Pariahs, partners, predators: German-Soviet relations, 1922 - 1941

Abstract

The relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union during the interwar period evolved from a shared status as international outcasts to a tactical partnership and, finally, to catastrophic conflict. Following the First World War, both nations bypassed diplomatic isolation through clandestine military and economic cooperation, specifically through secret German installations on Soviet soil designed to evade Treaty of Versailles restrictions. This pragmatic alignment between revanchist and revolutionary regimes facilitated the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, transforming the two powers into temporary partners in the territorial partition of Eastern Europe. However, this partnership remained fundamentally unstable, predicated on mutual predation and strategic necessity rather than ideological affinity. As expansionist goals converged and then clashed in occupied territories, the resulting friction led to an irreversible breakdown in diplomacy. This trajectory culminated in the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, terminating a volatile cycle of cooperation and initiating a total war that redefined the geopolitical landscape of the twentieth century. – AI-generated abstract.