10. Fear of Provoking the Nazis Led Stalin to Ignore Evidence of Impending German Attack
On August 23rd, 1939, the world was stunned when Nazi Germany and the communist USSR, avowed enemies, signed the German-Soviet Non Aggression Pact, commonly known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It was a benevolent neutrality treaty that divided Eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. It freed Hitler to turn his attention against Britain and France in the west, without having to worry about a war with the USSR in the east. A week later, the Germans launched WWII by invading Poland.
Hitler’s ultimate ambition was to create a German empire in the east, at Soviet expense. So all along, he intended the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact merely as a temporary measure to free him to deal with the Western Allies, before turning on the USSR. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, however, thought that the Pact was more solid than it actually was. Although Stalin realized that war with Germany was inevitable, he reasoned that Hitler would first have to settle the war against Britain, before turning against the Soviet Union.
