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.

Franco-British negotiations with the Soviet Union

Negotiations between the Soviet Union, France and Britain for a military alliance against Germany stalled, mainly due to mutual suspicions. The Soviet Union sought guarantees for support against German aggression and recognition of the right of the Soviet Union to interfere against "a change of policy favorable to an aggressor" in the countries along the western Soviet border. Although none of the affected countries had formally asked for protection by the Soviet Union, it nevertheless announced "guarantees for the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Greece", the so-called "sanitary cordon" erected between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
France - Britain - Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Poland - Romania - Turkey - Greece

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The British and French feared that this would allow Soviet intervention in neighboring countries' internal affairs even in the absence of an immediate external German threat.

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However, with the Third Reich now demanding territorial concessions from Poland in the face of Polish opposition, the threat of war was increasing. But although telegrams were exchanged between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union as early as April 1939, the military missions sent by the Western Powers (with a slow transport vessel) did not arrive in Moscow until August 11, and were given no authority to sign a treaty.

Related Topics:
1939 - Moscow - August 11

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The fundamental sticking-point was the question of Poland, lying between Germany and the Soviet Union; the Polish government rightly feared that the Soviet government sought to annex the disputed territories of Kresy incorporated in Poland in 1920 after the Polish-Soviet war, characterized by the Kremlin as irredenta — "Western Ukraine" and "Western Belarus" — since parts of them were inhabited by ethnically Ukrainian and Belarusian majorities, respectively.

Related Topics:
Annex - Kresy - Polish-Soviet war - The Kremlin - Irredenta - Ukraine - Belarus - Ethnically

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Therefore, the Polish government refused to allow the Soviet military to enter its territory and establish military bases in preparation for the now-inevitable war with Germany — a situation that allegedly left the Red Army without any possibility of confronting the Germans before Poland was invaded.

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Three weeks into August, the negotiations ground to a halt with each side doubting the other's motives, and the Kremlin suspecting that they were being led into a conflict limited to the USSR and Germany.

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