Welcome to Russian History We Told.

Episode 329, the Molotov Ribbentrop Act.

Last time, we covered the expansion of Russia under Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great.

Today, we fast forward to the year 1939 when Nazi Germany and its avowed enemy, Soviet Union,

signed a non-aggression treaty officially known as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany

and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or more commonly referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop

Act.

My primary sources for this episode include Stalin, the Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Seabag Montefiore,

on Stalin's team, the years of living dangerously in Soviet politics by Sheila Fitzpatrick,

and Khrushchev remembers Nikita Khrushchev's autobiography.

Before we get into the agreement that shook the world, we need to step back a few years to

1933 with the ascension of Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany.

It was a period of upheaval worldwide, particularly economically.

In his book, Minkamp, Hitler was vehemently anti-Slavic and believed that Russia was a prosperous nation because of its, not because of its

Slavic inhabitants, but because of the German people who settled there. Hitler believed that,

quote, the organization of a Russian state

formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in Russia, but only a wonderful

example of the state forming efficacy of the German element in an inferior race.

He then laid out his plan for Leibnizharm, or Living Space,

which involved annexing lands to the east,

particularly Russia and its satellite countries.

Additionally, Hitler despised the Soviet Union and communism,

...