History Exam Question (Hitler, WW2, Nazi-Soviet Pact content)

[FBS1996]

Hey everyone.

I am struggling with this exam question. I know, coming on here is a bit of a cop out, but I can't find any websites with helpful information. Here's the question:

In August 1939, Hitler made an agreement with Stalin – the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Explain how the Nazi-Soviet Pact led to the outbreak of war.

It is a 4 mark question, so I need either 4 basic points or 2 heavily developed points. I would really appreciate any information or any links that you have for me. Thanks guys

[Relic]

both countries were political adversaries and by allying like that, they were given free reign to invade and partition Poland without fear of going to war with each other.

That's a really really simple answer but it's a frame work. Now do some further research to fill it out

[Jazz Ad]

[Muaguana]

^ Funny as hell.

[FBS1996]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Hitler was just a troll :P

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Classic there Jazz Ad.


FBS1996;

Firstly, there are hundreds, well, probably thousands of websites with this information.
Secondly, check out your local library.


It is not hard to come-by information. Stop asking people on the internet to do your homework for you, being able to do solo study/research is important, more so than you may realise right now.

[Icey101]

as has been said, i think it was over both of them invading and carving up poland

[FBS1996]

Thanks everyone, I am starting to understand it a lot better now.

i got a mohawk:
1) I understand that the information is available, I just had trouble finding it, I guess
2) It's 1:07 AM, I don't think any libraries are open at this time

[i_got_a_mohawk]

1) Learn how to find things, that's more important than the information you are finding (this is true for 90% of such tasks at school and in higher education).

2) Shouldn't have left it til the last minute (plus the lack of location, I assumed you were in the US or further afield)

[::::BASSIST::::]

Hitler thought he could not fight the war on two fronts. Therefore he made a deal with Stalin that he would not go to war with the USSR. One of Hitler's biggest blunders, if not THE biggest blunder, is that Hitler attacked the USSR. MANY German soldiers died in the brutal Russian winter. Ultimately, some say that the Allies are partly responsible for the Cold War, because the Allies did not launch an offensive soon enough and the USSR lost millions of soldiers while they fought off Germany's huge army by themselves. Finally, after two years of delays, the Allies created a second front and Germany started to lose the war. This delay by the Allies caused ALOT of mistrust among the Soviets and put their relationship in jeopardy... leading to the Cold War.

[LilloEsquilo]

I would say the first answer is basically right. Fascism and Communism are basically opposing belief systems - both are totalitarian but that's about all they really have in common. Thus, the Nazis and Soviets were natural adversaries in terms of ideology much like the conservatives (nazis) and liberals (soviets) are in the US. You don't see much cooperation here in the US, and likewise getting an agreement was obviously a difficult thing for Germany and the USSR to do as well.

Now this agreement opened the way for the invasion of Poland, because Hitler then knew that the Soviets were not a threat to attack so once the Polish campaign was over (pretty quickly) he could turn west and deal with France and England. Had the Soviets not essentially agreed to carve up Poland and eastern europe with the Nazis, Hitler may not have felt he could invade Poland.

Honestly the question is bogus though as eventually there would have been war. Hitler had his eyes on eastern expansion ever since he wrote that crazy book of his, where he detailed exactly what he planned to do. It must have seemed a big joke in the late 20s but I guarantee you by 1942 few people found it funny. There would have been a war eventually regardless because Hitler saw the eastern Europeans as less than human and wanted their land and their resources, with them as slave labor for the Nazi reich.

If France had ANY balls, they probably could have moved into Germany, while the Germans were tied up in Poland, and put a quick end to it, but they didn't. They had very little opposing them, but Hitler obviously saw they were gutless when he acted. Or else he's just that crazy and got lucky. Instead they basically sat back, and waited, and by the following June the swastika was flying on the Eiffel tower. Hard to REALLY feel sorry for a government so blind that they failed to build up the military in response to Hitler, and so cowardly they were afraid to use what they had facing only a small number of German reserves.....but that's another subject!

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by ::::BASSIST::::

Ultimately, some say that the Allies are partly responsible for the Cold War, because the Allies did not launch an offensive soon enough and the USSR lost millions of soldiers while they fought off Germany's huge army by themselves. Finally, after two years of delays, the Allies created a second front and Germany started to lose the war. This delay by the Allies caused ALOT of mistrust among the Soviets and put their relationship in jeopardy... leading to the Cold War.

Stalin was betrayed in the summer of 1941 if memory serves correctly, much of Europe had been to war with Germany since 1939. Granted, at that stage there wasn't much in the way of feet on the ground, but the conflict was certainly there.

A great deal of the USSR casualties were lost because of the USSR officers and policy!

Originally Posted by LilloEsquilo

If France had ANY balls, they probably could have moved into Germany, while the Germans were tied up in Poland, and put a quick end to it, but they didn't. They had very little opposing them, but Hitler obviously saw they were gutless when he acted. Or else he's just that crazy and got lucky. Instead they basically sat back, and waited, and by the following June the swastika was flying on the Eiffel tower. Hard to REALLY feel sorry for a government so blind that they failed to build up the military in response to Hitler, and so cowardly they were afraid to use what they had facing only a small number of German reserves.....but that's another subject!

Considering the social and economic goes on (or lack there off with the later). Had France gone into full out war with Germany, the outcome would have been similar, with significantly greater casualties. Fighting a war on your border is something quite different to fighting it in a foreign land.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

On the note of WW2 and whatnot.

