This week, seventy years ago, the German Reich and the Soviet Union executed what is, variously, known as the MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, and whose formal name was the “Treaty of Non-Aggression Between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”  In addition to the Treaty of Versailles, it was probably the one document which guaranteed that Europe would be plunged into war.  For, it was by this document, that the Third Reich was able to attack Poland without fear from the Soviet Union and a “two-front” war.  Indeed, a secret provision of the Treaty called for the Soviet Union to occupy almost one-half of Poland, and to have a “free hand” in dealing with Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Romania.  
    That Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. could come to an agreement regarding Poland should have come as no surprise to anyone. Not having existed for over a century and a half (except for the short-lived, Napoleonically created Duchy of Warsaw), Poland was recreated by the victorious Allies after World War I. In doing so the Allies sowed the first seed for the next war when they gave Poland a corridor to the Baltic Sea, thereby separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany and making the German port city of Danzig (now the Polish city of Gdansk) a “Free City” under the auspices of The League of Nations, but dominated by Poland. After its recreation, Poland didn’t help itself when it attacked Russia, which was still dealing with defeat, Civil War and the invasion by the Western Powers. As a result of the Polish victory, it advanced its eastern border 150 miles, into what had formerly been a part of the Russian Empire and incorporated 4,500,000 Ukrainians and 1,500,000 Belorussians. Although, the Poles, Ukrainians and Belorussians are all Slavs, the Poles are Catholic and use the Latin alphabet, while the others are Orthodox and use the Cyrillic alphabet. And, historically, neither the Russians nor the Germans have really liked or respected the Poles.
    The portions of the agreement dealing with Poland were nothing new.  They were first proposed on April 15, 1920 by the Soviet Union’s special representative in Berlin, Victor Kopp, when he asked the German Foreign Office if, “...there was any possibility of combining the German and the Red Army for a joint war on Poland.”  During the 1920s and until the Nazi’s rise to power in Germany, the two countries edged closer and closer with the Soviet Union providing Germany with secret factories and bases with which to reconstruct its armed forces, while shipping Germany much needed raw materials.  In exchange, Germany provided the technology and training needed to create a modern, powerful Red Army.
    Several things coalesced to diminish the relationship. One was the ascendency of the Nazi Party in Germany, with its virulent attitude toward Communism and the Soviet Union. Second was the appointment of Maxim Maximovich Litvinov as the Soviet Foreign Minister in 1930.  Litvinov was a firm believer in collective security and he worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Great Britain.  He was able to obtain the recognition of the Soviet State from the United States, and the admission of the USSR into the League of Nations. He was also Jewish.  
    Prior to the Munich Conference, and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union had promised, by Treaty, that if France went to war over Czechoslovakian independence, the Soviet Union would join. However, there were two stumbling blocks to Soviet aid to Czechoslovakia.  One, of course, was that it had no common border with Czechoslovakia, nor with Germany, so that the Red Army would have to march through some country - Poland, Hungary or Romania - none of whom wanted the Red Army within their borders for any length of time.  The other problem was that France never stepped up. Therefore, with Germany re-arming and working in great concert with Italy, the U.S.S.R. made one final attempt to put something together with France and Great Britain. When those efforts failed, Stalin felt that he had no choice but to reach an accommodation with the German Reich.  
    On May 3, 1939, Litvinov was dismissed and Vyacheslav Molotov succeeded him as Soviet Foreign Minister. Stalin directed Molotov to immediately, “...purge the ministry of Jews.” Molotov later recalled, “Thank God for those words!   Jews formed an absolute majority in the leadership and among the Ambassadors. It was not good.” The Germans, correctly, took it as a sign of a change in attitude in the Soviet hierarchy and a change in the direction of Soviet foreign policy. Hitler later remarked that, “Litvinov’s replacement was decisive. It came to me like a cannon shot as a sign of a change in Moscow towards the Western powers.”  Even Litvinov, when later asked about his dismissal said, “Do you really think that I was the right person to sign a Treaty with Hitler?”
    Two weeks after Litvinov’s dismissal, the Soviet ambassador to the Reich told German officials that he wanted to make clear, “...that there were no conflicts in foreign policy between Germany and the Soviet Union, and that, therefore there was no reason for any enmity between the two countries.”  
    On May 20, 1939, the new Soviet Foreign Minister told German officials that the Soviet Union no longer wanted to discuss only “economic matters” with the Reich, but also wanted to establish a “political basis.” German officials saw this as another sign that they could do business with the Soviet Union. In the meantime, the Soviet Union continued to negotiate, through June and July, with France and Great Britain.
