August 23: The Hitler-Stalin Pact

The Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Hitler-Stalin Pact, was signed on this date in 1939. Under its terms, both countries agreed to remain neutral in the event that either was attacked. A secret protocol to the treaty divided northern and eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, and in less than a month both countries had invaded Poland, from the west and the east, and the Nazis were internationalizing their anti-Semitic campaign. Soon thereafter the USSR was annexing part of Finland as well as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and adjacent lands. The Pact was considered a necessity by supporters of the Soviet Union who (quite reasonably) did not believe that the U.S., Great Britain, and their allies were committed to the communist country’s defense against Nazism. For the international communist movement, however, the Pact produced a sudden, disreputable political shift from anti-Nazi agitation to anti-war “neutrality,” which would not end until Germany invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941.

“Germany, which has lately united 80 million Germans, has submitted certain neighboring countries to her supremacy and gained military strength in many aspects, and thus has become, as clearly can be seen, a dangerous rival to principal imperialistic powers in Europe — England and France. That is why they declared war on Germany on a pretext of fulfilling the obligations given to Poland. It is now clearer than ever, how remote the real aims of the cabinets in these countries were from the interests of defending the now disintegrated Poland or Czechoslovakia.” —Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov