Four days before the non-aggression treaty, Moscow and Berlin signed a massive trade deal under which the USSR was to supply the Third Reich with raw materials in payment for its machinery and factory equipment. The two leaders also revived economic cooperation that dwindled sharply after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Hitler, on his part, secured the Eastern front and was free to wage war in the West. With the pact, he bought time to prepare for war and, as per the secret protocol, moved Soviet borders miles to the west, annexing the Baltics, eastern Poland and parts of Romania – roughly within the former Russian Empire’s borders. It’s in that climate that Stalin made a final gamble - and chose a non-aggression pact with Hitler over what seemed a shaky alliance prospect with Britain and France. He, too, has all the reasons to doubt them – both European powers had just betrayed their ally Czechoslovakia and stood idly as Hitler backed fascists in Spain, annexed Austria and shred the Versaille treaty to pieces. Stalin, on his part, suspected the other two hoped to steer Hitler’s expansion eastward - so that Communists and Nazis would weaken one another saving Western Europe all the trouble. I have no belief whatsoever in her ability to maintain an effective offensive, even if she wanted to.” As then-British PM Neville Chamberlain wrote to his friend: “I must confess to the most profound distrust of Russia. Besides, they wondered if after the purges, the Red Army was actually capable to fight. France and Britain were wary Stalin would use military help as a pretext to occupy neighbouring states – they hadn’t forgotten the Communists’ original idea of a worldwide revolution. Hitler had just taken Czechoslovakia and future allies – France, Britain and the USSR – were negotiating a multilateral defense treaty in attempt to stop Nazi Germany.īut talks were stalling. 1940 – for the Soviet-German non-aggression pact And that is, in fact, telling, of the role the man played in world history. Yet, he earned that spot more than once – one of the four non-Americans to ever do so. So it might be a bit surprising to see his face on the iconic red-bordered cover of the Time magazine – right where nine-grader Greta Turnberg appeared just in January 2020. Today, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is most often remembered as a ruthless dictator, who terrorized millions of people.
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