France and the Treaty of Riga: The Problem of Guaranteeing the Eastern Border of Poland

Abstract

Seen from Paris, the Treaty of Riga brought a welcome end to the Soviet-Polish war and completed the drawing of Europe’s new borders. However, there remained no guarantee of stability in Eastern Europe. From 1918, successive French governments supported a ‘strong Poland’ to further their strategic aims in Europe. But both French and Polish diplomatic archives reveal the crux of the problem: the Treaty of Riga could sow the seeds of future con-icts with Russia (still considered a European power). Moreover, the events of the early 1920s jeopardized the relationship between Poland and Lithuania. For these reasons France remained unwilling to guarantee the boundaries that issued from the Treaty of Riga and was similarly reluctant to support Warsaw’s regional plans.