Why did Germany and the USSR sign the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact (Short Animated Documentary)
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Date: 2026-10-28
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Comments and reviews: 20
kyurenm5334
Worth adding that at this point decision of Poland was perfectly sensible, as Soviets, not Germans were the more expansionist in Eastern Europe, which is why video makes a claim, that such pact would make Poland side with Germany. Between 1939-1941 soviets on their parts of occupied Polish territories were committing same atrocities as Germans. Nobody talks about it because area occupied was smaller, and victims who vanished in trains on their way to siberia were only hundred of thousands. Only Katyn is quite known albeit making small chunk of what they did.
Soviet propaganda worked really hard to whitewash what Stalin's regime was doing at the time, unfortunately if you control territories over which you do them it's way easier. Only god knows how many people vanished under Soviets, the same way certain other groups were vanishing in Germany before allies discovered camps.
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Worth adding that at this point decision of Poland was perfectly sensible, as Soviets, not Germans were the more expansionist in Eastern Europe, which is why video makes a claim, that such pact would make Poland side with Germany. Between 1939-1941 soviets on their parts of occupied Polish territories were committing same atrocities as Germans. Nobody talks about it because area occupied was smaller, and victims who vanished in trains on their way to siberia were only hundred of thousands. Only Katyn is quite known albeit making small chunk of what they did.
Soviet propaganda worked really hard to whitewash what Stalin's regime was doing at the time, unfortunately if you control territories over which you do them it's way easier. Only god knows how many people vanished under Soviets, the same way certain other groups were vanishing in Germany before allies discovered camps.
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willmatheson
3: 14. the British had a deep distrust of the Soviets, with many in its government seeing the Soviets, led by purge-happy autocratic Stalin, who had violently overthrown the previous regime and helped to invade the newly born Poland shortly afterwards, as being the much greater threat than the toothbrush-mustache-having Austrian man, who whilst also a dictator, wasn't one who had actually offed as many people yet.
Especially if you include the famines resulting from the Georgian's forced collectivisation, the Austrian man arguably doesn't finish ahead in body count. Of course, the Han man from Hunan is way out in front of both of them.
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3: 14. the British had a deep distrust of the Soviets, with many in its government seeing the Soviets, led by purge-happy autocratic Stalin, who had violently overthrown the previous regime and helped to invade the newly born Poland shortly afterwards, as being the much greater threat than the toothbrush-mustache-having Austrian man, who whilst also a dictator, wasn't one who had actually offed as many people yet.
Especially if you include the famines resulting from the Georgian's forced collectivisation, the Austrian man arguably doesn't finish ahead in body count. Of course, the Han man from Hunan is way out in front of both of them.
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LILwhut1337
Holy Soviet propaganda slop. No, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was not to protect Soviet security or to delay an inevitable war, these are post-war Soviet propaganda points once it was revealed that Molotov-Ribbentrop was actually a secret alliance to split Europe between the Soviets and Germany. The Soviets wanted eastern Europe, the western Allies weren't willing to give it to them in return for fighting Germany, but Germany was, the video glosses over this in favour of the Soviet propaganda, but that is the real reason they signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, they gained more from it than from an alliance with France/UK.
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Holy Soviet propaganda slop. No, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was not to protect Soviet security or to delay an inevitable war, these are post-war Soviet propaganda points once it was revealed that Molotov-Ribbentrop was actually a secret alliance to split Europe between the Soviets and Germany. The Soviets wanted eastern Europe, the western Allies weren't willing to give it to them in return for fighting Germany, but Germany was, the video glosses over this in favour of the Soviet propaganda, but that is the real reason they signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, they gained more from it than from an alliance with France/UK.
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TheDoctor1225
I still find it amazing that in a venue in which you can have blatantly false videos that push absolute lies about people who have died, as well as other subjects, you have to tiptoe around things like names of certain historical figures or the symbolism used by their governments. Unreal. Props to you for finding such an obvious way (which has been done by you for some time, now) to make light of such absurdities
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I still find it amazing that in a venue in which you can have blatantly false videos that push absolute lies about people who have died, as well as other subjects, you have to tiptoe around things like names of certain historical figures or the symbolism used by their governments. Unreal. Props to you for finding such an obvious way (which has been done by you for some time, now) to make light of such absurdities
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corboy8414
This video does a great job of covering the bases of a very complicated subject.
