A Successful Genoa Conference in 1921

Okay, the Genoa Conference, in OTL, met in April to May of 1922, wihth som pretty heady goals. Basically, it was the culmination of three nation's goals.

The USSR was willing to pay back Tsarist loans from before 1914 because it was desperate for long term low interest loans and diplomatic recognition.

Germany, meanwhile, wanted access to the German marketto make up for lossess to Britain and France on the world stage. Yet Germany lacked the capital to invest in Russia. An international agreement would help it do so.

Britain, under Lloyd Gerorge, wanted to stimulate European trade, promote disarmament, and develop a peace structure that incorporated the Weimar Republic and Soviet Russia.


This culminated in the Genoa Conference, which, "had it been accomplished in its most elaborate form, Soviet Russia would have received full and immediate diplomatic recognition as well as Western technology and capital, either in the form of long-term loans and credit or through a consortium led by Germany and financed by the victors of theWorld War. A portion of the German profits would hve been pledged to reparations payments, and until those proceeds were avaialble there would have been a payment moratorium. The Soviet government would have acknowledged as its obligation both the prewar debt and the Russian war debt, and it would have agreed to compensate the owners of property nationalized in the revolution. "

(Jon Jacobson, when the Soviet Union entered World Politics)

Okay, clearly, this won't succeed in full. But I think it has potential.

Thoughts?
 
It'd be interesting to see what effects this would have on the economies of Germany and the Soviet Union in particular, and Europe and the rest of the world in general.
Hmmm, 1921... might this affect Stalin's rise to power?
 
Okay, the Genoa Conference, in OTL, met in April to May of 1922, wihth som pretty heady goals. Basically, it was the culmination of three nation's goals.

The USSR was willing to pay back Tsarist loans from before 1914 because it was desperate for long term low interest loans and diplomatic recognition.

Germany, meanwhile, wanted access to the German marketto make up for lossess to Britain and France on the world stage. Yet Germany lacked the capital to invest in Russia. An international agreement would help it do so.

Britain, under Lloyd Gerorge, wanted to stimulate European trade, promote disarmament, and develop a peace structure that incorporated the Weimar Republic and Soviet Russia.


This culminated in the Genoa Conference, which, "had it been accomplished in its most elaborate form, Soviet Russia would have received full and immediate diplomatic recognition as well as Western technology and capital, either in the form of long-term loans and credit or through a consortium led by Germany and financed by the victors of the World War. A portion of the German profits would hve been pledged to reparations payments, and until those proceeds were avaialble there would have been a payment moratorium. The Soviet government would have acknowledged as its obligation both the prewar debt and the Russian war debt, and it would have agreed to compensate the owners of property nationalized in the revolution. "

(Jon Jacobson, when the Soviet Union entered World Politics)

Okay, clearly, this won't succeed in full. But I think it has potential.

Thoughts?

Faeelin

Interesting idea. Can't remember having heard of this. Presume you mean Germany wanted access to the Russian market?

Not sure if the system would work. Would the various parties trust each other and at this point I'm not sure if either Britain or Germany would have had that much spare capital. [Although could easily be wrong]. Also, since I think the main Russian loans pre-1914 were to France, wouldn't that need to be included? [Just realised that their not necessary excluded, just that they weren't one of the main initiators of it]. Unless the idea was that such repayments would probably go to Britain and/or US to pay off French debts to them.

If it had worked it might have given much needed balance to the world economy and given Russia enough peaceful contact with the outside world that you might have moderated Bolshevik rule a bit. However with Lenin in charge in Russia, a resentful Germany and a divided Britain coupled with tension and exhaustion in other countries as well it would take a lot to pull off I suspect.

One big difference between your initial intro and the quote from the book is the latter talks about war time as well as pre-war Russian debts. I think, even if they were willing, the Soviets would have struggled to pay off the pre-war debts, given the state of the country after the civil war. Can't see how they could have handled the far larger war time debts. [This was the predominant reason why Britain became a debtor nation. It actually loaned more money to the allies, especially Russia, than it borrowed or was held accountable for, from the US. Its just that the former were never likely to be repaid]. I have heard that Britain argued for the cancelling of all war-debts and possibly that might have worked, especially if say as a result there was a deal greatly restricting German reparations. However can't see the US being happy with that.

Steve
 
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