The League of Nations was founded in 1919-1920 to avoid a recurrence of a destructive war. The participants in the Versailles Agreement created by this organization were 58 states. The goals of the League were to maintain universal peace within the framework of the fundamental principles of the Covenant adopted by its members: to develop cooperation between peoples and guarantee them peace and security.
During the first years of the League of Nations, great successes were noted. In accordance with the provisions of the Covenant, several international differences - between Sweden and Finland, as well as between Greece and Bulgaria - have been resolved peacefully. The agreement, signed at Locarno, in October 1925, which marked the beginning of Franco-German reconciliation, was entrusted to the League.
Who did not join the League of Nations
Countries that did not enter the League: USA, Saudi Arabia. Later, due to non-compliance with the Treaty of Versailles, countries such as Germany, Italy, Japan withdrew, and the USSR was also expelled from the League of Nations.
At the beginning of the formation of the League of the USSR, it was not part of the countries, although it supported the organization in every possible way, taking an active part in summits and negotiations. In September 1934, the USSR joined the League as a permanent member. The reason for the exclusion of the USSR from the League of Nations was the armed attack on Finland.
Political events in Moscow leading to hostilities
Stalin was worried that the border with Finland passed very close to Leningrad, which, in his opinion, threatens national security. At first, the Soviet leader did not want to start a military campaign and negotiated peace and military assistance. Stalin was ready to cede a significant part of Karelia to the Finns, in return they were required to move the border from Leningrad deep into his territory and provide the USSR with several islands on Finnish territory for military bases.
How did the exclusion of the USSR from the League of Nations
Moscow's proposal caused a split in the Finnish leadership, and those who did not want any compromises with the Bolsheviks took up. On November 26, 1939, at about 4:00 p.m., allegedly shelling was fired from Finnish territory on the territory of the Soviet border post in the Korean village of Mainila, according to official sources, 4 people were killed 8 wounded.
Finnish border guards claimed that shells flew from the Soviet rear. An hour later, a commission was held in Mainil as a part of the MKVD, which quickly determined the guilt of the Finnish side. This shelling gave Moscow a formal reason to attack the Finnish territory, under the guise of protecting their land. That is why the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations (1939).
November 28, Moscow withdraws from the non-aggression pact, the next day follows a statement on the severance of diplomatic relations. On November 30, 1939, Soviet troops crossed the Finnish border with a large margin of manpower and equipment. This confrontation went down in history under the name “War with the White Finns”. Its beginning was not announced, and even the Moscow leaders denied even the obvious shelling of Finnish territory by Soviet troops.
The patience of the League of Nations burst
Moscow has created informational propaganda that the Finnish government is an enemy of its population. The Union declared itself not an aggressor, but a liberator. But few people believed Moscow. On December 14, the expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations was supported by 7 members of the Council of 15. Despite the minority of those who supported it, the decision entered into force. At the meeting, the main lever of influence against the aggressor was ignored - the application of economic sanctions. Delegates from countries such as Greece, China and Yugoslavia abstained in the voting, and the representatives of Iran and Peru were not present at the meeting, where the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations.
World War II was approaching
This was the largest bloody conflict in the history of mankind with the use of nuclear weapons, which involved 62 states in hostilities, and this is 80% of the globe. World War II began shortly after everyone watched the expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations. Do not forget the bloody war in Finland, where the city of Helsinki was completely obliterated.
After the outbreak of World War II, the failure of the League turned out to be obvious, and the last thing that we managed to consider was the exclusion of the USSR from the League of Nations. The date of this event fell on December 14, 1939, and by January 1940 the League stopped all activities in relation to the settlement of political issues.
What failures did the organization
Despite a good start, the League of Nations was unable to prevent either the invasion of Manchuria by Japan, or the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy in 1936, and the capture of Austria by Hitler in 1938 weakened the League of Nations to prevent further global conflict. The League of Nations has ceased operations since 1940.
Such failures only prove the failure of agreements between political forces. Settlement agreements are adhered to as long as it is beneficial to both countries or until there is no opportunity to wage military conflicts. Therefore, the participating countries observed the expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations (1939).
Successes of the Treaty of Versailles
The failure of the collective security of the League of Nations does not lose sight of the successes that have been achieved from the very beginning. Under her auspices, a significant number of summits and intergovernmental meetings of experts were held in Geneva in such areas as financial matters, healthcare, social affairs, transport and communications, etc. This fruitful work was confirmed by the ratification of more than a hundred conventions by member states. The unprecedented work in the interests of refugees, carried out by the Norwegian figure F. Nansen since 1920, should also be emphasized.
Almost 100 years ago the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations, the date of this event, as mentioned above, fell on December 14, 1939. Today, the UN is considered the successor to the League.