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Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918
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Historical SummaryOn August 23, 1939, while British and French officers were in Moscow holding military conversations with their Soviet counterparts, Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Viacheslav M. Molotov signed a ten-year Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact. A secret protocol, first made public in 1948, virtually divided Eastern Europe into eventual German and Russian spheres of influence. The negotiation of the pact represented Realpolitik as much for one signatory as for the other. Germany made sure that she would not have to worry about an immediate eastern front if Great Britain and France really came to Warsaw’s aid following a German attack on Poland. The U.S.S.R. gained time to carry forward the military industrialization contemplated under the Third Five-Year Plan. From Germany, moreover, the Soviet Union got a concession which she had been unable to wrest from London and Paris, namely, approval for her expansionist designs against the Baltic States, Poland, and Romania.
World History 249.
Treaty of Non-Aggression Between Germany and the U.S.S.R., August 23, 19396
The Government of the German Reich and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics desirous of strengthening the cause of peace between Germany and the U.S.S.R., and proceeding from the fundamental provisions of the Neutrality Agreement concluded in April 1926 between Germany and the U.S.S.R., have reached the following agreement:
ARTICLE I. Both High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other powers.
ARTICLE II. Should one of the High Contracting Parties become the object of belligerent action by a third power, the other High Contracting Party shall in no manner lend its support to this third power.
ARTICLE III. The Governments of the two High Contracting Parties shall in the future maintain continual contact with one another for the purpose of consultation in order to exchange information on problems affecting their common interests.
ARTICLE IV. Neither of the two High Contracting Parties shall participate in any grouping of powers whatsoever that is directly or indirectly aimed at the other party.
ARTICLE V. Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties over problems of one kind or another, both parties shall settle these disputes or conflicts exclusively through friendly exchange of opinion or, if necessary, through the establishment of arbitration commissions.
ARTICLE VI. The present treaty is concluded for a period of ten years, with the provision that, in so far as one of the High Contracting Parties does not denounce it one year prior to the expiration of this period, the validity of this treaty shall automatically be extended for another five years.
ARTICLE VII. The present treaty shall be ratified within the shortest possible time. The ratifications shall be exchanged in Berlin. The agreement shall enter into force as soon as it is signed.
Done in duplicate, in the German and Russian languages.
Moscow, August 23, 1939.
SECRET ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL
On the occasion of the signature of the Nonaggression Pact between the German Reich and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics [sic] the undersigned plenipotentiaries of each of the two parties discussed in strictly confidential conversations the question of the boundary of their respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. These conversations led to the following conclusions:
1. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R. In this connection the interest of Lithuania in the Vilna area is recognized by each party.
2. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R. shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narew, Vistula, and San.
The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish state and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments.
In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement.
3. With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinterestedness in these areas.
4. This protocol shall be treated by both parties as strictly secret.
Moscow, August 23, 1939.
6 United States, Department of State (Publication No. 3023), Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939–1941. Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1948, pp. 76–78. Ribbentrop wrote a special memorandum to Hitler on the formulation of paragraph 3 of the secret protocol. The memorandum may be found in ibid., pp. 157–158. See also below, Document No. 252, for later revision of the secret protocol.
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Chicago: "Treaty of Non-Aggression Between Germany and the U.S.S.R., August 23, 1939," Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan (Chicage: Lippincott, 1951), 850–853. Original Sources, accessed November 23, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CQZIK1DX8YHIXE8.
MLA: . "Treaty of Non-Aggression Between Germany and the U.S.S.R., August 23, 1939." Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, edited by Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan, Chicage, Lippincott, 1951, pp. 850–853. Original Sources. 23 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CQZIK1DX8YHIXE8.
Harvard: , 'Treaty of Non-Aggression Between Germany and the U.S.S.R., August 23, 1939' in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918. cited in 1951, Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. , Lippincott, Chicage, pp.850–853. Original Sources, retrieved 23 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CQZIK1DX8YHIXE8.
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