Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

23 August 1939 · Moscow

Europe & world wars

Background

Named after the foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop. A secret protocol split Poland between them and gave the USSR a free hand in the Baltic states, Finland and Bessarabia. Germany broke the pact by invading the USSR in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).

Signed by

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union

Why it matters

A non-aggression pact with a secret plan to divide Eastern Europe; a week later Germany invaded Poland, starting the Second World War.