The League of Nations faces Soviet aggression

Born of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the League of Nations has been dying since Munich, in 1938. The absence of the United States, whose Senate refused ratification in 1920, then the successive withdrawals of Japan and Germany in 1933 and Italy in 1937, have drained the organisation of its substance. The Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, and that of Finland on 30 November, place it before an existential question: can it act against one of the permanent members of its Council?

Risto Ryti, Finnish Prime Minister since 2 December 1939, files an official complaint against the USSR on 3 December. The extraordinary Assembly of the League meets in Geneva from 9 to 14 December 1939. Secretary-General Joseph Avenol, a 50-year-old Frenchman and former financial attaché in London, must steer a delicate session: the USSR refuses to send any delegation and denounces a "fascist anti-Soviet war of British imperialism".

On 14 December the Council Committee votes to expel the USSR — the first such expulsion in League history. Seven votes in favour: the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, South Africa and Bolivia; none against; twelve states abstaining, including the United States (present as an observer), and Sweden, Norway and Denmark, fearing Soviet reprisals. The quorum is met; the vote is valid.

Within an institution already largely discredited, Avenol must decide on the spot what to do next.