Relations of the Ukrainian SSR with the Baltic countries (1922-1940)

Abstract

The article examines the relations of the Ukrainian SSR with the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) during 1922-1940 (in the interwar period). It is established that Yevgeny Terletsky was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the Ukrainian SSR in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. However, already in May 1922, the diplomatic missions of the Ukrainian SSR in the Baltic countries were liquidated. All powers for conducting international affairs were transferred to the unified government of the RSFSR, and later to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the formed USSR.

In 1922, the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR certified that Professor Vitovt Moshinsky was appointed as the Representative of the Lithuanian Democratic Republic in the Ukrainian SSR. Also, the National Council of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR emphasized that from now on, citizen Vitovt Moshinsky enjoys all the rights of extraterritoriality, on the basis of which his luggage and all belongings are inviolable and are not subject to any inspection. The Lithuanian Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine was G.E. Ulman, who moved to Ukraine with his wife I.F. Ulman.

Regarding the relations of the Ukrainian SSR with Latvia and Estonia, the independent Latvian Republic did not have official diplomatic relations with the Ukrainian SSR (as part of the Soviet Union), but bilateral contacts still took place. Economic ties, cultural exchange and the movement of thousands of Latvian refugees who sought to return to their homeland after World War I were limited. In the 1920s and 1930s, limited trade and transit took place within the USSR. In Riga and Ukrainian cities, various societies and representations operated, ensuring cultural contacts and the exchange of press information. Unlike Latvia, Estonia established official diplomatic contacts with the Soviet Union. Thus, Estonia and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic recognized each other by a treaty signed on November 25, 1921. In general, diplomatic, migration and cultural relations between the Baltic countries and Ukraine ended in 1940 with the occupation of the Baltic countries by the USSR.