Anglo-Soviet Alliance (1942) and Franco-Soviet Treaty (1944)

The 1942 Anglo-Soviet treaty

It was signed in London on 26 May 1942 by the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, and it replaced the Anglo-Soviet Agreement of July 1941 on coming into force. The treaty had two parts. Part One (Arts. I–II) provided mutual military and other assistance against Germany and the states associated with it in Europe, and prohibited negotiations with the Hitlerite government and any separate armistice or peace without mutual consent. Part Two (Arts. III–VIII) covered postwar cooperation on peace and security, mutual assistance if either party was attacked in the postwar period, economic assistance, and a pledge not to conclude any alliance or coalition directed against the other party. Part Two was fixed for twenty years, after which it continued until terminated on twelve months' notice by either party.

In the negotiations Stalin sought a territorial agreement for postwar Europe and a clause guaranteeing the Soviet frontiers as of the German invasion of 22 June 1941, including territories incorporated after the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Britain and America were reluctant and Stalin's territorial aims were abandoned. Britain made no territorial commitments; they formed no part of the agreement, which remained bilateral between Britain and the USSR.

The 1944 Franco-Soviet treaty

It was signed in Moscow on 10 December 1944 by Georges Bidault and Vyacheslav Molotov, in the presence of Joseph Stalin, during de Gaulle's visit to the USSR (2–10 December 1944). The initiative came from France. The treaty comprised a preamble and eight articles. Article 1 committed both parties to continue fighting alongside the United Nations until final victory, and Article 2 reaffirmed the ban on separate negotiations with Germany. Article 3 provided for joint measures to eliminate any renewed German threat and to block any initiative that could make renewed aggression possible; Article 4 contained the mutual aid and assistance clause in case of hostilities with Germany. Article 5, not limited to Germany, barred concluding any alliance or participating in any coalition directed against either party, and Article 6 extended assistance to the economic sphere.

De Gaulle aimed to assert France's return to the ranks of the great powers and, given poor relations with Washington, to conclude a bilateral treaty 'equal to equal' with Stalin as the basis for a postwar policy of equilibrium between the United States and the USSR and of national independence. In the negotiations France demanded arrangements for postwar Germany, including the detachment of the Saar, Rhineland and Ruhr, but Stalin refused to discuss this without London and Washington and instead conditioned the signature on recognition of the Lublin Polish Committee, which the French reluctantly accepted.

Termination and distinctions

In 1955 the Soviet Union denounced both treaties together. Moscow's stated reason was that France and Britain had signed and ratified the Paris agreements providing for the rearmament of West Germany and its inclusion in anti-Soviet military groupings, contrary to the treaty obligations to join in preventing a new German threat and to avoid alliances against either party. Part Two of the Anglo-Soviet treaty had been fixed for twenty years from 1942, so the denunciation was declared before that term had run.

The 1942 Anglo-Soviet treaty must be distinguished from the Anglo-Soviet Agreement of July 1941, and the 1944 Franco-Soviet treaty from the Franco-Soviet Pact of Mutual Assistance concluded in Paris on 2 May 1935 and ratified in 1936. The 1935 pact was rendered ineffective by the conditions of the League of Nations and Locarno, was treated as a dead letter after 1936, and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 marked the Soviet break with France. These earlier agreements are sometimes conflated with the 1944 treaty and need to be distinguished from it.