1941

 On September 19, Benes, through the Soviet Plenipotentiary in Prague, addressed the Soviet government regarding its position in the event of a military conflict. The Soviet government replied that it was ready to fulfill the terms of the Prague Treaty. The Soviet Union offered its assistance to Czechoslovakia in the event of a war with Germany, even if, contrary to the Pact, France did not do so, and Poland and Romania refused to allow Soviet troops to pass. Poland's position was expressed in statements that in the event of a German attack on Czechoslovakia, it would not interfere and would not allow Soviet troops to pass through its territory, and would immediately declare war on the Soviet Union if it tried to send troops through Polish territory to help Czechoslovakia. And if Soviet planes appear over Poland on their way to Czechoslovakia, they will immediately be attacked by Polish aircraft. France and Czechoslovakia refused military negotiations, and Britain and France blocke...

by  Michael Jabara CARLEY Professeur titulaire Département d’histoire Université de Montréal     ABSTRACT This article is about the Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations in 1939 for an alliance against Nazi Germany and about how the British government later tried to represent those negotiations to public opinion. The first part of the essay presents the Soviet point of view on the negotiations and how the British and French governments, though mainly the British, reacted to Soviet alliance proposals. It is a fresh representation of the Soviet perspective from published and unpublished Russian language sources. The second part of the essay focuses on how the British sought to represent the abortive negotiations through a white paper, placing the blame for failure on the Soviet Union. France opposed publication because, however carefully prepared, the white paper showed that the Soviet side had made serious alliance proposals with precise, reciprocal undertakings which the...