World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAmidst all the appeasement policies by the western Allies, it was obviously German aggression must be contained before it led to war. To that end, on 13 Apr 1939, Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union dispatched Soviet ambassador Maxim Litvinov to engage the British in talks toward a military alliance to contain Germany and protect Polish and Romanian borders. Surprisingly, the British and the French, more so the former, rejected the offer; British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was much more interested in the preference of his allies in Poland, which was heavily anti-Soviet, than recognizing the fact that the only power east of Germany that could serve as a deterrent to war was the Soviet Union. Collectively, the United Kingdom and France both viewed communism with suspicion.

ww2dbaseProposing the military alliance for the final time in early May 1939, and again being rejected, Stalin began to work with Germany as an alternate means to secure Soviet interests. Between Jun and Jul 1939, many meetings were held between German and Soviet diplomats. Through these meetings, German diplomats slowly convinced that, should the Soviet Union ally itself with the aggressive western powers, the Soviets would undoubtedly be dragged into another war, which was something Stalin wished to avoid, at least at this time. Stalin slowly began to shift his position. Originally he had wanted to ally with Poland (along with the United Kingdom and France) as a means to keep German eastward expansion in check; slowly, he began to think that he might be recover the territory lost in the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War should he choose to befriend Germany instead. To eliminate any potential difficulties in the negotiations, Stain removed Litvinov, who was Jewish, and replaced him with Vyacheslav Molotov.

ww2dbaseHaving learned that the Germans were now in the talks with the Soviets, Chamberlain finally decided to make an effort to negotiate with the Soviets in late Jul, but his unwillingness was exhibited by the lack of diligence. Having decided to take this course on 23 Jul 1939, it took him days to engage the German embassy, and he did not announce this effort to the British Parliament until 31 Jul. In fact, the new Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov did attempt to reach out to him on 24 Jul, but Chamberlain's lack of enthusiasm turned him away. When it came time to dispatch a joint Anglo-French delegation to Russia, the delegation curiously chose to travel by sea via the slow passenger liner City of Exeter rather than by air, thus wasting an entire week. Had it been possible for the British and the French to dissuade the Soviet Union from befriending Germany in the first week of Aug, the opportunity was now lost.

ww2dbaseIt would not take long before German ambassador to Moscow Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg would victoriously cable Berlin "[t]he Soviet Government agree to the Reich Foreign Minister coming to Moscow" to enter talks for a non-aggression pact. In the evening of 21 Aug 1939, Berlin radio interrupted a musical program to announce the upcoming nonaggression agreement. In Moscow, Ribbentrop was able to convince that the western Allies were dragging the Soviet Union into war. He also promised the Soviet Union an opportunity to regain the Russian territories lost after Versailles Treaty: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. In the very late hours of 23 Aug 1939, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in Moscow, Russia. On the surface, the pact was a ten-year agreement between the two nations to maintain a peaceful status quo, and should conflict arise neutral arbitration was to be employed instead of any act of war. However, within this document was a hidden protocol that would not be revealed until the German defeat in 1945. This hidden protocol detailed the division of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania under each nation's sphere of influence.

ww2dbaseThe pact shocked the western Allies. Germany now had security on her eastern border in the case of war. However, the failure to avoid this agreement fell squarely on the political leadership of Britain and France. Chamberlain was later noted to bear much of the burden of the failure to prevent the Russo-German agreement; his critics pointed out his appointment of an incapable and not-empowered diplomat in the Jul 1939 discussions. Unknowingly, the British and French alliance with Poland would soon turn into a liability.

ww2dbaseThis pact was also called the Stalin-Hitler Pact and the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Photographs

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Timeline

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