Was it possible to avoid World War II? Treaty of Friendship and the border between the USSR and Germany (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty). Stalin and Hitler

Although there is no subjunctive mood in history, until now both researchers and ordinary people ask themselves whether it was possible to avoid the Second World War. To answer this question, it is necessary to look at the causes of the largest armed conflict in human history.

The pacification of the aggressor

In 1933, Nazis led by Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. The radicals advocated revising the outcome of the First World War, after which their country was deprived of a significant part of its territory and was left without an army. Simultaneously with Hitler, a similar totalitarian state was built in Italy by Benito Mussolini.

On the eve of World War II, the Führer began the first steps towards annexing the territories of neighboring states. On the one hand, he sought to join fraternal Austria, and on the other - to take away from Czechoslovakia Sudetenland, most of whose population consisted of ethnic Germans.

Western leaders gazed at Hitler's aggressive rhetoric. But was it possible to avoid the Second World War? Today it is believed that its beginning was prompted by the "policy of pacification of the aggressor", which was conducted in Paris and London. Both Great Britain and France (as the victorious countries in the First World War and the main guarantors of the Treaty of Versailles) could press the Fuehrer until he managed to create a powerful army, but did not do so. Why did it happen so? One of the most important reasons for connivance with Hitler was the fear of the Western capitalist countries over communism and the USSR.

Dislike of democracies towards Stalin

Since that year, when the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, Europe became the goal of their "world revolution". The civil war never developed into a triumphant march of the proletariat to the Old World (it was drowned in Poland). Nevertheless, all the 20's and 30's. Soviet power invested heavily in propaganda of leftist ideas abroad. To help the world revolution, a new international was created.

For all of the above reasons, Western Europe treated the USSR as a direct threat to its existence. Even the official diplomatic relations with the Bolsheviks, the rich capitalist countries began to be established only in the 1930s. The emergence of the Nazi threat could theoretically lead to the rapprochement of two irreconcilable systems, but this never happened.

After Lenin's death, power in the USSR gradually concentrated in the hands of Stalin. It was he who determined all foreign policy and the country, although in the Soviet Union there was no formal post of head of state. In the second half of the 1930s. Stalin initiated massive repression. Everything fell under them: from the old Bolsheviks to the army and ordinary people. The "Great Terror" further alienated Western leaders from Moscow. Was it possible to avoid World War II? Even if so, it is not in the case when European politicians preferred the alliance with Stalin to the pacification of Hitler.

Munich agreement

The highest point of the policy of flirting with the Fuhrer, Western diplomats reached September 30, 1938. On this day, the shameful Munich agreement was signed , according to which Sudetenland , which belonged to Czechoslovakia, was transferred to Germany. It was signed by Hitler, Mussolini, British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier.

Czechoslovakia was forced to agree with the new order of things in an ultimatum form. The USSR, which participated in the pact of mutual assistance with this country and France, generally ignored. Stalin with his opinion was on the sidelines of international politics. Much later, after World War II, Europe reluctantly recalled the Munich agreement, which a year later led to the beginning of a destructive armed conflict.

For Stalin, the decision on Czechoslovakia without his participation became a personal humiliation. The Munich events strengthened the fears of the leader of the peoples about the conspiracy of fascists and democracies, the result of which could be the turn of German aggression to the east. At the same time, Stalin could not react to what had happened from the position of his own strength. In September 1938, the Red Army was reinforced on the western borders of the country, but hardly any European politicians drew attention to this demonstrative gesture. In October, there was a reverse demobilization, and the Soviet government began to look for diplomatic ways out of isolation. In the Kremlin, it was decided to drive a wedge between the Fuhrer and Western democracies.

Period of uncertainty

Before Stalin and Hitler got closer, the Soviet leader made several demarches that condemned France and Britain and, on the contrary, invited Germany to a dialogue. This was the speech at the XVIII Congress of the Party in March 1939. Stalin said that he would not wear chestnuts for Western politicians from the fire and called them provocateurs who tried to quarrel between Berlin and Moscow. Just a few days after this speech, Hitler completely occupied Czechoslovakia. Even the optimists became clear that it was a new big war. Under these conditions, the opinion of Stalin, which was a "third force," proved to be increasingly important.

All spring and summer of 1939 European diplomats tried to agree. Nobody trusted anyone, and backstage agreements could crumble the next day. In this intricacies of negotiations, politicians tried to understand whether it was possible to avoid the Second World War. It turned out that no.

