All day the Internet is making noise that the historical and documentary department of the Russian Foreign Ministry has provided scans of the Soviet original of the Non-Aggression Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany of August 23, 1939 and a secret additional protocol to it.
Immediately a bunch of articles and posts with such a message as "ah-ah-ah, we told you!", "Ah-ah-ah, here, but you did not believe!".
But let me …
… About this document, as far as I remember, they talked about at school. This document was first published in 1948. in the collection of the US State Department "Nazi-Soviet Relations. 1939-1941 ". The texts of these documents were published in the 90s with reference to the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then the German scans began to walk on the network. It was not some mythical, secret document that no one saw or read.
So what is the sensation and such a heated discussion of these documents in the form of scans? Someone did not believe that they exist in reality? Someone thought there would be other text or other signatures?
During that period of history, everyone tried to delay the inevitable war and made an agreement with Hitler. England, France, USSR, etc. were negotiated. There was the well-known Munich Agreement of 1938, signed by Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany. There was also the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact" known for the school curriculum.
Yes, there was also a Secret Additional Protocol that delimited the spheres of interests of the contracting parties.
The Soviet-German non-aggression pact was by no means the first treaty containing secret agreements on the division of spheres of influence. Thus, the aforementioned secret Japanese-American agreement of 1905, known as the Katsura-Taft agreement, delimited the interests of Japan and the United States in the Far East (Japan established a protectorate over Korea, while the Philippines remained the US zone of influence). This shows once again that neither the Soviet-German non-aggression pact itself, nor its secret protocol, are unprecedented in the history of international relations. From the point of view of coordinating the geopolitical interests of the parties, the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe between the Soviet Union and Germany was quite a logical step.
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Why did the Soviet Union need this treaty?
Let us remember what Winston Churchill said about this document: “the fact that such an agreement was possible marks the depth of the failure of British and French politics and diplomacy in several years” (W. Churchill. World War II. M.: Voenizdat, 1991. vol. 1. P. 119.).
Why was Churchill so upset? But why - everything did not go according to the plan that England was hatching. England, the USA and France realized that in the near future there would be no war between the USSR and Germany. And they so stubbornly ignored Hitler's violations of the Versailles Treaty, financed the economy of the Third Reich and surrendered to him position after position. This meant that a multi-step geopolitical combination of allies (led by the politicians of foggy Albion) ultimately led to the re-establishment of Germany as their geopolitical rival. Moreover, they actually recreated this rival with their own hands and on their heads.
Doesn't this remind you of anything?
For the Soviet Union, the 1939 non-aggression pact. also had a number of positive aspects:
- The signing of a non-aggression pact made it possible to temporarily avoid a war with Germany and stay away from the war (the very position of non-intervention that Britain and France wanted to take).
- Changing the direction of Japan's expansion. Impressed by the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, Japan began to consider the southern direction as a priority.
- The Non-Aggression Pact delimited the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and made it possible to almost freely return part of the territories that were lost by the Russian Empire after the First World War and the Civil War.
- The trade agreement concluded on August 20 was an undoubted success of the Soviet Union, as it made it possible to purchase the latest technological equipment, paying for it with raw materials.
The Soviet-German non-aggression pact completely canceled out the scenario of the Second World War planned by the Western countries, eventually forcing them to fight against the geopolitical competitor they had recreated in the person of Germany. This agreement was an unconditional victory for Soviet diplomacy.
So tell me all the same, what kind of sensation has occurred in the last days? Didn't anyone know before that how ALL European countries were solving their foreign policy tasks?
Or does someone, as always, expect us to repent of defending our geopolitical interests?
