskva – Berlin, 1920–1933 gg (Moscow: OLMA-PRESS 2001); J. Calvitt Clarke III, Russia and Italy Against Hitler: The Bolshevik-Fascist Rapprochement of the 1930s (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1991).

³ Michael J. Carley, Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield 2014), 301–349.

⁴ G.-H. Soutou, ‘La France, l’URSS et l’ère de Locarno, 1924-1929', in M.M. Narinski, E. du Réau, G.-H. Soutou, A.O. Tchoubarian (eds.), L’URSS et l’Europe dans les années 20 (Paris: Presse de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne 2000), 71.

⁵ Jonathan Haslam, Soviet Foreign Policy, 1930–1933: The Impact of the Depression (London: Palgrave Macmillan 1983), 58–70.

⁶ J.-B. Duroselle, La Décadence, 1932–1939 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1979), 45.

⁷ S. Cœuré, La Grande Lueur à l’Est. Les Français et l’Union soviétique (1917–1939) (Paris: Seuil 1999), 213–269.

⁸ M. Vaïsse, Sécurité d’abord. La politique française en matière de désarmement (9 décembre 1930–17 avril 1934) (Paris: Pédone 1981), 412.

⁹ William E. Scott, Alliance against Hitler: The Origins of the Franco-Soviet Pact (Durham N.C.: Duke University Press 1962), 5–6.

¹⁰ E. du Réau, ‘Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, collaborateur du Général Weygand’, Bulletin de la Société d’histoire moderne, seizième série, 15.

¹¹ Guelton, Les relations militaires franco-soviétiques dans les années trente.

¹² M. Vaïsse, ‘Les militaires français et l’alliance franco-soviétique au cours des années 1930ʹ, Forces armées et systèmes d’alliance. Colloque international d’histoire militaire et d’études de défense nationale, 2–6 septembre 1981(Montpellier, Paris: Fondation pour les études de Défense nationale 1983); G. Vidal, Une alliance improbable: L’armée française et la Russie soviétique 1917–1939 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2015); and P. Buffotot, ‘The French high command and the Franco-Soviet alliance 1933–1939ʹ, Journal of Strategic Studies 5/4 (1982).

¹³ Scott, Alliance against Hitler, 73.

¹⁴ S. Dullen (Sabine Dullin), Uplotneniye granits. K istokam sovetskoy politiki. 1920–1940-ye (Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye 2019), 187.

¹⁵ S. Dullin, Des hommes d’influences. Les ambassadeurs de Staline en Europe (Paris: Payot 2001), 33.

¹⁶ Haslam, Soviet Foreign Policy, 1930–1933, 2–3.

¹⁷ James Harris, ‘Encircled by enemies: Stalin’s perceptions of the capitalist world, 1918 – 1941ʹ, Journal of Strategic Studies 30/3 (2007), 526–528.

¹⁸ Michael J. Carley, ‘A Soviet Eye on France from the rue de Grenelle in Paris, 1924–1940ʹ, Diplomacy & Statecraft 17/2 (2006), 313–314.

¹⁹ M.I. Mel’tyukhov, Upushchennyy shans Stalina. Sovetskiy Soyuz i bor’ba za Yevropu: 1939–1941 (Moscow: Veche 2000), 418–420.

²⁰ M.M. Litvinov, V bor’be za mir (Moscow, Literaturnoye izdatel’stvo NKID 1938), 77.

²¹ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command. A Military-Political History, 1918–1941 (New York, Routledge 2001), 379–380.

²² E. du Réau, ‘Du plan Briand au traité de non-agression franco-soviétique. Les relations franco-soviétiques au début des années trente: vers un rapprochement des deux Etats (1930–1933)’, in M.M. Narinski, E. du Réau, G.-H. Soutou, A.O. Tchoubarian (eds.), La France et l’URSS dans l’Europe des années 30, (Paris: Presse de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne 2005), 170.

²³ Johnathan Haslam, ‘Litvinov, Stalin and the Road Not Taken’, in Gabriel Gorodetsky (ed.) Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1991: A Retrospective (London: Routledge 1994), 56–58; and Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 51.

