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The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, [1] [2] and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact [3] [4] and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, [5] was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with a secret protocol establishing Soviet and German spheres of influence across Eastern Europe. [6]
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was an August 23, 1939, agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany colloquially named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The treaty renounced warfare between the two countries.
The secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939, defined the boundary between the German and Soviet "spheres of influence". However, during the invasion of Poland, some German forces, especially Heinz Guderian's XIX Corps, advanced beyond this line in pursuit of their tactical goals. [1]
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signs the German–Soviet Pact, 28 September 1939. Several secret articles were attached to the treaty. These articles allowed for the exchange of Soviet and German nationals between the two occupied zones of Poland, redrew parts of the central European spheres of interest dictated by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and also stated that neither ...
When concluding the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, Stalin "clearly counted on the repetition of the 1914–1918 war of attrition, which would leave the "capitalist" countries so exhausted that the USSR could sweep into Europe virtually unopposed" [15] (see also Stalin's speech of 19 August 1939).
Despite praising the book for its "masterly" account of the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the historian Richard J. Evans, writing for The Guardian, took exception to the book's "unbalanced treatment" of the crimes of the Soviets over those of the Nazis and asserted that "for all its virtues this is a deeply problematic book". [3]
The ensuing Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact astonished the world and signaled the war would start very soon. French historian François Furet says, "The pact signed in Moscow by Ribbentrop and Molotov on 23 August 1939 inaugurated the alliance between the USSR and Nazi Germany. It was presented as an alliance and not just a nonaggression pact."
Soviet expansion in 1939–1940. After the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact the Soviet forces were given freedom over Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, an important aspect of the agreement to the Soviet government as they were afraid of Germany using the three states as a corridor to get close to Leningrad.