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After the National Socialist Party 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 generally had good relations with the Weimar Republic.<ref>Boobyer, p 198</ref> Following several years of tension and rivalry, Germany and the Soviet Union eventually improved relations in 1939. The German economy thrived by exporting manufactured goods and industrial equipment worldwide 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 a 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 the two leaders because they were both at odds with the West. Driven by their mutual resentment for the West, the USSR's and Germany's interests briefly aligned, and they moved towards [[The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact- Stalin’s greatest mistake?|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 war. However, Poland refused to grant its permission because they justifiably feared that the 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 - www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/stalwarplans.html</ref>
After the Soviet Union's negotiations fell apart with Britain and France, Stalin turned to Germany. As a result, on the 23rd of August 1939, the Soviet Union entered into a non-aggression pact with Germany. The pact, known as [http://dailyhistory.org/The_MolotovThe Molotov-Ribbentrop_PactRibbentrop Pact-_Stalin%E2%80%99s_greatest_mistake%3F Stalin’s greatest mistake?| Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact], was named after the leadership of the USSR's and Germany's foreign affairs. Hitler allayed his fears of a two-front war in Europe. Moreover, Stalin and Hitler signed numerous secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence. The Soviets would recover eastern Poland, formerly part of Imperial Russia. The Germans also supported the USSR's claims on Bessarabia (eastern part of Romania). They agreed to define Eastern Europe's Baltic (Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania) and Balkan states as belonging to the Soviet “sphere of interest.” Furthermore, after signing the pact, the countries rapidly expanded their economic relationship by entering into a commercial agreement whereby the Soviet Union sent critical raw materials and ingredients to Germany to exchange weapons, military technology, civilian and manufacturing machinery. Thereafter, Germany received significant petroleum, grain, rubber, and manganese, all necessary for its future war efforts.
====Germany' Violation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact====
