Nazi-Soviet Pact and Appeasement

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Nazi-Soviet Pact and Appeasement

The Nazi-Soviet was a non-aggression pact signed by the foreign

ministers of Germany and Russia on 23 August 1939.

When Germany and Russia reached this promise not to fight each other,

they made a secret pact to invade and divide Polandand give the Baltic

States to Russia.

By signing the Pact, Germany was able to invade Poland from the west

and the Soviet Union gained the eastern half of Poland as well as the

Baltic States as well as gaining time to prepare for war against

Germany.

Why was the signing of the Pact a surprise?

The signing of the pact was a total surprise because everyone knew

that Fascist Germany and the Communist Soviet Union were political

enemies.

In addition Hitler had sworn for years that he was the mortal enemy of

Bolshevism, so it was not surprising that the Pact came as a shock.

During 1939 Stalin had invited Britain to discuss a possible alliance

against Germany to prevent Hitler from carrying out his plans. At

first Britain had refused tal...

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