44°20′10″N 9°13′10″E / 44.33611°N 9.21944°E / 44.33611; 9.21944 The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement signed on 16 April 1922 between the German Reich and Soviet Russia under which both renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other and opened friendly diplomatic relations.

[1] A supplementary agreement, signed in Berlin on 5 November, extended the treaty to cover Germany's relations with the other Soviet republics: of Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

[4] Germany initially hoped to pursue peaceful changes to the Treaty of Versailles, and its main territorial goal was to reclaim certain portions of western Poland.

His proposals did not have much impact on official policy, but the general idea of seeking closer cooperation with Russia began to gain currency among a number of groups, including German businessmen who saw market opportunities there.

After initial Russian victories, the Poles counterattacked successfully, and a compromise peace was reached in March 1921, which left Soviet desires for border revision largely unfulfilled.

At the Tenth Party Conference in 1921, the Russians settled on a policy of pursuing opportunities for trade with the Western powers, which could supply badly needed industrial materials: Germany and Russia were rapidly moving closer together because each could use what the other had to offer.

[9]The joint German–Russian concerns first led to the signing in May 1921 of a treaty under which Germany recognised the Soviet regime as the only legitimate government of Russia and agreed to suspend relations with all other Russian groups that still claimed power.

Poincaré replaced Lloyd George's ideas with a scheme to hurt Germany and planned to work with the Russians, who had not been represented at Versailles but were allowed to ask for reparations.

Before 1917, Western European financial interests had made heavy loans and investments in Tsarist Russia, which the new communist regime refused to honour.

Russia's leader, Vladimir Lenin, had reversed earlier plans to organize anticapitalist revolutions across Europe and now sought a peaceful interlude of economic development.

In the German government, attitudes were split between the "Easterners", who wanted closer ties with Russia and included many diplomats and the socialists, and the "Westerners", who gave priority to normalising relations with Britain and France.

While the main conference was dragging on in Genoa, the Russian and the German delegations secretly met at Rapallo, a nearby small resort city, and quickly signed a treaty involving mutual diplomatic recognition, cancellation of debts owed in each direction and pledges to increase economic ties.

The Rapallo Treaty provided diplomatic cover for military cooperation, which was kept top secret, and allowed Germany to rebuild its military arsenal in Russia with the establishment of a flying school at Lipetsk, the building of a chemical weapons plant at Volsk, a tank school near Kazan, two factories for the production of tanks near Moscow and Rostov-on-Don and joint battlefield manoeuvres.

For Germany, “Rapallo” symbolized a hopeful independent foreign policy of cleverly playing off Eastern and Western Europe so that the defeated nation could escape harsh repression.

[b] Legal relations in public and private matters arising out of the state of war, including the question of the treatment of trading vessels which have fallen into the hands of either Party, shall be settled on a basis of reciprocity.

Article 2Germany waives all claims against Russia which may have arisen through the application, up to the present, of the laws and measures of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic to German nationals or their private rights and the rights of the German Reich and states, and also claims which may have arisen owing to any other measures taken by the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic or by their agents against German nationals or the private rights, on condition that the government of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic does not satisfy claims for compensation of a similar nature made by a third Party.

The German Government, having lately been informed of the proposed agreements of private firms, declares its readiness to give all possible support to these arrangements and to facilitate their being carried into effect.

Article 6 The States allied with the RSFSR shall allow persons who possessed German nationality but have since lost it, and also their wives and children, to leave the country, provided that proof is forthcoming that they are transferring their residence to Germany.

Article 7 The delegations of both Parties and all persons employed in connection therewith shall refrain from any agitation or propaganda against the Government and national institutions of the country in which they reside.