April 16, 2020

TBT: The Treaty of Rapallo


TBT: The Treaty of Rapallo
The Germans and Russians negotiate at Rapallo. From left: Unknown man, German Chancellor Joseph Wirth, Soviet Commissar of Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin, Commissar of Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, Soviet diplomat Adolf Joffe.

On this day in 1922, two international pariahs – Germany and Bolshevik Russia – signed a pact in Rapallo that gave each side something they wanted. What could possibly go wrong? Well, unfortunately, the agreement sped the path to German rearmament and the horrors of the Second World War that would follow.

Read a more detailed account here, from our March 2012 issue. (Normally subscription access only.)

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