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The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement signed on 16 April 1922 between Germany and Russia under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I. The two governments also agreed to normalise their diplomatic relations and to "co-operate in a spirit of mutual goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries". It was a spinoff of the Genoa Conference, which included Germany and the Soviet Union. It had broken down when France demanded that the Soviets assume the prewar debt incurred by the tsarist regime and on immediate reparations by the Germans to the USSR. The German and Russian delegates quietly slipped away and met at Rapallo. The Treaty was negotiated by Georgi Chicherin, foreign minister of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, and his German counterpart Walther Rathenau. Ratifications were exchanged in Berlin on January 31, 1923. It was signed at the Hotel Imperiale in the Italian town of Santa Margherita Ligure, and registered in ''League of Nations Treaty Series'' on September 19, 1923.〔''League of Nations Treaty Series'', vol. 19, pp. 248-252.〕 The treaty did not include secret military provisions; however secret military cooperation soon followed.〔Gordon H. Mueller, "Rapallo Reexamined: A New Look at Germany's Secret Military Collaboration with Russia in 1922," ''Military Affairs'' (1976) 40#3 pp 109-117 (in JSTOR )〕 A supplementary agreement signed in Berlin on November 5 extended the treaty to cover Germany's relations with Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Far Eastern Republic. Ratifications were exchanged in Berlin on October 26, 1923, and the supplementary protocol was registered in ''League of Nations Treaty Series'' on July 18, 1924.〔''League of Nations Treaty Series'', vol. 26, pp. 388-394.〕 The agreement was reaffirmed by the Treaty of Berlin, 1926. ==Background== Both Germany and the Soviet Union were left vulnerable in the period following the end of World War I. Germany had lost the war, leaving it diplomatically isolated, and the Treaty of Versailles after the war led to German disarmament and the cession of German territories, including all her colonies. The Soviet Union had left the war before its end in 1917, due to the Bolshevik revolution and ceded many of its Western territories to Germany in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; after Germany′s defeat, this territory was transformed into a number of new, independent states, including Poland. Like the Germans, the Russians were left diplomatically isolated as their transition to communist rule had led to the loss of western allies. Germany initially hoped to pursue peaceful changes to the Versailles Treaty, and its main territorial goal was to reclaim certain portions of western Poland. An initially conciliatory posture failed in 1919, leading Germany to institute an economic blockade of Poland in January 1920.〔Lee and Michalka 50〕 This effort to force changes also failed, and led to severe losses for German businessmen.〔Lee and Michalka 51〕 These failures led Germany to look for other alternatives, which reached their most extreme form in the proposal of Hans von Seeckt, commander of the ''Reichswehr'' (German military), who suggested that Germany and the Soviet Union should conclude an alliance to jointly invade Poland, followed by a war on France. His proposals did not have much impact on official policy, but the general idea of seeking closer cooperation with Russia began to gain currency among a number of groups, including German businessmen who saw market opportunities in Russia.〔Lee and Michalka 58-59〕 Like Germany, Russia hoped to make territorial gains at Poland′s expense, but it was left without an effective means of doing so. Early in 1919, the Polish-Soviet War had broken out over border disputes between the two countries. After initial Soviet victories, the Poles counterattacked successfully, and a compromise peace was reached in March 1921, leaving Soviet desires for border revision largely unfulfilled. The war also left the Soviets even further isolated from Britain and France.〔Kochan 115-116〕 This common isolation and interest in revision in Poland led to a natural sympathy between Russia and Germany. At the Tenth Party Conference in 1921, the Soviets settled on a policy of pursuing opportunities for trade with the Western powers, which could supply badly needed industrial materials. The joint German-Soviet concerns first led to signing, in May 1921, of a treaty between the two nations under which Germany recognized the Soviet regime as the only legitimate government of Russia, and agreed to suspend relations with all other groups which still claimed power. This agreement paved the way for future cooperation between the two.〔Kochan 117〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Treaty of Rapallo (1922)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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