On August 23, 1939, in Moscow, the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact between the two countries, which immortalized their names
The ink barely had time to dry when, 8 days later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Second World War began. And a week and two days later, on September 17, units of the Red Army entered the eastern regions of Poland - in strict accordance with the secret protocol to the treaty. The controversy surrounding this document began immediately after the war and has not subsided to this day. Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKY, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, expresses his opinion.
- The most important trick used by history falsifiers is related to primary sources. In the so-called pact, they arbitrarily combine a real document - the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 31, 1939 - and a copy of the so-called "secret protocol" found in German archives. What are these documents?
The obligations of the parties in the agreement were briefly as follows: refrain from aggressive actions towards each other; in the event of an attack on one of the parties of a third power, not to support it; not participate in blocks directed against one of the parties; resolve disputes and conflicts among themselves peacefully. Not the slightest sign of aggressiveness, full compliance with international standards!
What is the "secret protocol", which allegedly refers to the delimitation of spheres of influence between the USSR and Germany? This is a typewritten page that is not legally part of a larger contract. Its originals have not been found, they are either lost, or simply never existed. From the text of the "protocol" it is completely unclear in whose sphere of interests Lithuania is included, and in whose - Latvia, Estonia and Finland *. There is also no hint of a "conspiracy to attack Poland and its division" in the text **. Under no diplomatic laws can the "secret protocol" be recognized as an official document, even if the original is found!
But God bless them, with pieces of paper - their effect ceased on June 22, 1941. Moreover: World War II could have been stopped as early as 1939, if not for the maniacal desire of the future allies to direct the military power of Germany that they had nurtured against the USSR.
At the same time, all constructive negotiations with the USSR deliberately failed. The dragging out of time reached the point that the British preferred to get to Moscow not by plane, but by a slow-moving steamer. Note: this happened a month before the meeting of Molotov and Ribbentrop in Moscow! A typical phrase of British Prime Minister Chamberlain: "I would rather resign than enter into an alliance with the Soviet Union." What was left for Stalin to do? A non-aggression pact with Germany was the only way to protect the country. The pact made it possible to move the borders of the USSR 150-250 km to the west. The blow that the Germans inflicted in 1941 was amortized by the territories of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Western Ukraine and Belarus. If Hitler had not spent 10 days on these territories, he could have taken Moscow, and Stalingrad, and Leningrad.
Expert opinions
Rudolf Pikhoya, in 1992 chief state archivist:
- The authenticity of the treaty and secret protocols to it is not subject to any doubt. From the very moment of signing, Soviet copies of the documents were kept in the secretariat of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov. Later, in the 70s, they were transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the archives of the Politburo. There, the agreement and several secret annexes to it did not lie idle. From time to time, the first persons asked them in connection with the fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as well as the annexes to it, were, despite all their odiousness, valid documents of international politics. The fact that the pact in some parts is still valid is evidenced, for example, by the fact that Vilnius is a part of the Republic of Lithuania *. The legend that the secret protocols are forgery arose relatively late - in the early 90s, when we began to discuss the legality of the entry of the Baltic republics into the USSR. President Gorbachev, for example, concealed the existence of secret protocols, although he absolutely knew about their existence and even repeatedly held them in his hands. But in the fall of 1992, already under Yeltsin, it was not difficult to get them in the archive. I managed to do this in literally 15 minutes. In my hands were envelopes with the text of the treaty, secret attachments and maps of the division of territories. All documents have been published long ago, it is strange that someone does not know about it yet.
* Vilnius and Vilna region at the beginning of the war belonged to Poland, were occupied by the Red Army and later transferred to Lithuania in agreement with Germany.
Roy Medvedev, historian:
- If we ignore other moral considerations and discuss one expediency, then the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact brought the USSR more benefit than harm. The war in Europe would have started anyway - nothing could stop Hitler. Everyone understood this: the British and French tried to direct his aggression to the east, Stalin to the west. A cynical game with very high stakes was going on between the USSR and Western democracies. At the first stage, thanks to the pact, the USSR defeated - after Poland, Hitler turned west. The main thing that the USSR received from this was time. In 1939, a huge "purge" in the higher officer corps had just ended in the country, during which almost the entire command staff of the Red Army was repressed. Combats then easily became divisional commanders, but, as the Soviet-Finnish war showed, they did not fight better because of this. A delay of 2 years made it possible to somehow, albeit not completely, solve the problem of controllability in the Red Army.
