{{distinguish, Easter Pact The Eastern Pact was a proposed mutual-aid

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...

, intended to bring

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

together in opposition to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The idea of the Eastern Pact was advanced early in 1934 by the

French minister of foreign affairs The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs () is the Ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France that handles France's foreign relations. Since 1855, its headquarters have been located at 37 Quai d'Orsay, close to th ...

Louis Barthou Jean Louis Barthou (; 25 August 1862 – 9 October 1934) was a French politician of the Third Republic who served as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913. In social policy, his time as prime minister saw the introduction (in Jul ...

, and was actively supported by the Soviet government. In May and June 1934, the Soviet Union and France agreed to conclude a bilateral treaty providing for

's guaranteeing of the Eastern Pact and the guaranteeing of the

Locarno Treaties The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, during 5 to 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central an ...

of 1925 by the Soviet Union. On 14 June 1934 the Soviet government invited all interested states to participate in the Eastern Pact. Czechoslovakia (2 July), Latvia and Estonia (29 July), and Lithuania (3 August) declared their readiness to adhere to the pact. However, Estonia and Latvia made the adherence of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and Poland a condition of their own participation. The government of

avoided expressing its attitude toward the Eastern Pact. Barthou appealed to the British government in the name of the French government, but the British, while formally approving the idea of the Eastern Pact, made their support conditional on Germany's inclusion both in the regional mutual-aid treaty and in the Franco-Soviet Treaty so that Soviet and French guarantees would be extended to Germany. The Soviet and the French governments agreed, but the German government (11 September 1934) and subsequently the Polish government (27 September 1934) refused to participate in the Eastern Pact. After the assassination of Barthou by French police during the arrest of

Vlado Chernozemski Vlado Chernozemski (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: Владо Черноземски; born Velichko Dimitrov Kerin, bg, Величко Димитров Керин; 19 October 1897 – 9 October 1934), was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian revolutionary. A ...

on 9 October 1934, British and French diplomacy turned away from the Soviets and adopted the

appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...

policy towards Germany. The proposed Eastern Pact was thus never implemented.

References

* The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979);
JSTOR: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 45-64
1934 in international relations Treaties of the Soviet Union Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Proposed treaties France–Soviet Union relations

See also

References