For example, the negotiations between the USSR and France and the United Kingdom did not come from the very beginning. They were led by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov, who linked his own reputation with the success of rallying the anti-Nazi forces with the participation of the Soviet Union. In May 1939 the head of the USSR sent him to resign. It was a demonstrative step. He predetermined the future rapprochement, which went to Stalin and Hitler. Molotov became a foreign commissar, and this, no doubt, was a friendly gesture towards Germany. With the help of personnel castling, Stalin completely concentrated foreign policy in his hands. Through Molotov, it was much easier for him to work than through Litvinov, who rarely visited the Kremlin's office of the leader.

Nonaggression pact

The rendezvous of the Soviet-German rapprochement was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty. It is precisely known that Hitler was the initiator of the signing of this document. Forcing events, he offered Moscow his last argument. The Führer decided that an early invasion of Poland could not do without friendship with the Soviet leader. On August 21, Hitler sent a personal letter to Stalin, in which he reported with an extremely transparent hint of an imminent war and proposed signing a non-aggression pact.

It was about a matter of days. On August 23, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop arrived in Moscow . Stalin and Molotov politely greeted him, after which a pact on the non-aggression of the USSR and Germany was drawn up. Both sides got what they wanted. At the insistence of Stalin, a secret protocol was also prepared. He entered the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.

According to this document, the USSR and Germany divided Eastern Europe among themselves. The zone of Soviet interests included part of Poland (Western Byelorussia and Western Ukraine), the Baltic states, Finland, Bessarabia. Stalin wanted to increase the territories and restore the borders of the former Russian Empire. Hitler needed confidence in the security of his borders during the war with Poland and the rest of Europe. The non-aggression pact of the USSR and Germany satisfied the wishes of the two leaders.

Errors of pragmatists

The future events of the Second World War showed that Nazism is one of the most terrible crimes in the history of mankind. However, in 1939 both Stalin and democratic politicians behaved with Hitler according to flexible approaches. Western diplomats justified the pacification of the Führer with formulations similar to the famous "if only there was no war". Agreements with him were not unacceptable, the whole question was only in their nature. Acting in accordance with pragmatic politics, Stalin in a sense did not differ from those who signed the Munich agreement.

However, there was a difference. Western diplomats only pushed the blow from their own countries (thereby allowing Hitler to tear apart several small states in turn). Stalin did not stop at this "permissible" milestone. He decided to take part in the division of territories. That is why many countries in the Second World War initially treated the Soviet Union as an ally of Germany.

Stalin unleashed the Fuhrer's hands for a march to the west, believing that France and Great Britain themselves were pushing the aggression of the Third Reich in an easterly direction. But even if the Soviet leader acted on the basis of the interests of the USSR, it was he who still gave Hitler the last trump card for the outbreak of World War II. Consequently (taking also into account the Munich agreement), all three sides of the "big game" allowed a multi-year bloody meat grinder to happen. The pact of the USSR and Germany has become a key, but not the only step towards a terrible tragedy.

The date of the beginning and end of the Second World War (September 1, 1939 and September 1, 1945) - key milestones in the history of the 20th century. Hardly anyone on the eve of the armed confrontation assumed that the struggle would turn into such a huge number of victims and destruction. Similarly, in their time, the diplomats who allowed the First World War could reason.

Consequences and legacy of the Covenant

Speaking about the motives of Stalin's actions in his relations with Hitler, one can not fail to mention the Japanese factor. Armed clashes with the eastern neighbor of the USSR began in the spring of 1939. At first, the events in Mongolia were unsuccessful for the Red Army. But in the summer the situation began to change. In August, when the Soviet-German agreement was signed in Moscow, the Kremlin's positions in the dialogue with Berlin were significantly strengthened.

The conclusion of the pact turned out to be a diplomatic defeat for Japan. Now she could not count on the help of her German ally in the fight against the USSR. The current relationship affected the whole course of what will soon be called the "Second World War". The reasons, stages, results of this conflict can not be considered without taking into account Japanese events. On the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Tokyo, they seriously argued about who to attack: the USSR or the US. The choice was made in favor of the American scenario, which saved the Soviet Union from the war on two fronts.

For Stalin, the signing of the non-aggression pact was a tactical victory. After concluding the treaty, he postponed the clash with the largest potential enemy and returned part of the lost during the collapse of the Russian Empire. The idea of "historical justice", connected with the annexation of once breakaway regions, met with understanding and sympathy among many Soviet citizens and even partly in the West. Before the Soviet leader appeared the prospect of balancing between Germany and the warring powers of the Old World.

