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Historic Betrayals that Shocked the World

Khalid Elhassan January 12, 2023 32 min

The True Intentions Behind the Hitler-Stalin Pact

Stalin oversees the signing of the German-Soviet Non Aggression Treaty, commonly known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Euro Maidan

The world was stunned on August 23^rd, 1939, when Nazi Germany and the communist USSR, each avowedly dedicated to the other’s destruction, signed the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty. Commonly known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after the Soviet and German foreign ministers, it was a benevolent neutrality treaty that effectively divided Eastern Europe between Germany and the USSR. It also freed Hitler to kick off World War II a week later with an invasion of Poland. The Nazi dictator had secured himself from the risk of a two front war against Britain and France in the west, and the Soviets in the East.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s division of territory between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR. Wikimedia

Hitler, whose ultimate aim was an empire in the east that would by necessity be seized from the Soviet Union, simply wanted to buy time. He intended the Pact as a temporary measure to free him to deal with Britain and France, before he turned his attention to his real target: the USSR. Stalin, however, was convinced that the Pact was more durable. The Soviet dictator believed that while war with Germany was inevitable, Hitler would not turn on the USSR before he finished the war with Britain. He turned out to be very, very, wrong.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.