Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War
- Cambridge Companions to History
- The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Conceptions of War
- 1 German-Soviet Relations and Military Collaboration in the Inter-war Period
- 2 Political Thinking and Strategic Planning for Hitler’s Lebensraum in the East
- 3 Stalin’s Political Delusions and Military Preparations for War with Nazi Germany
- Part II Opposing Forces
- Part III Campaigns
- Part IV Criminality and Occupation
- Part V Home Fronts
- Part VI Comrades in Arms
- Part VII Post-war Legacies and Myth-Making
- A Guide to Further Reading
- Index
1 - German-Soviet Relations and Military Collaboration in the Inter-war Period
from Part I - Conceptions of War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War
- Cambridge Companions to History
- The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Conceptions of War
- 1 German-Soviet Relations and Military Collaboration in the Inter-war Period
- 2 Political Thinking and Strategic Planning for Hitler’s Lebensraum in the East
- 3 Stalin’s Political Delusions and Military Preparations for War with Nazi Germany
- Part II Opposing Forces
- Part III Campaigns
- Part IV Criminality and Occupation
- Part V Home Fronts
- Part VI Comrades in Arms
- Part VII Post-war Legacies and Myth-Making
- A Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
On 23 August 1939, Hitler and Stalin agreed to a treaty of non-aggression, paving the way for the outbreak of war in Europe. Though this Nazi-Soviet Pact stunned contemporary observers, this chapter argues that the decision for partnership – and the military, economic, and intelligence cooperation it portended – had a long prehistory. Here, the Soviet-German relationship is traced from its inception in 1917 through Germany’s invasion of the USSR in 1941. It focuses on four distinct periods: early contacts during and immediately following the First World War, the Rapallo era of extensive cooperation between 1921 to 1933, the collapse of the Soviet-German relationship after 1933, and the resumption of partnership in 1939 with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This chapter concludes that the two periods of Soviet-German cooperation were ultimately decisive factors in the breakdown of the post-war European status quo.
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- The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War , pp. 9 - 26Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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