Attempts to Counter the Threat from France

Abstract

Economic sanctions by France predetermined the whole course of Soviet foreign policy from their introduction in the autumn of 1930. Even after their withdrawal was negotiated in the spring of 1931, the importance Moscow then attached to the signature of a non-aggression pact with France proved “curiously illustrative of the lingering suspicion of foreign military intervention ”.¹ This saw its domestic reflection in the trial of the so-called ‘Industrial Party’ in November 1930, where absurd plots involving the French first and foremost were put on display to warn the Soviet public of the war danger. Indeed, the French obsession cast such a shadow that the combined forces of Soviet diplomacy, foreign trade and Comintern activities were mobilised to neutralise the threats from France, both real and imaginary.