Saw a program a few weeks back, was pretty interesting.

Towards the end of the war, allied troops found a hanger with a very peculiar looking aircraft in it, the Horten 2-29:



It was the start of a stealth project. The program itself went on to recreate the aircraft (that's what is in the picture) and check out it's stealth capabilities.

There were also plans (possibly some part builds, I can't remember) of another aircraft, which was more or less a larger version of the 2-29, the Horten H.XVIII. This was an intercontinental bomber with stealth capabilities.

They ran the times and responses, and it is fesible that Germany could have deployed such aircraft, and they would have been able to reach the US and drop payload before a counter assault was launced to deal with them.

Basically, had Germany kept up the fight for another year or so, they could have launched air assualts on major US cities.

Throw into account the damage that London and other parts of the UK saw from conventional bombings, and that the Nazis were also working on nuclear weapons.

Quite scarey what could have happened.

[Icey101]

Originally Posted by LilloEsquilo

If France had ANY balls, they probably could have moved into Germany, while the Germans were tied up in Poland, and put a quick end to it, but they didn't. They had very little opposing them, but Hitler obviously saw they were gutless when he acted. Or else he's just that crazy and got lucky. Instead they basically sat back, and waited, and by the following June the swastika was flying on the Eiffel tower. Hard to REALLY feel sorry for a government so blind that they failed to build up the military in response to Hitler, and so cowardly they were afraid to use what they had facing only a small number of German reserves.....but that's another subject!

this is a very interesting part of the war, what would have happened if the rest of Europe stepped in at the right time etc...

[MEKer]

Jeez----that question can go into many areas. You can talk about the ultimate goal of Lebensraum which was nothing more than expanded "living room" for Germanic peoples (by force and which USSR would resist immediately). You can, as already pointed out, talk about the perfidious motive of temporarily keeping USSR off his (Hitler's) back as he expanded westward across Europe while getting a huge amount of war materials from USSR as a "buddy" per their pact. Also the pact initially allowed Germany to train pilots and tankers on Russian soil for years so as to avoid the terms of the Versailles Treaty re German rearmament. And Stalin went along with this, as also pointed out already, so that they can carve up Poland, and then Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia as well into the Soviet camp (incl the port of Danzig and non-interference of USSR invading Finland). On and on. Tons of info out there. You'll have fun researching it.

[burk48237]

Originally Posted by LilloEsquilo

I would say the first answer is basically right. Fascism and Communism are basically opposing belief systems - both are totalitarian but that's about all they really have in common. Thus, the Nazis and Soviets were natural adversaries in terms of ideology much like the conservatives (nazis) and liberals (soviets) are in the US. You don't see much cooperation here in the US, and likewise getting an agreement was obviously a difficult thing for Germany and the USSR to do as well

In fairness if you can point out significant difference in-between the ideologies of Stalin and Hitler I'm all ears?


Both believed in the supremacy of government, both were totalitarian murderers and Stalin was more gennocidal than Hitler (intentional starvation and mass internment) by the time Hitler decided to invade. In fact many in Belarus and the Ukraine welcomed the Nazis as relief when the invasion began.

The only significant difference I can see is Hitler had the advantages of an advanced industrial economy while Stalin wrought his disaster upon a largely backwards agricultural nation. Wether or not their ideologies were opposed their results were very similar.

[burk48237]

Another note, Hitler needed the Ukraine and Belarus to feed his people and fuel his machines. He simply did not have an economy capable of producing enough grain and the fuel from refineries in Romania wasn't enough to fuel his war machine. I suspect Hitlers megalomania and that fueled his desire to invade more than opposing ideologies.

A great read on the subject is the Bloodlands, Europe between Hitler and Stalin. You will come away with the impression that the personification of evil in the twentieth century was Stalin. This was a man who had starvation quotas for the regional governors because the peasant class wasn't cooperating with his collective farms fast enough.

Amazon.com: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (9780465002399): Timothy Snyder: Books

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by Icey101

this is a very interesting part of the war, what would have happened if the rest of Europe stepped in at the right time etc...

As they say, hindsight is 20-20, but on saying that, I don't know how plausible it would have been to mobilise a mass force at the time, again, given the social and economic situations.

Thrown in that The Great War was still fresh in peoples minds, in which tens of millions were killed, everyone was wanting a diplomatic solution.

[LiquidMidnight]

This thread is Godwin's Law from the onset.

[MEKer]

Originally Posted by burk48237

In fairness if you can point out significant difference in-between the ideologies of Stalin and Hitler I'm all ears?


Both believed in the supremacy of government, both were totalitarian murderers and Stalin was more gennocidal than Hitler (intentional starvation and mass internment) by the time Hitler decided to invade. In fact many in Belarus and the Ukraine welcomed the Nazis as relief when the invasion began.

The only significant difference I can see is Hitler had the advantages of an advanced industrial economy while Stalin wrought his disaster upon a largely backwards agricultural nation. Wether or not their ideologies were opposed their results were very similar.

Amen to that. Hitler HATED communists but I think it was simply because THEIR political organization was a threat to HIS political organization attaining power. Politically a fascist state ALLOWS limited capitalism for its OWN benefit and definitely under its thumb (such as I.G.Farben, Mercedes and Krupp), while communism has ALL business as centrally controlled, thinking as well, for its OWN benefit. In the end, both systems are murderous, despotic charnel houses where to disagree gets a quick bullet, a slow starvation or a whiff of gas.