The Rapallo Treaty is an agreement between the RSFSR and the Weimar Republic on the restoration of diplomatic relations between them and the settlement of all disputes [1] [2] , concluded on April 16, 1922 during the Genoese Conference in the city of Rapallo ( Italy ). Both contracting parties mutually refused reimbursement of military expenses, military and non-military losses, expenses for prisoners of war, introduced the principle of most favored nation in the implementation of mutual trade and economic relations; in addition, Germany recognized the nationalization of German private and state property in the RSFSR and the annulment of royal debts by the Soviet government [1] .
| Rapallo Treaty | |
|---|---|
 Representatives of the Soviet and German parties in Rapallo: Karl Josef Wirth , Leonid Krasin , George Chicherin and Adolf Ioffe | |
| date of signing | April 16, 1922 |
| • a place |  Rapallo , Italy |
| Signed | Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin , Walter Rathenau |
| Parties |  RSFSR  Weimar Republic |
The features of the Rapallo Treaty include the fact that its reason and basis was the general rejection of the Versailles Treaty for the two countries. In the West, the Rapallo Agreement is sometimes unofficially called the “pajamas agreement” because of the well-known nightly “pajama meeting” of the German side on the adoption of Soviet conditions .
Background and Meaning
As G. Kissinger noted, the signing of the Rapallo Treaty was inevitable because the Western Allies predetermined this event, “ostracizing the two largest European powers by creating a belt of small, hostile states, as well as by dismembering both Germany and the Soviet Union” [ 3] .
Negotiations on the settlement of existing disputes began even before Genoa, including in Berlin in January - February 1922 and during the meeting of G.V. Chicherin with Chancellor K. Wirth and Foreign Minister V. Rathenau during the stop of the Soviet delegation in Berlin on the way to Genoa.
The Rapallo Treaty signaled the end of the international diplomatic isolation of the RSFSR. For Russia, this was the first full-scale treaty and de jure recognition as a state, and for Germany, the first equal treaty after Versailles [4] [5] .
Thanks to the agreement, the Red Army was able to use the technical achievements of the German military industry and study the modern organizational methods of the German General Staff. The Reichswehr was given the opportunity to train groups of pilots, tankers and chemical weapons specialists, as well as to train his officers in handling new weapons, the manufacture and possession of which was prohibited by Germany.
Key Points and Signing
The agreement provided for the immediate restoration in full of diplomatic relations between the RSFSR and Germany. The parties mutually refused claims for reimbursement of military expenses and non-military losses and agreed on a procedure for resolving disagreements among themselves. Germany recognized the nationalization of German state and private property in the RSFSR and renounced claims arising from "the measures taken by the RSFSR or its organs with respect to German citizens or their private rights, provided that the government of the RSFSR does not satisfy similar claims of other states." The size of German share capital nationalized in Soviet Russia was estimated in the memorandum of G. V. Chicherin of March 2, 1922 at 378 million rubles [6] .
Both parties recognized the principle of most favored nation as the basis of their legal and economic relations, pledged to promote the development of their trade and economic relations. The German government declared its readiness to assist German firms in developing business ties with Soviet organizations.
The text of the treaty does not contain secret military agreements, but Article 5 states that the German government announces its readiness to support the activities of private companies in the Soviet Union. This practice avoided the compromise of the German government, although the costs were covered directly by the War Department.
On the part of Russia ( RSFSR ) signed by George Chicherin . From the side of Germany ( Weimar Republic ) - Walther Rathenau . The contract was concluded without an indication of the term. The provisions of the agreement entered into force immediately. Only paragraph "b" of Art. 1 on the regulation of public and private law relations and Art. 4 most favored nation entered into force upon ratification. [7] On May 16, 1922, by decree of the All - Russian Central Executive Committee , the Rapallo Treaty was ratified. On May 29, 1922, the German government put the treaty to discussion in the Reichstag and on July 4, 1922 it was ratified . The exchange of instruments of ratification was made in Berlin on January 31, 1923.
