To Transform the Revolution into an Evolution: Underlying Assumptions of German Foreign Policy toward Soviet Russia,1919-27

Abstract

During the 1920s, the German Foreign Office looked to Russia as an important diplomatic partner in its efforts to revise the Versailles settlement. The radical nature of the Bolshevik regime, however, complicated Berlin’s efforts to build a close relationship with Moscow. Ultimately, Berlin believed that Soviet Russia would evolve away from Bolshevism and that through a policy of economic engagement Berlin could promote this process. This article analyses this central assumption of German policy and Berlin’s most important effort to pursue this policy, the German-Soviet Trade Treaty of 1925. Ultimately it argues that Berlin’s hopes for an evolution in Soviet Russia proved nothing more than wishful thinking.