Foreign relation 1918-24

• Features of foreign intervention in civil war:

  • British forces attacked Murmansk and British navy blockaded trade to Russia through the Baltic Sea
  • 11,000 US troops landed at Vladivostok
  • Japanese troops invaded eastern Siberia
  • Baku occupied by the British
  • British and French navy blocked trade through the Black sea and the Caspian sea
• Reasons for foreign intervention:

  • to combat Bolshevism
  • none of the allies had a main aim
• Impact of foreign intervention:

  • most foreign intervention was too small-scale to have an impact
  • major intervention such as Japanese invasion was in the far east and did not threaten Bolshevik control of Russia
  • foreign support for the Whites at the start of war did help them achieve initial advances
• Comintern:

  • Promote Marxism and spread revolution
  • Founding Congress - March 1919 - Lenin promoted soviet system as best way of spreading Marxism - delegates were positive
  • Second congress - August 1920 - Lenin’s ‘21 conditions’: requirements that must be met to become a member - mixed reaction, some broke away
  • Third congress - June 1921 - Recovery of bourgeoisie in countries like Germany - disappointment, bolshevik Russia was left alone in a capitalist world
• Russo-Polish war:

  • Lenin had expected a revolution in Poland but it failed to occur
  • Poland emerged as an independent country by the end of the First World War
  • new borders were contested
  • first conflict between polish and bolshevik forces was in February 1919
  • May 1920 - Poles allied with Ukraine to take Kiev
  • Red army pushed Polish army back to Warsaw
  • Stalemate
  • Treaty of Riga - March 1921
• Rapallo treaty:

  • Russia and Germany - April 1922
  • Formal diplomatic relations
  • ‘Mutual goodwill’
  • Agreed to waive any claims for compensation from first world war
• Zinoviev letter:

  • October 1924 - a forgery promoted by right-wingers to try and reduce votes for the Labour Party
  • From the chairman of the Comintern, to one of the leaders of the Labour Party
  • Called for trade deals and said it was time for revolution in Britain
  • Damaged relations between Britain and Russia
  • Little impact on the election