Stalin and the USSR deeply distrusted Nazi Germany, suspecting that Hitler ultimately intended to invade and annex Russia. Similarly, Britain distrusted Stalin due a fear of communism. Although talks took place between Britain and the Soviet Union in early August 1939 regarding a possible alliance against Hitler, they were never taken seriously by the British who sent their representative by a slow boat and did not grant him authority to make any decisions or sign any agreements on behalf of the government.
Frustrated by Britain’s reluctance to agree to a deal, Stalin’s government received Ribbentrop later that month. He proposed the Nazi-Soviet agreement which, in the face of continued British reluctance to form an alliance, was accepted.
Officially called the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, on the surface the pact guaranteed that neither side would fight against the other in war. However a ‘secret protocol’ also outlined how Eastern Europe would be divided between the two countries in the future. This ensured that the USSR would not intervene in the Nazi invasion of Poland that began just nine days later.
The Soviet government almost certainly knew that Hitler would break the non-aggression pact at some point by invading Russia, but the pact delayed that and gave time to prepare. Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941. All the territory gained by the USSR under terms of the ‘secret protocol’ was lost in just a matter of weeks.
