Ankara – Stockholm – Bern: three types of press commentaries and interpretations about British – Soviet Treaty (May 1942)
Ankara – Stockholm – Bern: three types of press commentaries and interpretations about British – Soviet Treaty (May 1942)

Summary/Abstract: In December 1941, when Anthony Eden visited Moscow, Stalin put him in front of a series of post-war territorial arrangements. Beside the return to the Soviet border of 1941, other „suggestions” also came up, the final result being a Soviet – British condominium over whole Europe. But Eden abstained to assume any commitment and, five months later, when the Soviet – British Treaty was signed, it didn’t mentioned any such things and wasn’t accompanied by secret protocols. Our paper focuses on the press commentaries, from Turkey, Sweden and Switzerland. The ones from Turkey were absolutely well-balanced, while those from Switzerland were Soviet Union-sided. Most interesting are those from Sweden. They launched the idea of secret protocols, a topic on which they published extensively, stressing the fact that it was genuine and showing no reserve as to their origin. The journals analyzed by us had a strong pro-German bias, which induces us that this mediatic offensive was guided from Berlin. The importance of these commentaries is quite obvious: it was read by the public opinion and by the diplomats and it could have a certain effect on the consolidation of the idea that alliance with Germany was a wise decision after all.

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