ABSTRACT
In August 1939 Russia signed a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany to divide up Eastern Europe, protect Germany’s rear from a second front while it attacked Poland, France, and the Low Countries and give it a breathing space from World War II for which it was not prepared. From 1922 to 1933, as the outcasts of Europe after the 1919 Versailles Treaty, Germany and Russia maintained good political, diplomatic, economic, and military relations. German military bases were closed in Russia and Germany cancelled a visit of Soviet officers to Germany. In the 1936-1938 Moscow Show Trials the enemies of the state were often aligned with Nazi Germany with the fascists trying to destroy the Soviet Union. With growing German power and ideology threatening the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union continued in 1938 to work for collective security against the aggressors.
