The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was signed on 23 August 1939. This brief protocol denies the full russian thesis so precisely built on the causes of the outbreak and perpetrators of planet War II.
Under the Pact, the border of the russian Union and the Reich was to run on the lines of the Narwi, Vistula and Sanu rivers. The pact facilitated Hitler's attack on Poland. He secured the east Front. Stalin gained time to defend himself in a possible war against the Reich. The signed pact is called the 4th partition of Poland. It was under its power that the attack on Poland was carried out in September 1939.
Both parties undertook to “restrain from all acts of violence, aggressive action and common attacks”. The paper was besides accompanied by a secret additional protocol, which includes the distribution of gross in Europe in the coming large steps of the military conflict. The second point of this paper was:
"In the case of territorial and political changes in areas belonging to the Polish state, the sphere of influence of Germany and the USSR will be divided about by the line of Narwi, Vistula and Sanu rivers. The question of whether it is desirable in the interests of both parties to keep an independent Polish state and what its limits are to be can be yet resolved as a consequence of further political events. In any case, both governments will solve this issue through a friendly agreement."
The division of the loot was highly beneficial to the russian Union. For his "neutrality" he received more than half of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Besarabia.
It is impossible to describe the consternation that prevailed in Europe. Both Hitler’s allies and his eternal enemies were amazed. For Japan and Italy, signing an alliance with the USSR was a violation of the 1936 anti-cominternist pact and the steel pact of May 1939, which assumed that Hitler would inform his allies about crucial political moves. The English and French, on the another hand, accused the USSR of duality, not remembering the secret talks they had with Hitler in July 1939.
The signing of the pact affected the decision to start planet War II. With the agreement, Hitler could start a war without fear of accusations that he was the only aggressor in Europe.
On 23 August, on the anniversary of the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the European Day of Memory for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism is celebrated at the initiative of the European Parliament. This day is intended to make Europeans aware of what both totalitarianisms were and remind residents of Western Europe of the stigma of Stalinism on east European countries.
for: polskieradio.pl
