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Clash of Ideologies in Europe 1900–2000

The Nazi-Soviet Pact and its consequences

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 1

Overview

The failure of collective security, the secret protocols and the partition of Poland, and the Soviet position between 1939 and 1941.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Why did Molotov's visit to Berlin in November 1940 fail?

Numbers

What did the Soviet Union do in Poland in September 1939?

Numbers

What was the Winter War?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 publicly provide?

    Model answer

    Germany and the Soviet Union undertook not to attack one another and to remain neutral if either went to war with a third power.

  2. 2

    What did the secret protocol of the pact contain?

    Model answer

    A secret protocol divided eastern Europe into spheres, assigning the Soviet Union eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia and Latvia, with Lithuania added shortly afterwards.

  3. 3

    Give three motives for Stalin's decision to deal with Hitler.

    Model answer

    Stalin wished to avoid fighting Germany alone, to gain time to rebuild the Red Army after the purges, and to move the Soviet frontier westwards while Hitler turned against Britain and France.

  4. 4

    Why was the pact a shock to communists abroad?

    Model answer

    Communist parties had spent four years denouncing fascism under the Popular Front and were suddenly required to call the war an imperialist quarrel of no concern to workers.

  5. 5

    What did the Soviet Union do in Poland in September 1939?

    Model answer

    Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland on 17 September 1939, and the territory was absorbed into the Ukrainian and Belorussian republics.

  6. 6

    What was the Winter War?

    Model answer

    The Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939 after Finland refused to cede territory near Leningrad, and only after heavy losses obtained the Karelian Isthmus at the peace of March 1940.

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