Historians question Sweden's neutrality during the Second World War. Neutrality of Sweden in the First World War Neutrality during the Second
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least at the initial stage of the war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, during World War II, life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Switzerland
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where both the Nazis and the British who financed them allegedly stored gold. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns even now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - with a total number of about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future world famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population has increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain, this is the best result among European countries.
Different sources name different numbers of neutral countries – some 5, some 12. Sometimes doubts are expressed about the correctness of classifying certain states as neutral. Some researchers write about violations of the principles of neutrality by individual countries. For some reason, historians generally avoid this topic. It is still not clear how many neutral countries there actually were, and how many were hiding behind the “screen” of neutrality. How did these countries behave during the war? And is it possible to remain neutral in a world war? To shed some light on this dark topic, let us first consider what is considered to be neutrality and who is considered a participant in the war.
Neutrality
Neutrality (from the Latin “neuter” - neither one nor the other), in international law means non-participation in war. The right of neutrality contains three restrictions on the actions of a neutral country during a war between other states:
- do not provide your own armed forces to the warring parties;
- do not provide your territory for use by the warring parties (basing, transit, flight, etc.);
- do not discriminate against any of the parties in the supply of weapons and military goods.
From these basic provisions of international law follows:
1) neutral territory appears to be a refuge that protects all things and persons located on it, including warring parties, from hostilities. However, a neutral state must prevent any of the warring parties from producing weapons and equipment for military units on its territory, as well as using its ports and territorial waters;
2) a neutral state should not allow belligerent armies to pass through its territory;
3) transit through neutral territory of ammunition and military supplies of belligerents is not allowed, but the evacuation of sick and wounded soldiers is permitted, unless this is done to the benefit of only one side and to the detriment of the other;
4) warring countries are not allowed to make government loans on neutral territory;
5) enemy military forces that have crossed the border of neutral territory must be immediately disarmed and stationed as far as possible from the theater of military operations;
6) trophies captured within neutral territorial waters must, at the request of a neutral state, be released;
7) military vessels of the warring parties are prohibited from staying in the ports and harbors of a neutral state, except for extreme necessity: accidents, bad weather, to replenish fuel and food reserves necessary for the duration of the transition to the nearest domestic port; in the event of a meeting, under the specified conditions, of two enemy ships in neutral waters, one of them is detained and released no earlier than 24 hours after the departure of the other, in order to exclude the possibility of an attack;
International law also regulates the participation of citizens of neutral countries in war. Thus, a neutral state should not allow the intervention of its subjects in military operations, at least as mercenaries for the transport of troops, ammunition or military contraband in general, as well as as pilots on the warships of the belligerents. However, the obligation not to allow their subjects to participate in hostilities applies only to those serving under the banner. On the territory of a neutral country, belligerent countries do not have the right to recruit citizens of a neutral country for military service. At the same time, this is not prohibited outside a neutral country. Without allowing the intervention of its subjects in military operations, a neutral state is not deprived of the right and is even obliged to protect and provide protection to its subjects located on the territory of the warring parties.
Neutral trade during war will not be a violation of neutrality if the belligerent grants the neutral the right to expand its trade by taking over coastal transportation of goods for the duration of the war. The neutral flag does not cover only military contraband. In the event of armed defense of a neutral state from an assassination attempt by the belligerents, their neutrality ceases.
There are several types of neutrality. Demilitarized neutrality presupposes the absence of armed forces. Armed – presence of defense forces. There is neutrality regarding a specific territory or a specific war. And there is permanent neutrality, independent of time and territory. The status of neutrality is declared internationally by a sovereign state, which assumes the rights and obligations defined by the 1907 Hague Convention.
War participants
Countries participating in the Second World War are divided into belligerents and non-belligerents. Belligerents include those states on whose territory hostilities directly take place, or their territory is used by other belligerent countries, as well as those countries whose armed forces take part in the war. A state can become a participant in a war either of its own free will - declare war, or actually enter into it, as a result of its claims, or the fulfillment of allied international treaties, or be involved in a war on the initiative of another state, as a result of an attack, or, again, the fulfillment of allied international treaties . The warring parties enter a state of war from the moment the political and military leadership of the parties entering into armed confrontation lift restrictions on the use of personnel and standard expedient weapons for units of their armed forces. As a rule, units and subunits of the armed forces receive orders to begin hostilities. Also, countries at war include annexed and/or occupied countries, even if there are no active military operations taking place on their territory.
Non-belligerent participants in the war include countries that are indirectly involved in the war and provide political and/or material assistance to one of the parties to the conflict.
World map with conditional participants of the Second World War. The anti-Hitler coalition is depicted in green (countries marked in light green entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor), the countries of the Nazi bloc in blue, and neutral countries in gray.
The exact number of countries participating in the war can only be determined on any specific date of the war. In general, it is not possible to indicate the number of participants in World War II, because during the war some states ceased to exist (Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Yugoslavia), while others, on the contrary, appeared (Slovakia, Croatia). For the same reason, it is impossible to determine the number of neutral states - some lost their statehood, others entered the war. Therefore, below we will consider all the states that, in one way or another, claimed neutrality throughout the Second World War.
Applicants for neutral status
Both during the interwar period and during World War II, many countries made statements of neutrality. However, most of them sympathized with one side, both by action and inaction. Often, even entering the war on the opposite side did not eliminate such sympathy. In addition, some countries, having declared their neutrality, did not adhere to the provisions of it at all, or not completely, or not always. What in fact makes such neutrality conditional. Some neutral countries were occupied, which automatically removed them from neutral status. Below we present the results of an analysis of the actions of all states that declared their neutrality during the period under review.
Andorra officially remained neutral during World War II. At the beginning of the war, a small contingent of French troops remaining from the Spanish Civil War was based in the country, but these troops were withdrawn in 1940. After the German invasion of Vichy in 1942, German troops advanced to the Andorran border near Pas de la Casa, but did not cross it. In response to these actions, Spanish troops were stationed at La Seu de Urgell, which also remained outside Andorran territory. In 1944, Charles de Gaulle took office as Prince Consort and ordered French troops to occupy Andorra as a "preventive measure". Throughout the war, Andorra served as a secret military smuggling route for Spain and Vichy France. The French Resistance used Andorra to smuggle downed French pilots out of occupied France. Thus, in 1944, Andorra not only lost its status as a neutral state, but also actually became a participant in the war.
