DOI: 10.33917/es-2.206.2026.116-123

The article dwells on the problem of the so-called “preventive war”. Polish leader Marshal J. Pilsudski used the threat of this war to blackmail Chancellor A. Hitler in the spring and autumn of 1933. Behind-the-scenes Polish dictator needed this in order to avoid the looming possibility of changing Polish borders in favour of Germany on the basis of the Polish-German arbitration treaty of 1925, the instrument of which could have become the “Pact of Four” published in the spring of 1933. At the same time the “commandant” needed such a harsh measure as blackmail to include Warsaw in the Fuhrer’s “eastern” plans within the framework of the “legal mechanism for ‘pushing’ Germany to the East” in order to recreate the Greater Poland through division of the USSR, carried out jointly with Berlin and Tokyo.

References:

1. Arkhiv vneshney politiki RF [Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation]. F. 138, Op. 14, P. 30, D. 12.

2. Dziennik Ustaw. 1926. # 114. Poz. 662. Internetowy system aktów prawnych, available at: http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19261140662

3. Sbornik dokumentov po mezhdunarodnoy politike i mezhdunarodnomu pravu. Vyp. V [Collection of Documents on International Politics and International Law. Vol. V.]. Moscow, 1933, 182 p.

4. Tabui Zh. 20 let diplomaticheskoy bor’by [20 Years of Diplomatic Struggle]. Moscow, 1960, 464 p.

5. Kamiński M.K., Zacharias M.J. Polityka zagraniczna Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1918–1939. W., 1998, 315 s.

6. Lipski J. Stosunki polsko-niemieckie w świetle aktów norymberskich. *Sprawy Międzynarodowe*, 1947, no 2–3, pp. 3–23.

7. Le Temps. 1933. 11 janvier.

8. Pułaski M. Stosunki dyplomatyczne polsko-czechosłowacko-niemieckie w latach 1933–1938. Poznań, 1967, 222 s.

9. Wojciechowski M. Stosunki polsko-niemieckie. 1933–1938. Poznań, 1965, 571 s.

10. Dokumenty vneshney politiki SSSR [USSR Foreign Policy Documents]. Vol. XVI. Moscow, 1970, 920 p.

11. Istoriya diplomatii [History of diplomacy]. Ed. V.P. Potemkin. Vol. 3. Moscow–Leningrad, 1945, 883 p.

12. Arkhiv vneshney politiki RF. F. “Referentura po Pol’she” [Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. “Reference for Poland”]. Op. 17, D. 28, P. 167-a.

13. Kozeński J. Czechosłowacja w polskiej polityce zagranicznej w latach 1932–1938 [Czechoslovakia in Polish Foreign Policy in the Years 1932–1938]. Poznań, 1964, 319 p.

14. Zgórniak M. Sytuacja międzynarodowa Polski na początku lat trzydziestych XX wieku [The International Situation of Poland in the Early 1930s]. *Przegląd Historyczny*, 1975, vol. LXVI, Zesz. 2, pp. 189–215.

15. Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe. Generalny Inspektorat Sił Zbrojnych [Central Military Archives. General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces]. Vol. 254.

16. Documents on German Foreign Policy,1918–1945. Ser. C, vol. III. Washington, 1959, 1157 p.

17. Diariusz i teki Jana Szembeka. Vol. I. Londyn, 1964, 590 p.

DOI: 10.33917/es-5.203.2025.122-129

Based on archival primary sources, first of all – Soviet intelligence documents from the personal archive of I.V. Stalin, the article proves an important postulate. Behind the collapse of Paris and Moscow’s attempts to create a European system of collective security, known in foreign historiography as the “Eastern Pact,” among other things, was hidden the secret activities of Poland, Germany and Japan aimed at unleashing war against the USSR in 1935. To prevent the threat of war in May 1935 the Soviet leadership created a small collective security system, consisting of France, the USSR and Czechoslovakia – an international legal mechanism that prevented the outbreak of anti-Soviet intervention at the end of that year.

References:

1. Mackinder H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality. A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction. London, Constable and Company Ltd, 1919, 273 p.

2. Dostoevskiy F.M. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy [Complete Set of Works]. Vol. XXVI. Leningrad, Nauka, 1984, 520 p.

