Abstract

After the Locarno Conference of 1925, the idea of deploying the Locarno’s experience for concluding multilateral guarantee pacts in other regions of Europe, other than Western, gained particular popularity. Rafael Erich, the Finnish representative in the League of Nations, was a person who voiced this idea as a “Northern Locarno” project. It has not become an object of research in historical literature, as the project was rejected by the involved parties even before its official discussion. However, the study of its perception is necessary for better understanding the political climate in Europe in the mid-1920s and the politics of the minor Baltic countries and the Great Powers advancing their own interests in the Baltic region. The objective of this article is to examine the German reaction to R. Erich’s project as a demonstration of inconsistency in the German Baltic policy. The very idea of developing a multilateral guarantee pact in the Baltic grasped the minds of German diplomats. On the one hand, such a security system would be a bar against German revisionist aspirations in the east. On the other hand, due to the significant economic and political influence of Germany in the Baltic republics, Finland and Sweden, the “Northern Locarno” could be instrumental for maintaining German dominance in the Baltic region. Not daring to speak openly, either for or against the project, the Foreign Ministry of the Weimar Republic limited itself to collecting information from the Scandinavian and Baltic press, which wrote very negatively about the “Northern Locarno”. In addition, the USSR strongly opposed Erich’s project, while one of the primary goals of the German diplomacy was maintaining good relations with it. Finally, Germany refused to support the Finnish project since its alleged negative consequences outweighed positive ones. In subsequent years, the tactics regarding the “Northern Locarno” (i.e. avoiding open discussions and maintaining active interaction with the Soviet Union) were employed by Germany against the Polish plan of an “Eastern Locarno”