non-aggression and also for a trade agreement, though the Polish Ambassador in Moscow, M. Patek, continued his efforts in both directions. On the other hand, the negotiations with Latvia were successful. A pact of non-aggression with that country was signed on March 9, and following it a trade agreement was concluded on June 2, to be valid for a term of five years.

Diplomatic relations with Italy were adversely affected by Signor Mussolini's ratification, on March 7, of the Treaty concluded by the Great Powers with Rumania on October 28, 1920, respecting Bessarabia. The Soviet Union protested against this step in a Note of March 19 which was despatched to the Italian Government. In this Note it asserted that it would never recognise the annexation of this former Russian province; the population of Bessarabia, it said, should decide on its own destiny.

Negotiations were continued during the year with France concerning the old Russian debts and the raising of a loan in France, but nothing had been effected by the end of the year. The Rakovski incident greatly aggravated the situation. M. Rakovski, who belonged to the Trotskist Opposition, signed a manifesto of that party on August 8 which proclaimed the urgency of a world-wide active revolutionary propaganda. The French Ministry for Foreign Affairs protested against the Head of a Diplomatic Mission associating himself with such a document. An exchange of Notes took place, and the Conservative organs of the French Press carried on a campaign against Rakovski. In the end the Russian Government recalled Rakovski from his post. His successor was M. Dovgalevski, who had been since February Ambassador in Tokio.

The political intervention of the Soviet Union in South China proved a failure, and M. Borodin, the Bolshevik adviser of the Canton Government, left for Russia in the autumn. In the Near East, however, some successes were achieved. On October 1 the Treaty with Persia of February 26, 1921, was renewed (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1921, p. 197). It was drawn up much on the lines of the Russo-German Treaty of Berlin of April 24, 1924. The fourth article, which includes a pact of non-aggression, goes even further than the corresponding provision of that Treaty. It stipulates that neither party shall tolerate in its country any organisations or factions which strive to overthrow by forcible means the Government of the other country. Since July a Trade Agreement with Turkey has been in operation; the Soviet Press represented this as a new step in the development of Russian commercial policy in the East.

In the course of the year the Soviet Union took part in two important International Conferences arranged by the League of Nations. At the end of 1926 the Soviet Union had been invited by the League of Nations to the World Economic Conference. The Soviet Government at first declined the invitation owing to

differences with Switzerland. On April 14, however, an exchange of Notes took place in Berlin between the Russian Ambassador there, M. Krestinski, and the Swiss representative, M. Rüfenacht, which resulted in the settling of the conflict. The Swiss Government condemned the assassination of the Russian diplomatist, M. Vorovski, and declared itself prepared to enter into negotiations on all questions at issue, including compensation to the daughter of Vorovski. By this act the obstacle to Russia's attendance at the Geneva Conference was removed. It is worthy of note that the signing of the Russo-Swiss declaration coincided with the splitting of the South China Government into two camps, a Nationalist and a Communist. Losing ground in the Far East, the Soviet Union turned its eyes towards Europe, and decided to participate at the World Economic Conference in order to extricate itself from its position of isolation and to obtain access to the international capital market. The Soviet delegation included moderate men like MM. Ossinski and Sokolnikov, who were its two leading members. Towards the end of the year a Russian delegation, headed by M. Litvinov, went to Geneva to the Disarmament Conference. While there Litvinov had interviews with Sir Austen Chamberlain and M. Briand:

The outstanding feature in the internal history of the second half of the year was the decisive struggle between the Government and the Opposition. In spite of the complete victory obtained by the majority section of the Communist Party at the fourteenth Party Conference towards the close of 1926, the Opposition did not remain quiet during 1927. On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Pravda, M. Zinoviev vehemently attacked the party on account of its Chinese policy. The Soviet Press was indignant, and it was decided to summon Zinoviev before the party tribunal. At the session of the Executive of the Komintern (the Communist International) held in the second half of May, M. Trotsky vigorously criticised the official party policy and the Executive of the Komintern. In spite of this, however, he and his supporter, the Serbian Communist Vuyovitch, were not excluded from the Communist International, but were only warned that they would be excluded if they continued to attack the party. The views of the Opposition were formulated in a pamphlet compiled by MM. Smirnov and Sapronov. They stigmatised the party leaders as Thermidorians, and asserted that the Communist Party was no longer a proletarian party, but that under the pressure of the petty bourgeois elements it had become opportunist both in foreign and in domestic policy. They charged the Communist International with having become a tool in the hands of Stalin.

On July 28 the Central Committee of the party opened its deliberations on the attitude to be adopted towards Trotsky and Zinoviev. While these were going on, the Opposition issued a declaration of the "eighty-three " in which all their arguments

against the policy of the majority were recapitulated. This declaration, which was signed by some five hundred Communists, was much discussed in the various party circles. Simultaneously various pamphlets were printed clandestinely and disseminated. On June 9 one of the leading members of the Opposition, M. Smilga, left Moscow for Siberia. On his friends going to the Yaroslav railway station to bid him farewell, a spontaneous demonstration in favour of the Opposition took place, at which Trotsky harangued a large audience. Rykov did not conceal the fact that the incident was of considerable significance. The Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the party met again to consider the situation. It was obvious that the Opposition had scored a certain success, and Stalin hesitated to strike the decisive blow. A truce was accordingly made, and the resolution passed by the united session of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the party, which met on August 9, studiously avoided threatening the Opposition with exclusion from the party. On the day before, thirteen members of the Opposition-among them Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Rakovski-had signed a declaration in which they disclaimed all idea of splitting the party into two factions. The majority on their side made some concessions to the Opposition, allowing them to print their theses in the Pravda, in a separate "debating section" of the paper. It was understood that this state of things should continue till December, when the fiftieth Congress of the party was to meet.

