55: The Final Countdown
Germany and Russia stunned the world on August 24, 1939, by announcing that they had agreed to a non-aggression pact. The pact was seen as the death warrant for any prospect of alliance with Britain and France. The British and French had been seeking a mutual assistance treaty for more than four months. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the "Treaty of Non-aggression between the Third German Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and signed in Moscow in the early hours of August 24, 1939 (but dated August 23). It was a Non-Aggression Pact between the two countries and pledged neutrality by either party if the other were attacked by a third party. Each signatory promised not to join any grouping of powers that was "directly or indirectly aimed at the other party." The Soviet Union had been unable to reach a ...