For First Time, Moscow Publishes Photocopies of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Its Secret Protocols

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 1 – For the first time, a Moscow portal, Istoricheskaya pamyat, has published photocopies of the Russian originals of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, the  agreements which made Hitler and Stalin allies, opened the way to World War II in Europe, and divided the continent into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

            Throughout the Soviet period, Moscow officials denied the existence of such texts in the archives and used the lack of such texts to challenge the German originals which had been available to scholars since the late 1940s. In the 1990s, Moscow did publish its own translation of these documents, but before yesterday, it had not issued photocopies.

            This should make it impossible for Russian authors to deny the existence of the documents but not, of course, to deny the reading of them that Western historians and people in the countries most profoundly affected by the pact have given to that Nazi-Soviet agreement and especially to its secret protocols.

                The new Russian publication is available online at historyfoundation.ru/2019/05/31/pakt/. It has been presented and discussed by Radio Liberty at svobodaradio.livejournal.com/3991674.html).