DISINFO: Poland and the West forced the USSR to sign a Pact with Nazi Germany
SUMMARY
Ninety years ago, Poland signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Warsaw tried to play its game in Europe, preventing the creation of a collective security system on the continent. This strengthened the Third Reich and the outbreak of the Second World War.
In spring-summer 1939, Poland became one of the main obstacles an anti-Hitler alliance between the USSR, France and Britain. Warsaw categorically refused to allow Soviet troops to pass through its territory to repel Nazi aggression.
The reluctance of the West and Warsaw to form an anti-Nazi coalition forced the USSR to sign a pact with Germany - Moscow was the last side in Europe to make this step.
RESPONSE
The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative distorting the events leading up to the Second World War, in particular denying USSR responsibility for starting WWII after signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.
From August 1939 to June 1941, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had a functioning alliance ensuring vast economic and industrial trade and exchange in addition to technical and scientific and military contacts. As British historian Roger Moorhouse and others have documented, the mutual contacts were deep and instrumental to keep the war developing and covered about a third of the time during WWII.
The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 1939 contained a secret supplementary protocol that resulted in a coordinated Nazi-Soviet campaign against Poland and decided the carving up of Eastern Europe between the USSR and the Third Reich. On the other hand, there is no historical evidence that any other pre-war agreements with Nazi Germany contained secret provisions of this kind and none had the devastating effects of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The secret protocol was revealed after Germany's defeat in 1945, although hints about its provisions had been leaked much earlier.
It is a gross lie to suggest that Soviet troops wanted to rush to confront Nazi German troops but were prevented. Rather, joint military parades of Soviet and German forces were organised when both had divided Poland.
See here for our debunking of the claim that the Soviet Union was "forced" to conclude an agreement with Hitler. Read more about the Pact here.
See our account of the disinformation attempts in Ping-Pong Pact Policy.
See similar disinformation cases on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in our database: West rewriting history by claiming USSR colluded with Nazi Germany; Poland re-writes history claiming the USSR attacked it in September 1939; the West tries to revise history, questioning the decisions of the Nuremberg trial; Europe is to blame for the outbreak of WWII.