Diplomatic recognition of the USSR: priorities and results

The article examines the very concept of the "recognition band", the causes and key points of the diplomatic struggle between Great Britain and Italy for primacy in the legal recognition of the Soviet Union. Attention is paid to issues related to the perception of Russia by various social groups and political circles of Great Britain and Italy, which determined both the course of events on the eve of recognition, and the reasons that led fascist Italy into stable political and economic partners of the USSR in the second half of the 20s and the first half of the 30s, and democratic Great Britain into a tough oppositionist Moscow in many areas of politics and economics for many years to come. The article shows that the most important for Moscow diplomatic recognition of the USSR by Great Britain, which was 6 days ahead of Italy, remained a short-lived formal act that did not allow regular economic ties and political contacts to be established, and three years later the rupture of relations between the two states followed, and only in 1929. they have been restored. The article is based on archival materials and published diplomatic documents, as well as scientific research on Soviet-British and Soviet-Italian relations in the interwar period.