Argentina, which was a close trading partner of Germany, declared neutrality on September 4, 1939, after the outbreak of war. On the one hand, Britain has traditionally had a strong position in the Argentine economy, on the other, the ever-increasing German population contributed to close contacts between Buenos Aires and Berlin. The German community in Argentina was one of the largest in South America. The Abwehr station operated almost openly in the country, and the Argentine government mostly sympathized with the countries of the Nazi bloc. After the United States entered the war, Argentina's trade with Germany was redirected through third countries. During the war, the Germans completely controlled the country's heavy industry and a number of agricultural processing industries. The civil airline Aeroposta Argentina became a subsidiary of the German Lufthansa. The ships of the German Transoceanic Society, transporting passengers and cargo across the ocean, maintained contact with German submarines cruising off the coast of South America. This structure provided hidden bases for German submarines and supplied them with everything necessary for underwater warfare: fuel, food, medicine and spare parts. In the area of the La Plata River there were recreation centers for German submariners. According to researchers, from 1940 to 1945, the Nazis organized up to 100 fictitious companies in Argentina alone, through which they withdrew part of the Reich’s gold reserves and huge sums of money from Europe. Note that during the war, Argentina supplied cattle to Great Britain, which defended the interests of the Argentines before the Americans. By 1945, Argentina's gold reserves had grown from 346 to 1,170 tons.
Since the armament of the Argentine ground forces was weak, according to American intelligence, the President of Argentina in 1942 turned to Hitler for technical assistance in order to take the side of the Axis. However, the Fuhrer considered supplies from Argentina more important than arming the weak Argentine army. On January 26, 1944, the Argentine government, under strong international pressure, was forced to sever relations with the Axis countries. This led to a reduction in legal German organizations in the country, a ban on pro-Nazi demonstrations, and the withdrawal of German goods from the trade network. The Argentine merchant fleet began to ignore the German blockade of a number of ports.
In 1944-1945, the USA, Great Britain and almost all Latin American states recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires. Being in conditions of international isolation, at the very end of the war the government in Casa Rosada was forced to change its views and on March 27, 1945 the country declared war on Germany and Japan. Despite this, Argentina never sent a single soldier to the front, although in the spring and summer of 1945 it sent its cruisers Almirante Brown and Veintisinco de Mayo and other ships to search for German submarines remaining in the South Atlantic after the surrender of Berlin . It should be noted that before the official entry into the war, 4 thousand Argentine volunteers fought in the armed forces of Great Britain, Canada and South Africa.
Even before the surrender of Germany, plans began to be developed for the escape of German military and political figures to countries that were loyal to the Hitler regime. This primarily concerned Argentina. Cardinal Antonio Caggiano and SS officer Carlos Fuldner, and later Juan Peron himself, contributed greatly to these plans. The systems of escape routes for Nazis and fascists from Europe at the end of World War II were called “rat trails” among American intelligence agencies. Nazis were transported to Argentina by obtaining a passport from the Rome Red Cross office; then they were stamped with an Argentine tourist visa. Thus, prominent Nazis ended up in the country: Emil Devoitin, Kurt Tank, Reimar Horten, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele and many others.
Based on the above, we note that Argentina has not been a neutral country since the declaration of neutrality, if only because of the ongoing maintenance of German submarines and the predominant supply of raw materials to Germany. And in 1945, she formally became a participant in the war.
After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the Afghan government declared its commitment to a policy of neutrality. However, this neutrality was pro-German in nature. In the first months of the war, almost all members of the Afghan government believed that the Red Army would not be able to resist the “invincible German machine” for long and hoped to take advantage of the fruits of a possible German victory. Thanks to the king’s cousin, Muhammad Daoud Khan, even in the pre-war period, the Nazis managed to gain leading positions not only in the Afghan economy, but also to reorganize the Afghan army according to the German model. Kabul planned to begin active military operations against the USSR only after the Germans captured Moscow and Leningrad. Not wanting to advertise his intentions, Muhammad limited himself to giving a secret order to stock up horses, provisions and prepare for war against the USSR to one of the leaders of the Central Asian Basmach formations, Kyzyl Ayak, who was then on Afghan territory.
Close cooperation between British and Soviet intelligence services allowed diplomats from both countries to put forward to the Afghan government demands for the expulsion of all German agents whose activities posed a threat to the interests of the allies and contradicted the terms of the 1931 Soviet-Afghan treaty on neutrality and non-aggression. Using various methods of economic and political pressure, the allies forced the Afghan government to agree to their demands. Thus, the Soviet side detained on its territory Afghan cargo purchased by the Afghans from Germany before the war, and the British launched a real propaganda “war of nerves” against the entire royal family. As a result, within just two days - October 29 and 30, 1941, German citizens, with the exception of members of the diplomatic mission, were removed from the country. The main argument in the negotiations was a bribe of 25 million rupees offered by the British government to Prime Minister Muhammad Hashim Khan.
Muhammad Hashim Khan was the Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1929 to 1946.
However, in July 1942, when the Germans were fighting in the Caucasus, calls were again heard among the Afghan ruling circles to prepare for war against the USSR, since, in their opinion, “the Soviet border is not guarded at all, and only women remained in the guard.” The Afghans repeatedly turned to the German ambassador in Kabul, G. Pilger, with a proposal for political and military cooperation. By September 1942, the Afghan government had formulated three preconditions for Afghanistan to enter the war on the German side:
- Capture of the Caucasus by German troops;
- The final decision of the German and Italian governments to invade India;
- The creation by the Axis countries of a system of “free Islamic states” in the Near and Middle East.
In return, the Afghans offered to strike in the rear of the Red Army. While negotiations were ongoing, Germany suffered defeats at Stalingrad and the Kursk Bulge, which forced the Afghan government to change its orientation and, with the help of Soviet and British intelligence, carry out mass arrests of German supporters. And the Allies received tacit permission to completely eliminate the German intelligence network. Thus, through the efforts of diplomats and intelligence services of Great Britain and the USSR, it was possible to keep Afghanistan within the framework of its declared neutrality.
