The Moscow Talks

After the guarantee given to Poland, the United Kingdom and France enter into talks with the USSR to build a common front against Germany. On paper, an alliance of the three powers would encircle the Reich and deter it from attacking in the East.

But the negotiations snag. Several fault lines run through the Western camp: the military value of the Red Army, weakened by the purges, is in doubt; communism inspires a long-standing wariness in part of the ruling class. Above all, Moscow demands guarantees against an 'indirect aggression' targeting the Baltic States, a notion the Soviets want drawn broadly and whose consequences for the sovereignty of small states divide London and Paris. Stalin, for his part, suspects the Western powers of wanting to push him alone into combat against Germany.

The dilemma is clear for London. Should it pursue the Soviet alliance without reservation, by dispatching a high-ranking negotiator to Moscow and conceding the guarantees demanded by Stalin? Conduct these talks with caution and slowness, limiting the rank of the emissaries? Or give up on the USSR to rely only on Poland and the West? Time is pressing, and Berlin is watching.