Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939
Karl Andrus

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, also called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was signed on August 23rd 1939. This treaty brought together, in an unlikely alliance, Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union. These ideologically opposed nations stood to gain much from the treaty, including its secret protocols. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin put aside their ideological differences to practice "expedient politics." Hitler was anxious to avoid the two-front war like the one which had defeated German ambitions in the First World War. Stalin hoped to deflect the Nazi threat against the Soviet Union onto Britain and France. When it was signed the treaty served the purposes of both countries well.

The pact set out standard nonaggression protocols, "the High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other Powers." The treaty's secret protocols were the most important and would have long term implications for Eastern Europe and the world. Eastern Europe and the Baltic States were partitioned into German and Russian spheres of influence. According to the agreement, Russia would have control over Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, while Germany would gain control over Lithuania and Danzig. Poland would be partitioned into three major areas. The Warthland area, bordering Germany would be annexed outright to the German Reich, and all non-German inhabitants expelled to the east. Over 77,000 square miles of eastern Polish lands, with a population of over thirteen million would become Soviet territory. The central area would become a German protectorate, named the General Government, governed by a German civil authority.

At the time this treaty was signed, Hitler aimed to annihilate Poland while avoiding of a two-front war. Hitler already knew from consultations with his generals, that German readiness for such a war depended on what the Soviet Union was going to do. If Soviet Russia stayed neutral, they believed that Germany was in good shape. But if Germany had to fight the USSR at that time, then it would most likely be defeated. The neutrality of the USSR then was essential for a quick victory over Poland. Existing British and French guarantees of Polish sovereignty meant little without support from the Soviet Union. Without the risk of a two-front war, Hitler would then be free to turn his entire army westward to face France and Britain. The pact served Hitler's needs by furthering his war effort and providing the security needed for Germany to wage war against Poland, Britain and France.

For years prior, Stalin had hoped to reach an understanding with the British and French to form a united front against Nazism but there was mounting frustration with the reluctance France and the UK showed towards joining with the USSR in establishing collective security. The results of the Munich Agreement of 1938 convinced Stalin that the west was willing to negotiate peace at the Nazis even at the expense of the Soviet Union. The final hope of reaching an agreement with the western allies proved unfounded when the British and French diplomats sent to Moscow to discuss the mounting Polish crisis were not invested with any negotiating powers. This obvious lack of British and French seriousness made it that much easier to come to terms with the German diplomats that arrived intent on reaching a settlement.

Stalin believed that the pact was a way of keeping the threat posed by Nazi Germany in check. The Soviet Union was in the middle of the last of their five-year plans of rapid industrialization. Stalin knew the words of Mein Kampf; it was no secret that Hitler viewed the destruction of the Soviet Union as his ultimate goal. Stalin is known to have said about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact that "of course it's all a game to see who can fool whom." The Soviet leader suspected Hitler's Germany would eventually turn on the USSR; what the Soviets needed most was time. However, time was not the only benefit afforded to the Soviet Union by the pact. The Soviet Union gained half of Poland as a further buffer against German attack. With the non-aggression pact signed, Stalin could focus on building his nation and preparing for war.

Beyond the immediate benefits of land and time, Stalin also had his own expectations about the war between imperialist powers that would unfold as a result of this pact. Stalin secretly hoped that the war between France, Britain and Germany, would weaken and possibly destroy some of Communism's mortal enemies. Stalin viewed the democracies with as much contempt as he did Nazi Germany. As a witness to the enormous destruction wrought by World War I, Stalin had every reason to believe that Europe would bleed itself dry again and that, this time, the communist revolutions that had threatened before could succeed with the material aid of the Soviet Union. Stalin could not have asked for much more from the pact, at least in his mind at the time, than the mutual destruction of his ideological foes without risking a single Soviet citizen in war. Reality proved less generous.