The Warsaw Accord was signed on 17 March 1922 by

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 ...

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 populou ...

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 ...

and Latvia, but failure by the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

to ratify it made it never enter into force.

Accord summary

The states agreed not to enter any other treaties to disadvantage of other members (Article 2), to communicate the other treaties to each other (Article 3), to resolve their disputes peacefully (Article 6), and to observe neutrality in case of an unprovoked attack on one of the signatories (Article 7). Of other issues, Article 1 stipulated reciprocal recognition of their treaties with (Soviet) Russia, Article 6 urged for conclusion of administrative and economic treaties, wherever missing, and Article 5 called for the guarantees of the rights of

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

. Article 8 set the validity term of 5 years, afterwards automatically extendable annually unless denunciated in advance.

History

Poland under

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

aspired for creating its own sphere of influence in the Baltics, leaving Estonia under the influence of Finland, while getting Latvia and Lithuania under the Polish one. Moreover, Piłsudski envisioned a grand Eastern European federation (

Intermarium Intermarium ( pl, Międzymorze, ) was a post-World War I geopolitical plan conceived by Józef Piłsudski to unite former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lands within a single polity. The plan went through several iterations, some of which antic ...

). However, the bitter dispute of Poland and Lithuania over the

Vilnius Region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territor ...

was a major stumbling block. Therefore, Lithuania did not participate in the accord and even actively opposed to it. That made an alliance with Poland less attractive to Latvia and Estonia. Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs

Rudolf Holsti Eino Rudolf Woldemar Holsti (8 October 1881 in Jyväskylä – 3 August 1945 in Palo Alto, California) was a Finnish politician, journalist and diplomat. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1919–1922 and in 1936–1938 and a ...

failed to get the accord ratified by the parliament and was served a

vote of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

. That reflected a growing sentiment that Finland should align with either Germany, or the rest of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

instead of creating alliances with the Baltic states. The resulting accord was the extent of Polish success in creating a Baltic bloc.

References

External links

Full text of the Warsaw Accord
in French, with official English translation, as registered at the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

(League of Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. XI, 1922, pp. 168–171)
Full text of the Warsaw Accord
in English March 1922 events 1922 in international relations 1922 in Poland Treaties of the Second Polish Republic Treaties of Latvia Treaties of Estonia Treaties of Finland Treaties not entered into force Events in Warsaw

Accord summary

History

References

Further reading

External links