The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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Lets us skip a few decades and listen to François Mitterrand. „Then Munich came, with betrayed trust and humiliated frienship. I still feel it today and I remember that time when I was a student in Paris. At that precise moment I wrote about the shame I felt.” 1 In the year 1988 François Miterrand was the first president since 1939 to visit Czechoslovakia. During his trip he recalled this unglorious period of the history of France, when a pacifist will was stronger than the fate of a people with whom we had been friends for centuries. 1 Interview of François Mitterrand for the Czechoslovakian television in december 1988. 124
Baranyi, Tamás „A Surprise of a Very Unpleasant Character” British Reaction to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact The signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact caused mayhem throughout British politics. Suddenly, the Whitehall had to abandon the policy of „appeasement”, and develop an entirely new approach to international politics. The present study tries to elaborate on the British opinion and policy responses given to the Russo-German Pact. The first question to arise is to what extent were the British politicians aware of the Russo-German approximation, and to what extent were they surprised by the Russian volte-face? Secondly, the policy responses given by London needs to be examined. At the same time, the British pursued three different policies: they had a last attempt to appease Hitler, they tried to contain German expansionism, and they tried to forge a better relationship with Moscow. These responses are of utmost interest in the history of the world war. Great Britain was seeking peace throughout the 1930s. It was partly due to the general anti-war sentiment in the British Empire, partly to English suspicions towards French grandeur politics, and partly to the cautious recognition of the Empire’s relative weakness. To a certain extent, the Foreign Office was consistent: they were willing to concede Hitler in his attempts to revise the Treaty of Versailles, but by no means to re-negotiate spheres of world influence. 1 As a response to Germany’s new achievements in 1939, Britain decided to give territorial guarantee to Poland in April, and to commence trilateral negotiations with France and the USSR, in order to involve the Soviets in an alliance to contain Hitler’s ambitions. These negotiations were going on from April to August, 1939. In August, a British military mission was also sent to Moscow, though their efforts were not of a real significance. 2 British politics had often been criticized that they were not really committed to make an alliance with Russia. In fact, as Henry Kissinger pointed out, Stalin acted as if he was in a bazaar: he had listened to all offers, and then decided who to 1 Secondary works on the British foreign policy in the 1930s generally have the same conclusion regarding the causes of ’appeasement policy.’ This remarkably compact and essential summary is given by Gergely Egedy. Cf. EGEDY, Gergely: Nagy-Britannia története. Aula, Budapest, 1998. 179-181. 2 The British were not really eager to make a pact with Russia. The military mission had chosen the slowest vehicle to get to Russia (a merchant ship), and there were no front-ranking persons in it, comparable to their Soviet counterpart, Voroshilov, etc. Cf. WATSON, Derek: Molotov’s Apprenticehip in Foreign Policy: The Triple Alliance Negotiations in 1939. In: Europa-Asia Studies 2000/4. 713. As TAYLOR, A. J. P. put it, „If British diplomacy seriously aspired to alliance with Soviet Russia in 1939, then the negotiations towards this end were the most incompetent transactions since Lord North lost the American colonies...” Qtd. in WATSON, op. cit., 696. 125
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ISBN 978-963-284-164-9
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Unknown Clauses: The Background Dea
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CONTENTS Foreword (István MAJOROS,
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Foreword The world remembers in 200
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The Historical Judgement of the Mol
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went often on emotional instead of
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What is much more interesting is th
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such an international agreement as
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Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggress
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Done in duplicate, in the German an
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Lachaise, Bernard Historiography of
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Relations) are the focus of special
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Russian agreement (…) would allow
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Europe and on the French communists
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adopted a stance of denying the fac
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Ortolan, Guillaume The 70 th annive
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government (more than twenty) came,
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War. On the contrary, it shows that
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this anniversary and more widely of
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interesting: „Illusions. In summe
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Kretschmann, Vasco The ideological
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One of the most influential associa
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Germanness in the provinces of West
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Prętkiewicz, Przemysław The syste
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interwar period and the treaty was
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situation of rising danger accepted
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Manchukuo and broke relations with
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I would like to finish my article w
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party itself but for the whole Slov
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In summary, the group of the „Mod
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make proposals or suggestions. 6 In
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(Aland), Hanko and the islands of t
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have had a less serious effect on t
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not expect strong resistance and ho
Page 77 and 78: Winkler, Paul Adolf Eichmann’s Vi
Page 79 and 80: individual offenders, 10 who used h
Page 81 and 82: esearch. But how could the suppress
Page 83 and 84: expert of this matter 29 and had as
Page 85 and 86: Arendt on the contrary is in the op
Page 87 and 88: the „matter”, where there was a
Page 89 and 90: adoption of the model it became cle
Page 91 and 92: of Eichmann. For that Heydrich deli
Page 93: esistance […] but of logistics. N
Page 96 and 97: British government refused to give
Page 98 and 99: ole in the defence of Madrid in Nov
Page 100 and 101: public doubt the democratic idea of
Page 102 and 103: Republicans. In the refugee camps i
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Page 106 and 107: iron? Where can one find more nicke
Page 108 and 109: According to his diaries, the main
Page 110 and 111: announced: „We have no active all
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Page 114 and 115: negative, an analysis of the disapp
Page 116 and 117: can let think of an imminent war po
Page 118 and 119: de la guerre [il] ne fait que l'agg
Page 120 and 121: Party), the enemy of the inside. Of
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Page 124 and 125: Before the Pact M. Coulondre, the F
Page 128 and 129: argain with. Hitler had an offer th
Page 130 and 131: secret protocol clarified that the
Page 132 and 133: to reach out for Russia through the
Page 134 and 135: of a war interesting rather on civi
Page 136 and 137: At the same moment, we can note an
Page 138 and 139: Faure 2 , remains hostile to war. I
Page 140 and 141: war can still be avoided in June 19
Page 142 and 143: acked by a „belligerent” coalit
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Page 146 and 147: agreement” sound anachronistic. E
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Page 150 and 151: Two ideas emerge from the press: on
Page 152 and 153: soviets didn’t have motive. Blum
Page 154 and 155: Moscow's line, with the national an
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Page 158 and 159: 2.000 German speaking inhabitants).
Page 160 and 161: The Eastern Polish border was not r
Page 162 and 163: Army. The mayor of Lviv did not wan
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Page 166 and 167: Budapest, and for Warsaw. The two c
Page 168 and 169: could not destroy the Polish Air Fo
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ate of communists within the Jews o
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the initial positive feeling toward
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wanted to take revenge for the NKVD
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German Reactions A last point that
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The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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