Under the Lateran Treaty of 1929, Italy recognized the sovereignty of the Vatican. And by 1939, 38 countries already had diplomatic relations with the Vatican and recognized its neutrality. On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, Pope Pius XII, who headed the state at that time, pursued a policy of appeasing Hitler, but had nothing against the Nazi campaign in the East. Even after the capture of Poland by Germany and the USSR, he believed that the world war would end with this. And only the beginning of the Holocaust caused the pope to have an epiphany - he publicly condemned it. During the war years, the pope called on people to love, mercy and compassion against the “flood of discord”, and approved the Resistance movement. But most of all, the pope was worried about the possibility of the Allies bombing Rome during its occupation by Germany. Despite the occupation of Rome by both the Germans and the Allies, the Vatican remained a free and neutral state. The pope avoided calling the militant allies of Hitler and Stalin villains, establishing the "impartial" public tone that was to become a hallmark of his pontificate. Further rejecting Nazi ideology, Pius reaffirmed Catholic opposition to racism and anti-Semitism.
During the war, the Vatican published the newspaper Osservatore Romano, which was the only newspaper in Italy not subject to censorship by the Italian government. But already on May 20, 1940, the newspaper voluntarily stopped publishing any articles about the war, the author of which was not the “official Italian war communique.” By August 1940, meteorological reports were also stopped being published so as not to help these British aircraft. Vatican Radio worked similarly.
Occupied states often asked Pius XII to reorganize the conquered Catholic dioceses with the appointment of German apostolic administrators. And although the Vatican rarely agreed to such appointments, it did happen in Poland. As a result, Poland broke off relations with the Vatican in 1947, and only in 1989 agreed to the presence of an apostolic nuncio on its territory.
The Vatican maintained a small group of troops known as the Swiss Guard. During World War II, the Vatican Swiss Guards received additional machine guns and gas masks to supplement the Vatican's existing arsenal in case of attack. The widespread information about the salvation of many Catholics on the territory of the Vatican from persecution by occupation regimes is nothing more than propaganda. In fact, during the entire period of occupation, not a single outsider settled on the territory of the Vatican, since the pope was very afraid of violating neutrality. After the war, the Vatican secretly moved away from the provisions of neutrality and actively took a pro-Western position, citing the protection of Catholics. Thanks to the Vatican, thousands of Nazis and their accomplices escaped punishment and emigrated to the remote corners of the planet, hiding from persecution. It is noteworthy that by condemning the Holocaust, the Vatican contributed to the hiding of its perpetrators after the war. But what is even more surprising is that Israel, while expressing gratitude to the Vatican for its position in the Holocaust, never made a claim for sheltering the Nazis.
Considering the above, we can conclude that the Vatican observed the provisions of neutrality, not so much out of respect for international law, but out of fear for its fate. And he intended to give his sympathies to the strongest in a particular situation.
By the beginning of World War II, Iran maintained close economic relations with Germany. Almost a thousand German specialists worked on its territory, occupying key positions in the country’s economy and its management. The British began to accuse Iran of supporting the Third Reich and pursuing pro-German policies. Despite the position of neutrality occupied by the state at the beginning of World War II, Iran was of great economic interest to Great Britain, which feared the transfer of the Abadan oil refinery, which was owned by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, into the hands of the Germans. The Shah rejected the demands of the Anti-Hitler Coalition to expel German workers and diplomats from Iran. For the USSR, pro-German Iran was a threat to the oil-producing regions of the Caucasus.
Under these conditions, England and the Soviet Union carried out a joint military occupation of Iran. In September 1941, British troops were introduced into southern Iran, and Soviet troops into the northern part. The Shah of Iran was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. German agents in Iran were eliminated by the intelligence forces of Great Britain and the USSR. On January 29, 1942, an alliance agreement was signed in Tehran between the USSR, Great Britain and Iran, which provided for the allies to respect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Iran in order to protect it from aggression from Germany and other powers, for which the USSR and England received the right to maintain Iran until six months after the end of the war its armed forces. On the basis of this agreement, transportation of military equipment and materials to the USSR through Iran was organized. On September 9, 1943, Iran formally declared war on Germany, but Iranian troops did not participate in hostilities. Thus, Iran lost not only its status as a neutral state, but also became a participant in the war.
Ireland is the only member country of the British Commonwealth that did not join the anti-Hitler coalition due to the seizure of part of its territory by England and, as a result, hostile relations between the countries. In other words, Ireland was not one of Germany’s sympathizers, but it also did not want to fight with Great Britain. With the President defining Ireland's status as a country not at war but in crisis due to the war, emergency legislation was introduced on 3 September. It limited the rights of the population, a curfew was introduced, additional police forces were created, plowing of the land became mandatory, supplies to the population were rationalized, wages were frozen, the activities of trade unions were limited, and censorship was strengthened. Despite its neutrality, Ireland provided indirect assistance to the Allies - it interacted with US and British intelligence, provided air corridors for flights across the Atlantic, interned German prisoners of war, supplied the Allies with meteorological reports, and served as a food base for Great Britain. In addition, Irish volunteers fought in the British army and worked in British factories. During the war, Ireland was subject to several German air raids and attacks on the Irish fleet, both by the Germans and the Allies. Thus, Ireland's neutrality was a very conditional status, much closer to an indirect participant in the war than to a neutral country.
Since the Second World War de facto began in 1931, with Japan’s attack on China, and the Civil War in Spain took place in 1936-1939, in which a good dozen countries took part, then Spain, based on these facts alone, should be considered as having most likely emerged from the war, and not a neutral country.
On September 4, 1939, dictator Franco signed a decree on neutrality, but on June 12, 1940, the status of neutrality was replaced by the status of a “non-belligerent party.” In June 1941, from supporters of the ruling Spanish Phalanx party, the volunteer Blue Division was formed, which fought on the side of Germany against the USSR, including participating in the siege of Leningrad. About 45 thousand Spaniards passed through its units. In July 1943, Spain again declared its neutrality, and on October 20, 1943, Franco decided to withdraw the Blue Division from the front and disband the formation. However, the division caused a lot of trouble for the Red Army, and Stalin, wanting to take revenge on Franco, at the Potsdam Conference demanded that the Allies occupy Spain. Truman and Churchill managed to defend the independence of Spain, but they were forced to agree to a trade embargo, which plunged the country into an economic crisis for many years.