I've been guilty in the past of overstating the USSR's enthusiasm for the pact; while they clearly benefited from the pact in the short term, it is easy to forget it was an agreement born out of convenience more than anything else and that neither Nazis or the Soviets were especially fond of one another.
Great job as always!
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This video does a great job of covering the bases of a very complicated subject.
I've been guilty in the past of overstating the USSR's enthusiasm for the pact; while they clearly benefited from the pact in the short term, it is easy to forget it was an agreement born out of convenience more than anything else and that neither Nazis or the Soviets were especially fond of one another.
Great job as always!
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Paladiesh
A few small corrections - repressions in the USSR are still largely overestimated on the part of the outright killed. Numbers I've seen in neutral studies don't make it likely that Stalin killed millions by early 1939. Millions had been sent to hard labour prison camps though.
Poland was a major asshole state in the 1920's and 30's having also attacked ant taken bits of the USSR and Lithuania.
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A few small corrections - repressions in the USSR are still largely overestimated on the part of the outright killed. Numbers I've seen in neutral studies don't make it likely that Stalin killed millions by early 1939. Millions had been sent to hard labour prison camps though.
Poland was a major asshole state in the 1920's and 30's having also attacked ant taken bits of the USSR and Lithuania.
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jak00bspyr72
One more thing regarding the lack of trust of Poland towards USSR. Keep in mind that the Soviet Union not only waged a war against Poland only less than 20 years prior to WW2, but also murdered 111 thousand Poles living in USSR as part of the Polish Operation of the NKVD. Signing a pact against one evil power with the second, at that time equally or even more evil power was unacceptable.
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One more thing regarding the lack of trust of Poland towards USSR. Keep in mind that the Soviet Union not only waged a war against Poland only less than 20 years prior to WW2, but also murdered 111 thousand Poles living in USSR as part of the Polish Operation of the NKVD. Signing a pact against one evil power with the second, at that time equally or even more evil power was unacceptable.
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UncleSam42
The Soviets didn't actually want an alliance with any of the Western powers, collective security was a ploy by Stalin to gain good-will with the capitalist nations that almost universally hated him. Their plan was to have Germany and the other capitalist nations bleed themselves out on each, other much like the 1st world war, and then sweep through Europe at an opportune moment
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The Soviets didn't actually want an alliance with any of the Western powers, collective security was a ploy by Stalin to gain good-will with the capitalist nations that almost universally hated him. Their plan was to have Germany and the other capitalist nations bleed themselves out on each, other much like the 1st world war, and then sweep through Europe at an opportune moment
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khaibutton
One of the things I have to constantly remind myself when watching videos like this is that, at that time, war with Nazi Germany wasn't considered a done deal. Like, if any of the parties involved knew _then_ what we know now about how untrustworthy ol' Toothbrush-Face would turn out to be, nobody would have ever try to ally with him or appease him.
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One of the things I have to constantly remind myself when watching videos like this is that, at that time, war with Nazi Germany wasn't considered a done deal. Like, if any of the parties involved knew _then_ what we know now about how untrustworthy ol' Toothbrush-Face would turn out to be, nobody would have ever try to ally with him or appease him.
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Anton_Io66
Im sorry but do you turn up the speed on your commentary for these videos I used to be able to follow along in your videos no problem, even on topics I have low familiarity on. Lately however I have been having to slow down video speed to follow along even for topics I have good familiarity with. Or maybe I am just getting old
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Im sorry but do you turn up the speed on your commentary for these videos I used to be able to follow along in your videos no problem, even on topics I have low familiarity on. Lately however I have been having to slow down video speed to follow along even for topics I have good familiarity with. Or maybe I am just getting old
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mijimonmaster
The Soviet Union was never about communism. It was a totalitarian dictatorship. Communism is everyone as equals.
Just because they called themselves communist doesn't make it so. North Korea is actually called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, yet it couldn't be less democratic or a republic.