The Opposition, however, in the interval did not abstain from clandestine, illegal actions, and fourteen Communists were expelled from the party for having organised a printing press. Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Smilga defended them before the party tribunal, and Trotsky delivered a bitter attack on the party bureaucracy. The reply to this was the exclusion of Trotsky and Vuyovitch from the Executive Committee of the Komintern. On October 12 M. Preobrashenski, formerly a close friend of Lenin and an expert on financial questions, was expelled from the party along with Serebriakov and Sharov, and on October 23 Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Central Committee of the party, and shortly afterwards from the party itself. At the fiftieth Congress of the party in December the Opposition was finally crushed. The Congress decided that the theses of the Opposition drawn up by Trotsky were incompatible with his continued membership of the party. Stalin demanded complete acceptance of the policy and tactics of the party. Trotskyism was proclaimed an "anti-Soviet force," and Trotsky's followers a Menshevik faction. A Commission of Enquiry was set up to deal with the whole matter. On December 19 the Commission submitted its report to the Congress, recommending that altogether 98 leaders of the Opposition should be expelled from the party. The Congress unanimously adopted the report. Kamenev,

Rakovski, Radek, Piatakov, Smilga, Yevdokimov, Smirnov, Beloborodov, all well-known members of the party, were among those expelled. On December 20 eleven members of the Opposition, including Zinoviev and Kamenev, approached the Congress with a request to reconsider the resolution in view of the fact that they were willing to submit unreservedly to the will of the majority. The Congress replied that they should apply to the Control Commission, but it was announced that no decision would be taken before six months.

Nineteen-twenty-seven was a year of anniversaries, foremost among which was the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. The Central Executive Committee held a special session in honour of the occasion (October 15-20) at the Tauric Palace in Leningrad. The "Manifesto of Leningrad," issued on October 15, included a whole series of promises to the working people, notably one to introduce the seven hours' working day without reduction of payment.

The Anglo-Russian conflict, the assassination of Voikov at Warsaw, and several terrorist acts by counter-revolutionaries in Leningrad and elsewhere in the Soviet Union led to a series of drastic measures being taken by the G.P.U. Twenty people, mostly ex-officers, including the old leader of the former Cadet Party, Prince Dolgoruki, were shot without trial. A manifesto was issued with the signature "Kremlin," threatening heavy punishment to all offenders against the Soviet rule. The G.P.U. was, on the whole, very active in the second half of the year.

The Synod of the Pan-Russian Orthodox Church published, on July 29, a declaration on its relation to the Soviet State, signed by the administrator of the patriarchate, the metropolitan Sergius, and seven archbishops. Sergius had become administrator of the patriarchate after the death of Krutitsky, the successor of the Patriarch Tikhon. The manifesto declared the complete loyalty of the Church to the Soviet Government, on the understanding that the Government would legalise the institutions of the Church and recognise the Synod as head of the Church. The new Patriarch thus sought to make his peace with the Soviet Government, but it was uncertain how far he spoke for the Church as a whole, and how far the Government would go to meet his wishes.

ESTONIA.

Early in the year the bases were laid for the establishment of a Customs Union between Estonia and Latvia, the negotiations for which were expected to last three years. Later in the year Estonia protested against the Commercial Treaty concluded by Latvia with Russia, on the ground that it would render nugatory the proposed Customs Union between Estonia and Latvia. In

April Estonia definitely refused to conclude with Moscow any pact that did not ensure for her complete freedom to observe her obligations under the Covenant of the League of Nations.

On December 9 the Temant Cabinet resigned and a new Cabinet was formed by M. Toenisson. Like his predecessor, M. Toenisson belongs to the Right, but he was also more acceptable to the Left, and owing to the active part he had taken in the Estonian liberation movement he was regarded as a more suitable Premier for the tenth anniversary of Estonian independence which was to be celebrated in February, 1928.

LATVIA.

The Coalition Government of Socialists and Democrats under M. Skujeneeks, which took office at the end of 1926, early showed distinct leanings towards Russia. In the spring it initialled several paragraphs of a draft pact of non-aggression with Russia -thus parting company with the Estonian Government, which refused to take a similar course- -and in the summer it concluded a Commercial Agreement with the Soviet Government, although by so doing it endangered the prospects of a Customs Union with the other Baltic States. These steps met with strong opposition in the country itself. The proposal to ratify the Commercial Treaty gave rise to a very violent and disorderly debate in the Diet at the end of October, and was carried only by a small majority. The Democrats soon after this turned against the Government, which consequently was compelled to resign on December 13. The Cabinet crisis had not yet been solved by the end of the year.

LITHUANIA.

Early in the year the Valdemaras Government, which had obtained power by a coup d'état at the end of 1926 (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1926, p. 189), arrested a large number of Communists on the charge of plotting a conspiracy, and had several of them executed. The Government remained quasi-dictatorial in character, and modelled itself on the Fascist régime in Italy. Popular discontent with it found expression in a rising which took place in Tauroggen in September, but which was quickly suppressed.

The new Government showed itself at first not ill-disposed towards Poland, and for a time the tension between the two countries was somewhat relaxed, though the "state of war still continued. Early in October public opinion in Lithuania was outraged by the action of the Polish authorities in closing the Lithuanian schools in the Vilna and Grodno districts and arresting many prominent Lithuanians there. The Polish Government