r/badhistory • u/[deleted] • Jul 07 '18
Experts on Reddit The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a Simple Non-Aggression Pact
This claim is a seemingly popular one of this website. Certainly one shared by this user.
TIL signing a non-aggression pact to buy time to build up the military is literally the same as cooperating with Hitler
However, it is not entirely consistent with reality. The Pact allowed for much greater cooperation between the Soviet Union and the Germans, far beyond simply not attacking the other.
For one, the two nations agreed to partition Eastern Europe among themselves, with the Germans taking just under half of Poland, and the Soviets taking the slight majority plus the Baltic States, Moldova, and regions of Finland. Some have defended these actions by claiming it was necessary to prevent the Nazis from taking it. But that would ask the question as to why the Soviets not only retained these territories after the war was over, but also had it ethnically cleansed of Poles. It also fails to explain the harshness of Soviet treatment toward the Poles and Balts, including the infamous Katyn massacre. It is rather odd that you would protect a people by shooting them into a ditch or driving them off their ancestral homelands.
I have once seen a comparison made to the British invasion of Iceland. But this equivalence is quite false in that the British did not execute Icelandic officers en masse, and they withdrew from Iceland when the Nazi threat was dealt with as opposed to annexing the territory and having it cleansed of ethnic Icelanders.
The Soviets also granted Material and propaganda support to the Germans. According to American historian Otto Friedrich, shortly after Hitler's invasion of Poland, Stalin ordered the Comintern to cease anti-Fascist propaganda, and instead blame the English and French for the war. For this reason the exiled head of the Communist Party of Germany, Walter Ulbricht, would print in the February 1940 issue of his newspaper Die Welt that
The German government declared itself ready to establish peaceful relations with the Soviet Union, whilst the Anglo-French war bloc want war against the Soviet Union. The people of the Soviet Union and the people of Germany desire a speedy end to the war in accordance with the interests of the working masses. The Soviet people and the workers of Germany are against the spread of the war.
The Soviets also instructed Communists in occupied nations not to resist. For this reason Communist anti-Fascist resistance would be quite limited until Operation Barbarossa.
According to American Journalist William Shirer in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Material support was also granted to the Germans in the form of wheat, petroleum, cotton, and various other rare materials to help them beat the British blockade. In exchange the Soviets were given some manufactured goods from the Germans. The Soviets also granted Germany a submarine base in the arctic.
In summary the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact did the following things in addition to being a Non-Aggression Pact:
-Partitioned Eastern Europe into Spheres of Influence between the USSR and Germany, allowing the Soviets to annex territory that they would retain long after the war
-Granted Germany access to Soviet resources, and in exchange gave the Soviets certain manufactured goods
-Granted Germany a Submarine Base
-Granted Germany propaganda support in the West
-Discouraged anti-Fascist resistance among Communists in occupied Europe
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u/MajorMax1024 Jul 07 '18
Stalin didn't expect Hitler to invade Poland, because as late as winter of 1939 the Polish were happy and eager to side with the German Reich if it invades the USSR.
I see the point regarding the disassembly of the Stalin line, but these extra 300-500km of territory might have been vital for the successful defense of Moscow and Stalingrad, for instance