Despite the fact that Franco owed his victory in the Civil War to the Axis countries, Hitler did not insist on Spain's direct participation in the war for two reasons. Firstly, the Spanish army was poorly armed and equipped, which means that it was necessary to allocate weapons and equipment that Germany already lacked. Secondly, through Spain, Hitler “drove” strategic raw materials, equipment and fuel purchased through third countries from his own opponents. In addition, Spain supplied Germany with its minerals, which are strategic raw materials. For example, Spanish iron and tungsten ore, zinc, lead, and mercury were supplied to the Germans almost until the end of 1944. Abwehr employees felt at home in Spain until they handed over their networks to US intelligence. Allied intelligence had information about transactions with gold seized by Germany in the occupied territories and “laundered” through Spain.
It should be noted that after the end of the Civil War, thousands of Spaniards who supported the Republicans found themselves in exile. Many of them joined the French Resistance, the Free French Forces, as well as the Spanish partisans. The Spaniards also fought in the ranks of the Red Army.
Thus, taking into account the above, it is not possible to classify Spain as a neutral country.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the signing of the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918, Northern Yemen gained independence, and Imam Yahya became the successor to the Turkish administration and professed a policy of self-isolation. In the years leading up to World War II, a struggle broke out between Italian and British imperialists for spheres of influence in the territories adjacent to the southern Red Sea. After the capture of Ethiopia, Italy tried to achieve special advantages in Yemen. However, it did not achieve success, despite the signing of a new economic cooperation agreement with Yemen in 1937. Relations between Yemen and Great Britain remained extremely tense, despite the existence of the Anglo-Yemen Treaty of 1934. The struggle between Italy and England in the Red Sea area ended in 1938 with the signing of the Anglo-Italian Agreement, under which both sides pledged to maintain the status quo along the entire Arabian coast. Continuing the policy of maneuvering between Italy and Great Britain during the Second World War, the Imam declared the country neutral in the war. Italy tried to blackmail Yemen to the side of the Axis countries, but the imam resisted. Italy's military successes in the Red Sea region turned out to be temporary. At the beginning of 1941, the British army went on the offensive and the Italian forces were defeated. However, Imam Yahya did not break off relations with the Axis countries and only in February 1943 announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Italy. The British colonial authorities, using Yemen's trade dependence on the port of Aden, exerted economic and political pressure on it. In 1944, under the pretext of ensuring the safety of navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, British troops captured the Yemeni village of Sheikh Said. The conflict was resolved after lengthy negotiations mediated by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. At the end of the war, the United States made a new attempt at economic penetration into Yemen. In 1944, an American mission arrived in Sanaa to mediate the above-mentioned Anglo-Yemen conflict. In 1945, another American mission arrived in Yemen, the head of which invited the imam to sign an agreement “on recognition, friendship and trade” between Yemen and the United States. However, during World War II, the Americans failed to gain a foothold in Yemen. Thus, Imam Yahya was able to maintain his declared neutrality, although the war significantly worsened the already not brilliant economic situation of Yemen.
Latvia, together with its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, jointly declared its neutrality at the Conference of Baltic Foreign Ministers on 18 November 1938 in Riga. Later, the legislatures of these countries passed neutrality laws. In June 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. Most of the Latvian army was disbanded, and many of its soldiers and officers were arrested, imprisoned or executed. The following year, Germany occupied Latvia during the Army Group North offensive. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict. In August 1941, the 201st Latvian Rifle Division with a strength of 10 thousand people was formed as part of the Red Army, later the 130th Latvian Rifle Corps. And in 1943, 180 thousand Latvians were conscripted into the Latvian Legion in the Waffen-SS and other German auxiliary forces. By May 1945, Latvia was again part of the USSR. Thus, Latvia, having lost its neutrality, unwittingly became a participant in the war.
On November 18, 1938, Lithuania declared its neutrality at the Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Baltic States. In October 1939, previously part of Poland, part of southeastern Lithuania and Vilna were transferred to Lithuania. In June 1940, Lithuania was completely occupied by the Soviet Union, and already in June 1941, its territory was occupied by German troops. Lithuanian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict. So, on December 18, 1941, the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division was formed in the Red Army, which consisted of more than 7 thousand Lithuanians. 22 self-defense rifle battalions were created from the Lithuanian nationalist formations, each numbering 500-600 people. The total number of military personnel of these formations reached 13 thousand. In the Kaunas area, all Lithuanian police groups of Klimaitis were united into the Kaunas battalion, consisting of 7 companies. In January 1945, Lithuania again became part of the USSR. Thus, Lithuania, having lost its neutrality, unwittingly became a participant in the war.
The Principality of Liechtenstein declared its permanent neutrality back in 1868, after the collapse of the German Confederation. Liechtenstein disbanded its army of 80 soldiers and maintained neutrality during both world wars. However, in the last month of World War II, the Liechtenstein government allowed about 500 military personnel of the 1st Russian National Army under the command of General B.A. into its territory. Smyslovsky fought on the side of Germany, providing them with protection and refusing to hand over its military personnel to the allies, citing the lack of legal force of the Yalta Agreement on the territory of Liechtenstein as a neutral state. Over time, Argentina accepted the refugees at the request of Liechtenstein, since their maintenance was expensive for the small, poor country. Thus, Liechtenstein can well be considered a state that has complied with the provisions of neutrality.
Modern map of Liechtenstein. Territory - 160 km².
During World War II, the Principality of Monaco tried to maintain neutrality. However, in November 1942, Monaco was occupied by the Italian army, and after the fall of the Mussolini regime in Italy in 1943, the territory of the principality was occupied by the German army. Thus, the principality unwittingly became a participant in the war.
Modern map of Monaco. Territory - 2.02 km².
