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How Did Stalin Invade Russia

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The Nazi-Soviet Pact was made by Stalin due to the indifference of Britain and France to an alliance. The consequence of this was that it resulted in temporary peace between Germany and Soviet Union.
During Hitler’s reign in Germany, he wanted to expand, and was willing to wage war, however other nations wanted peace. On September 30, 1938, France, Britain, Italy, and Germany signed the Munich Agreement, which granted all of Hitler’s major demands. The Munich Agreement was signed as an act of appeasement, with the goal of maintaining peace between nations and avoiding a global war. However, Stalin viewed this in another way, as he was not invited to the signing. Thus, Stalin was paranoid that through the Munich Agreement the other nations in the world were plotting against the Soviet Union. According to historian Lynch, “Stalin viewed the Munich Agreement as the gathering of the anti-Soviet nations of Europe, intent on giving Germany a free hand to attack a diplomatically isolated …show more content…

Instead, it can be argued that Hitler needed to invade Soviet Russia due to self-preservation. Hitler believed that “’if [he harmed] the Russians now…then [it is] for the reason that they would otherwise harm [Hitler].’” Hitler only invaded Russia because he knew that Russia would invade Germany eventually, and he did not want to be caught off guard. This is because Hitler knew that Stalin wanted all of Poland to be under Soviet control. According to historian Christopher Hudson, “Hitler suspected that Stalin was waiting for [Germany] to exhaust their resources, as had happened in World War I, before sending out his vast army to plant the flag of Bolshevism in Western Europe”. Thus, instead of being surprised by an attack from the Red Army when he was weak, Hitler decided to invade Russia while he was strong. The consequence of Hitler’s need for safety was the deterioration of Nazi-Soviet

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