Negotiations of Military Missions from the USSR, Great Britain, and France in August 1939: Causes of Failure

The negotiations among the military missions of the three great powers represented the last effort to form an anti-Hitler coalition, aimed at halting the aggressor – Nazi Germany – and preventing the outbreak of the Second World War. Based on documents, including those from the Foreign Office archives, this analysis examines the negotiations and the underlying causes of their failure. Great Britain did not abandon the policy of appeasement and sought the Soviet government’s consent to provide assistance to Poland without guaranteeing reciprocal support from the Western powers. Poland relied on England and France which had provided it with guarantees of independence, and thus did not wish to cooperate closely with the USSR. Additional factors contributing to the failure of the Moscow negotiations are substantiated by documents and materials presented in this article.