Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement signed on 16 April 1922 in Rapallo, Italy, between Germany and Russia, under which both states renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other and opened friendly diplomatic relations. It was negotiated by the Russian foreign minister Georgi Chicherin and the German foreign minister Walther Rathenau, and it was a major success for Russia and for Germany and a major disappointment to France and the United Kingdom. The phrase spirit of Rapallo came to describe the improved relations between the two countries. Ratifications were exchanged in Berlin on 31 January 1923, and the treaty was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 19 September 1923. It contained no military provisions, although secret military co-operation between the two states was already planned in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. A supplementary agreement signed in Berlin on 5 November extended it to the other Soviet republics, and the Treaty of Berlin reaffirmed it in 1926.