Abstract

One of the important international topics discussed in 1925 on the pages of the Soviet establishment newspapers, the Pravda and the Izvestia, was the draf of the Rhineland Pact and the possible consequences of its implementation for the USSR. From the Soviet perspective the Germany’s entry into the League of Nations posed a threat to the USSR’s rather trusting relationship with Berlin, which had developed afer the conclusion of the Rapallo Treaty in 1922, and Moscow saw the danger of increasing international isolation and the strengthening of the camp of the powers hostile to the USSR, led by Great Britain. Germany remained the focus of Soviet commentators on the Locarno trial until October 1925. At the same time, Soviet-German negotiations to conclude a trade agreement were under way, facilitating contacts at ofcial level. However, the press made it possible to infuence German public opinion, which the authorities of the Weimar Republic could not but listen to. In addition, the newspapers named possible options for Soviet policy if the Entente powers disagreed not to involve Germany in an active or passive participation in a possible aggression against a third party (viz. the USSR), as provided for by the Statute of the League of Nations. One of these options - the rapprochement of the USSR and Poland, and the provision of guarantees of the inviolability of all Polish frontiers, including with Germany, - has repeatedly been a research topic for historians, primarily Soviet and Polish ones. At present, their opinion is quite unanimous: the USSR was not going to guarantee the Polish borders, and Poland did not intend to go so far in rapprochement with the USSR. However, the Izvestia voiced another option, which was realized already in the 1930s: rapprochement with France on an anti-British (and thus anti-German) basis. Comparison of newspaper comments with the speeches of ofcials (in particular, G.V. Chicherin and I.V. Stalin) shows that there were no diferences between them on the main points of perception of the Locarno process. Te Soviet establishment newspapers in 1925 can be considered well-informed and accurately expounding the views of the USSR leadership on the turn in the international relations which was taking place in Europe.