The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is the name of an interstate agreement on non-aggression between two powerful states, the USSR and Germany. The term of the agreement was calculated for 10 years. This agreement was signed in Moscow on the night of the twenty-third to the twenty-fourth of August 1939 by the German minister, Johim von Ribbentrop, and the head of the Council of People's Commissars, the Soviet commissar, Vyacheslav Molotov, in the presence of German ambassador Werner von der Schulenburg and member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU , Member of the Executive Committee of Joseph Stalin. From here you can and explain the name of the document itself, which many still call "Ribbentrop-Molotov."

The signed pact guaranteed the neutrality of the Soviet Union in the Third Reich conflict with Poland and Western countries, and ensured the return to the Soviet Union of the territories it lost during the First World War. This agreement was based on the Berlin Treaty of 1926 and the Treaty of Rapallo of 1922.

Together with the nonaggression pact, a secret protocol was signed that established the borders of the mutual interests of the two countries in Eastern Europe and the division of Poland between them when Germany attacked that country. The existence of such a secret annex to the Covenant has long been denied by the government of the Soviet Union. And only in the late eighties of the last century this protocol was really recognized.

Before the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still signed, Germany already included the territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia in the Reich. And to ensure international security and the fight against the German invasion were supposed to be negotiations between the USSR, Britain and France. The consequence was the adoption of the draft treaty on mutual assistance on August 2, 1939. However, the document did not become a treaty because of the lack of interest of the countries taking part in the negotiations. For example, the Soviet Union, with the adoption of this project, demanded the passage of its armies through the territory of Poland and Romania in case of an attack on them by German troops. However, neither Poland nor Romania ever agreed to this.

That's why Stalin and Molotov decided to sign a non-aggression agreement with Germany, which was called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Both the Soviet Union and Germany had different goals. Hitler, actively preparing for an attack on the territory of Poland, wanted to avoid military conflicts with the Soviet Union and believed that Moscow, wishing to regain its former lands, would execute the points of the treaty. Stalin, in turn, considered the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact an excellent opportunity to prepare for the inevitable military actions, while avoiding any possible unnecessary military conflicts.

According to the adopted agreement, both sides assumed the responsibility to peacefully resolve all the disagreements that have arisen, and also in no case to support the country that will attack one of the parties to the agreement. And according to the secret protocol, Germany, when attacking Poland, had no right to advance further for the "Curzon Line". Part of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Bessarabia remained in the power of the Soviet Union.

After ratification of the treaty by the Soviet Union on September 1, German troops entered the territory of Poland. After receiving a small delay to provide assistance to those Ukrainians and Belarusians who were threatened by the attack of German troops, Soviet troops entered Polish territory only on September 17, 1939, automatically joining World War II. Poland ceased to exist as a state. As a result of this, Germany and the USSR received a common border. And the possibility of attacking one country against another, despite the signed agreement, has become a matter of time.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was declared invalid on June 21, 1941, when the German Army attacked the Soviet Union.