French policy towards the Baltic states, 1939-1991: from abandonment to reunion
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltijos valstybės; Prancūzijos politika; Šaltasis karas; Baltic States; French policy; Cold war.
ENDiplomatic relations between France and the three newly independent Baltic states would be best characterised as cordial rather than warm during the period between the two World Wars. Quite close cultural links, however, were maintained, thanks to the actions of several French universities with a longstanding interest in these countries. As one of its conditions for joining an alliance with Britain and France in August 1939 to thwart Nazi aggression, the USSR insisted that the Soviet Army should be authorised if necessary to enter the territory of the Baltic states in order to attack Germany. The refusal of the two Western powers to consent to Soviet demands was one of the reasons why the USSR opted instead for an alliance with the Reich, through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939. As a result, Hitler’s Reich became one of only two countries to recognise the subsequent annexation of the Baltic states by the USSR. This was done by means of a German–Soviet protocol of 10 January 1941 that recognised the new frontiers between the two countries. When the Wehrmacht entered Paris on 14 June 1940, Hitler received a congratulatory telegram from Stalin. In August of that year, the USSR demanded that the German occupation authorities hand over the Parisian embassy premises of the newly annexed Baltic countries to Soviet control. This was done after the Germans made representations to the Parisian Municipal Authorities on behalf of their Soviet ally. The buildings in question therefore passed to the USSR, and were not returned to their owners after 1991. Reluctant to begin long proceedings against a Russia apparently in the throes of breaking up, the French government decided instead to grant new provisional premises to the three restored Baltic states. Today, each country has its own embassy. [Extract, p. 84]
- Baltijas jautājums 20. gadsimta 80. gadu starptautiskajās attiecībās / Antonijs Zunda. Juridiskā zinātne 2016. 9, p. 48-57.
- The View of Lithuania by the French Communist Party Newspaper L’Humanité (1944–1948) / Akvilė Kabašinskaitė. Jauno vēsturnieku zinātniskie lasījumi. 7 / zinātniskā redaktore Ginta Ieva Bikše Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, 2022. P. 83-90.
