The Locarno System: decline and British attempts at modification, 1935-1937 (through the lens of Ivan Maisky’s «Diplomat’s Diary»)
( Pp. 20-28)

The Diary of Ivan Maisky, a diplomat, Soviet Envoy (later Ambassador) to the United Kingdom from 1932 to 1943 is one of the valuable sources on the interwar history of international relations and WWII. Maisky never saw his diaries returned to him after they had been confiscated at the time of his arrest in 1953. It was declassified by the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and published in 2006-2009 with the commentaries of Russian scholars. The analysis of the Diary which contains unique details about Soviet-British relations casts new light on the roles of Great Britain and the USSR in the pre-war international crises and allows for a re-evaluation of the two powers’ efforts aimed at preventing or delaying the war. When the Diary is juxtaposed with the declassified British archive materials, the degree to which the British officials trusted the Soviet Envoy/Ambassador as well as the level of his awareness of the undercurrents of British politics become clearer. The authors argue that the Versailles System had failed by the mid-1920s and was replaced by the Locarno System based on the guarantees of Germany’s western borders. In the mid-1930s the Locarno System was in disarray despite British efforts to save it through concessions and the appeasement policy. The «Diplomat’s Diary» shows a struggle within the British elite between the supporters and the opponents of the appeasement policy linked with the search for a new configuration of the European system of security.

Khakhalkina E.V., Troitskiy E.F., (2020), THE LOCARNO SYSTEM: DECLINE AND BRITISH ATTEMPTS AT MODIFICATION, 1935-1937 (THROUGH THE LENS OF IVAN MAISKY’S «DIPLOMAT’S DIARY»). History and Modern Perspectives, 3 => 20-28.

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Appeasement, the World Economic Crisis of the 1930s, I.M. Maisky, W. Churchill, Anglo-Soviet relations.