Molotov-Ribbentrop

#politics/misc

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a strategic move by the USSR to buy time before World War II, especially after Western powers opted for appeasement instead of forming an alliance against Nazi Germany.

The USSR actually tried to build collective security with the West. France even signed the Franco-Soviet pact in 1935, which was supposed to be a mutual-assistance agreement against German aggression, but it was basically left to rot because Britain and France wouldn’t follow through.

It went even further than that: Stalin offered to send a million Soviet troops to stop Hitler if Britain and France agreed, but the Western governments stalled and refused to commit.

Plenty of other countries had non-aggression or neutrality pacts with Nazi Germany, but people conveniently forget those.

  1. The Four-Power Pact (1933): An agreement between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany.
  2. The Pilsudski Pact (1934): The German–Polish declaration of non-aggression normalised relations and the parties agreed to forgo armed conflict for a period of 10 years. Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
  3. Juliabkommen (1936): A gentleman’s agreement between Austria and Germany, in which Germany recognized Austria’s “full sovereignty”. Germany annexed Austria in 1938 in the Anschluss.
  4. Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935): This agreement with Britain allowed Germany the right to build a navy beyond the limits set by the Treaty of Versailles.
  5. Munich Agreement (September 1938): Britain, France, and Italy agreed to concede the Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for a pledge of peace. WWII began one year later, when Germany invaded Poland.
  6. German-French Non-Aggression Pact (December 1938): A treaty between Germany and France, ensuring mutual non-aggression and peaceful relations. Germany invaded France in 1940.
  7. German-Romanian Economic Treaty (March 1939): This agreement established German control over most aspects of Romanian economy. Romania became an Axis power in 1943 and was liberated by the Soviets in 1945.
  8. German-Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact (March 1939): This ultimatum issued by Germany demanded Lithuania return the Klaipėda Region (Memel) which it lost in WWI in exchange for a non-aggression pact. Germany occupied Lithuania in 1941.
  9. Denmark Non-Aggression Pact (May 1939): An agreement between Germanyand Denmark, ensuring non-aggression and peaceful coexistence. Germany invaded Denmark in 1940.
  10. German-Estonian Non-Aggression Pact (June 1939): Germany occupied Estonia in 1941.
  11. German-Latvian Non-Aggression Pact (June 1939): Germany occupied Latvia in 1941.
  12. USSR Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939): Known as the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, this was a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, also including secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Germany invaded the USSR in 1941.

And this, of course, ignores all the pacts and treaties that Germany made with its Axisallies: Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Thailand.

The Myth of the "Partition of Poland"

One of the most common myths surrounding the treaty is that the Nazis and the Soviets split Poland in two to be shared between themselves. Evidence for this, proponents claim, can be found in the so-called "secret protocols" of the treaty. According to Grover Furr however, who translated and studied the original document in Russian himself, the mention about a "partition" was actually establishing "spheres of influence" over Poland, which were not clearly defined in the document and thus were open to interpretation. These spheres of influence never came to fruition as Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 regardless.

Furthermore, other evidence uncovered by Grover Furr suggests that the Soviet Union signed the pact not to partition Poland, but rather on the premise that if the Polish Army was defeated and they and their government retreated beyond a line that the USSR and Nazi Germany agreed upon, then the Nazis would not pursue them further beyond that line.

When Poland fell and its government fled (effectively rendering Poland a non-state and unable to organise a defence), the Nazis would have had free reign to position their army right to the border with the USSR. This would have not only compromised the national security of the Soviet Union, but also may have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions more Polish Jews.Therefore the Red Army moved in to secure a buffer area as well as help evacuate civilians from the Nazis.

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