In September 1939, Portugal officially declared its neutrality, but de facto did not adhere to its provisions at all. During the war, the country was ruled by dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, who shared neither the ideas of Nazism nor communism. Portugal's foreign economic platform was based on the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese alliance, which guaranteed it the protection of overseas territories: Angola, Cape Verde, Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese India, Macau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Portuguese Timor.
Despite Portuguese neutrality, Portuguese Timor was occupied in December 1941 by Australian and Dutch forces who were awaiting a Japanese invasion. However, this did not save Timor, and on February 20, 1942, the Japanese captured it and held it until September 1945. The Portuguese colony of Macau, although not occupied by Japanese troops, was under their control from 1943 to 1945. In 1943, Portugal leased bases in the Azores to England, allowing the Allies to provide air coverage across the Atlantic gap, helping them hunt submarines and protect convoys.
In Portuguese India on Goa, in 1939-1942, taking advantage of the neutrality of the colony, there were German merchant ships that, via radio, guided German submarines to Allied caravans. In order not to violate the neutrality of Portugal, in March 1943, the British formed a group of mercenaries, which used sabotage to sink enemy ships to the bottom. The details of the operation were declassified only in 1978, so as not to compromise the neutrality of Portugal.
Throughout the war, Portugal traded and lent to Britain on the basis of the pound, instead of settlement in gold. By early 1945, the British owed Portugal $322 million. Until 1944, Portugal sold both the Axis countries and the Allies strategic raw materials from the colonies - tungsten, in equal proportions. It should be noted that the Kriegsmarine submarine fleet, despite the neutrality of Portugal, on occasion sank transports of the Portuguese merchant fleet, often ships with raw materials intended for Germany. In 1944, the Allies began to pressure Salazar to cut off tungsten supplies to Germany. Fearing a German naval blockade, Salazar imposed a general embargo on the tungsten trade, leaving some 100,000 Portuguese workers unemployed.
Since 1940, centers for refugees from Europe were organized in Portugal, which helped, according to various sources, from 100 thousand to 1 million foreigners, incl. and Jews, leave Europe. It should be noted that several hundred Portuguese volunteers fought in the ranks of the Spanish “Blue Division” on the Eastern Front.
During the war, Lisbon was called the “capital of espionage.” At the same time, PIDE (Portuguese secret police) maintained a neutral position towards foreign espionage as long as there was no interference in Portuguese internal politics. In general, Portugal survived the war without any damage, on the contrary, having significantly increased its national wealth. Providing trade services to both the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition and the Axis countries, Portugal managed to increase its gold reserves from 63 million in 1938 to 438 million dollars in 1946. After the war, unlike Spain, it avoided isolation; moreover, it received US assistance under the famous Marshall Plan.
Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic contacts with Germany on September 11, 1939, and with Japan in October 1941. Although Saudi Arabia was officially neutral, it provided large oil reserves to the Allies. Diplomatic relations with the United States were established in 1943. King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was a personal friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Americans were then allowed to build an air force base near Dhahran. On February 28, 1945, Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany, and on April 1, 1945, on Japan. No military action resulted from the announcement. Thus, the country's neutrality was only formal, and the state itself also formally became a participant in the war.
Many will be surprised to see the United States on the list of neutral countries. However, this is a historical fact, although little known in our historiography. When the threat of an inevitable war with the countries of the fascist camp loomed over Europe, Congress hastened to prepare a draft Neutrality Act, which was adopted in August 1935. According to this law, the United States refused not only to join the warring states, but also to provide them with any material assistance, both weapons and money. Franklin Roosevelt also understood that if he put forward militaristic slogans, he might not be re-elected to a third presidential term, because the Americans did not consider it necessary to get involved in a war and shed the blood of their people, being so far from the main theater of military operations. And therefore, by the beginning of World War II, Hitler did not see a serious enemy in the States - in addition to statements of neutrality, the German command was reassured by the low level of combat readiness of the American army, its outdated weapons and small numbers. But on the sidelines of the highest government circles in America, there was active discussion of the advantages of the United States entering the war. Thus, Secretary of Defense Stimson wrote in his diary: “It would be good if they attacked us themselves.”
It should be noted that starting from the active phase of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the United States provided military and material assistance to China. American advisers and trainers were seconded to the Chinese military. And the declared neutrality of the United States from now on can already be considered very conditional.
The Neutrality Act tied the hands of the US authorities and industrial elite, who were interested in a more active position of their country towards Germany, but did not dare declare war for fear of losing popularity. When Hitler started the war, the United States began to gradually rebuild production on a war footing, a new military budget was adopted and the development of new types of weapons and military equipment was accelerated. As during the First World War, America’s colossal industrial potential allowed it to quickly catch up with, and then get ahead of, European countries in the amount of military products produced - from the fall of 1939 to the fall of 1943, production in the United States increased by more than 2.5 times . But until mid-1940, America strictly maintained its neutrality, limiting itself to harsh criticism of Germany and its allies, avoiding open conflict with German and Japanese submarines, and adhering to an embargo on trade with belligerent Europe.
Great Britain by that time realized that in order to adequately repel Germany it needed US help, and Winston Churchill was determined to drag the States into the war. He asks Roosevelt to provide England with only material military assistance for now - in particular, about 50 old destroyers and several hundred aircraft, that is, a rather unburdensome service for the United States. Roosevelt sought a revision of the Neutrality Act, and by September 1940 this aid reached the shores of England. It should be noted that this was not just an act of goodwill, but a real trade deal - in return, the United States received the right to lease 8 military bases on British territory for a period of 99 years. When the trade lockdown was broken, America was moments away from entering the war. Thus, the United States de facto lost its status as a neutral state.
