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

391 Pages·2014·6.27 MB·English

by  Roger Moorhouse

Copyright © 2014 by Roger Moorhouse Published by Basic Books,
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ISBN: 978-0-465-05492-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother and the fond memory of my father
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Chronology
List of Maps
Introduction
PROLOGUE A Meeting on the Boundary of Peace
CHAPTER 1 The Devil’s Potion
CHAPTER 2 Bonded in Blood
CHAPTER 3 Sharing the Spoils
CHAPTER 4 Contortions
CHAPTER 5 A Rough, Uncertain Wooing
CHAPTER 6 Oiling the Wheels of War
CHAPTER 7 Comrade “Stonearse” in the Lair of the Fascist Beast
CHAPTER 8 Riding the Nazi Tiger
CHAPTER 9 No Honor Among Thieves
EPILOGUE Life After Death
APPENDIX Text of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
AUTHOR’S NOTE
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 , 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.
CHRONOLOGY
1939
March
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.
May 3 Stalin replaces Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav
Molotov.
August 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.
September 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.
October 5 Soviet-Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty is signed.
6 Last pockets of Polish resistance are defeated.
10 Soviet Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty is signed.
November 26 Mainila Incident provides Moscow with a casus belli against
Finland.
30 Soviet forces invade Finland.
1940
February
10 First Soviet mass deportation from Poland begins.
11 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement is signed.
March 12 Treaty of Moscow is signed between Finland and the Soviet
Union, bringing the Winter War to an end.
April 3 Katyn massacres begin.
9 German forces invade Norway and Denmark.
13 Second Soviet mass deportation from Poland begins.
May 10 German forces invade France and the Low Countries.
31 Heavy cruiser Lützow arrives in Leningrad.
June 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.
July 14/15 Rigged elections are held in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.