ABSTRACT
The later 1920's were a period of remarkable stability in Europe. In the Soviet Union, the long struggle for succession to Vladimir Lenin was resolved in favour of Joseph Stalin, while his most serious rival, Leon Trotsky, was first defeated, then disgraced and finally exiled. The Locarno agreements, concluded towards the end of 1925, were generally welcomed as important moves towards general peace. The Soviet cartoon, Powerless maestro, takes a very different view of Locarno. The governments represented at Locarno accepted the idea that they would now work out plans for general disarmament, in preparation for a World Disarmament Conference which would be held at an unspecified date. Hindenburg had been the most charismatic German military leader in the war. At one point, a huge wooden statue of the Field Marshal was erected in Berlin, and people making donations to war charities were permitted to drive nails into it.
