Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, also known as the Hitler-Stalin pact or Ribbentrop-Molotov pact or Nazi-Soviet pact and formally known as the Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was in theory a non-aggression treaty between the German Third Reich and the Soviet Union. It was signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939, by the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The mutual non-aggression treaty lasted until Operation Barbarossa of June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Aftermath

The Soviet-occupied territories were organized into republics of the Soviet Union. The local population was purged of anti-Soviet or potentially anti-Soviet elements and new border regions were ethnically cleansed. Tens of thousands of people in these territories were executed and hundreds of thousands were deported to far Asian regions and to Gulag concentration work camps, where many perished. Later, these occupied territories were in the front line of the war, and also suffered from the Nazi terror behind the WWII Eastern Front.

Related Topics:
Republics of the Soviet Union - Ethnically cleansed - Hundreds of thousands were deported - Gulag - WWII Eastern Front

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By early 1941, the German and Soviet occupation zones shared a border running through what is now Lithuania and Poland. Nazi–Soviet relations began to cool again, and the signs of a clash between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army began to show in German propaganda — a clash that was not without appeal to the populations in occupied Western Europe, where the anti-Bolshevism from the times of the Russian Civil War twenty years before had not quite faded. By appearing as the unifying leader of the West against the East, Hitler hoped for boosted popularity at home and abroad, and an impetus for peace with Britain.

Related Topics:
Wehrmacht - Red Army - Anti-Bolshevism - Russian Civil War

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Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was supporting Germany in the war effort against Western Europe through the German-Soviet Commercial Agreement with supplies of raw materials (phosphates, chrome and iron ore, mineral oil, grain, cotton, rubber). These and other supplies were being transported through Soviet and occupied Polish territories and allowed Germany to circumvent the British naval blockade.

Related Topics:
German-Soviet Commercial Agreement - Raw materials - Phosphates - Chrome - Iron - Ore - Mineral oil - Grain - Cotton - Rubber

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The Third Reich ended the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 by invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, together with Romania, and thus opening an Eastern Front that would ultimately lead to the defeat of Germany. After the launch of the German invasion, the territories gained by the Soviet Union due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact were lost in a matter of weeks, and (for example) the Baltic countries ended up as German protectorates. The German attack was followed by a Soviet pre-emptive attack on Finland on June 25, starting the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
Operation Barbarossa - June 22 - 1941 - Eastern Front - Protectorate - Pre-emptive attack - June 25 - Continuation War

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