What was the Nazi-Soviet Pact

• When Poland was created at the end of WWI it had been made up of former German and Russian territories
• Both Germany and Russia despised the new state of Poland and the USSR had immediately started questioning its existence
• Stalin was determined to reclaim this land and Hitler was concerned about what Stalin would do if the Germans invaded
• Hitler couldn't not risk Stalin intervening, so he sent his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to make a deal. If the USSR allowed Hitler to invade Poland, the USSR would be given Polish territory
• On 23rd August 1939 a non-aggression pact was signed, called the Nazi-Soviet Pact