page_title: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
section_title: Non-Aggression Pact with Germany (1939–1941)
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union / 1917–1939 / Non-Aggression Pact with Germany (1939–1941)
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB/Archiv Sowjetunion, August 1939, Im Moskauer Kreml wird am 23.8.1939 ein Nichtangriffsvertrag zwischen dem deutschen Reich und der UdSSR unterzeichnet. Nach der Unterzeichnung im Gespräch J.W. Stalin und der deutsche Reichsaußenminister Joachim von Ribbentrop (r.).
context_page_description: After the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks took over the old Russian Empire in 1918, they faced enormous odds against the German Empire due to World War I, and then again against both domestic and international enemies in the bitter civil war. Czarist Russia was reorganized as the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, it was treated as an unrecognized Pariah state because of its repudiating the tsarist debts and threats to destroy capitalism at home and around the world. By 1922, Moscow had repudiated the goal of world revolution, and sought diplomatic recognition and friendly trade relations with the world, starting with Britain and Germany. Trade and technical help from Germany and the United States arrived in the late 1920s. Under dictator Joseph Stalin, the country was transformed in the 1930s into an industrial and military power. After the appeasement policy of Britain and France, the Soviet Union shifted from a strategy of antifascist collective security to one of national security. By signing a treaty with Germany in 1939 the Soviet Union hoped to create a buffer zone between them and Germany.
context_section_description: In 1938–39, the Soviet Union attempted to form strong military alliances with Germany's enemies, including Poland, France, and Great Britain. The effort failed. Stalin and Hitler were quietly negotiating all the while, and Hitler offered Russian control of a large swath of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic countries, and half of Poland, as well as other territories. The agreement provided for large sales of Russian grain and oil to Germany, while Germany would share its military technology with the Soviet Union. The ensuing Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact astonished the world and signaled the war would start very soon. French 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." Other historians dispute the characterization of this treaty as an "alliance," because Hitler secretly intended to invade the USSR in the future.
caption: Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking hands after the signing of the pact in Moscow in August 1939.
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image DateTime": "2020:01:29 01:26:18", "Image Copyright": "waralbum.ru", "Image ExifOffset": "2318", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4616", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12076", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:01:29 01:25:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:01:29 01:25:05", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "48", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "48", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1185", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1562", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}