Chapter 8 - Foreign relations and the attitudes to foreign powers 1918-24

Question 1

What happened in March 1918?

Answer 1

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
British naval blockade imposed

Question 2

What happened in August 1918?

Answer 2

Allied forces land in north Russia and the Far East
11,000 US forces in Vladivostok
Baku (home of much of Russia’s oil) occupied by the British

Question 3

What happened in November 1918?

Answer 3

Armistice to end WWI

Question 4

What happened in March 1919?

Answer 4

Russia is excluded from the Paris Peace Conference
First Comintern Congress in Moscow

Question 5

What happened in June 1919?

Answer 5

US forces start to withdraw (civil war)

Question 6

What happened in August 1919?

Answer 6

British naval assault on Petrograd

Question 7

What happened in March 1920?

Answer 7

Withdrawal of Allied forces from south Russia

Question 8

What happened in August 1920?

Answer 8

Westward advance of the Red Army halted at the Battle of Warsaw

Question 9

What happened in November 1920?

Answer 9

The Bolshevik state is given recognition by Britain

Question 10

What happened in March 1921

Answer 10

Treaty of Riga ends the Russo-Polish War

Question 11

What happened in April 1922

Answer 11

Treaty of Rapallo moves Russia away from diplomatic isolation

Question 12

Reasons for foreign intervention in the civil war

Answer 12

• Britain, France and the USA initially wanted the Whites to win so that Russia could keep fighting the war and stop Germany from moving troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front
• The Allies didn’t want the Bolsheviks getting control over the weaponry they’d sent in the war
• Post war, the Allies were combatting Bolshevism
  
  • Foreign forces uncoordinated and unsure over which anti-Bolshevik forces to support

Question 13

Why didn’t foreign intervention significantly impact the outcome of the civil war?

Answer 13

• most was too small-scale to have any impact
• major intervention (Japanese invasion of Siberia) was in the Far East and didn’t threaten Bolshevik control of Russia

Question 14

What does Comintern stand for?

Answer 14

the Communist International

Question 15

What was Comintern?

Answer 15

An international communist organisation that aimed to promote Marxism and spread proletarian revolution around the world

Question 16

Founding Congress of the Communist International

Where did it take place?

When?

What were the key issues?

What was the outlook of delegates?

Answer 16

Moscow

March 1919

Lenin promoted the soviet system as the best way of spreading Marxism

Positive. Delegates were convinced worldwide communist revolution was immenent despite the civil war and the suppression of the Spartacist uprising

Question 17

Second Comintern Congress

Where did it take place?

When?

What were the key issues?

What was the outlook of delegates?

Answer 17

Petrograd

July-August 1920

Lenin’s 21 Conditions: the requirements that must be met to become a member of Comintern

Mixed. Some parties broke away from Comintern because of the 21 Conditions. Bolshevik victory in the civil war looked certain

Question 18

Third Comintern Congress

Where did it take place?

When?

What were the key issues?

What was the outlook of delegates?

Answer 18

Moscow

June-July 1921

The recovery of the bourgeoisie in countries like Poland and Germany

Disappointed. Expected revolutions had turned into support for bourgeois democracies. Germany ruled by ‘bourgeois-democratic’ Weimar Republic.

Question 19

How did the focus of Bolshevik leaders change after the Third Comintern Congress

Answer 19

Shifted away from the world revolution to concentrate instead on rebuilding the economy in Russia

Question 20

Why was there interest in reopening trade deals with Russia?

Answer 20

By 1921 it seemed less likely that revolution would spread in Russia

Question 21

Who had been excluded from the League of Nations after WWI?

Answer 21

Bolshevik Russia and Weimar Germany

Question 22

How did the Rapallo Treaty come about?

Answer 22

Chicherin was invited to an important international economic conference in Genoa in 1922

Chicherin and representatives from Weimar Germany held talks in nearby Rapallo

Question 23

What were the key articles of the Treaty of Rapallo?

Answer 23

• Agreed to waive any claims for compensation arising from WWI
• Formal diplomatic relations reopened
• ‘Mutual goodwill’ stressed in commercial and economic relations

Also a secret treaty allowing Germany to carry out military training on Russian territory

Question 24

When was a Labour government established in Britain and how did the public react?

Answer 24

1923

Strong opposition from much of the public who hated socialism

Question 25

What was the Zinoviev letter?

Answer 25

A forged letter published in October 1924, designed to reduce votes for the Labour Party in the general election

Question 26

More details on the Zinoviev letter

Answer 26

• supposedly from Zinoviev (chairman of Comintern) to one of the leaders of the Labour Party
• called for trade deals and said it was time to organise a revolution in Britain

Question 27

What was the impact of the Zinoviev letter on the British election?

Answer 27

small

damaged relations between Britain and the Soviet Union

Question 28

What was the situation in Russia by the time Lenin died?

Answer 28

Left behind a highly centralised, one-party state that had managed to revive the economy but the USSR still faced problems politically, economically, socially and in terms of its international relations