Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

The pact Von Ribbentrop-Molotov , also called pact germano-Soviet , was signed the August 23rd 1939 between the Foreign Ministers of the Third Reich (Joachim von Ribbentrop) and of the Soviet Union (Viatcheslav Molotov).

A pact of nonaggression

On a side, Hitler sought to make sure of Soviet non-intervention in the war that the Third Reich prepared in the west. Other side, the failure of the talks anglo-free-Soviet in August 1939, due to the excuses of Chamberlain and the Polish refusal to leave the Red Army to pass on the Polish territory (the Polish government feared that the Soviet government does not seek to annex the litigious territories received by Poland in 1920 after the Paix of Rīga which put an end to the soviéto-Polish Guerre), made include/understand with Stalin which it could not impose a pact of reciprocity between the Soviet Union, the England and the France . Moreover, the signature of the agreements of Munich in September 1938 gave rise to think of Stalin whom it could not either count on England and France to be opposed seriously to the aggressive expansion of Third Reich. This led the Soviet diplomacy to sign a treaty of non-aggression the August 23rd between Third Reich and the Soviet Union - the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

The paternity of the pact is sometimes allotted to Stalin only. In Two years of alliance germano-Soviet , Angelo Tasca, the founder of the Italian Communist party, member of the Comintern written: “ the idea of a German-Russian agreement was not German, but Russian origin. It was launched by Stalin in a speech of the Congress of PCUS in March 1939. ”

Secret protocols

In addition to the clause of non-aggression, the pact comprised several protocols remained a long time secret. In particular, a division of the Poland was already envisaged, anticipating the German of September 1st 1939 and that, consecutive invasion, of the Red Army the September 17th 1939. The two armies occupied each one then a half of the country, a protocol stipulating that the two parts had the obligation to take measures to prevent and prevent any action of the Polish Résistance, going even until envisaging mutual consultations in connection with all the repressive actions which would seem useful:

None of the two parts will tolerate on its territory of unspecified Polish agitation which would threaten the territory of the other part. Each one will crush on its own territory any embryo of such an agitation, and both will get informed mutually about all the adequate means being able to be used for this purpose .

These means are the subject of constant exchanges between the Gestapo and NKVD, during all of winter 1939 - 1940, moment from which each of the two occupants will endeavor to get rid of the Polish elites. The Germans put forward the racial criteria and the Soviets of the criteria of classes, but the Catholic church, pillar of the national identity of Poland, will be persecuted by the two parts. Extremely logically, the exactions made by each of the two parts were kill and did not accept any echo in the national presses.

Other secret clauses allotted to the Soviet Union control Baltic States and Bessarabia (current République of Moldavie), in exchange of what Stalin delivered to Hitler of many refugees German antifascists and Austrian refugees in Soviet Union (it was the case of Margaret Buber-Neumann and the founder of the Austrian Communist party, Franz Koritschoner).

Strategic role of the pact

Each part could find its interest in this pact. On a side, the Soviet Union saw it like a respite to fill its important military delay on Third Reich, this before a perceived war as inescapable (Hitler said besides that it would only keep to its commitments as a long time as they would be advantageous for him). Other side, this pact made it possible Third Reich to repatriate the divisions, in particular armor-plated, towards the west, without fearing a Soviet attack coming from the east. The Germans could thus invade the France by a Blitzkrieg, before being based on this western face to be turned over finally against the Soviet Union, invading it the June 22nd 1941 (Opération Barbarossa), thus breaking de facto the pact.

See too

Internal bonds

Poland during the Second world war
Second world war: walk with the war

before: Anschluss | Agreements of Munich
Pact germano-Soviet
afterwards: Countryside of Poland

Chronology: August 1939

External bonds

the full text of the pact Molotov-Ribbentrop on Wikisource.
8 May 9th, 1945: Against the diversion of the history, article of Courteous Stephan and Jean-Louis Hammered

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