Allied Negotiations with the Vatican, 1944–1945: Soviet-Vatican Relations, the Conditions of Peace, and the Post-War Settlement

This article examines negotiations between the Allies of the anti-Hitler coalition and the Vatican during the final years of the Second World War (1944–1945), drawing on previously published materials and documents from Russian archives, including the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and the State Archive of Socio-Political History. It analyses the substance of the discussions held during these contacts, as well as the responses of Soviet agencies to information received via the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) representatives in Italy and France, foreign press reviews, and intelligence reports. Soviet institutions paid close attention to these diplomatic interactions due to the Vatican’s growing role in international affairs, its increasingly overt anti-communist stance as the war drew to a close, and Soviet concerns about the implications of these contacts for issues of critical national interest. These included the future of Soviet-Vatican relations, the conclusion of the war and Germany’s withdrawal from it, and the shaping of the post-war European order. The article shows that Allied intervention in matters concerning the Vatican took varied forms and served differing strategic objectives, not always aligned with Soviet interests.