[MUSIC] The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in reality, established spheres of influence. Stalin promised to participate on the attack on Poland. And indeed, while he waited until the Germans destroyed the Polish army on September 17th, 1939, the Red Army entered eastern Poland and completed the 5th division of Poland, which led to the destruction of the Polish state. Russians succeeded in reestablishing their influence on all those territories, which the Tsarist state possessed and lost, as the result of First World War. That is, the areas which came under the Soviet's sphere of influence. Had been part of the Russian empire, these were the Baltic states. Well Finland, which was actually not reincorporated. Bessarabia, which was taken away from Romania. And then, interesting, is that Stalin, quite self-consciously, in effect, reclaimed the heritage of Tsarism. The only area which had not been part of the Tsarist state was a very small piece of land in Northern Bukovina and that evidently came about, because when they drew the borders, Molotov, and Ribbentrop, Molotov used a very thick pencil, and Northern Bukovina then became part of the Soviet influence. This is a peculiar period in Soviet history, from 1939 to 1941. After all, Western public opinion, Western intellectuals in the course of the 1930s, became attracted to the Soviet Union because the Soviet Union promised to be the great opponent of fascism, of Nazism, of German expansion, and yet found himself, Hitler, Stalin, in effect, allies. And their alliance was serious, the Soviet propagandist described a war which was going on in the West, as an imperialist war. And they called on the workers to resist this imperialist war. This was a 180 degrees change from the previous propaganda line. And that makes one think that Stalin was in an easy position of carrying out foreign policy, in as much as he did not have to worry about public opinion. The public opinion could be, well of course we don't know what the Soviet people actually thought about what was going on. But the policy line, from one day to the next, completely changed. That is, anti-Nazi, anti-fascist film which Eisenstein made in 1938, Alexander Nevsky was taken off from the screens. And then Eisenstein came to be director of Wagner in Bolshoi when The Valkyrie were performed. That is, it was easy for Stalin to carry out great moves without having to worry about what the Soviet people think. It seems that in 1939, 1941, in this very strange period, the Soviet leadership recognized that ultimately, they would be involved in a war. On which side they would be fighting, was not clear and what that involvement would be. But we have good documentary evidence that they were not naive, that they understood that there are dangerous possibilities. Soviet foreign policy, Stalin's foreign policy, made sense under assumption, and that was a crucial assumption, that after all the French Army, which was the largest in Europe would be able to resist the Germans. And the consequence of that would be that the Nazis would be tied down and the war would be going on in Europe, and the Soviets would just look on and take pleasure in what was going on, and not be involved, included. because that was the main Stalin's goal, Stalin was very much concerned after collectivization. What the Soviet people would do, if Russia, if the Soviet Union was involved in a war. He remembered experience of the First World War, where the Communist Revolution was made possible because of the Tsar's performance in the war. And this made possible for the Bolsheviks to come into power. And consequently how what was happening between 39 and 41 was that the British promised to come to the aid of Poland. In fact they did nothing. And the German army performed remarkably, one victory after another. And then the great event was the attack on France, and of the French army, the French political leadership collapsed. And now, Stalin realized that they were facing a very difficult, and very dangerous situation. And one cannot blame Stalin for not appreciating what the French would do or would not do, because after all the experience of the Frst World War was only two decades earlier, and the French, of course, performed very differently. In the case of France, of course, it was a political rather than a military collapse. So there was an alliance between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. That alliance meant that the Russians, the Soviets, provided the Nazis with raw material, which they needed. And when they got in exchange, was some military hardware. But by and large, the Russians delivered, the Soviets delivered, because they were afraid of Nazi responses. Why the Germans did not deliver and so that trade between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany in this two year, very strange period, was very much to the benefit of the Germans. Well, the Soviets then incorporated the Baltic states. Occupied Bessarabia, put pressure on the Finns to give up the island of Hunger. Which, after all, they perceived as necessary for the defense of Leningrad. The Baltic states were occupied without any problem. Bessarabia, modern day Moldova was taken by the Russians without any problems. However, the Finns would not cooperate. The Finns resisted, and the Russian army came to be involved in the Winter War against Finland, and it was a disaster, a military and moral disaster for the Red Army. The Russian losses were six times greater than Finnish losses, and the Finns were able to resist. This had far reaching consequences, because once again, it gave the impression to the Nazis that the Red Army Is not a serious fighting force. The British and the French actually considered coming to the aid of Finland, which would have created a very interesting military diplomatic situation, a three cornered military affair. Luckily, this did not happen, ultimately of course. The vast Red Army was able to defeat the Finns and the Finnish were concluded. From the positive, from the Soviet point of view result of that war was the Soviet understanding that they had to carry on military reform, and so they did. They reestablished the military commissars, improved the training of the officer corp, and also the soldiers. And so, when the war actually started in 1941, the Red Army was in a better shape than it was in 1940. [MUSIC]
