British Policy Towards the Baltic States: 1939–1945

Abstract

Defending the Baltic States militarily after 1918 was not an option for British governments burdened by commitments to Imperial defence, and with only a skeletal British Expeditionary Force available to meet new European obligations incurred by the Treaty of Locarno. London saw stability and economic prosperity in the Baltic region as a whole as the real key to lasting independence for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. To this goal Britain made a vital contribution after 1918, as a recipient of Baltic agricultural and other exports, thus facilitating Baltic purchases of manufactured products from Germany. When the British-Baltic-German trade ‘triangle’ was destroyed by Hitler’s arrival in power, the British government then used trade policy to try to limit the impact of the Third Reich in the Baltic region. Viewing the interwar period as a whole, it is easier to see both why Britain ultimately chose to resist Hitler over Baltic issues and why London was so reluctant to allow Stalin a free hand in the Baltic States during the Moscow negotiations of 1939. With the onset of war, however, Britain’s very survival was at stake and it remains remarkable under such circumstances that so much effort continued to be expended by British officials in refusing to recognize the Soviet borders of 1941.