The NaziSoviet Pact

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The Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Jonathan Boortz-Marx

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Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Also known as Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
• Meetings between Russias Commissar of Foreign
  Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and Germanys Foreign
  Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
• Joachim von Ribbentrop contacted the Soviets
• Agreement made between Hitler and Stalin signed
  in August 1939

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Nazi Soviet Pact

• From left Nazi foreign minister Ribbentrop,
  Stalin, and Soviet foreign minister Molotov

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Terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Article 1 The two contracting parties undertake
  to refrain from any act of violence, and
  aggressive action, or any attack against one
  another, whether individually or jointly with
  other powers.
• Article 2 In case of the contracting parties
  should become the object of warlike acts on the
  part of a third party, the other contracting
  party will no longer support that third power in
  any form.
• Article 4 Neither of the two contracting parties
  will participate in any grouping of powers which
  is indirectly or directly aimed against the other
  party.
• Article 5 Should disputes or conflicts arise
  between the contracting parties regarding
  questions of any kind whatsoever, the two parties
  would clear away these disputes or conflicts
  solely by means of friendly exchanges of views or
  if necessary by arbitrary commissions.

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Secret Additional Protocol

• An addition to the Nazi-Soviet Pact stating
• parties discussed in strictly confidential
  conversations the question of the delimitation of
  their respective spheres of interest in Eastern
  Europe. These conversations led to the following
  result
• In the event of a territorial and political
  transformation in the territories belonging to
  the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
  Lithuania), the northern frontier of Lithuania
  shall represent the frontier of the spheres of
  interest both of Germany and the USSR. . . .
• In the event of a territorial and political
  transformation of the territories belonging to
  the Polish State, the spheres of interest of both
  Germany and the USSR shall be bounded
  approximately by the line of the rivers Narev,
  Vistula, and San.

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Map of Secret Protocol

• Gave Soviet Union
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Eastern Poland

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Parts of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Economic Agreement Germany provided manufactured
  goods in exchange for Soviet raw materials
• Ten-year nonaggression pact

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Stalins Rationale for Signing Pact

• Stalin originally wanted to sign anti-fascist
  alliance with countries in the west
• Argued Hitler would not start a war against an
  allied Europe
• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was
  not interested in an alliance with the Soviet
  Union
• Wrote to a friend I must confess to the most
  profound distrust of Russia. I have no belief
  whatever in her ability to maintain an effective
  offensive I distrust her motives.
• Stalin believed that Britain was attempting to
  push Germany east instead of west
• Belief confirmed when Chamberlain met with Hitler
  at Munich in 1938 and gave into demands for
  Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia
• Stalin feared war with Germany wanted a peace
  treaty to encourage Germany to invade western
  Europe instead

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Political Cartoon
What, no chair for me? (30th September, 1938)
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Historiography

• After signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Stalin stated
  that Of course, its all a game to see who can
  fool whom. I know what Hitlers up to. He
  thinks hes outsmarted me, but actually its I
  who have tricked him.
• Hitler was compelled in self-defense to conclude
  a pact of friendship with Russia (William
  Joyce)
• I believe the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939
  was historically inevitable It was like a gambit
  in chess if we hadnt made that move, the war
  would have started earlier, much to our
  disadvantage. (Nikita Khrushchev)
• Stalin could not have had the slightest doubt
  that the pact at once relieved Hitler of the
  nightmare of a war on two fronts To his mind the
  war was inevitable anyhow if he had made no deal
  with Hitler, war would still have broken out
  (Isaac Deutscher)

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Historiography (continued)

• Since fighting a two front war in World War I
  had split Germanys forces, it had weakened and
  undermined their offensiveHitler was determined
  not to repeat the same mistakes.
• Stalin did not want a war with Germany, he did
  not want to fight Hitler, all of the rising
  evidence of the coming German invasion
  notwithstanding nor did he believe that Hitler
  would attack him, because he not only could not
  but wished not to believe that. (John Lukacs)

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Bibliography

• "German-Soviet Pact." United States Holocaust
  Memorial Museum. 09 Feb. 2009 lthttp//www.ushmm.or
  g/wlc/article.php?ModuleId10005156gt.
• "The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact." 20th
  Century History. 09 Feb. 2009 lthttp//history1900s
  .about.com/library/holocaust/aa072699.htmgt.
• "Nazi-Soviet Pact." GCSE Modern World History
  Revision Site. 09 Feb. 2009 lthttp//www.johndclare
  .net/RoadtoWWII8.htmgt.
• "The Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939)." The History Guide
  -- Main. 09 Feb. 2009 lthttp//www.historyguide.org
  /europe/nazi_soviet.htmlgt.
• "Nazi-Soviet Pact." Spartacus Educational - Home
  Page. 08 Feb. 2009 lthttp//www.spartacus.schoolnet
  .co.uk/RUSnazipact.htmgt.
• Lukacs, John. June 1941 Hitler and Stalin. New
  York Yale UP, 2006.