{"id":2921,"date":"2020-06-12T14:52:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/history\/?p=2921"},"modified":"2024-11-05T12:21:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:21:21","slug":"the-devils-alliance-hitlers-pact-with-stalin-1939-1941-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/2020\/06\/12\/the-devils-alliance-hitlers-pact-with-stalin-1939-1941-a-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devils\u2019 Alliance: Hitler\u2019s Pact with Stalin 1939-1941 – A Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this blog post we have two reviews of the same book, prepared by students in HM5406, Revolution from Above: the Soviet Union, 1921-53. This is your chance to \u2018compare and contrast\u2019. Thanks to our students Harry Brown and Dan Moore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REVIEW 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moorhouse\u2019s The Devils\u2019\nAlliance<\/em> provides a detailed and engaging discussion of the notorious\nNazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 with an analysis both of the circumstances of its declaration\nand of the two year period of collaboration between the Soviet Union and Nazi\nGermany prior to the implementation of Operation Barborossa in June 1941 – the\nNazi\u2019s campaign to invade and conquer the Soviet Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moorhouse initially is keen to emphasise the peculiarity of\nthe agreement, including at the time to the international community, due to the\nclear animosity between the two nations. Much of the Nazi\u2019s political rhetoric\nwas built on anti-communism and revolved around the conspiracy of \u2018cultural\nBolshevism\u2019, while Soviet media had dubbed Hitler \u2018insane\u2019 and condemned the\nNazis as \u2018modern day cannibals\u2019. This therefore makes the circumstances of the\npact even more intriguing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moorhouse discusses how, at the beginning of the Second World War, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had expansionist interests and aspirations for similar territory, with Germany seeking to expand eastwards and the Soviets to the west. Stalin at the time was confident that conflict between the two nations was inevitable and that it was therefore in the Soviet\u2019s interests to seek a non-aggression agreement between them in order to \u2018buy time\u2019 to prepare its infrastructure and the Red Army for an attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Moorhouse uses Poland as an example of Germany and the\nUSSR\u2019s mutual territorial interests, stressing that it was ultimately\nbeneficial to both partners with Hitler being able to secure his eastern\nfrontier on the defeat of Poland and Stalin being able to both destroy a long\nterm Russian enemy and access German military hardware. He goes on to discuss\nthe disconcerting nature of the pact across Europe, with many in Britain\ndeclaring that war was imminent with the invasion of Poland by both Germany and\nthe Soviets inevitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of the ultimate souring of the relationship between\nthe two powers, Moorhouse cites strategic rather than ideological factors on\nthe Nazi\u2019s part as the ultimate obstacle to the continuation of the pact.\nMoscow\u2019s ambition to rule over the \u2018Danubian\u2019 region in Eastern Europe had\nbegun to alarm Hitler who sought control of the entire region for himself and\nthis therefore posed a stark conflict between the two powers, and rumours that\nHitler had given the order for war led the Soviets to prepare to defend\nthemselves from inevitable German aggression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Devils\u2019 Alliance <\/em>therefore focuses primarily on the opportunism of Germany and the USSR in this period, both countries seeking to reap the benefits of expansion in Europe and therefore prepared to recognise their mutual interests despite stark ideological contempt for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hitler
Molotov signing the non-aggression pact in the presence of Ribbentrop (left) and Stalin, 1939. Photograph: Getty via The Guardian<\/em> ( https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2014\/aug\/06\/devils-alliance-hitlers-pact-stalin-1938-1941-roger-moorhouse-review<\/a> )<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

REVIEW 2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no\ndoubt that The Devils\u2019 Alliance: Hitler\u2019s\nPact with Stalin 1939-1941<\/em> is a highly intriguing and in-depth\ninterpretation of the events that took place in and around the Nazi-Soviet\npact. The impact of such an agreement changed the course of World War Two and\nlaid out a new path to eventual war between the Nazis and the Soviet Union. The\npact, as is widely known, was not intended to be a permanent one. Instead, it\nwas a political tool for logistical warfare. For Hitler, he could first deal\nwith the West; for Stalin, he could gear up for war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The huge\nnumber of primary sources, most notably from Molotov and Ribbentrop and the\nhistorical accuracy displayed, is evidence of an expert in the field of German\nhistory especially. The information echoed aligns itself to describe two \u2018yes-\nmen\u2019 (Molotov and Ribbentrop) and illustrates the grave seriousness and\nnecessity for precision with regards to the pact. The two deal makers were\nmerely Stalin and Hitler, masked by the faces of their respective foreign\nministers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was\nintrigued to read such information because the Nazi-Soviet pact is something I\nam not much of an expert on, and the intriguing style and level of\ninvestigation certainly has fuelled my interest for further reading. I gauge\nfrom the book itself a number of parallels between the Stalinist Soviet Union\nand Nazi Germany. After the war, such parallels had to be hidden for the sake\nof reputation and shame; after all Molotov denied any pact, a lie he took to\nhis grave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regards\nto the view that Moorhouse\u2019s book is a new perspective on the Nazi-Soviet pact,\nit is to an extent, with a huge reliance on reputable sources, but much of the\ncontents are merely a slight reinforcement of the facts already circulated in\ncommon knowledge. Overall, the interpretation is not distracted too far by\npolitical outlook and remains as historically accurate as possible. There are\nmany who would disagree with elements of the publication, as the book is\ndealing with facts and figures that may never be truly determined accurately,\nmost notably statistics regarding extermination and various other humanitarian\nand political issues. The crucial thing however is that the book is thoroughly\nresearched and delves deeply into the intentions and effects of the pact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this blog post we have two reviews of the same book, prepared by students in HM5406, Revolution from Above: the Soviet Union, 1921-53. This is your chance to \u2018compare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[767,376,368,72,768,180,642,774,253,690,773,766,111],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-events","tag-higher-education-2","tag-media-2","tag-melanie-ilic-2","tag-modern","tag-nazi-germany","tag-poland","tag-russian","tag-soviet-history","tag-students","tag-university-of-gloucestershire-alumni","tag-uog","tag-ussr"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3339,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions\/3339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}