In 1924, the new elected UK Labour party becomes the first Western European government to recognise the Soviet Union, and offers an Anglo-Soviet alliance with a multi-million pound aid plan. This caused the Zinoviev letter incident which took down Labour and resulted in a Conservative landslide
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How do you define Western Europe? Germany concluded the treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union back in 1922 after Germany had recognised the Soviets as the only legitimate government in Russia in 1921.
Great post.
Interesting part of the history of the UK Labour Party.
Again, it is all about leaders – and what leaders are chosen.
It seems like a long time ago, but the entire globe – from the Korean Peninsula, to Africa, to Oceania, to Asia, to Europe is a product of those decisions by the most powerful Labour leaders to connive at the genocide of thousands of communities and villages and cultures and societies in Europe and Asia. And never be held responsible or accountable for it.
[The Zinoviev letter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinoviev_letter) is a famous fraud, it’s believed to have been written in Berlin by Russian monarchists, and the Soviet Union denied sending it. It was hyped up in the right wing press at the time, especially the Daily Mail.
Forget the fake Zinoviev letter, British intelligence services actively helped rig the vote in favour of the Conservatives. Stanley Baldwin would choose Austen Chamberlain as FM, who would do anything, including cooperating with the fascists, to keep Communism at bay. The Conservatives would hold onto power until they crashed the ship in 1929, and MacDonald was left to pick-up the pieces after the global financial meltdown.
(See Stephen Kotkin, *Stalin: Paradoxes of Power*)
Intelligence services are never a good mix in democracies.
Also as others have mentioned, plenty of European countries had recognised the USSR before the UK.
Fuck the tories. Eat the rich