Together in the struggle against Nazi Germany

by New Worker correspondent

Eighty-four years ago, on the 26th May 1942, the Soviet Union and Britain concluded the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of Alliance, which established a military and political alliance between the Soviet Union and the British Empire. It followed on from the Anglo-Soviet Agreement of July 1941 that they would assist each other in fighting Germany and not seek a separate peace with the Third Reich or its allies without the consent of the other. The treaty, which was to have remained in force for 20 years, provided for full collaboration between the two countries during and after the war. It was signed in London by Vyacheslav Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, in the presence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Molotov flew to London aboard a Soviet Petlyakov Pe-8 heavy bomber. Molotov then flew to Washington to conclude a similar agreement with the USA.
In his report to the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body of the USSR, Molotov said: “The treaty consolidates the friendly relations which have been established between the Soviet Union and Great Britain and their mutual military assistance in the struggle against Hitlerite Germany. It transforms these relations into a stable alliance. The treaty also defines the general line of our joint action with Great Britain in the post-war period.
“The entire tenor of the treaty bears out its great political importance not only for the development of Anglo-Soviet relations but also for the future development of the entire complex of international relations in Europe. Both the Anglo-Soviet treaty and the results of the negotiations which I conducted on instructions of the Soviet Government in London and Washington testify to the substantial consolidation of friendly relations among the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States of America. The importance of this fact to the peoples of the Soviet Union, who are bearing the main brunt of the struggle against Hitlerite Germany, will increase in such measure as it helps expedite our victory over the German invaders…
“The treaty and the understanding reached between the Soviet Union and England, as well as between the Soviet Union and the United States, on a number of very important questions relating to the present war and on collaboration after the war imply a consolidation of the fellowship in arms of all freedom-loving nations, which are headed today by the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States.”
The historic moment of the signing of the Anglo-Soviet treaty was captured by a renowned British portrait artist, Frank Owen Salisbury (1874–1964), with Eden and Churchill flanked by Molotov and the Soviet delegation on one side and the Labour leader, Clement Attlee, and other members of Churchill’s war-time Cabinet on the other. It was presented as a gift to the Soviet Government on the first anniversary of the treaty.