latviski
THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE U.S.S.R. and HER RELATIONS
WITH THE BALTIC COUNTRIES IN THE PERIOD, 1927-1933
During these years, as earlier, Soviet peace efforts met with little response from the Governments of the Baltic countries. Indeed Soviet peace proposals were only accepted when (and then often only partially) it was impossible to reject them without the risk of compromising themselves in the eyes of public opinion which was invariably in favour of consolidating peace relations with the Soviet Union.
Let us cite some facts which illustrate and confirm these statements.
The Moscow Protocol.
On December 29, 1928, the Soviet Government proposed to the Polish Government the signature of a special Protocol for the immediate coming into force of the Kellogg Pact, which had been concluded, on August 27, 1928. This proposal was made because many States which had signed or adhered to the Kellogg Pact seemed to be in no hurry to ratify it, and consequently it could not come into force very rapidly.
In making this proposal to Poland regarding the immediate bringing into force of the Kellogg Pact, the Soviet Government endeavoured to create a new factor for pacification in Eastern Europe.
The Note of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs pointed out that the proposal to bring the Kellogg Pact into force as soon as possible was made because “ the assurance of peace in Eastern Europe was of first-class importance, and of the States having contiguous frontiers with the Soviet Union, the Paris Pact had been signed by Poland.” The Soviet Government in this same Note stated that “ A similar proposal was being made by them simultaneously to the Lithuanian Republic as the only Baltic country which had already accepted the Paris Treaty. They were not addressing themselves for the time being to Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, only because these States had not yet adhered formally to the Paris Treaty.”
To the above-mentioned Note a draft Protocol was added, which the Soviet Government suggested for signature to Poland. Polish diplomacy resisted this peace initiative of the Soviet Government in every way possible, and tried to bring forward various conditions which would have annulled its effect. These attempts failed and Poland was finally forced to adopt the Soviet proposals, It was only after Poland had decided to adhere to the Moscow Protocol that the Baltic States also agreed to sign it.
On February, 9, 1929, the Moscow Protocol was signed by the U.S.S.R., Poland, Rumania, Estonia, and Latvia. After the signature of this Protocol, Turkey, Iran, and Lithuania also adhered to it. It is interesting to note that Finland put off her signature to the Protocol until the Kellogg Pact had been put into force by nearly all those who had signed it, and consequently the signature of the Moscow Protocol had lost its significance. This behaviour of Finland was typical of her attitude towards the U.S.S.R. for over 20 years.
The Lapuan Movement in Finland.
The most active anti-Soviet role in Finland since she gained her independence has been and is being played by the well-known subsidiary military organisation—the Schutz Corps. A number of leaders of this organisation, for instance, General Wallenius and others, have repeatedly demonstrated their hostility to the U.S.S.R., both in words and in acts. However, the record for enmity towards and hatred of the U.S.S.R. and for the direct preparation of an attack on the Soviet Union, was won by another organisation known as the “ Lapuan Movement.” This Movement had put in the forefront of its official programme—war against the U.S.S.R. in order to “ unite all Finnish races living in the territory of the Soviet Union.”
By the phrase “ Finnish races living in the territory of the Soviet Union,” the Lapuans and their supporters meant the peoples of Ugro-Mongolian origin (the peoples of Komi and others) living in north-eastern Eurapean Russia, and naturally, having nothing whatever in common with the Finns except very far distant historic origins.
In 1930, the Lapuan movement reached considerable strength, when Svinhuvud came to power first as Prime Minister and later, in February, 1931, as President of Finland. Leaving on one side the violent Fascist activity of the Lapuans within the country, their connection with the German and Italian Fascists (it is known, for instance, that a number of Lapuan leaders went to Rome where they were received by Mussolini who presented them with “ Fascist Dirks of Honour ”), we consider it necessary to note the provocative activities of the Lapuans against the Soviet Union.
It must be emphasised that the anti-Soviet activities of the Lapuans were not only in no way hindered by the Finnish Govern ment, but on the contrary received every encouragement from them. In particular, this refers to the period when Svinhuvud was President. As far back as the autumn of 1930 the Lapuans made an attempt to kidnap the former President of Finland, the Progressive Stolberg, and to plant him on Soviet territory with the aim of assassinating him there ; this was then to be used as a cause for war against the U.S.S.R. The Lapuan plot, however, was discovered, and its exposure made such an impression on Finnish public opinion that the Government of Finland was compelled to prosecute the then Commander of the General Staff of the Schutz Corps, the above-mentioned Wallenius. It is hardly necessary to mention that the trial of the latter ended quite happily for the accused.
At the beginning of December, 1930, at the celebrations of “ Independence Day,” in the presence of Svinhuvud and the members of the Finnish Government, one of the leaders of the Lapuans, Kares, declared : “ Our task is to unite into one whole both parts of Karelia, both on this and the other side of our frontier, also the Leningrad Province reaching right to the north to the vast spaces of the Urals, which are also inhabited by men of our own race.”
