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[[File: barb 2.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Aftermath of battle 1941]]

After the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, relations between Germany and the Soviet Union, as the two sworn enemy regimes, began to deteriorate rapidly, and trade between the two countries decreased and almost froze. The Soviet Union had generally good relations with the Weimar Republic.<ref> Boobyer, p 198</ref> Following several years of tension and rivalry, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union eventually began to improve relations in 1939. German economy thrived by exporting manufactured goods and industrial equipment around the world in exchange for importing raw materials. On the other hand, the USSR was still an agrarian state. While it was rich in natural resources, it was struggling to transition to an more industrial economy. The Soviets were forced to purchase and import more than half of the necessary factory machinery from the United States. The pact was appealing to both Stalin and Hitler because they were both at odds with the West. Driven by their mutual resentment for the West, USSR and Nazi Germany interests briefly aligned and they moved towards German-Soviet cooperation and an alliance.

In 1939, London and Paris invited Moscow to co-sign an Anglo-French guarantee to protect Poland and Romania from possible German aggression. The Soviets agreed only upon permission from Lithuania, Poland, and Romania to allow the free passage of Soviet troops in the event of war. However, Poland refused to grant its permission because they justifiably feared that Soviets wanted to use these as a pretext to take over its territory. The West prolonged Soviet-Allied negotiations since the Great Powers feared the spread of the communist regime and considered the Soviet Union as an outlaw state for its established social and political structures through internal subversion, armed violence, and terrorism. USSR in its turn advocated the overthrow of all capitalist regimes.<ref>Stalin's Secret War Plans: Why Hitler Invaded the Soviet Union - http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/stalwarplans.html</ref>