German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was a significant treaty signed on August 23, 1939, just before the onset of World War II. The pact was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to refrain from attacking each other for ten years, despite their deep ideological differences. Adolf Hitler, seeking to conquer Europe, aimed to eliminate the threat of Soviet intervention while Joseph Stalin sought time to strengthen the Soviet military. The agreement also included secret provisions that divided Eastern Europe between the two powers, allowing the Soviets to invade eastern Poland shortly after Germany's invasion on September 1, 1939.
While the treaty seemed beneficial for both parties at the time, it was ultimately a temporary measure. Hitler's ambitions led him to violate the pact by invading the Soviet Union in June 1941, resulting in a fierce conflict that would be pivotal in the war's outcome. This breach transformed the relationship between the two nations from a temporary alliance into bitter enmity, with the Soviet Union playing a crucial role in defeating Germany by 1945. The pact remains a notable example of strategic diplomacy during a tumultuous period in history, illustrating how alliances can form under pressure, even between ideologically opposed regimes.
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was a treaty signed by representatives of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939, one week before the start of World War II (1939–1945). The agreement stated that Germany and the Soviet Union would refrain from attacking each other for the following ten years. Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany, and Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union, disliked each other intensely, but each saw the nonaggression pact as a useful tool that would temporarily benefit their respective countries. Hitler hoped to conquer Europe without the Soviet Union becoming involved, while Stalin wanted time to build up the Soviet military. Each knew the peace treaty would never last. Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, thus breaking the terms of the pact. This drew the Soviet Union into World War II and helped produce Germany's defeat in 1945.
Background
Throughout the 1930s, Hitler planned to conquer Europe so the German people would have more room to live. He began taking over land by nonviolent means in the late 1930s. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria and committed to the Munich Agreement with the United Kingdom and France. The agreement allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland regions of neighboring Czechoslovakia, but in March of 1939, the German army took control of the entire country.
The United Kingdom and France objected to this. They judged that Hitler was not to be trusted and that he would continue taking sovereign territory by force unless he was stopped. The two nations believed Germany would soon invade Poland. British and French leaders vowed to declare war on Germany should this happen. The United Kingdom and France also wanted the massive Soviet Union on their side should war break out in Europe. They offered the nation trade agreements to attract it to their cause, but Hitler already had plans for the Soviets.
Hitler knew any sudden invasion of Poland would make an instant enemy of the Soviet Union for two reasons. The primary reason was that German control of Poland would extend Germany's borders nearly to the Soviet Union, and Stalin would not tolerate an aggressive Germany so close to its territory. The second reason Hitler believed a German invasion of Poland would prompt a Soviet response was that the Soviet Union had agreed to a defense treaty with France years earlier. France would rush to the Soviet Union's aid if Stalin recognized the invasion as a threat to his own country and began fighting the Germans.
Hitler acknowledged—at least in the early stages of his European conquest—that he could not afford any scenario in which the powerful Soviet Union retaliated against Germany. That outcome would recreate the conditions of World War I (1914–1918), in which Germany had been defeated by Great Britain and France in the west and Russia in the east. Therefore, to keep the Soviet Union from interfering in the opening stages of his war in Europe, Hitler sought to form a peace treaty with Stalin.
Overview
The idea of Nazi Germany forming a nonaggression treaty with the Soviet Union likely astonished most citizens of each country. The Nazis and the Soviets were deeply divided on ideological grounds. Hitler despised the Soviet Union's political system of communism, in which the public owned and controlled all aspects of society. He saw this kind of government as irresolute, since policies could change with the will of the people. The Soviets, meanwhile, detested Hitler's fascism, a form of government characterized by dictatorship and nationalism, or extreme support of one's country over all others. However, with Germany's larger interests in mind, Hitler opened treaty negotiations with the Soviet Union in the spring of 1939.
Talks between the German and Soviet foreign ministries failed that June. The next month, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germany's foreign minister, suggested to the Soviet government that Germany might be willing to divide control of Poland with the Soviet Union if Hitler were permitted to invade it. This offer was attractive to Stalin, but no definitive plans were made.
By August, Hitler had become desperate to launch the invasion. He wanted to mobilize the German army before the autumn rains arrived to slow its progress. Furthermore, he knew that the nations of Western Europe were close to forming an alliance against Germany. On August 20, 1939, Hitler had a telegram sent to Stalin asking him to accept Ribbentrop in Moscow for a meeting with the Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov. Stalin agreed, and Ribbentrop landed in Moscow two days later.
Stalin attended the meeting between Ribbentrop and Molotov. The parties agreed that both Germany and the Soviet Union would refrain from attacking each other for a period of ten years. Each country also would refuse to join any third nation that attacked the other, and the Soviet Union would be granted certain Eastern European territories after the German invasion of Poland. These included Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the eastern half of Poland. Negotiations concluded within hours, and the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was signed in the early hours of August 23, 1939.
Stalin was excited about the agreement and toasted Hitler's health. Hitler was overjoyed that his plan had worked. With the French-Soviet defense alliance voided and Stalin promising to allow Germany to wage its war on Europe, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Two days later, following through on their commitment to defend Poland from attack, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. This began World War II. Later in September, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland, as per the terms of the nonaggression pact. The following year, Stalin took control of the other areas of Eastern Europe he had been guaranteed in the treaty.
Meanwhile, Germany defeated France in mid-1940, after which Hitler began planning Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler had always thought of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact as a strategy that had served a purpose and should then be discarded. Stalin had known this from the beginning, but he had taken advantage of the peace with Germany while it lasted. Hitler broke the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact by ordering Operation Barbarossa, Germany's colossal invasion of the Soviet Union, to commence on June 22, 1941. The Germans and Soviets were enemies from that point. The Soviet Union's Red Army was instrumental in defeating Germany in 1945.
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