Thread by @RealLoriSpencer

THREAD 🧵:

Demolishing #Ukraine’s talking points about the #Hitler/#Stalin alliance. (Known as the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact of 1939)

“But #Russia liked the #Nazis”

No, they didn’t. Stalin NEVER trusted Hitler.

This fateful alliance was made out of self-preservation.👇🏽

This thread is sourced from William Shirer’s classic history “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” the ultimate study of #Nazi Germany.

Shirer had exclusive access to the archives of the captured German Foreign Office archives, which detail circumstances leading to the alliance.

We begin on page 638: 📕

On March 10, 1939, #Stalin made a speech at the 18th Party Congress in #Moscow.

Most of his criticism in the speech was aimed at Great Britain 🇬🇧 — and here’s why:

#Stalin accused England of the exact same thing #Putin now accuses #NATO of doing — using the #Nazis to provoke a proxy war with #Russia.

He wasn’t wrong. That’s precisely what was happening, and how the world war began.

#Mussolini and #Hitler were both impressed by the speech, particularly #Stalin’s assertion that “the Russians would not allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder for the capitalist powers.”

Duce and Hitler began to think “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Meanwhile, on April 16, the Soviet Foreign Commissar proposed a triple pact for mutual defense between Great Britain 🇬🇧, France 🇫🇷, and #Russia 🇷🇺 to the British Ambassador in #Moscow.

This offer was rejected, even though Churchill endorsed it. (For his own self-preservation)

The British government hesitated to make a defensive alliance with #Russia — dawdling around and wasting weeks of precious time 🕰.

The Brits did not reply to #Stalin’s proposal until May 8.

And so, #Russia then extended the hand of friendship to #Germany, after being rejected by England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and France 🇫🇷…

Then, in early May of 1939, a major development:

After more than a year of negotiations, #Italy’s leader #Mussolini committed himself and his country irrevocably to #Hitler’s fortunes.

“The Pact of Steel” was thus forged between #Nazi Germany 🇩🇪 and Italy 🇮🇹 on May 22.

The core of the Treaty was Article III, which resolved that Italy 🇮🇹 and Germany 🇩🇪 would unite their military forces “to secure their living space.”

#Poland #Ukraine #Russia

The day after signing the Pact of Steel with #Mussolini, #Hitler summoned his military chiefs to the Reich Chancellery and told them bluntly that success could not be won without the shedding of blood and that war was inevitable.

He laid out his plans for invading #Poland…

But what about #Russia and the #USSR?

Here, Herr #Hitler makes his fatal mistake.

Realizing they were also on #Hitler’s Hit List, the British began to reconsider #Stalin’s previous offer of a defensive alliance. 🇬🇧 🤝 🇷🇺

On the 31st of May, #Russia signaled back to Britain that the offer of a defensive alliance was still on the table in a speech by #Molotov.

He castigated the Western democracies for their hesitation, saying if they were serious about stopping #Nazi aggression it was time to act

The thought of an alliance between #Russia and the Western powers alarmed and annoyed #Hitler.

He ordered his foreign ministers to push the Russians to close a deal with Germany instead.

#Hitler also instructed his diplomats to LIE, and “tell Molotov that Germany had no aggressive intentions against #Russia.”

But then, Hitler hesitated to extend the offer formally . Again. And again, and again.

As negotiations were underway between Moscow and Berlin, #Hitler suddenly pulled the plug.

He ordered that talks with the Russians be broken off. Why?

Nobody knows what went on in Hitler’s disordered mind. 🤷🏼‍♀️

In early June, Russia again reached out to Britain, requesting a face to face meeting in Moscow.

British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax refused to go, saying it “really is impossible to get away” in a June 8 telegram to Moscow.

PM Chamberlain still was still dragging his feet

#Stalin’s distrust of Britain and France and his suspicion that the Western Allies might just make a deal with #Hitler — as they had the year before at Munich — was publicized in Pravda for all the world to ponder 🤔…

Stalin thus renewed negotiations with Germany in July.

This time, #Hitler was far more eager to make a deal 🤝— he’d just gotten wind of Soviet negotiations with France and England for a military alliance against him! 😆

Talks between the British and Russian diplomats dragged on for weeks, and threatened to fall apart because the Brits wanted a deal on their terms, and their terms only.

