Failed Alliance: The Failure of Negotiations on the Soviet-French Military Convention against German Revanchism

Abstract

This article considers the course and results of Soviet-French negotiations on the conclusion of a military convention in 1935–1937. The question of creating a full-fledged military alliance between the two countries arose immediately after they signed a mutual assistance pact in 1935, but initially neither side was fully prepared for this. The impetus for the intensification of negotiations was the events of March 1936 when the Soviet leadership, having failed to normalise its relations with Germany, became convinced of the weakness of the French position against the background of the events of the Rhine crisis. Military and diplomatic contacts began in June 1936 and became especially intense in autumn when L. Blum’s cabinet initiated negotiations between the General Staffs of the two countries. However, at the beginning of 1937, it became clear that for their successful outcome, it was necessary to overcome the resistance of influential military-political circles, which the French government turned out to be incapable of doing. The Soviet side insisted on a transition to direct mutually binding negotiations, but in the summer of 1937, after the resignation of the Blum government, contacts on this issue eroded.