Political-Diplomatic Regroupings and Military Implications at the Black Sea (February-October 1939)

Generally speaking, the main events marking the development of international relations during the tumultuous year 1939, at least in Europe, were framed, chronologically, into March and April, respectively August and September. However, February 1939 saw the regular annual meeting of the Balkan Entente’s Permanent Council (in Bucharest) and also the Soviet initiative for a “Black Sea Pact”, while, in October, it was concluded the trilateral pact between Turkey, Britain and France, immediately after the failure of the Soviet-Turkish discussions on a bilateral alliance pact. Meanwhile, several dramatic political and diplomatic changes had also taken place in this part of Europe, mainly as a result of the surprising German-Soviet rapprochement from August 1939. The main sources of the article consist of documents from Romanian military and diplomatic archives, supplemented by a series of historiographical contributions, quite diverse in origin and language.