3. Ovsyanyy I.D. Tayna, v kotoroy voyna rozhdalas’ [The Mystery in which the War was Born]. Moscow, 1971, 319 p.

4. Sipols V.Ya. Sovetskiy Soyuz v bor’be za mir i bezopasnost’. 1933–1939 [The Soviet Union in the Struggle for Peace and Security. 1933–1939]. Moscow, 1974, 427 p.

5. Istoriya diplomatii [History of Diplomacy]. Pod red. akad. V.P. Potemkina. Vol. III. Moscow, 1945, 884 p.

6. Rak K. Polska — niespełniony sojusznik Hitlera. Warszawa: Bellona, 2019. 500 s.

7. Jeziorny D. To Avoid Incurring All Uncertain and Ill-Defined Responsibilities. Poland and the Eastern Pact of Mutual Assistance (1934–1935). The International History Review, 2024, 1–17, Published Online: 2024-10-22, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2024.2418575

8. Dokumenty vneshney politiki SSSR [Documents of the USSR Foreign Policy]. Pred. komis. po izdaniyu diplomatich. dokumentov A.A. Gromyko. Vol. XVI. Moscow, Politizdat, 1970, 920 p.

9. Dokladnaya zapiska narkoma po inostrannym delam SSSR M.M. Litvinova I.V. Stalinu po voprosu o zaklyuchenii Vostochnogo pakta s prilozheniem proekta zayavleniya NKID SSSR ministru inostrannykh del Frantsii P. Lavalyu. 17.02.1935 [Report of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR M.M. Litvinov to I.V. Stalin on the Issue of Concluding the Eastern Pact with the Attachment of a Draft Statement of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France P. Laval. 17.02.1935]. RGVA. F. 33987. Op. 3a. D. 760. L. 5–9.

10. Sistemnaya istoriya mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniy. 1918–2000 [Systemic History of International Relations. 1918–2000]. Vol. 2. Moscow, 2000, 243 p.

11. Myunkhenskoe soglashenie 1938 goda: istoriya i sovremennost’: Materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii. Moskva, 15–16 oktyabrya 2008 g. [The Munich Agreement of 1938: History and Modernity: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference. Moscow, October 15–16, 2008.]. IVI RAN. Moscow, 2009, 420 p.

DOI: 10.33917/es-5.197.2024.121-129

The article examines the driving forces that created, on the basis of the final documents of the Locarno Conference of 1925, the “legal mechanism for ‘pushing’ Germany to the East”. The actors in this process were located not only in Germany itself, but primarily outside its borders. The first group included a number of representatives of the ruling circles of Germany, in particular Chancellor Hans Luther and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, as well as representatives of industrial and financial circles, led by the protégé of the thalassocratic bankers, the German financier Hjalmar Schacht. The second group should include a certain part of the ruling circles of England (Austen Chamberlain, Edgar Vincent D’Abernon, etc.), the USA (President Calvin Coolidge, etc.), and France (Prime Minister Aristide Briand, etc.). The most significant role was played by financiers — director of the Bank of England Montagu Collett Norman and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Benjamin Strong.

References:

1. Mackinder H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality. A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction. London, Constable and Company Ltd, 1919, 273 p.

2. Morozov S.V. K voprosu o sozdanii v 1925 g. pravovogo mekhanizma “podtalkivaniya” Germanii na Vostok [On the Issue of the Creation in 1925 of a

Legal Mechanism for “Pushing” Germany to the East]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2016, no 412, Noyabr’, p. 84–88, available at: http://

journals.tsu.ru/vestnik/&journal_page=archive&id=1482

3. Nikonova S.V. Germaniya i Angliya ot Lokarno do Lozanny [Germany and England from Locarno to Lausanne]. Moscow, 1966, 345 p.

4. Spaight J.M. Pseudo-Security. L. — N.Y. — Toronto, 1928, 177 p.

5. Foreign Relations of the United States. Vol. I. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954, 1015 p.

6. D’Abernon, Viscount. Botschafter der Zeitwende. Bd. III. Leipzig, 1929–1930, 349 s.

7. Luther H. Politiker ohne Partei. Erinnerungen. Stuttgart, 1960, 437 p.

8. Lokarnskaya konferentsiya 1925 g. Dokumenty [Locarno Conference 1925. Documents]. Moscow, 1959, 512 p.

9. D’Abernon, Lord. An Ambassador of Peace. Pages from the Diary of Viscount d’Abernon. Vol. III. 1924–1926. London, 1930, 317 p.

