Stalin and International Relations 1929-1941

Question 1

How was cooperation between the USSR and Germany established by 1922?

Answer 1

Treaty of Rapallo 1922

Consolidated by Treaty of Berlin 1926

Question 2

When was the most intense period of military collaboration between the USSR and Germany?

Answer 2

1929-32

Question 3

What were the benefits for the Soviet Union from their military collaboration with Germany?

Answer 3

Benefited from German technical expertise for the modernization of industry and armaments production

Question 4

When was the continuation of the Berlin treaty negotiated?

Answer 4

1931

Question 5

What were the 4 ways Russian territory enabled the German army to carry out military operations?

Answer 5

1) The Junkers aircraft factory at Fili, near Moscow
2) A training school for German pilots at Lipetsk in Ukraine
3) A facility for practicing tank warfare at Kazan
4) A secret joint facility at Samara for developing poison gas weapons

Question 6

What is the Cominturn?

Answer 6

An international communist organisation that advocated world communism

Question 7

What happened after the 1928 Comintern Congress?

Answer 7

Stalin attacked democratic socialist movements calling them ‘social fascists’

Question 8

What were the consequences of Stalin attacking socialist movements?

Answer 8

Meant the German Communist Party (KDP) should never cooperate with the German Social Democratic Party

Question 9

Why was Stalin slow to react to the rise of Hitler?

Answer 9

1) He was pleased that Hitler would accelerate the collapse of capitalism.
2) Stalin showed interest in collective security and improved relation with Western democracies
3) Wanted to keep his options open for a possible return to cooperation with Germany.

Question 10

What are the 2 views of Stalin’s foreign policy approaches in the 1930’s?

Answer 10

1) Complicated and contradictory. ‘Zig-zag’ policy, frequently changing direction according to circumstances.
2) Stalin had a single-minded obsession with security, the tactics were unpredictable but the overall strategic objective was always the same.

Question 11

How did the Soviet Union improve it’s relations with the USA?

Answer 11

American Embassy opened in Moscow allowing US diplomats to operate within the USSR

Question 12

What were the ‘Riga Watchers’?

Answer 12

American foreign policy experts who used Riga (the capital of independent Latvia) as a ‘listening post’ from which to observe developments inside Russia

Question 13

What was the role of Maksim Litvinov?

Answer 13

He was the ‘acceptable face’ of the Soviet regime. His long experience of the West, polished social background gave him credibility with Western diplomats.

Question 14

Why were western countries keen to bring the USSR into the League of Nations?

Answer 14

Desirable steps towards strengthening collective security against threats of Japanese or German aggression.

Question 15

How did Stalin take further steps to support Collective Security?

Answer 15

1) Hard-line policy enforced on Comintern from 1928 scrapped.
2) New official party policy to support broad based ‘popular fronts’ in other countries.
3) Soviet communism was to cooperate with democratic socialists in the fight against fascism (announced in Pravda 1934)

Question 16

When did Stalin’s policy of cooperating with democratic socialists in the fight against fascism become an official policy?

Answer 16

1935 at the Comintern Congress, Moscow

Question 17

What is a popular front?

Answer 17

Setting aside divisions to provide united action by Liberals and the Left against fascism (in Italy and Nazi Germany)

Question 18

When was the non-aggression pact with Poland signed?

Answer 18

December 1932

Question 19

When was the non-aggression pact with France signed?

Answer 19

November 1932

Question 20

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

Answer 20

May 1935

Question 21

What were the issues with the Franco-Soviet Pact of Mutual Assistance?

Answer 21

1) It didn’t have specific clauses on military cooperation 2) It vague on the circumstances in which it might be activated
3) It was regarded as a hollow threat of a two-front war on Germany

Question 22

What did the USSR promise in their pact with Czechoslovakia?

Answer 22

USSR said they would intervene militarily if Czechoslovakia was attacked by a third party (Germany) as long as the French did also

Question 23

Who encouraged Czechoslovakia into the pact with the USSR?

