International relations

Cards (7)

  • Germany:
    • 1929-32
    • German expertise helped industrialisation
    • Germany was USSRs biggest export market
    • USSR benefitted from German military training
    • Germany benefitted from access to areas in the USSR that they could carry out military developments banned in the treaty of Versailles
  • League of Nations:
    • September 1934
    • Benefits to west - strength collective security against Germany or Japan
    • Benefits to USSR - potential for international cooperation against anti-communist Hitler - could influence France and Britain
  • Pacts with France and Czechoslovakia:
    • November 1932 - non-aggression pact with France
    • December 1932 - non-aggression pact with Poland
    • May 1935 - mutual assistance pact with France and Czechoslovakia
  • Spanish civil war:
    • September 1936
    • Military equipment and soviet advisors to Republic
    • Stalin hoped to prolong the civil war in 1937 to weaken German and Italian forces on nationalist side
    • Soviet intervention increased fear and dislike of soviet communism in the west
  • Nazi-soviet pact:
    • 23rd August 1939
    • respect each others territories, increase trade and settle disputes peacefully
    • secret part of pact divided Eastern Europe into a German and soviet sphere of influence
    • USSR continued anti-Nazi propaganda
    • Pact could be seen as a delaying tactic as red army not ready for war in 1939
  • Outcome of Nazi-Soviet pact:
    • Hitler could send his armies westwards without fear of Russian reprisals - defeated France in may 1940
    • USSR seized control of Baltic states in 1940
  • Stalin thought Hitler could not invade until May 1942 but by October 1940 plans had already begun for the invasion