By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
In 1939, amid the atmosphere of political tension that triggered the succession of conflicts of the World War II , a non-aggression agreement was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, the German-Soviet Pact or Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact .
The aforementioned pact was signed on August 23, 1939 by the representatives of the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, J. Von Ribbentrop and V. Molotov, respectively. This pact established that, if Germany came into conflict with England or France due to an eventual German onslaught against Poland, the USSR, in turn, would stay away, without manifesting itself militarily.
However, there was a protocol attached to the document, which remained secret, whose content indicated the full interest of the Soviet Union in Polish territory and in other areas of influence that the policy of “ living space” of Nazi Germany could arouse. Thus, after the incursion of the Germans into Polish territory, both the members of the German Gestapo and SS and the members of the NKVD (Soviet secret police) began to select, initially, prisoners in the conquered territories and to exchange them mutually according to their needs. criteria.
In the Eastern European region, territorial divisions between the USSR and Germany followed. The Soviets annexed all their conquered territories directly to the USSR, such as Finnish Karelia, the three Baltic states, Eastern Poland and Bukovina. The Germans annexed Western Poland, Alsace-Lorraine and Slovenia.
In 1941, when the war had already taken on proportions beyond the European continent, the Nazis became interested in the economic reserves of the USSR. In addition, the intensification of the numerous political and ideological differences between Hitler and Stalin (especially with regard to the interest in the expansion of the Third Reich also towards Slavic lands) resulted in the rupture of the pact. The USSR joined the allies and, years later, attacked the Reich.
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