German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact

Overview

The German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact — better known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Nazi–Soviet Pact, or the Hitler–Stalin Pact — was the agreement signed on 23 August 1939 in Moscow by German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, in Joseph Stalin’s presence (Encyclopaedia Britannica). On paper it was a ten-year promise not to attack each other; underneath it was a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence (USHMM). Eight days later Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began (USHMM).

The pact was, as the USHMM puts it, “an agreement of convenience between two bitter enemies” (USHMM). Each side got what it wanted from the cynicism: Hitler could invade Poland without Soviet interference and without a two-front war; Stalin bought time to rebuild a military gutted by the 1937 purges and collected a buffer of territory (Encyclopaedia Britannica). It lasted less than two years — until Hitler tore it up on 22 June 1941 (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Why the two enemies signed

The road to Moscow ran through Munich. The Soviet Union had failed to reach a collective-security agreement with Britain and France against Nazi Germany — most notably at the Munich Conference of September 1938 — and by early 1939 faced the prospect of resisting German expansion in Eastern Europe virtually alone (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The pivot was signaled on 3 May 1939, when Stalin fired Foreign Minister Maksim Litvinov — Jewish, and an advocate of collective security — and replaced him with Molotov, who soon opened negotiations with Ribbentrop (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Stalin’s calculation, as Britannica reconstructs it, mixed strategy with prejudice: keep the Soviet Union at peace with Germany, gain time to rebuild the Red Army officer corps destroyed in the 1937 purges, and — alongside a distrust of the Western democracies — what Britannica calls his “inexplicable personal preference for the Nazis” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Hitler’s was simpler: a nonaggression pact would let his armies “invade Poland virtually unopposed by a major power,” after which Germany could deal with France and Britain in the west without fighting the Soviet Union in the east at the same time (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

What the pact said — and what it hid

Part	Contents
Public pact	No attack on each other, alone or with other powers; no support for any third power attacking the other; consultation on common interests; no joining any group threatening either party; disputes settled by negotiation or arbitration. 10 years, auto-extendable by 5.
Secret protocol (23 Aug 1939)	Poland east of the Narew–Vistula–San line → Soviet sphere; Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland → Soviet sphere; Bessarabia’s separation from Romania broached
Supplementary protocol (28 Sep 1939)	Clarified Lithuanian borders; set the Polish-German border; assigned Bessarabia to the Soviet sphere
Third protocol (10 Jan 1941)	Germany renounced claims to portions of Lithuania in return for a Soviet payment

The Soviet Union denied the secret protocols existed until 1989 — “because they were considered evidence of its involuntary annexation of the Baltic states” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

The pact worked exactly as drawn. Germany attacked Poland on 1 September 1939 “without fear of Soviet intervention”; Britain and France declared war on 3 September, fulfilling a five-month-old promise to protect Poland’s borders; on 17 September the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, and the two invaders’ forces met near Brest-Litovsk two days later (USHMM). “These events mark the beginning of World War II” (USHMM). The partition was formalized on 29 September, with the dividing line moved eastward to the Bug River in Germany’s favor — roughly the frontier that would reappear after the war (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

The USSR then collected its sphere: it attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 and forced it to yield the Isthmus of Karelia in March 1940; the Baltic republics were annexed and organized as Soviet republics in August 1940; and Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia were seized from Romania (Encyclopaedia Britannica; USHMM).

A pact Hitler never meant to keep

Hitler “regarded the German-Soviet non-aggression pact as a tactical and temporary maneuver” and “never intended to uphold the terms of the agreement for ten years”: his long-range plan was always to attack the Soviet Union and establish Lebensraum there (USHMM). In July 1940, a month after France fell, he ordered preparations for war against the USSR; on 18 December 1940 he signed Directive 21 — code-named Operation Barbarossa — the first operational order for the invasion, with German authorities already intending “a war of annihilation” (USHMM). On 22 June 1941 Germany attacked without warning, and the pact became “a dead letter” after less than two years (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Frequently asked questions

What was the secret part of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?

A secret protocol, reached the same day as the public pact (23 August 1939), that “divided the whole of eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence”: eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, and Bessarabia were assigned to the Soviet sphere (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Two further secret protocols (September 1939, January 1941) refined the borders.

Why did Stalin sign a pact with Hitler?

To keep the USSR out of war with Germany while he rebuilt the Red Army after the 1937 purges, to gain a territorial buffer, and — per Britannica — out of distrust of Britain and France plus an “inexplicable personal preference for the Nazis” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

How long did the pact last?

Less than two years: from 23 August 1939 to 22 June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union (USHMM). Hitler had already signed the invasion order (Directive 21) on 18 December 1940 (USHMM).

Did the USSR admit the secret protocol existed?

Not until 1989 — half a century of denial, because the protocols documented the involuntary annexation of the Baltic states (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not adjudicate whether the signing fell on 23 or 24 August 1939; both sources read date it 23 August. It does not state the sum paid under the January 1941 third protocol, which no source read for this profile gives. It does not reconstruct the failed 1939 Anglo-French-Soviet negotiations beyond Britannica’s account of Munich and the Soviet policy search. And it treats the Winter War and the Baltic annexations at the level the sources support — the dedicated profiles for those events would carry fuller accounts.