The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its consequences

23.08.2006

On 23 August 1939, the USSR and Germany signed a pact of non-aggression that would become infamous. Known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after the countries' foreign ministers, Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, it is the secret additional protocol that has been drawn the most attention, as it divided Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence in disregard of international law, paving the way for the Soviet Union to occupy the Baltic States. Clause 1 of the secret protocol states that "in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R.".

The MRP and the secret protocols changed the entire international situation and promoted the outbreak of World War II. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, launching the war, while the Soviet Union attacked Poland on 17 September. Poland was razed in 27 days, after which the country served as the setting for a joint victory parade by Nazi Germany and the USSR. After the Polish state was destroyed, Stalin, with Germany's blessing, began gradually implementing his aggressive designs on the Baltic States. The outcome of the Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union and the annexation of Poland opened the way for the occupation of the Baltic States, as stipulated in the MRP.

Already in autumn 1939, Soviets forced military bases on Estonia and Latvia, and then on Lithuania. By mid-September, a 160,000-strong division of the Red Army massed on Estonia's borders, outnumbering the Estonian armed forces (16,500 men) by a factor of ten. On 28 September, a pact of mutual assistance was signed between the Soviet Union and the Republic of Estonia, stranded with its intimidating Eastern neighbor by the world, resulting in the deployment of 25,000 Red Army troops in western Estonia. Although the implementation of this pact was not supposed to interfere with the sovereign rights of either party, it was an asymmetrical treaty, and had the effect of significantly restricting Estonian sovereignty, doing away with its neutrality and transforming Estonia into a protectorate of the Soviet Union. Analogous treaties were signed with Latvia and Lithuania.

In mid-summer 1940, as the whole world was watching the collapse of France before the German war machine, the Soviet Union occupied the three Baltic republics. On 16 June, Soviet foreign minister Molotov issued an ultimatum to Estonia (as it did to Latvia and Lithuania) accusing the Baltic States of violating the pact of mutual assistance and of forming a military alliance that the Soviets claimed was threatening its security. The Baltics were called on to form new, Soviet-minded governments and to permit the unimpeded entry of the Red Army into the country. With no hope of outside assistance, the Estonian government acceded to the ultimatum and on 17 June the Red Army units-nearly 100,000 men-entered Estonia and, together with the troops stationed on the bases, occupied the entire country. “People's governments” were formed in the occupied Baltic States from 17-21 June 1940. On 3 August, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, followed by Latvia on 5 August and Estonia on 6 August.

Soviet troops had not yet reached Estonia when NKVD directive no. 0001223 was prepared on deportation of inhabitants of the three Baltic States. Estonia's political leadership, officer corps and intelligentsia were slated for systematic destruction. Economic luminaries, senior officials and homestead owners also featured on the list. They were to be arrested, their property confiscated, and sent to camps for 5-8 years with 20 years of exile. The families of arrestees were to be waiting for them in the resettlement areas.

Toward the end of German occupation, in March 1944, the Estonian National Committee was formed, which made preparations to reinstate Estonian independence with Western assistance and based on the Atlantic Charter. Jüri Uluots, in the capacity of President of the Republic, sought to restore the legitimate state bodies and on 18 September appointed a broad-based coalition government led by Otto Tief. The Tief government declared the Republic of Estonia's continuity, and neutrality in the ongoing war, and tried to organize the defence of Tallinn. On 22 September, Red Army units reached Tallinn and by the end of November, all of Estonia was again under Soviet control.

The occupied Baltic States were the only overrun countries whose independence was not restored at the end of the war. They are also exceptional in that the Atlantic Charter's points on territorial adjustments and self-determination were not applied to them, even though the Soviet Union, too, had acceded to the charter. The Baltics were the only members of the League of Nations that did not take seats in the new organization, the UN. The de jure continuity of the Republic of Estonia was embodied by an exile government for the subsequent period of almost a half century.

The Baltic Appeal

On 23 August 1979, 45 Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian citizens sent a public letter - the Baltic Appeal - to the general secretary of the UN as well as the Soviet Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR, and the governments of the states that had signed the Atlantic Charter. The memorandum demanded the public disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, the invalidation of the pact from the moment of its signing, and the restoration of the independence of the Baltic States. Mart Niklus, Endel Ratas, Enn Tarto, Erik Udam signed on behalf of Estonia.

The Baltic Appeal was published in the foreign press and constituted the basis for the decision of European Parliament of 13 January 1983 in support of the demands of the memorandum.

On 23 August 1987, a demonstration organized by MRP-AEG (Estonian Group for the Public Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - an organization active in 1987-1988) took place in Tallinn's Hirvepark demanding disclosure, and elimination of the MRP's consequences. On 23 August 1989, around two million individuals linked hands in the Baltic Chain that stretched from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius. This demonstration again drew attention to the need to disclose the MRP and eliminate its consequences. Hope sprang in society that a renunciation by Germany and the Soviet Union of the secret deal would result in new opportunities for development and hopes of restoring the sovereignty lost so many years ago.

Historians of various countries devoted efforts to studying the MRP. Increasingly thorough illumination of the topic demonstrated that the three Baltic States had indeed been coercively removed from their historical path of development, occupied by military force and annexed by the Soviet Union. The entire process was completely null and void from the standpoint of international law. The Soviet leadership had for decades denied the very existence of any secret protocols to the MRP. Yet they could not prevent the topic from growing more salient.

On 24 December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, with a decision entitled “Political and legal assessment of the 1939 Soviet-German non-aggression pact," declared the secret protocols to the pact to be null and void. The Congress stated that the demarcation of the Soviet and German spheres of influence in the MRP and other secret protocols signed with Germany from 1939-1941 legally contravened the sovereignty and independence of a number of other countries. “During this period, the Soviet Union's relations with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were governed by a system of treaties. Pursuant to the peace treaties of 1920 and the non-aggression pacts signed from 1926-1933, the parties to these agreements undertook to honor each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability under all circumstances. The Soviet Union had similar obligations to Poland and Finland." With its decision, the Soviet legislature condemned the MRP and the signing of other secret agreements with Germany. The Congress declared the secret protocols to be without legal basis and null and void as of the moment of their signing.

In May 2005 in Washington, the security adviser to US President George W. Bush, Stephen Hadley, called on Russia to abrogate the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 that had led to the occupation of the Baltic States. Hadley harked back to the 1989 decision of the Congress of People's Deputies, and stressed: “Obviously it would be an appropriate thing for Russia, now having emerged out of the Soviet Union, to do the same thing”.