According to the agreement, signed on November 5, 1922 in Berlin, it was extended to the Soviet Union republics - the BSSR , the USSR, and the USSR . The agreement was signed by their plenipotentiaries: Vladimir Ausem (Ukrainian SSR), Nikolai Krestinsky (BSSR and ZSFSR) and German Foreign Minister Baron Ago von Maltzan. Ratified: the BSSR on December 1, 1922, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia on February 12, 1922, the Ukrainian SSR on December 14, 1922, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia on January 12, 1923. The exchange of instruments of ratification was made in Berlin on October 26, 1923.
Russia and Germany developed Rapallo’s policies in the Berlin Treaty of April 24, 1926.
Military cooperation
Contacts between the Red Army and the Reichswehr were established already in the winter of 1920-1921 and remained secret until 1926.
The first military cooperation agreements were concluded at the end of November 1922 between the Junkers firm and the Soviet government: they envisaged the production of metal planes and engines, as well as the arrangement of Sweden-Persia transit communications and the organization of aerial photography (all with the participation of the Germans by the end of 1925 on 170 aircraft were built at the Fili factory). On May 14, 1923, an agreement was signed in Moscow on the construction of a chemical plant for the production of toxic substances (Bersol Joint Stock Company). After signing the agreement on the reconstruction of military factories and the supply of artillery shells to the Reichswehr in July 1923, Krupp helped the Soviet side set up the production of grenades and shells.
In the spring of 1925, an aviation school was organized in Lipetsk . As a result of the agreements reached during the visit of the Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR I.S. Unshlikht to Berlin, in 1926, agreements were concluded on the creation of two aerochemical stations (training grounds) - near Moscow ( Podosinki ) and in the Saratov Region near Volsk ( Tomka object " At the railway station of Prichernavskaya) - and a tank school in Kazan .
Contracts with Junkers were terminated in 1926-1927, as it did not fulfill its obligations to supply metal planes and build factories. The agreement on the joint construction of the mustard plant was also terminated in 1927, as the equipment did not meet the conditions of the agreement and the methods of making mustard were found to be obsolete and unusable. Military facilities on the territory of the USSR functioned from spring 1925 to autumn 1933 (that is, until Hitler came to power).
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Rapallo Treaty 1922 // Military Encyclopedia / P. Grachev . - Moscow: Military Publishing House, 2002. - T. 6. - P. 182. - ISBN 5-203-01873-1 .
- ↑ Rapallo Treaty 1922 // Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. S. S. Khromov. - Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983.
- ↑ Foreign Policy of the Weimar Republic (1919-1932) / N.V. Pavlov // MGIMO.ru. - 2011. - October.
- ↑ N. Indukaeva. History of international relations 1918-1945. Tutorial. - Tomsk: TSU, 2003 .-- 113 p.
- ↑ Edition edited by V.P. Potemkin. History of Diplomacy / Section Six. Diplomacy during the preparation of the Second World War (1919-1939) / Chapter 6. Genoa (1922) / 2. Genoese Conference / Rapallo Treaty (April 16, 1922).
- ↑ Shvetsov A.A. Louis Fisher and Soviet-American Relations in the First Half of the 20th Century. The dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences. - SPb., 2015. - P. 32 - 33. Access mode: https://disser.spbu.ru/disser/dissertatsii-dopushchennye-k-zashchite-i-svedeniya-o- (inaccessible link) zashchite / details / 12 / 746.html
- ↑ Gorlov S.A. Top secret: Moscow-Berlin Alliance, 1920-1933. (Military-political relations of the USSR - Germany). - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2001 .-- 352 p. - (Dossier). // Part I. Chapter 4. Rapallo and the first results of military contacts
Links
- Agreement Distribution Agreement
- The text of the contract in abbreviation
- Text of contract and facsimile
- About cooperation with Germany
- Lipetsk secret aviation school German trace in the history of domestic aviation. / Sobolev D.A., Khazanov D.B.
- German tanks in battle Mikhail Borisovich Baryatinsky