²⁴ I.V. Stalin, Sochineniia, 13 vols. (Moscow: Gospolitizdat 1947–51), Vol. 12, 256.

²⁵ Harris, Encircled by enemies: Stalin’s Perceptions of the capitalist world, 543.

²⁶ Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF) 05/13/94/70/14 (recto).

²⁷ AVPRF 10/8/32/91/26.

²⁸ AVPRF 05/13/94/64/7.

²⁹ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 120.

³⁰ Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) 558/11/431/94.

³¹ Erickson, The Soviet High Command, 333.

³² Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 51–52.

³³ RGASPI 558/11/432/139.

³⁴ RGASPI 558/11/431/146.

³⁵ Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir. Écrits 1914–1952 (Paris: Plon 1984), 133.

³⁶ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 135–143.

³⁷ RGASPI 558/11/431/124.

³⁸ RGASPI 558/11/431/148.

³⁹ RGASPI 558/11/431/122-123.

⁴⁰ RGASPI 558/11/431/121.

⁴¹ RGASPI 558/11/431/122.

⁴² See note 37 above.

⁴³ Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (MAE), Série Z (Europe, 1918–1940), URSS, 927, l’Ambassadeur de France à Moscou à Son Excellence Monsieur Edouard Herriot, Président du Conseil, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères, 10 novembre 1932.

⁴⁴ See note 44 above.

⁴⁵ Documents diplomatiques français 1932–1939. 1ère série, 1932–1935 (DDF), T. 2 (Paris: Imprimerie nationale 1966), 30.

⁴⁶ RGASPI 558/11/185/67-68.

⁴⁷ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 139–143.

⁴⁸ RGASPI 558/11/431/125.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ See note 38 above.

⁵¹ RGASPI 558/11/431/120.

⁵² Dokumenty Vneshnei Politiki SSSR (DVP SSSR), 22 vols. (Moscow: Gospolitizdat 1957–77) Vol. 15, 509.

⁵³ DVP SSSR, 794.

⁵⁴ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/10.

⁵⁵ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/14.

⁵⁶ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/14 (recto).

⁵⁷ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 134–135.

⁵⁸ See note 56 above.

⁵⁹ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 134.

⁶⁰ French documents about the Simonov mission were analysed by André Bach. See his unpublished thesis on Soviet-French military relations: Le colonel Mendras et les relations militaires franco-soviétiques: 1932–1935, mémoire de maîtrise d’Histoire (Paris, Université Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne 1981).

⁶¹ E. du Réau, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, collaborateur du Général Weygand, 19.

⁶² RGASPI 17/162/14/27.

⁶³ see note 28 above.

⁶⁴ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/13.

⁶⁵ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 120–121.

⁶⁶ Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) 33988/3a/299/15.

⁶⁷ RGVA 33988/3a/299/29.

⁶⁸ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/11.

⁶⁹ Carley, ‘A Soviet Eye on France from the rue de Grenelle in Paris,’ 311.

⁷⁰ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/13 (recto).

⁷¹ RGVA 33988/3a/299/15.

⁷² RGVA 33988/3a/299/14.

⁷³ Ibid.

⁷⁴ RGVA 33988/3a/299/12.

⁷⁵ RGVA 33988/3a/299/26.

⁷⁶ RGVA 33988/3a/299/25.

⁷⁷ See note 75 above.

⁷⁸ See note 54 above.

⁷⁹ See note 62 above.

⁸⁰ RGVA 33988/3a/299/4.

⁸¹ RGVA 33988/3a/299/16.

⁸² AVPRF 05/13/94/70/2.

⁸³ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 97–108.

⁸⁴ Carley, A Soviet Eye on France from the rue de Grenelle in Paris, 298.

⁸⁵ See note 70 above.

⁸⁶ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 137.

⁸⁷ De Lattre de Tassigny, Ne pas subir, 138.