In addition to the escalation of tension between the United States and Germany, the Pacific region promised to be the reason for the outbreak of military action. Even 2-3 years before the start of World War II, the United States expressed dissatisfaction with Japan’s policies towards China; Over time, their criticism became increasingly ultimatum-like, since the United States was Japan’s main supplier of oil and metal and understood that it had the right to dictate its terms to Emperor Hirohito. And when the American authorities decide to stop these supplies in order to force Japan to reconsider its policy in Manchuria, the Japanese government makes the difficult decision to declare war on the United States. The declaration of war was supposed to be handed over to the Americans half an hour before the attack on the American military base of Pearl Harbor, but due to an unforeseen delay, this was done directly during the attack on the port (which Truman did not forgive the Japanese, who regarded it as a treacherous attack, did not consistent with the principles of international diplomacy). Due to the surprise of the attack, the Americans suffered serious losses among people and navy, which affected the initial stage of hostilities on the Pacific Front. On December 7, 1941, the United States officially entered World War II, de jure ending its neutrality status.
Turkey, having a traditional orientation toward Germany, during the war professed the behest of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: “As long as the life of the nation is not in danger, war is murder.” Moreover, having formally occupied a neutral position since October 1939, the Turks saw a real opportunity to enrich themselves in the war by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome to both warring parties. Despite the fact that Turkey had signed peace treaties with both the USSR and Germany, neither one nor the other side believed it.
Turkey twice announced mobilization and concentrated troops on the border with the USSR: on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR and before the Battle of Stalingrad. Stalin was absolutely sure that the Turks, if the Germans had won at Stalingrad, would have joined the Axis powers and entered the war with the USSR. Throughout the war, the Turks carefully monitored all theaters of military operations and focused on the strongest side, playing along with it.
Turkey supplied Germany with chrome, copper, cast iron, and food products, which greatly irritated the allies, and the Turkish government did not respond to their requests to stop supplies. And only in 1944, after they stopped supplying weapons to Turkey, did it stop the export of chromium to Germany. In addition, in June 1944, Turkey allowed two German warships into the Black Sea, which caused a flurry of anger among the Allies. Because of this, on August 2, 1944, Turkey announced the severance of economic and diplomatic relations with Germany. And the Turks had to declare war on Germany on February 23, 1945 in order not to “fly over” and enter the UN. This neutrality of Turkey was very costly for the Soviet Union, which was forced to maintain a decent contingent of troops in Transcaucasia to cover the Baku oil fields and the transit corridor from Persia. And although the Soviet group of troops was 2.5 times smaller than the Turkish one, Stalin, taking into account the technical backwardness of the Turkish army, hoped to successfully fight back.
During World War II, the republic remained neutral, despite close cooperation with the Italian fascists. On June 26, 1944, British aircraft bombed the territory of the dwarf state, based on erroneous intelligence reports that San Marino had been taken by German troops and was being used by them as a supply base. At the same time, Britain did not officially declare war on the republic. During the bombing, the railway track passing through the territory of the republic was destroyed and 63 civilians were killed. The British government later admitted that the air raid was unjustified and erroneous.
The San Marino authorities' hope of avoiding further involvement in the conflict was greatly undermined when, on July 27, 1944, the German command notified the government of the republic in writing that its sovereignty might be violated for military reasons related to the need for German units and supply columns to pass through this territory. At the same time, in a communiqué, the German command expressed the hope that circumstances would make it possible to avoid the occupation of the country by the Wehrmacht. However, in September of the same year, San Marino was indeed briefly occupied by the Germans, and in the same month, British troops had to liberate the dwarf state during the Battle of Monte Pulito. Thus, San Marino unwittingly became a participant in the war.
Modern map of San Marino. Territory - 61 km².
Despite Tibet's trade and foreign policy orientation towards Japan, the state maintained its neutrality throughout the war, which in the future determined its independence from China. At the same time, Tibet was on the verge of being occupied by Japan, which had already printed new money for the country and translated Japanese military regulations into Tibetan. However, Japan's surrender in 1945 put an end to these plans.
Modern administrative map of Tibet. Territory - 1.2 million km².
The neutrality of Switzerland during World War II is one of the deep-rooted legends, actively supported today by the Americans and Germans. This legend was generously paid for by Swiss banks with Third Reich gold mined in occupied countries and deposited in the secret vaults of the Swiss Alps.
Switzerland declared its political and military neutrality after the end of the Napoleonic wars back in 1815. By the beginning of the First World War, it had transformed into armed neutrality and existed in this form until the Second World War. In 1939-1940, Switzerland invested enormous amounts of money in the construction of defense lines both on the borders and in the center of the country in a fortified area. All transport communications through the Alps were mined and would be blown up in the event of an enemy invasion, which would then make Switzerland a useless conquest. Taking this into account, as well as Switzerland’s readiness to make significant concessions (violations of the provisions of neutrality), Hitler canceled the implementation of the ready-made plan to seize the country, and sent the troops allocated for this to the Eastern Front.
At the initial stage of the war, German military aircraft often violated Swiss airspace, resulting in military skirmishes with air defense forces. However, the Germans quickly became tired of this behavior of the Swiss, and having bombed one of the military airfields of the Swiss Army, the Germans promised to take serious measures in the future. Switzerland no longer played neutrality. After these conflicts, fruitful, mutually beneficial cooperation was established between Germany and Switzerland, as a result of which even members of the Axis were left behind.
During the war, Switzerland received 10 million tons of coal from Germany, which accounted for 41% of the country's needs. Most of the Swiss army's weapons came from Germany. The Germans supplied both oil and food. The Germans and Italians were given free transit of any cargo through the country by rail and air, including even the transport of prisoners of war.
Switzerland converted German Reichsmarks, which were boycotted in the world, into Swiss francs, sold Germany gold (about 100 tons) and other precious metals for Reichsmarks, and provided a long-term loan of 150 million francs. And most importantly, Swiss banks accepted property looted by the Germans in occupied countries for laundering (gold, including that taken from destroyed prisoners (jewelry, gold crowns, spectacle frames, etc.), paintings, historical values). After checking Swiss bank accounts dating back to 1934, they found $2.5 billion worth of Nazi gold. And according to experts, during the war years, Swiss banks received values from 3 to 4 billion dollars. The Germans used these same values to pay for deliveries of Swiss industrial products: cars, weapons, torpedo guidance systems, tools, bearings, watches, lighters, medicines, chemical raw materials... Exports of goods to Germany and Italy accounted for 45% of all exported products. Only at the end of 1944, under pressure from the Allies, exports stopped. Thousands of accounts were also opened in Swiss banks for the Germans to store their loot in them. Swiss banks carried out settlements with third countries for the supply of goods to Germany.