10. Petrie Ch. The Life and Letters of the Right Honoured Sir Austen Chamberlain. Vol. II, London, 1940, 476 p.

11. Chicago Tribune. March 6, 1925.

12. World. May 10, 1925.

13. Dokumenty vneshney politiki SSSR [Documents of the USSR Foreign Policy]. Vol. VIII, Moscow, 1963, 864 c.

14. Times. March 19, 1925.

15. Peace in Our Time. Adresses on Europe and the Empire by the Right Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain. London, 1928. 308 p.

16. New York Times. May 5, 1925.

17. Zimmerman L. Deutsche Aussenpolitik in der Ära der Weimarer Republik. Göttingen, 1958, 486 p.

18. New York Times. July 27, 1925.

19. New York Times. July 29, 1925.

20. New York Times. July 27, 1925.

21. Times. August 12, 1925.

DOI: 10.33917/es-3.189.2023.118-131

Based on diplomatic documents, a detailed picture of driving oil product suppliers – the Soviet companies, Derop and Derunaft – out from the German market during 1933 is restored. Soviet intelligence materials prove that one of the inspirers of this process can be considered the major Anglo-Dutch oil tycoon Henry Deterding, who in the course of the alleged “crusade” against the USSR, among other things hoped to seize the Caucasian oil fields.

References:

1. Morozov S.V. K voprosu o roli neftyanogo faktora v evropeiskikh mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniyakh v techenie 1933–1935 gg.: VII chteniya, posvyashchennye pamyati R.L. Yavorskogo: Materialy Vserossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem[On the question of the role of the oil factor in European international relations during 1933–1935: VII readings dedicated to the memory of R.L. Yavorsky. Materials of the All-Russian Scientific Conference with International Participation]. Novokuznetsk, RIO KuzGPA, 2011, 288 p.

2. Morozov S.V. Khronika vytesneniya sovetskoi nefti s germanskogo rynka v techenie 1933 g.: IX chteniya, posvyashchennye pamyati R.L. Yavorskogo: Materialy Vserossiiskoi (s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem) nauchnoi konferentsii[Chronicle of the displacement of Soviet oil from the German market during 1933: IX readings dedicated to the memory of R.L. Yavorsky. Materials of the All-Russian Scientific Conference with International Participation]. Novokuznetsk, RIO KuzGPA, 2013, 320 p.

3. Gekht E.V. Neft’ v politike Germanii (1933–1943) [Oil in German Politics (1933–1943)]. Avtoref. dis. … kand. ist. nauk. Ekaterinburg, 2007. 22 s.

4. Medlicott W.N. The Economic Blockade. Vol. 1. L., Longmans, Green and Co., 1952, 756 p.

5. Birkenfeld W. Der synthetische Treibstoff 1933–1945: Ein Beitrag zur nationalsozialistischen Wirtschafts- und Rüstungspolitik. Göttingen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Musterschmidt-Verlag, 1964, 278 p.

6. Teichert E. Autarkie und Grossraumwirtschaft in Deutschland 1930–1939: Aussenwirtschaftpolitische Konzeptionen zwischen Wirtschaftskriese und Zwseitem Weltkrieg. München, Oldenburg, 1984, 390 p.

7. Mejcher H. Die Politik und das Öl im Nahen Osten. Bd. 2: Die Teilung der Welt 1938–1950. Stuttgart, Klett-Gotta, 1990, 490 p.

8. Karlsch R., Stockes G.R. Faktor Öl. Die Mineralölwirtschaft in Deutschland 1859–1974. München, C.H. Beck Verlag, 2003, 460 p.

