In 1938–39, the Soviet Union attempted to form strong military alliances with Germany's enemies, including France, and Great Britain. The effort failed, and the last stage unfolded to the astonishment of the world: Stalin and Hitler came to terms. Historian François Furet says, "The pact signed in Moscow by Ribbentrop and Molotov on 23 August 1939 inaugurated the alliance between the USSR and Nazi Germany. It was presented as an alliance and not just a nonaggression pact." The secret covenants agreed on a mutual division of Poland, and split up Eastern Europe, with the USSR taking over the Baltic states. The USSR helped supply oil and munitions to Germany as its armies rolled across Western Europe in May–June 1940. Despite repeated warnings, Stalin refused to believe that Hitler was planning an all-out war on the USSR. It came in June 1941.