Anglo-Soviet Agreement
The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance that was signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on July 12, 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Both powers pledged to assist each other and not to make a separate peace with Germany.[1] The military alliance was to be valid until the end of World War II.
The agreement was signed on 12 July 1941 by Sir Stafford Cripps, , and Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, and it did not require ratification.[2]
Text[]
The agreement contained two clauses:
(1) The two Governments mutually undertake to render each other assistance and support of all kinds in the present war against Hitlerite Germany.
(2) They further undertake that during this war they will neither negotiate nor conclude an armistice or treaty of peace except by mutual agreement.
Subsequent events[]
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and the Arctic convoys began the following month.
The agreement was broadened to include a political alliance by the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of 1942.[3]
Reactions[]
According to Lynn Davis, the United States perceived the agreement to mean that the Soviet Union intended to support the postwar re-establishment of independence of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.[citation needed]
See also[]
- Allies of World War II
- Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement (1921)
- Atlantic Charter
- Diplomatic history of World War II
- Declaration by United Nations
- Declaration of St James's Palace
References[]
- ^ Chubarov, Alexander. Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras, pg. 119
- ^ Anglo-Soviet Agreement BBC radio broadcast 13 July 1941
- ^ Slusser, Robert M.; Triska, Jan F. (1959). A Calendar of Soviet Treaties 1917-1957. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 144.
External links[]
- World War II treaties
- Military alliances involving the Soviet Union
- Military alliances involving the United Kingdom
- Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations
- 1941 in the Soviet Union
- 1941 in the United Kingdom
- United Kingdom in World War II
- 20th-century military alliances
- Treaties concluded in 1941
- Treaties of the Soviet Union