Answer 23

France and Britain

Question 24

Why was the re-militarization of the Rhineland a setback for diplomatic relations?

Answer 24

From the moment the Germans entered the Rhineland, Stalin must have thought it was only a matter of time before he must either fight Hitler or make a deal with him.
It set the context for Stalin’s intervention in Spain.

Question 25

When did Stalin decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 25

September 1936

Question 26

How did Stalin intervene in the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 26

Hundreds of Soviet ‘advisers’ were sent to Spain backed by troops, tanks and aircraft.
Large scale, rapidly implemented political and military intervention.

Question 27

Who did the Soviet forces in Spain follow orders from?

Answer 27

Moscow not Madrid. They operated independently of the Spanish Republican government.

Question 28

What was the impact of Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 28

1) Probably saved Madrid from falling to Franco.
2) Disillusionment with France and Britain.
3) Exacerbated fear and dislike of Soviet communism, weakening the prospects for future collaboration.

Question 29

What were the threats facing the Soviet Union in 1937?

Answer 29

Germany were preparing for a war of aggression and territorial expansion against Czechoslovakia and Poland in November.
Japan had launched a war of aggression in China.

Question 30

What was appeasement?

Answer 30

Policies of the Western democracies in response to demands from Hitler’s Germany to revise the Treaty of Versailles, rather than relying on military alliances to enforce the post-war peace.
Negotiations to meet legitimate German grievances.

Question 31

How was Germany appeased in March 1938?

Answer 31

German forces invaded Austria and imposed the Anschluss, incorporating Austria into the German Reich. France and Britain protested but TOOK NO ACTION.

Question 32

How was Germany appeased in the Summer of 1938?

Answer 32

Nazi-inspired agitation for the German-speaking Sudetenland to be transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany. This is exactly what the 1935 Soviet pacts with France and Czechoslovakia were meant to guard against but they WEREN’T ACTIVATED.

Question 33

What was the Anti-Comintern Pact?

Answer 33

An agreement to take joint action against ‘interference’ in their internal affairs by the Comintern - though the real enemy was the Soviet Union.

Question 34

When did Italy join the Anti-Comintern Pact?

Answer 34

November 1937

Question 35

When was the war between Japan and the Soviet Union?

Answer 35

1939

Question 36

How many troops, tanks and aircraft were involved in the Japanese/Soviet war?

Answer 36

100,000 troops

1000 tanks and aircraft

Question 37

When was the battle of Khalkhin Gol?

Answer 37

August 1939

Question 38

What was the result of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol?

Answer 38

1) The Japanese army was defeated by Soviet forces led by General Zhukov.
2) 75% of the Japanese troops in battle were killed.
3) Japanese expansionists left the Soviet Union, concentrating on targets in the Pacific instead.
4) Confirmed the need to remain militarily strong in the Far East for USSR.

Question 39

When was the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed and who by?

Answer 39

Signed 23rd August by Ribbentrop and Molotov

Question 40

Why did Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact?

Answer 40

1) Stalin wanted to avoid a two-front war against Germany and Japan (USSR was militarily weak at the time)
2) Territorial gains (eastern Poland and Baltic States)
3) Guaranteed a breathing space to consolidate economic changes in Russia (5 Year Plans)
4) Stalin could look forward to the prospect of a long war which would make Britain, France and Germany economically and militarily exhausted.

Question 41

Why did Hitler sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact?

Answer 41

1) Gave him a free hand to invade Poland

2) Gave them the vital raw materials from Russia

Question 42

Stalin’s optimism about the consequences of the Nazi-Soviet Pact was based on 2 faulty assumptions:

Answer 42

1) The strength of the French Army and the nature of modern warfare (he believed the war would last for years like WW1 but the rapid fall of France in June 1940 was a nasty surprise)
2) Thought he could trust Hitler but by October 1940 he was already preparing to invade the USSR in 1941. Refused to believe warnings from Allied intelligence so when the invasion came on 22nd June 1941 the USSR was unprepared to defend against it.