The pacifist movement spread widely towards the end of the First World War. Possibilities for preventing armed conflict were deliberated under the slogan ‘War never again!’ Great hopes were placed on the League of Nations, which was to develop into a general organisation for safeguarding security and peace among all peoples. Article 8 of the League of Nations Pact obligated all member states to reduce their armed forces to the degree necessary for self-defence. General disarmament in particular was considered one of the most important measures for guaranteeing peace. That is what all organs of the League of Nations dealt with – its General Assembly, its Council, and its Secretariat. The Disarmament Commission operated as part of the Council of the League of Nations. The task of the Secretariat’s so-called Third Commission was to work out a plan for general reductions in armed forces.

After the end of the Russian Civil War, Soviet Russia also started demobilising its army, which had swelled to gigantic proportions – 5.5 million men. In 1922, the Red Army had dwindled to around 1 million men. Due to economic difficulties, the armed forces had to be cut back even further. The Soviet government tried to achieve the aim that its western neighbouring countries would also do the same. In a note dated 12 June 1922, a proposal was made to Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Poland to discuss with Russia’s representatives questions regarding proportional reduction of armed forces. Those countries mostly related critically to the proposal, but it was nevertheless decided to participate in the conference.

This article takes a closer look at how the border states prepared for the conference. It directs attention to the important part played by Estonia, and especially its Minister of Foreign Affairs Ants Piip, in harmonising the positions of the above-mentioned countries. Questions associated with disarmament were discussed at two meetings of the chiefs of the general staffs of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland, and at two meetings of the foreign ministers of those countries. Both the political and military leaderships of the above-mentioned countries concurred: the principle of proportional disarmament was unacceptable and significant cutbacks of the defence forces was a security risk. It was decided that the Moscow conference had to be used to fortify the security of the border states first of all. Hence the objective was set that the border states on one side and Soviet Russia on the other side would exchange nonaggression declarations at the Moscow conference and the disarmament question would be decided later on in line with the standpoints of the League of Nations.

Ants Piip found that a declaration was nevertheless insufficient and drafted a plan for a nonaggression pact to be presented to the Moscow conference. At a meeting held in Tallinn on 8 and 9 October, the foreign ministers of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland, C. Enckell, A. Piip, Z. Meierovics, and G. Narutowicz, approved both the plan for the nonaggression pact and also joint tactics to be used at the armed forces reduction conference.

M. Litvinov, the leader of the Soviet delegation, presented a proposal at the Moscow conference, which began on 2 December, to mutually reduce armed forces by 75%. The border states, on the other hand, first of all requested the deliberation of the question of security. Duke J. Radziwiłł, the head of the Polish delegation, presented the draft of the nonaggression pact to the conference. Litvinov agreed to discuss it and the draft was approved on 8 December, yet the Soviet delegation agreed to sign it only together with an actual armed forces reduction agreement. The German historian Rolf Ahmann has affirmed that the term ‘nonaggression pact’ was quite a new concept at that time and that the first such plan was presented precisely at the Moscow disarmament conference. The agreement under consideration has been referred to in historical literature as the Polish, or Radziwiłł’s, draft proposal, but its main author was actually Ants Piip.

Thereafter the sizes of the armies of the countries represented at the conference as projected for 1923 were discussed at the initiative of the Polish delegation. The Soviet delegation announced a reduction of the size of its army by 25% – from 800,000 to 600,000 men. Futile arguments regarding the actual size of armies, restrictions on military spending, and other issues continued until 12 December, when the conference ended without any tangible results.