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The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, [1] [2] and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact [3] [4] and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, [5] was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with a secret protocol establishing Soviet and German spheres of influence across Eastern Europe. [6]
This is considered to be an important factor in the Soviets' decision to issue the ultimatum. [7] The Soviet invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, since it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence that had been agreed with the Axis. [contradictory] [8] A column of Soviet armored vehicles entering Bessarabia, June 1940
That night, with Germany nervously awaiting a response to Hitler's August 19 telegram, Stalin replied at 9:35 p.m. that the Soviets were willing to sign the pact and that he would receive Ribbentrop on August 23. [131] The Pact was signed sometime in the night between August 23–24. [132]
According to the scholar Marcel H. Van Herpen, the end of the Soviet Union marked the end of the last European empire, and some authors called it the death of Russian colonialism and imperialism. [181] As the Soviet Union began to collapse, social disintegration and political instability fueled a surge in ethnic conflict. [182]
During the summer of 1939, after it had conducted negotiations with a British-French alliance and with Germany regarding potential military and political agreements, [16] the Soviet Union chose Germany, which resulted in an August 19 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement providing for the trade of certain German military and civilian equipment in exchange for Soviet raw materials.
In an effort to demonstrate peaceful intentions toward Germany, on April 13, 1941, the Soviets signed a neutrality pact with Axis power Japan. [184] During that signing ceremony, Stalin embraced the German ambassador and exclaimed "we must remain friends and you must do everything to that end!"
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (Russian pronunciation: [mɐkˈsʲim mɐkˈsʲiməvʲɪtɕ lʲɪˈtvʲinəf]; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet statesman and diplomat who served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs from 1930 to 1939.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [t] (USSR), [u] commonly known as the Soviet Union, [v] was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. . During its existence, it was the largest country by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries, and the third-most populous co