2017-5-23 13:16 |
23. 05. 2017 - 11:25 Many European countries frequently chastise modern Russia for the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between Moscow and Berlin on 23 August of 1939. However, according to recently opened Russian archives, the USSR offered a mutual-pact against Nazi Germany to France and Britain, before giving up on disinterested western leaders and deciding to attempt to avoid war with Germany by singing an agreement with the regime in Berlin.
On 15 August, 1939, Soviet leader Stalin was prepared to pledge “20 infantry divisions (each with some 19,000 troops), 16 cavalry divisions, 5,000 heavy artillery pieces, 9,500 tanks and up to 5,500 fighter aircraft and bombers on Germany’s borders”. Such a force would have easily overwhelmed Hitler’s military power at the time. According to Russian General Lev Sotskov, “Had the British, French and their European ally Poland, taken this offer seriously then together we could have put some 300 or more divisions into the field on two fronts against Germany – double the number Hitler had at the time This was a chance to save the world or at least stop the wolf in its tracks”. Britain, which according to the new documents was woefully under-prepared for war, declined the offer, preferring instead to maintain a policy of appeasement against Hitler’s aggression. According to historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, “The detail of Stalin’s offer underlines what is known; . . . .
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