TheAnglo-Soviet Agreement was a declaration signed by theUnited Kingdom and theSoviet Union on 12 July 1941, shortly after the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In the agreement, the UK and the Soviet Union pledged to cooperate in the war againstNazi Germany and not to make aseparate peace with Germany.[1]
The agreement was to be valid until the end of war against Nazi Germany. The two principles of the agreement, a commitment to mutual assistance and renunciation of a separate peace, were similar to those in the earlierDeclaration of St James's Palace and the laterDeclaration by United Nations.
The Soviet Union and the Third Reich signed theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact between the two nations, on 23 August 1939. A secret part of the agreement defined the areas of Eastern Europe that fell into their respective spheres of influence. On 1 September 1939,Germany invaded Poland and, on 17 September, theUSSR invaded Poland from the east. The UK had declared war on Germany on 3 September. The Soviet Union declared itself neutral in the war between the UK and Germany.[2]
On 22 June 1941Germany began an attack along the whole length of its border with the USSR from theBaltic states toUkraine.[3] The Soviet forces were unprepared and the attacks paralysed the Soviet command system and German forces advanced rapidly into Soviet territories.[4]
Initial discussions about an alliance were characterised by mutual suspicion between the UK and the Soviet Union.[5] Three weeks of difficult negotiations followed before the two countries reached an agreement to cooperate against Germany. The UK consulted with the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa before concluding the agreement.[6] The military alliance was to be valid until the end of the war against Germany.[7][8]
The agreement was signed on 12 July 1941 by SirStafford Cripps,British Ambassador to the Soviet Union[a] andVyacheslav Molotov, the SovietPeople's Commissar of Foreign Affairs,[b] and it did not require ratification.[9]
The agreement contained two clauses:
With the signing of the agreement, the UK and Soviet Union formally became allies against Germany. Winston Churchill stated, "It is of course an alliance and the Russian people are now our allies."[10]
TheArctic convoys from Britain to the Soviet Union began the following month as did the jointAnglo-Soviet invasion of Iran which opened up a supply route to the USSR. In Iran,Rezā Shāh was removed from power and the new Shah,Crown PrinceMohammad Reza Pahlavi, signed a Tripartite Treaty Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union in January 1942 to aid the allied war effort in a non-military way.
The two principles of the agreement, a commitment to mutual assistance and renunciation of a separate peace, mirrored the first two resolutions of theDeclaration of St James's Palace with other Allies, which formed the basis of theDeclaration by United Nations signed in January 1942.[11][12]
The agreement was broadened by theAnglo-Soviet Treaty of 1942 to include apolitical alliance lasting 20 years.[13]
According to Lynn Davis, theUnited States perceived the agreement to mean that the Soviet Union intended to support the postwar re-establishment of independence ofPoland,Czechoslovakia andYugoslavia.[14]
Churchill's famous speech of 22 June was directed to varying quarters and brilliantly concealed his determination to avoid a genuine association. Churchill had readily bowed to a request by both the Chiefs of Staff and the Foreign Office not to refer to the Russians as allies.
On the political front, the Soviet Union and Great Britain had signed an agreement in Moscow on July 12, 1941. Requested by Stalin as a sign of cooperation, it provided for mutual assistance and an understanding not to negotiate or conclude an armistice or peace except by mutual consent. Soviet insistence on such an agreement presumably reflected their suspicion of Great Britain, though there is no evidence that either party to it ever ceased to have its doubt about the loyalty of the other if attractive alternatives were thought to be available.
He [Cripps] replied on July 10 that Stalin had accepted 'an agreement for joint action between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the government of the U.S.S.R. in the war against Germany.' ...The agreement was signed on July 12.