2024-08-23 - 85 years ago Molotov-Ribben­trop Pact (1939)

On August 23, 1939, in Moscow, Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Treaty in the presence of Josef Stalin and German Ambassador Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg. Also known as the "Hitler-Stalin Pact," the treaty guaranteed Soviet neutrality to the German Reich, thus clearing the way for Hitler to wage war against Poland and the Western powers. After the German invasion of Poland, a Border and Friendship Treaty followed on September 28, 1939, with secret additions on the division of Poland and assignment of the Baltic states.