2007-09-26 22:02:07 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I confess that this is two questions, as much as it is one.
2007-09-26 22:25:07 · update #1
He was despised at the time by all world leaders, who were afraid that the Bolshevik revolution would spread worldwide and end capitalism as it was then known.
On the other end of the political spectrum was fascism or nazism, which also looked dominate the world scene. In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler made it clear that the Aryan race (Germans) required Lebanstraum (living space) and they should take it from the sub human Slavs to the east. He feared a 2 front war and needed to buy time and test the military prowess of the Soviets, hence the pact with Stalin. 9/1/39 both parties attack Poland. The Soviets stumble badly and are routed in several pitched battles with Polish cavalry. Yes, calvalry, The Nazis come in from the rear and rescue the Soviet army, convincing Stalin that there can be peaceful co-existence. However, Stalin does listen to his advisors, who insist on a full scale weapons development program.
When The Germans finally attacked, it took Stalin a full 72 hours before he actually reacted because he was in such a state of total disbelief!
2007-09-27 00:14:23 · answer #1 · answered by liorio1 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I guess the USSR wasn't much of an issue before WW2; since Stalin ruled the "communist kingdom" before and during WW2 and a little wile after it, he is I believe one of the more important communist leaders...
Hitler - Stalin non - aggression pact was a huge surprise for western allies...It gave Hitler time and sources to prepare for the conflict and it gave Stalin time ( and source ) to do something about Russian hopelessly outdated military equipment and infrastructure...We could say it suited both; Germans and Russians at the time...
However in June of 1941 Hitler made a foolish decision; while already involved in conflict with France and Great Britain, he attacked the USSR and that was the beginning of his end and the end of the Nazi Germany. He largely underestimated Russian ability to increase war production and above all, he underestimated their amount of human sources capable of fighting. Although Nazis performed some of the worst genocide crimes over peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other former soviet republics, soviet people fought back the Nazis with outstanding courage and as a consequence their controversial leader Stalin became one of the the most important figures on the stage of WW2...
2007-09-26 23:19:00 · answer #2 · answered by javornik1270 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
He signed it because they agreed to not fight each other but to sack Poland and split it between them. Hitler balked on the deal and Stalin joined us. Until the fall of the USSR, this was a secret. You see, Germany was accuse of taking all the Officers of the Polish Army into the Forest and executing them and burring them in mass graves. Well, after the war the Red Army dug them up and used it as evidence against many German Leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. As it turns out the Russians are the one who did this to the Polish Officers while the Germans did it to the non commissioned officers as a insurance that they would both keep their word.
Hitler didn't keep his word he kept all of Poland. He was taken seriously as a leader at that time Russia was still a pretty big place and had been friends of the west until Lenin and Stalin came to power.
2007-10-03 20:16:24 · answer #3 · answered by spider 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
To buy his country more time.
Since the Revolution, some would say since the Crimean War, the Russians had been playing catch up with other European powers. Some of Stalin's most spectacular failures caem about as he was attempting to industrialize Russia. Even the short respite of the non-aggression pact, allowed the soviets to increase war material production, while moving industry to the Urals and beyond.
Stalin always believed the "Capitalist West" would come for the Communists and you have to at least credit him for being right.
2007-09-26 22:30:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
He was taken extremely seriously in fact Churchill complained that Roosevelt gave in to him far too much..
He signed the non aggresion pact with Hitler because he needed military support in case of attack.
His armed forces were in a weak state after his purges of the officers in the 1930s.
He had previously approached Britain and France for a pact but they had rejected him.
Hitler was the second choice.
2007-09-27 05:38:30 · answer #5 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Comrade Koba was very smart politician!
2007-10-04 07:49:27 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