9. Kockel T. Deutsche Ölpolitik 1928–1938. Berlin, Akademie Verlag GmbH, 2005, 393 p.

10. Klein B.H. Germany’s Economic Preparations for War. Cambridge Massachusets, Harvard University press, 1959, 272 p.

11. Friedwald E.M. Oil and the War. L., Heineman, 1941, 88 p.

12. Pеarton M. Oil and the Romanian State. Oxford, Clarendon press, 1971, 361 p.

13. Sesyuli R. IG Farbenindustri[IG Farbenindustri]. Moscow, Gos. izd-vo in-i lit-ry, 1948. 244 s.

14. Bruks M. Neft’ i vneshnyaya politika[Oil and foreign policy]. Moscow, Izd-vo in-i lit-ry, 1949, 173 p.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33917/es-2.182.2022.108-115

The article examines the factor of oil, when some influential politicians and big businessmen, primarily in Great Britain, tried to use for their far-reaching goals the factual absence of the Weimar Republic’s own oil fields. Monopolization of oil supplies in the context of the implementation of the “legal mechanism for ‘pushing’ Germany to the East” made it possible to a certain extent to manage the foreign policy activity of the Hitlerite regime

Источники:

1. Morozov S.V. Pol’sko-chekhoslovatskie otnosheniya. 1933–1939. Chto skryvalos’ za “politikoi ravnoudalennosti” ministra Yu. Beka [Polish-Czechoslovak Relations. 1933–1939. What was Hidden Behind the “Policy of Equidistance” of Minister Yu. Beck]. Moscow, MGU im. M.V. Lomonosova, 2004, 528 p.

2. Morozov S.V. K voprosu o sekretnom pol’sko-germanskom dogovore 1934 g. [On the Issue of the Secret Polish-German Treaty of 1934]. Slavyanovedenie, 2005, no 5, pp. 35–53.

3. Morozov S.V. Iz dovoennogo dos’e [From the Pre-war Dossier]. Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn’, 2007, no 1–2, pp. 194–213.

4. Morozov S.V. K voprosu o sozdanii v 1925 g. pravovogo mekhanizma “podtalkivaniya” Germanii na Vostok [On the Question of Creating in 1925 a Legal Mechanism for “Pushing” Germany to the East]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2016, no 412, November, pp. 84–88, available at: http://journals.tsu.ru/vestnik/&journal_page=archive&id=1482.

5. Martirosyan A.B. Za kulisami myunkhenskogo sgovora. Kto privel voinu v SSSR [Behind the Scenes of the Munich  Collusion. Who Brought the War to the USSR]. Moscow, Veche, 2008, 608 p.

6. Versal’skii mirnyi dogovor [Versailles Peace Treaty]. Moscow, Litizdat NKID, 1925, 227 p.

7. Agenturnoe soobshchenie v INO OGPU pri SNK SSSR o peregovorakh kantslera Germanii Frantsa fon Papena v Parizhe o formirovanii zapadnoi voennoi koalitsii protiv SSSR [Intelligence Report to the INO OGPU Under the USSR Council of People’s Commissars About Negotiations of Eру German Chancellor Franz von Papen in Paris on Formation of the Western Military Coalition Against the USSR]. Prezidentskaya biblioteka imeni B.N. El’tsina, available at: https://www.prlib.ru/catalog/52995?page=3

8. Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR [Documents of the USSR Foreign Policy]. T. XVI. Moscow, Gospolitizdat, 1970, 920 p.

9. Teichova A. An Economic Background to Munich. L., Cambridge University Press, 1974, 422 p.

10. Colvin J. Vansittart in Office. An historical Survey of the Origins of the Second World War based on the papers of Sir Robert Vansittart, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1930–1938. L.: V Gollancz, 1965. 360 p.

11. Ickes H.L. The Secret Diaries of Harold L. Ickes. Vol. 1. 1933–1936. N. Y., Simon & Schuster, 1953, 738 p.

12. Mackinder H.J. The Geographical Pivot of History. Geographical Journal, 1904, vol. 23, N 4, pp. 421–437.

13. Mackinder H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality: a study in the politics of reconstruction. L., Constable and Company, 1919, 286 p.

More than eighty years have passed since the ruling elite of England, France, Italy, Germany, and Czechoslovakia signed the Munich Agreement — a treaty that destroyed the integrity of Czechoslovakia. In the era of the “post-archive revolution of the 1990s” emergence in the scientific circulation of new, previously unknown documents has caused a new round of interest to this event among historians and the public.

Among the most famous collections of archival documents of сonsiderable interest to researchers of national history of the Soviet period, there is the so-called personal archive of I.V. Stalin. Currently, these documents are stored in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. The author analyzes the documents, “confiscated with the help of agents” from A.I. Guchkov, on the history of the German-Polish-Japan coalition and its plans against the Soviet Union.