    The two countries agreed, on July 26,  to, “...a new arrangement which took account of the vital political interests of both parties.” Two days later, Molotov instructed the Soviet Ambassador, in Berlin, to open political talks. On August 1, the Ambassador told the Germans that there were two conditions to the talks: (1) a new economic treaty; and (2) cessation of anti-Soviet attacks by the German media. The Germans immediately agreed to both conditions. All the while, the Soviets were also negotiating with France and Britain, but those two countries were moving at a more leisurely pace.
    While these machinations were occurring, the Red Army was engaged in an undeclared war, on the other side of the world, with the Empire of Japan, which has come to be known as the Nomonhan War.
    On August 3, German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, told Soviet diplomats that, “...there was no problem between the Baltic and the Black Seas that could not be solved between the two of us,” and that, “...there is one common element in the ideology of Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union - opposition to the capitalist democracies....”  Two days later, German negotiators were told that the terms of the trade agreement must be concluded first, before other areas of the relationship could be discussed. With a target date of August 25 for the invasion of Poland, the pressure mounted for the Germans. But Stalin also wanted to see how the contest with Japan was going to be resolved.
    By August 10, the details of the trade agreement had been resolved, but the Soviets still would not sign. The British and French delegations had traveled, by ship, to the U.S.S.R. and once there, did not have the authority to conclude the agreement the Soviets wanted, especially in regards to Poland. On August 15, Molotov suggested to the German Ambassador the possibility of, “...settling, by negotiation, all outstanding problems of Soviet-German relations,” especially, “...should the German Foreign Minister come here....”  
    On August 19, Hitler cabled Stalin asking that the German Foreign Minister be received by August 23, at the latest, to resolve their differences, because, “Poland has become intolerable.” Later that evening, Stalin responded that von Ribbentrop would be welcomed. Later still, the trade agreement between the two countries was executed by their respective representatives. In the meantime, the Red Army, under rising star, General Georgi Zhukov, was administering a drubbing to the Japanese that they would not soon forget, at the Battle of Khalkin Gol.
    The German Foreign Minister, von Ribbentrop, flew to Moscow, and in the early morning hours of August 24, 1939, a Ten-Year Non-Aggression Pact was signed by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, as a beaming Stalin watched. The Western World was stunned, when it learned of this development. Those that could read, knew that the fate of Poland had just been sealed. Its only hope lay in the promised help from woefully unprepared Great Britain and unenthusiastic France.
    Having learned that the Reich’s Foreign Minister was proceeding to Moscow to sign the Agreement, the French Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, labeled it “a disaster” for his country, and convinced Premier Edouard Daladier to convene the Defense Council, to see if there was some way that France could wiggle out of its commitment to Poland, as it had done with Czechoslovakia. After receiving assurances from General Maurice Gamelin and Admiral Jean François Darlan that French armed forces were ready to meet the challenge, France decided to stand by its promise - more or less.
    Not only would the Western World have been stunned, it would have been horrified, if it had known of the secret protocols to the new treaty. With these secret protocols, Stalin and Hitler intended to reform the map of Eastern Europe to more closely approximate the way it looked at the beginning of World War I. Then, the Russian Empire had included Latvia, Estonia, most of Lithuania, the eastern part of Poland, the province which the Rumanians called Bessarabia, and the Duchy of Finland. As a result of World War I, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland had achieved, and enjoyed, independence. For entering the war on the side of the victorious allies, Bessarabia had been awarded to Rumania. Now, Stalin wanted those territories returned to the Soviet Union. Except that he only wanted a piece of Finland. The new agreement gave the Soviets a free hand to address these “problems.”
    The Soviets did not wait long before moving. Less than three weeks after Germany and Slovakia attacked Poland, the Red Army occupied the eastern part of the country. Although Lithuania had originally been in the German sphere of influence, pursuant to the secret part of the treaty, after the dust settled around Poland, Stalin suggested that the Germans take a larger share of Poland in exchange for Lithuania, to which the Germans quickly agreed. Within a few weeks, the three Baltic countries had agreed to allow their gigantic neighbor to establish military bases in their countries. It was not long after, that they were admitted to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
    While this was occurring, the Soviets were negotiating with Finland to rearrange its boundaries to give Leningrad/St. Petersburg more of a buffer. When the Finns proved obstinate, the Red Army was sent to take what the Soviets wanted. Rumania transferred Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the newly created Moldova, in 1940, which then also joined the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
    Other than the recent independence of the three Baltic countries, the rest of the changes, implemented by Stalin, pursuant to the agreement with Germany, remain in place today.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.