1922

The year in brief

In the spring of 1922 the first Reichswehr officers travelled to Soviet Russia to evade the bans of Versailles deep inside the country, and on 16 April at Rapallo Germany and Soviet Russia established relations and renounced their claims, which alarmed the West and Poland. In February the powers limited their battleship fleets at Washington. In the autumn two wars ended: the Armistice of Mudanya ended the war with Turkey, and when the Japanese left Vladivostok the last stronghold of the Whites in Russia fell. In Ankara the sultanate was abolished. In Italy, after the Fascist march on Rome and the king’s refusal to declare a state of siege, Victor Emmanuel III summoned Mussolini on 29 October to form a government. The Fascists won no battle; the state gave up defending itself.