⁸⁸ O.V. Khlevniuk, R.U. Devis (R.W. Davies), L.P. Kosheleva, E.A. Ris, (E.A. Rees) and L.A. Rogovaia (eds.), Stalin i Kaganovich: Perepiska. 1931–1936 gg (Moscow: ROSSPEN 2001), 192–193.

⁸⁹ RGASPI 558/11/431/163.

⁹⁰ AVPRF 05/13/94/70/23.

⁹¹ RGASPI 558/11/432/56.

⁹² RGASPI 558/11/432/57.

⁹³ RGASPI 558/11/432/58.

⁹⁴ AVPRF 0136/17/159/7/58.

⁹⁵ RGASPI 558/11/432/63.

⁹⁶ RGASPI 558/11/432/64.

⁹⁷ RGVA 33987/3а/374/7.

⁹⁸ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 122.

⁹⁹ N.S. Cherushev, Zhizn’ voyennoy elity. Za fasadom blagopoluchiya. 1918–1953 gg. (Moscow: Veche 2014), 192.

¹⁰⁰ Archives du Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre (SHAT) 7N 3121, Compte rendu du Colonel Mendras sur son séjour à Moscou du 8 au 23 Avril 1933.

¹⁰¹ SHAT 7N 3143, Note sur Ventzow. Renseignement datant de février 1932.

¹⁰² RGASPI 558/11/432/132.

¹⁰³ RGASPI 558/11/432/138.

¹⁰⁴ see note 33 above.

¹⁰⁵ Colonel Henri Didelet was the military attaché of France in Germany in 1938–39.

¹⁰⁶ RGASPI 558/11/432/140.

¹⁰⁷ SHAT 7 3121, Compte rendu du Colonel Mendras sur son séjour à Moscou du 25 avril au 5 mai 1933.

¹⁰⁸ SHAT 7 3121, Compte-rendu mensuel de l’Attaché militaire de France à Moscou No 17, mois de novembre 1934, le 1^er décembre 1934.

¹⁰⁹ They will later acknowledge the problem. See Bach, Le colonel Mendras et les relations militaires franco-soviétiques, 181–207.

¹¹⁰ Bruce W. Menning, Bayonets Before Bullets. The Imperial Russian Army, 1861–1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1992); O.R. Ayrapetov, Uchastiye Rossiyskoy imperii v Pervoy mirovoy voyne (1914–1917), Vol. 1–4 (Moscow, Kuchkovo pole 2014); and Dominic Lieven, The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution (London, Penguin 2016).

¹¹¹ Lieven, The End of Tsarist Russia, 346.

¹¹² O.N. Ken, Mobilizatsionnoye planirovaniye i politicheskiye resheniya (konets 1920kh – seredina 1930kh gg) (Moscow: OGI 2008), 461.

¹¹³ Martin S. Alexander, The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992).

¹¹⁴ Ken, Mobilizatsionnoye planirovaniye, 462.

¹¹⁵ Ibid.

¹¹⁶ Derek Watson, ‘The Politburo and Foreign Policy in the 1930, in E.A. Rees (ed.), The Nature of Stalin’s Dictatorship. The Politburo, 1924–1953 (Basingstoke–New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2004), 138.

¹¹⁷ Haslam, Litvinov, Stalin and the Road Not Taken, 57.

¹¹⁸ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 113; and Michael J. Carley, ‘Behind Stalin’s Moustache: Pragmatism in Early Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–41ʹ, Diplomacy and Statecraft 12/3 (2001), 159–74.

¹¹⁹ P. Gregori (Paul Gregory), Politicheskaya ekonomiya stalinizma (Moscow: ROSSPEN 2008), 334.

¹²⁰ Dullin, Des hommes d’influences, 26.

¹²¹ Silvio Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War, 1936–1941 (London/Portland, OR: Frank Cass 2002), 72.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Federation President Council on Grants for governmental support for young Russian scientists and leading Russian scientific schools [MK-6084.2018.6].

Notes on contributors

Aleksandr Vershinin

Aleksandr Vershinin is a Senior Lecturer at Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University. His research focuses on history of international relations, Soviet and Russian foreign policy, Soviet-French relationship and diplomatic history.