A remarkable fact is that among those who fled to Switzerland from German persecution, there were very few Jews. The Swiss authorities, by agreement with the Nazis, did not allow them in. About 25 thousand Jews were not allowed into the country. At the same time, at the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of Nazi criminals passed through Switzerland, pursued by the Allies. And only on March 8, 1995, the Swiss government officially apologized for the practice of not granting refugee status to persons from Germany who had the “J” stamp in their passports, about which a special agreement was concluded with the Nazis in 1938.
In terms of the concentration of legal and illegal intelligence residencies, Switzerland was second only to Portugal. Moreover, already during the war, about 2,200 Swiss citizens served as volunteers in the Wehrmacht and SS. Under a secret agreement with the Wehrmacht, Switzerland sent several medical missions to the German-Soviet front. The doctors' goal was to treat German wounded in hospitals in the occupied territories of the USSR. Facts were also established about the share participation of Swiss companies in German enterprises that used the labor of prisoners of war. Based on the above violations of the provisions on neutrality, it is not possible to consider Switzerland a neutral country.
Another legend imposed by journalists is the recognition of Sweden as a neutral country. In fact, Sweden not only collaborated with both belligerents, but also took part in aggressive military operations at sea on the Axis side, which does not fit in with its neutrality status.
On September 1, 1939, Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson declared Sweden a neutral country. Although in reality it was armed neutrality. After the outbreak of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in November 1939, Sweden declared that it was "not at war" and in fact became Finland's main ally. She helped Finland economically and with weapons. Sweden and Finland jointly laid minefields in the Åland Sea to deter Soviet submarines from entering the Gulf of Bothnia. The Swedish "volunteer" corps provided 9,640 officers and men who took part in the bloodiest events of the war. The Swedish "volunteer" air force also provided 25 aircraft with crews. Sweden also provided most of the weapons and equipment that the Finns used throughout the war: 135 thousand rifles, 347 heavy and 450 light machine guns, 50 million rounds of ammunition, 144 field guns, 100 anti-aircraft guns, 92 anti-tank guns, 300 thousand shells... Swedish the government also supplied food, uniforms, and medicine.
After the Germans captured Norway, they demanded access to Swedish telephone and telegraph lines. Sweden agreed, but having managed to decipher the encoded information of the Germans, it regularly eavesdropped and passed it on to Great Britain. Then the Germans demanded permission to transit the wounded through Sweden by rail, under the guise of which they transferred troops and weapons. Thus, Germany freely used the entire infrastructure of Sweden, almost until the end of the war, without paying attention to its declared neutrality.
Despite the fact that Sweden was a neutral country, its sea communications were blocked by both the Allies and the Germans, since Sweden actively traded with both. Supplying raw materials, it actively purchased weapons in both the USA and Italy. During the war, Sweden's main exports to Germany were iron ore (10 million tons per year), machinery and spare parts for them. Moreover, the closer Germany’s defeat became, the higher Sweden’s prices climbed. According to British experts, stopping the export of iron ore for Germany would have catastrophic consequences in the production of weapons. The submarine fleets of England and the USSR fought against these supplies, sinking a total of 70 ships.
The transit of German military materials to Finland began through Sweden. German transport ships transported troops there, taking refuge in Swedish territorial waters, and until the winter of 1942/43 they were accompanied by a convoy of Swedish naval forces. The Nazis achieved the supply of Swedish goods on credit and their transportation mainly on Swedish ships. Ten percent of the ball bearings received by Germany came from Sweden. It also supplied electrical equipment, tools, pulp, weapons and machinery. By the end of the war, almost all of Sweden's industry worked for Germany - 90% of Sweden's exports belonged to Germany. The total value of Sweden's benefits from trade with the Reich can be estimated at 10 billion modern dollars.
After Norway's defeat, more than 50 thousand Norwegians fled to Sweden, where they were placed in special camps. Since the summer of 1943, military training was introduced for them, under the guise of police training, so that the Germans would not make claims. 3,600 Danish refugees were trained in the same way. Naturally, this did not fit into the provisions of neutrality.
In the summer of 1944, a German V-2 rocket crashed in Sweden, the debris of which was exchanged by the enterprising Swedes for a British fighter. It should be noted that the Swedish government introduced press censorship in order to exclude materials that could “offend” the Germans, thereby jeopardizing “neutrality”. A number of newspapers were closed for “violations.”
From May 1940, most of the Swedish merchant fleet that found itself outside the Baltic, some 8,000 sailors in total, was leased to Britain. American aircraft were allowed to use Swedish military bases during the liberation of Norway from the spring of 1944 to 1945. There are known cases of attacks by the Swedish navy on Soviet ships in the Baltic.
Until August 1944, Sweden received Nazi gold through Swiss banks. A post-war audit of the Swedish central bank found that it had purchased 59.7 tons of gold in Germany during the war, most of which was not recorded. After the war, Sweden returned 6 metric tons of gold to the Netherlands and 7.2 metric tons to Belgium. It was believed that the gold that Sweden received from Nazi Germany's Reichsbank was taken from the central banks of those countries.
Winston Churchill once assessed Sweden's neutrality, noting that it ignores universal moral principles and fools both sides, profiting during the war.
Estonia declared its neutrality on November 18, 1938 in Riga at the Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Baltic States. After the invasion of the Red Army in the summer of 1940, its entire territory was occupied. A year later, the Soviet occupiers were replaced by German ones. Estonian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict. Approximately 1,000 Estonian sailors served in the British Merchant Navy, 200 of them were officers. A small number of Estonians served in the Royal Air Force, the British Army and the US Army. Estonian military units within the Red Army began to be formed in January 1942 from among ethnic Estonians living in the USSR. About 20 thousand soldiers served in them. From the end of 1941, the Germans began to carry out regular mobilizations of Estonians. First they were drafted into the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps, then into the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade and the Narva battalion, and into various auxiliary units. Many Estonians, avoiding service in the German army, entered the volunteer units of the Finnish army. In the fall of 1944, Estonia again found itself part of the USSR. Thus, Estonia, having lost its neutrality, unwittingly became a participant in the war.
