The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact And The Fourth Partition Of Poland
Poland’s unenviable position between the two powerful states of Germany and Russia has led to numerous problems: multiple invasions, partitions and the subsequent loss of independence. While the animosity that has characterized relations between Germany and Russia—the two fought against each other in World War I, and Poland was devastated as when the war was fought on its territory—things can become even worse when the two decide to cooperate. An example of this is the three partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century; Poland met a similar fate in the “fourth partition” at the beginning of World War II.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were natural enemies: The conflicting political and economic ideologies of Fascism and Communism, coupled with the fact that both systems were based on the destruction of the other, meant that eventually the two sides would square off against one another. Yet both sides needed time to build up their armies and economies in order to prepare themselves for war. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was still in the process of industrializing his country through his economic plans. He was also ensuring that the Communist party was firmly in power by “purging” the party of members who might not be trustworthy. In short, the USSR was in no position to fight a major conflict. The same was true in Germany—while Adolf Hitler was gearing up for war, he wanted to wait until at least the early 1940s.
In the meantime, nations such as Poland and the three Baltic countries could try to maintain their independence by playing one country against the other. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania maintained strict policies of neutrality, hoping not to be drawn too closely into the orbit of one or the other. Poland knew that they faced a threat from both sides, but like its neighbors, declined to “join” one side or the other. All four countries signed non-aggression treaties with both Germany and the Soviet Union, but in reality their leaders knew that with two newly resuscitated empires on their borders, both wishing to regain their former lands, life was going to get difficult.
In 1938, Hitler began his quest to build the “Greater German Reich” by annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia. Poland was next on the list. Germany did not, however, want to risk war with the Soviets over the country that lay directly between them. On August 23, 1939, one week before the German attack on Poland, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, met to sign a non-aggression pact between their two countries.
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