Authors

Discussion

Historians have traditionally seen the armistice in November 1918 as the end of the Great War. However, in the following years across Europe, military and paramilitary expressed a difficult peace-making process. The road to peace in Eastern Europe was blocked by the ideological and military expansion of Bolshevik Russia.

In the years between the Bolshevik seizure of power and signing the peace treaties in June 1919, Britain faced the challenge of reshaping its policy and creating new geopolitical conditions. The Labour Party played a significant role in the political debate that ensued. From the moment the Bolsheviks took power, the party opposed Britain's military involvement in the civil war in Russia. The party was equally reluctant about British support for the war effort in Poland, which in 1919–1920, like other counties in Eastern Europe, fell victim to the aggression of Bolshevik Russia.

This presentation analyses the anti-war propaganda of the Labour Party from 1918 to 1920 when the Red Army's military defeat in the Battle of Warsaw stopped the expansion of Bolshevism towards Western Europe. Thus, we will examine the arguments for peace, such as the need to stabilise the situation in Eastern Europe and the economic consequences of another conflict, in the broad context of peace aspirations in Europe. It seems reasonable to ask to what extent the Labour Party favoured maintaining peace with Russia at all costs, even at the cost of breaking the basic principle that every nation has the right of self-determination. In this context, Bolshevik disinformation and influence in shaping anti-war rhetoric also need consideration.