Conclusion
As we see, international law on neutrality and real neutrality in practice turned out to be completely different things. Of the 21 countries that declared their neutrality, only 5 (Afghanistan, Vatican, North Yemen, Liechtenstein and Tibet) managed to maintain it until the end of the war. Moreover, those states whose economic and political weight in the international arena were “invisible” turned out to be neutral. Most of the states that declared neutrality were not involved in the war of their own free will. Five states (Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and Sweden), hiding behind the status of neutrality, were able to make a good profit from the war, still fooling the world with their imaginary neutrality. Thus, from all of the above, only one conclusion follows. In world wars there are no neutral countries. The war divides everyone into two camps. The above exceptions were a happy accident during a specific period of time.
Based on materials from the sites: http://russian7.ru; https://ru.wikipedia.org; https://pikabu.ru; https://en.wikipedia.org; https://ushistory.ru; https://news.rambler.ru; https://history.wikireading.ru.
More than ten states managed to avoid participation in the main meat grinder of humanity. Moreover, these are not “some kind of” overseas countries, but European ones. One of them, Switzerland, found itself completely surrounded by Nazis. And Turkey, although it joined the alliance against Hitler, did so at the very end of the war, when it was no longer of any use. True, some historians believe that the Ottomans were thirsty for blood and wanted to join the Germans. But the Battle of Stalingrad stopped them.
No matter how cruel and cynical dictator Franco was, he understood that a terrible war would not bring anything good to his state. Moreover, regardless of the winner. Hitler asked him to join, gave guarantees (the British did the same), but both warring parties were refused.
But it seemed that Franco, who won the civil war with powerful support from the Axis, would definitely not remain on the sidelines. Accordingly, the Germans waited for the debt to be returned. They thought that Franco would personally want to eliminate the shameful stain on the Iberian Peninsula - the British military base of Gibraltar. But the Spanish dictator turned out to be more far-sighted. He decided to get serious about restoring his country, which was in a sad state after the civil war.
Franco decided not to fight, but to restore the country Tweet
The Spaniards only sent the volunteer Blue Division to the Eastern Front. And her “swan song” soon ended. On October 20, 1943, Franco ordered the “division” to be withdrawn from the front and disbanded.
1 vote
After numerous brutal defeats in the wars of the 18th century, Sweden abruptly changed the course of its development. The country embarked on the path of modernization, which led it to prosperity. It is no coincidence that in 1938, Sweden, according to Life magazine, became one of the countries with the highest standard of living.
Accordingly, the Swedes did not want to destroy what had been created for more than a century. And they declared neutrality. No, some “sympathizers” fought on the side of Finland against the USSR, others served in SS units. But their total number did not exceed a thousand fighters.
About a thousand Swedish Nazis fought on the side of Germany Tweet
According to one version, Hitler himself did not want to fight with Sweden. He was allegedly sure that the Swedes were purebred Aryans, and their blood should not be shed. Behind the scenes, Sweden made reciprocal curtsies towards Germany. For example, it supplied it with iron ore. And also, until 1943, it did not host Danish Jews trying to escape the Holocaust. This ban was lifted after Germany's defeat in the Battle of Kursk, when the scales began to tip towards the USSR.
0 votes
German officers during the French campaign of 1940 more than once said that “let's take Switzerland, that little porcupine, on the way back.” But this “way back” turned out different from their expectations. Therefore, the “porcupine” was not touched.
Everyone knows that the Swiss Guard is one of the oldest military units in the world. Its brilliant history begins at the beginning of the 16th century, when Swiss soldiers were entrusted with the most precious and honorable thing in Europe - to guard the Pope.
Switzerland found itself surrounded by Nazi bloc countries Tweet
During the Second World War, the geographical position of Switzerland turned out to be completely unfavorable - the country found itself surrounded by states of the Nazi bloc. Therefore, there was not a single opportunity to completely disown the conflict. Therefore, some concessions had to be made. For example, provide a transport corridor through the Alps or “throw some money” at the needs of the Wehrmacht. But, as they say, the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe. At the very least, neutrality was maintained.
Therefore, the pilots of the Swiss Air Force continually entered into battle with either German or American aircraft. They didn’t care which representative of the warring parties violated their airspace.
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The Portuguese, like their neighbors on the peninsula, decided that if there was even the slightest opportunity to avoid participation in the Second World War, then they needed to take advantage of it. Life in the state during the conflict was well described by Erich Maria Remarque in the novel “Night in Lisbon”: “In 1942, the coast of Portugal became the last refuge of fugitives for whom justice, freedom and tolerance meant more than their homeland and life.”
Thanks to its rich colonial possessions in Africa, Portugal had access to one very strategically important metal - tungsten. It was the enterprising Portuguese who sold it. And, interestingly, to both sides of the conflict.
The Portuguese feared losing income from their African colonies
The deadliest war, 65 million killed and wounded, 62 participating states - any article about World War II will begin with these facts. But they are unlikely to talk about countries that were able to maintain neutrality during the years of this conflict.
Spain
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least at the initial stage of the war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, during World War II, life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Switzerland
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where gold was allegedly stored by both the Nazis and the British who financed them. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns even now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - with a total number of about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future world famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population has increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain, this is the best result among European countries.
62 states participated in World War II, but there were many countries that managed to maintain neutrality.
Switzerland
"We'll take Switzerland, that little porcupine, on the way back." A saying that was common among German soldiers during the French campaign of 1940.
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where gold was allegedly stored by both the Nazis and the British who financed them. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Spain
“The meaning of Franco’s life was Spain. In connection with this - not a Nazi, but a classic military dictator - he abandoned Hitler himself, refusing, despite guarantees, to enter the war.” Lev Vershinin, political scientist.
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
“In 1942, the Portuguese coast became the last refuge of fugitives for whom justice, freedom and tolerance meant more than their homeland and life.”
Erich Maria Remarque. "Night in Lisbon"
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least at the initial stage of the war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, during World War II, life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns even now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - with a total number of about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future world famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
“As long as the life of the nation is not in danger, war is murder.” Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state.
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the Allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain - the best result among European countries