In January, 1931, the Lapuan organ “ Aktivist ” in the course of a leading article addressed to their “ Estonian brothers ” wrote : “ The day will come when the Eastern frontiers of Finland will be the Ural mountains, and the great Finnish Power will be an important factor in world policy.”
The journal “ Uusi Suomi ” the chief organ of the Government Coalition Party, which secretly had been at the back of the Lapuan Movement, wrote in May, 1931, that Finland “ is in duty bound before Europe to be a source of information and also an initiator of the struggle against the East.”
The Lapuan Movement was connected most closely with organisations bearing various names, but with one common aim—the organisation of conflicts against the U.S.S.R. In addition to the “ Academic Karelian Society ” which was the General Staff of the Lapuans, it is necessary to mention also such organisations as “ The Union for Independence,” “ The Union of Karelian Refugees,” “ The Ingermanland Union,” “ Union of Front Line Soldiers,” and so on. In particular, the Ingermanland Union had as its aim “ the liberation ” of the territory lying to the south-west of Leningrad in the immediate proximity of the town itself. It goes without saying that what was actually meant was the hardly-concealed claim to Leningrad.
Thus, at only 3o kilometers from Leningrad a veritable poisonous nest of anti-Soviet conspirators had been formed under the protection and with the help of the Finnish Government, and preparations were being made for provocative attacks.
In addition to their anti-Soviet aims, the Finnish Chauvinists also had various plans for the seizure on behalf of Finland of territories belonging to Sweden and Norway. In January, 1940, the well-known Norwegian economist Johann Vogt, in his book on Finland wrote : “ It is characteristic that the so-called ‘ Academic Karelian Society ’ the bulwark of the Finnish militarists propagates not only the seizure of Soviet Karelia, but also the territory of Northern Norway and Northern Sweden.”
The “ Aisargs ” in Latvia and the “ Veterans ” in Estonia.
The same anti-Soviet policy and preparation for an attack on the Soviet Union which the Lapuans had been preparing in Finland over many years was also being pursued in Latvia and Estonia by various organisations of a military Fascist type. In Latvia the most important organisation of its kind was the so-called “ Aisargs ” ; this organisation had over 50,009 active members and was led by the most reactionary political party in Latvia, “ The Peasant Union,” with Karl Ulmanis at its head.
In Estonia a similar role was played by a Fascist group with an orientation towards Germany—the so-called “ Union of Veterans,” with Sirk at its head. Its anti-Soviet activities were manifested in constant provocative speeches against the U.S.S.R. and in systematic preparation for a Fascist coup in Estonia. On December 8, 1935, the Estonian Government discovered a plot of the “ Veteran’s Union,” all the threads of which, as was shown by the investigation, led to Finland and Germany. The head of the “ Veteran’s Union,” Sirk, after his arrest in 1934, had succeeded, as a result of the quite evident negligence of the authorities, in fleeing to Finland wherefrom he directed the preparation for the rising.
The connections of the Fascist Organisation of Estonia were not confined to Finland and Germany alone. In the summer of 1931 one of the leaders of Estonian Fascism, General Lille, spent his “ vacation ” in Rumania precisely at the time when a Conference was taking place there of representatives of the General Staffs of the States on the borders of the U.S.S.R. Thus Estonia, just as Finland and Latvia, was an active link in the anti-Soviet chain which was being forged from Finland to Rumania.
The Treaties of Non-Aggression and Neutrality Between the U.S.S.R. and the Baltic States.
As already recorded above, in spite of her repeated proposals, before 1932, the U.S.S.R. succeeded in concluding a Pact of Neutrality and Non-Aggression only with Lithuania. This Treaty had been signed as far back as September 28, 1926. All the other Baltic States under various pretexts refused to accept these Soviet peace proposals. But in 1932 their foreign policy underwent a certain change. This change may be explained to some extent by the improvement which had taken place in French-Soviet relations since the end of 1931. In 1932 (in November), when Heriot headed the French Government, a French-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression and Neutrality had been signed. Heriot, personally, played a very important role, both in the improvement of French-Soviet relations and in the conclusion of this Pact.
The change for the better in the foreign policy of France and the acute sharpening of Polish-German relations also led Poland to sign a Polish-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression and Neutrality on July 25, 1932. The Baltic States followed the example of Poland, just as they had followed the latter earlier. Having refused to conclude Pacts of Non-Aggression when Poland refused to conclude such a Pact, they now first agreed to negotiations and finally to the conclusion of corresponding Pacts. In 1932 Pacts of Non-Aggression and Neutrality were signed with Latvia (February 5, 1932), Finland (January 21, 1932), and Estonia (May 4, 1932). Simultaneously with these Treaties, conciliation Conventions laying down the procedure for the solution of questions in dispute were also signed.
The events leading up to the conclusion of these Treaties once again emphasised the fact that whilst the Soviet Government did everything possible to strengthen peace relations with her Baltic neighbours, the Governments of the latter not only refused to meet the Soviets halfway, but sabotaged every Soviet peace proposal.
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