#Russia flatly rejected this.

England was deliberately dragging her feet — delaying talks at this critical late date (which would prove a fatal error).

Chamberlain put his military mission on a slow boat to #Russia, which wasted another week — instead of flying them to Moscow in a few hours. ✈️

In the meantime, #Stalin now had the upper hand — and he was perhaps enjoying making both the #Nazis and the British sweat… 😥

#Mussolini did not want to be dragged into a wider war — both he and Count Ciano were becoming furious with #Hitler’s many betrayals and lies. 🤥

They tried unsuccessfully to convince Hitler not to invade #Poland in August 1939, knowing it would spell disaster.

With the invasion of #Poland only two weeks away, #Hitler stepped up his game in convincing #Stalin to join his Axis.

While England slept, Germany closed the deal.

#Nazi #Germany made #Russia an offer it couldn’t refuse.

#Hitler accepted all of #Stalin’s demands unconditionally.

Now #Stalin had #Hitler right where he wanted him, and took his sweet time considering Germany’s proposal. 🕰

Stalin knew full well #Hitler was bullshitting him, and that this pact was merely a marriage offer made in desperation.

It was now August 20th, and the pending #Nazi invasion of #Poland was only days away.

#Hitler was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He hadn’t slept in days, staying up all night awaiting word from #Moscow.

He got his answer at last on August 21.

The next day, at a military conference of his generals, #Hitler was in one of his most arrogant moods, telling his warriors to go forth and conquer #Poland. Full speed ahead, and without mercy.

Quoting from a transcript of the meeting:

The fact that #Stalin was negotiating with both the Western powers and Germany at the same time raises the question:

Was #Russia negotiating in good faith with Britain and France during this period, or just toying with them? 🧐

Why did negotiations for a defensive alliance between Britain, France, and the Soviets ultimately break down?

Because #Poland stupidly refused to be protected by Russian troops.

Lord Halifax implored Poland on August 20 to reconsider, saying they were “wrecking” the deal.

#Poland wasn’t having it.

Polish Foreign Minister Beck told the French Ambassador that there could be “no discussion what’s concerning the use of our territory by foreign troops. We have not got a military agreement with the #USSR. We do not want one.”

It was too little, too late.

By August 21st, #Stalin had already accepted #Hitler’s offer of a non-aggression pact — before Britain, France, and Poland could get their trousers on.

Besides, as Stalin revealed to Ribbentrop, the British “had never told the Soviet government what it really wanted.”

On this, they were in agreement: “England is weak,” Ribbentrop boasted, “and wants to let others fight for her presumptuous claim to world dominion.” 🇬🇧

Nonetheless, #Stalin was under no illusions that #Hitler would keep his end of the bargain — knowing full well what the Fuhrer’s word was worth.

On June 22, 1941, #Stalin’s suspicions were proven correct when the #Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.

As Stalin explained it, his motive in signing the useless pact with Germany (which wasn’t worth the paper it was written on) was merely to buy time for #Russia to prepare.

Stalin was convinced by 1939 that Hitler was going to war — as he later told Churchill.

Stalin was determined that #Russia would not be maneuvered into the disastrous position of having to face the German Army alone - a move Churchill agreed was “realistic in a high degree.”

The Kremlin could argue, as it did, that there was no difference between the Soviets appeasing Hitler with the 1939 pact and Chamberlain’s appeasement at Munich the previous year.

Stalin and FDR also agreed that the pact with #Hitler wouldn’t last, their cables reveal.

16 years before, #Hitler wrote his own prophecy in Mein Kampf:

“The very fact of the conclusion of an alliance with #Russia embodies a plan for the next war. Its outcome would be the end of #Germany.”

🔚

And so concludes this chapter on the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Source: original 1960 printing of Shirer’s Book Three, Chapter 15, pages 685-725.

(Page numbers may vary in later editions)

As you can see I’ve read this one more than a few times, as my parents did before me! 📖

While I realize most people just don’t have the time or motivation to read a 1,250 page book, I encourage you to listen to the full audiobook version of “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.”

It’s available for free here:

Bookmark this thread for future use. ✅

Next time some NAFO “fella” or pro-#Ukraine troll tries to fool the Twitter community with lies and distortions of history, please post a link to this thread, refuting the #Nazi propaganda.

The best defense to slander is #truth.