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The Soviet Union was never about communism. It was a totalitarian dictatorship. Communism is everyone as equals.
Just because they called themselves communist doesn't make it so. North Korea is actually called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, yet it couldn't be less democratic or a republic.
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ArchivalPulse
Poland and Romania refusing to let Soviet troops cross, even to help Czechoslovakia, really is the crux of the whole mess. That line about letting them in being a lot easier than getting them out sums it up. And swapping Litvinov out for Molotov in May '39 was about as loud a signal as Moscow could send.
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Poland and Romania refusing to let Soviet troops cross, even to help Czechoslovakia, really is the crux of the whole mess. That line about letting them in being a lot easier than getting them out sums it up. And swapping Litvinov out for Molotov in May '39 was about as loud a signal as Moscow could send.
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JackAnon3579
Considering that Finland managed to successfully fight off the USSR during the winter war, I often wonder if Poland could have fought them off again had they not been invaded by Germany.
Though I suppose the amount of what if situations are infinite. Great video History Matters.
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Considering that Finland managed to successfully fight off the USSR during the winter war, I often wonder if Poland could have fought them off again had they not been invaded by Germany.
Though I suppose the amount of what if situations are infinite. Great video History Matters.
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aromardu
Good thing we dropped the whole part of having separate negotiations over ending wars in the future and leaving concerned parties out of the loop. Yup, no more problems, everyone is part of negotiations and definitely not being stabbed in the back anytime soon as of late October 2026.
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Good thing we dropped the whole part of having separate negotiations over ending wars in the future and leaving concerned parties out of the loop. Yup, no more problems, everyone is part of negotiations and definitely not being stabbed in the back anytime soon as of late October 2026.
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elLstampede
Why were the British so stuck on Poland Why did everything have to involve Poland Man I love the Polish people, but if it weren’t for Poland we’d be living in a utopia right now lol. No western powers declaring war on Germany so Germany can solely focus on taking out the USSR
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Why were the British so stuck on Poland Why did everything have to involve Poland Man I love the Polish people, but if it weren’t for Poland we’d be living in a utopia right now lol. No western powers declaring war on Germany so Germany can solely focus on taking out the USSR
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С. Сомов
As a result of concluding the Pact, Germany gained the ability to launch a war without the risk of having to fight on two frontsthe benefit to Germany is clear. But what benefit did the USSR receive directly from the Pact Territorial expansion
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As a result of concluding the Pact, Germany gained the ability to launch a war without the risk of having to fight on two frontsthe benefit to Germany is clear. But what benefit did the USSR receive directly from the Pact Territorial expansion
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shanemcdowall
Chamberlain was fond of giving security guarantees to countries at a time when Britain could barely muster two infantry divisions. Writing political cheques that Britain lacked the military and logistical means to cash was near delusional.
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Chamberlain was fond of giving security guarantees to countries at a time when Britain could barely muster two infantry divisions. Writing political cheques that Britain lacked the military and logistical means to cash was near delusional.
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StickSagaHistory
The part that stuck with me was how the pact was less a friendship than two sides buying time while distrusting each other. Laying out the failed earlier diplomacy first made the unholy alliance label feel earned, not just dramatic.
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The part that stuck with me was how the pact was less a friendship than two sides buying time while distrusting each other. Laying out the failed earlier diplomacy first made the unholy alliance label feel earned, not just dramatic.
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fortunefactsdaily
Two bitter enemies signing a pact while both quietly sharpened their knives is such a surreal piece of history. The failed diplomacy in the buildup makes it even stranger amazing storytelling as always.
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Two bitter enemies signing a pact while both quietly sharpened their knives is such a surreal piece of history. The failed diplomacy in the buildup makes it even stranger amazing storytelling as always.
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cdogensis6392
Fun Fact! In 1935 Ribbentrop apparently attended the official opening of my old school in Ayrshire, while visiting his friend, (and fellow purveyor of alcohol, Alexander Walker - great grandson of Johnnie.
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Fun Fact! In 1935 Ribbentrop apparently attended the official opening of my old school in Ayrshire, while visiting his friend, (and fellow purveyor of alcohol, Alexander Walker - great grandson of Johnnie.
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