Treaty of Rapallo

On 16 April 1922, the „Treaty of Rapallo“ is signed between the German Reich, represented by Reich Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, and Soviet Russia.

©AdsD The German Reich Chancellor Joseph Wirth with the Russian delegates Leonid Krassin, Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigorij Tschitscherin and Adolf Joffe (left to right)

Both sides agree to resume diplomatic relations and mutually forego reparations for war expenses and war damages. That invalidates Article 116 of the Versailles Peace Treaty which had instituted for Russia an entitlement to German reparations. Through the treaty both nations hope to break away from their international isolation. The Western powers fear – wrongly, as it will turn out – that the treaty could compromise the post-war order of Versailles, especially the existence of Poland.