Nazi Germany's economic relations with the Soviet Union dated shortly after Hitler's rise to power. However, they intensified after the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pacts and supplementary secret protocols in 1939 and a subsequent agreement in 1940.
The "great socialist fatherland", based on the agreementssupplied Hitler's partner with critical raw materials thanks to which Nazi Germany could overcome the Allied naval blockade and be able to launch its campaigns in the West and in the Balkans.
Stalin's Soviets supplied the murderous Hitler with oil, magnesium, copper, nickel, chromium, cotton, iron ore, platinum, timber, agricultural products and grain. In the period 1939-41 the Soviet Union handed over to Nazi Germany the following:
– Oil and oil products:941.7 thousand tons
– Cereals:1,611 thousand tons
– Magnesium ore:165 thousand tons
– Phosphates:202 thousand tons
– Chromium:23.4 thousand tons
– Many thousands of tons of other products and ores
Soviet goods were sent to Germany via occupied Poland. At the same time, the Soviets allowed goods destined for Germany to cross their borders with Iran, Afghanistan, and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.
The Soviets also procured for themselves, supposedly, valuable rubber which they sold to the Germans, acting as middlemen. In total, the USSR delivered 14.3 thousand tons of rubber to Germany.
At the same time, the Soviets allowed the Germans to use a naval base west of Murmansk, the famous "Northern Base" . They also allowed the use of the Northern Sea Route for German merchant ships and German raiders, such as the Komet, to avoid British warships.
Germany obtained 70% of its wartime production of magnesium, chromium and platinum from the "great socialist fatherland of the peoples". Also the USSR covered 100% of German imports of rye, barley and oats. Three-quarters of Soviet oil and grain exports went to Hitler's Nazi Germany, as did two-thirds of Soviet cotton exports and 90% of Soviet timber exports.
So it is not an exaggeration to say that the Germans took over Europe and Greece with their Panzers using Soviet fuel, eating Soviet food...