Authors

Discussion

The Locarno process, renowned as an abortive, albeit at first promising, attempt to amend the Versailles international system, occupies a particularly important place in the history of the so-called Interbellum. Despite extensive scholarship, the topic still needs a thorough study, particularly through a prism of its impact on Soviet-British relations. Four rounds of intense negotiations took place with the most active Britain’s promotion during February – October 1925. They resulted in international treaties which signified the onset of the ‘era of pacifism’.

Yet its apprehension by the Bolshevik leadership substantially differed from that by Western statesmen and general public. If Austen Chamberlain together with some prominent politicians cherished the projects of the Locarno transfer to other European regions and even further, e. g. to the Near East, the Soviet high authorities assumed the twofold consequences of Locarno – positive, as a respite for the reconstruction of industry on socialist grounds, and negative, as a start for the Conservative government plotting a new armed intervention against the Bolshevik Russia.

Based on the cross-compare research in Russian and British archives as well as on some new secondary sources, the paper highlights the apprehension of the post-Locarno era by the Kremlin against the ups and downs of the bilateral relations.