The secret protocol on the division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, of course, cast a shadow on the reputation of the USSR. However, when there was a question about the possibility of war with Germany, Stalin did not worry about it. On the other hand, the following owners of the Kremlin remained an unpleasant inheritance. For several decades the Soviet authorities refused to recognize the existence of a secret protocol. All the copies that appeared in the Western press were called fakes and provocations. The historical truth was restored only in the era of perestroika, when the Soviet Union finally admitted the unpleasant details about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Section of Poland

After signing a treaty of non-aggression with the Soviet Union, Hitler could proceed to direct combat operations in Europe. The events of the Second World War began on September 1, 1939 , when the Third Reich attacked Poland. Its allies France and Britain opposed Germany, but in fact they did not hurry to enter a bloody conflict.

Stalin also hesitated. The section of Poland on paper has already taken place. But the entry of Soviet troops into this country began only on September 17, when it was already clear how the German aggression would end. Stalin did not want to look like the second interventionist. Therefore, the official position of the USSR proceeded from the fact that the Red Army regained the territories of Western Byelorussia and Western Ukraine, selected by Poland in 1921.

The real state of affairs differed from propaganda. The USSR spoke on behalf of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples, but the inclusion of new territories in the Union was not like the reunification of divided fraternal peoples. Occupied by the Red Army region survived rapid Sovietization, accompanied by coercion and repression. By bringing these territories to socialist standards, the Kremlin destroyed the centers of dissent, liquidated the capitalist system and organized mass cleansing.

New contract

When Poland was under full control of the Red Army and Wehrmacht, a new treaty on friendship and the border between the USSR and Germany was adopted. The official signing ceremony took place on September 28, 1939.

The first protocol regulated the exchange of German and Soviet citizens who lived in different parts of the divided Polish territory. Two other secret agreements adjusted the spheres of interests of states defined by the August Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Treaty of Friendship and the Border between the USSR and Germany was its logical continuation. In summer the Soviet zone of interests in the Baltic included Estonia and Latvia. Lithuania was also joined to it. This country became a "compensation" for Lublin and part of the Warsaw voivodship, which occupied the German troops (although these territories were to withdraw to the USSR).

After some time, the treaty on friendship and the border had an addition. It was signed in January 1941. The annex stipulated a Soviet-German border alongside the Baltic Sea, as well as the procedure for the resettlement of Germans from the Baltic Soviet republics to their native Germany. The supplement included provisions for resolving issues related to property disputes. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Second World War continued. The main confrontation unfolded between Germany and France (the Third Reich unexpectedly quickly defeated the Third Republic).

The quarrel between two dictators

The relations between Stalin and Hitler developed according to the political situation that prevailed in Europe on the eve and in the first two years of the Second World War. In his Kremlin, the Soviet leader did not deny the possibility of an armed conflict with Germany. However, he proceeded from the premise that the war could be postponed for at least another few years or even avoided it altogether. Hitler also adopted a general plan for an attack on the USSR already in the second half of 1940.

The Soviet Union by that time had completed the annexation of the regions bordering on Germany's zone of influence. After the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, the turn of the Baltic countries came. Independent Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania appeared after the collapse of the Russian Empire. These states possessed small armed forces and could not seriously oppose the Red Army, as a result of which there was no open organized resistance to annexation. The power in the Baltic countries as a result of behind-the-scenes negotiations of local authorities with Molotov turned out to be transferred to the communist parties. Those, in turn, asked Moscow to join the Soviet Union.

In the summer of 1940, Romania bloodlessly gave the USSR to Moldova. Monarch Karol II did not shed blood and agreed to Stalin's ultimatum. However, even before this success, a terrible failure hit the Kremlin. Under the agreement with Germany Finland also entered the zone of interests of the USSR. This country refused to accept Stalin's ultimatum. In November 1939, the Winter War began (it lasted three and a half months). The Red Army suffered huge losses. Finland defended its independence (although it gave some border areas of Karelia).

The fiasco of Stalin further convinced Hitler of the Soviet Union's inability to give the Wehrmacht serious resistance. A few months after the end of the Winter War, the Barbarossa Plan was adopted in Berlin. By this time, Germany had occupied all the resisting continental Europe. Having achieved what he wanted in the west, Hitler set his sights on the east. Before the attack on the Soviet Union, he occupied the Balkans and made his allies Romania and Bulgaria - the countries that were part of the sphere of influence of the USSR. Step by step the war with Germany was approaching, but Stalin refused to believe in its early start. He did not change himself even after Hitler ignored his reminders of new diplomatic negotiations and reports of his own intelligence about the accumulation of armed forces on the border. The result of this stubbornness was the great losses and large-scale retreat of the Red Army in the first months of the Great Patriotic War, which began on June 22, 1941.