Roger Moorhouse - The Devils' Alliance - Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941

It is always a challenge to make sense of the shifting sands of eastern Europe’s place names. For this book, in which frontiers move and rival languages intrude, I have employed a policy of using names appropriate to the period under scrutiny.

So, to take the example of what is today the Ukrainian city of L’viv: In discussing September 1939, when it was the Polish city of Lwów, I use the Polish name. However, after the city passed to Soviet control and its name was Russified to Львов, I use the transliterated form, L’vov. Incidentally, the modern Ukrainian version, L’viv, only came into official use with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Where there exists an accepted Anglicized form—such as Warsaw, Brest, or Moscow—then I have naturally used it throughout.

10 Stalin delivers speech to the 18th Communist Party Congress.

15 German forces occupy Bohemia and Moravia.

31 Britain extends a guarantee to both Poland and Romania.

3 Stalin replaces Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov.

12 Anglo-French-Soviet talks begin in Moscow.

19 German-Soviet Credit Agreement is signed in Berlin.

21 Soviet talks with the British and French are suspended.

23 German-Soviet Treaty of Non-aggression, or “Nazi-Soviet Pact,” is signed in Moscow.

25 Anglo-Polish Military Alliance is signed in London.

31 Soviet forces defeat the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol.

1 German forces invade Poland.

3 Britain and France declare war on Germany.

15 Soviet forces agree to a cease-fire with the Japanese in Manchuria.

17 Soviet forces invade Poland.

22 German and Soviet forces stage a joint parade at Brest-Litovsk.

28 German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty is signed in Moscow.

Soviet-Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty is signed in Moscow.

5 Soviet-Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty is signed.

6 Last pockets of Polish resistance are defeated.

10 Soviet Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty is signed.

26 Mainila Incident provides Moscow with a casus belli against Finland.

30 Soviet forces invade Finland.

10 First Soviet mass deportation from Poland begins.

11 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement is signed.

12 Treaty of Moscow is signed between Finland and the Soviet Union, bringing the Winter War to an end.

3 Katyn massacres begin.

9 German forces invade Norway and Denmark.

13 Second Soviet mass deportation from Poland begins.

10 German forces invade France and the Low Countries.

31 Heavy cruiser Lützow arrives in Leningrad.

15 Soviet forces invade Lithuania.

16 Soviet forces invade Estonia and Latvia.

22 Armistice is signed between Germany and France.

28 Romania heeds a Soviet ultimatum and withdraws from the provinces of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.

30 Third Soviet mass deportation from Poland begins.

Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina is complete.

14/15 Rigged elections are held in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

2 Moldavia (Bessarabia) becomes a republic of the Soviet Union.

3 Lithuania becomes a republic of the Soviet Union.

5 Latvia becomes a republic of the Soviet Union.

6 Estonia becomes a republic of the Soviet Union.

27 Tripartite Pact is signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan, establishing the Axis powers.

12 Molotov arrives in Berlin for talks with Hitler.

20 Hungary joins the Axis.

23 Romania joins the Axis.

1 German-Soviet Tariff and Toll Treaty is signed.

17 Danubian Commission conference breaks up in acrimony.

18 Hitler gives the order for Operation Barbarossa, the attack on the Soviet Union.

23 Red Army High Command Conference opens in Moscow.

10 German-Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement is signed in Moscow.

1 Bulgaria joins the Axis.

25 Yugoslavia joins the Axis.

27 Coup d’état is staged in Yugoslavia.

6 Soviet-Yugoslav Treaty of Friendship and Non-aggression is signed.

German forces invade Yugoslavia.

13 Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed in Moscow.

4 Stalin is appointed chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars.

10 Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland.

12 Mass Soviet deportation begins in Bessarabia.

14 Mass Soviet deportation begins in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and occupied eastern Poland.

22 Germany attacks the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).

12 Anglo-Soviet Agreement is signed in Moscow.

30 Sikorski-Maisky Agreement is signed in London, restoring Polish-Soviet relations.

1. Poland Divided

2. The Polish Eastern Provinces Under Soviet Occupation

3. Finland in 1940

4. The Baltic States 1939–1941

5. The Dismembering of Greater Romania: 1940

6. “Let’s Divide the Whole World”

ON AUGUST 23, 1939, STALIN DRANK TO HITLER’S HEALTH. Although the two dictators would never meet, the agreement that they forged that day would change the world. Known as the “Nazi-Soviet Pact,” the “Hitler-Stalin Pact,” or the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact,” it was in force for less than two years—ending with Hitler’s attack on Stalin’s Soviet Union on June 22, 1941—but it was nonetheless one of the salient events of World War II.