From the chaos of the First World War, during which Germany and
Russia had fought each other to a standstill, there emerged two
societies whose diametrically opposed ideologies of communism and
fascism represented the opposite extremes of the political
spectrum. Despite this, in time the governments and military
establishments in both countries were able to create an environment
where political expediency led to both cooperation and an eventual
alliance. Western democracies found both systems repellent but the
two countries, Germany and the Soviet Union, embodied vast
resources of, in the case of the Soviets, raw materials and, in the
case of Germany, huge intellectual, scientific and industrial
expertise. Both offered massive opportunities for trade, but
neither made comfortable partners. Britain, whose sympathies lay
more with the Germans, and France, whose history tied them more to
Eastern Europe, tended to treat both Germany and the Soviet Union
as outcast states. This created a great deal of animosity in return
and ultimately drove the outcasts into each other's arms. Whilst
animosity was rampant on a political level, both countries, now
having equal pariah status in the eyes of the Western allies, began
to see huge benefits in military and economic cooperation.
Collaborative ventures for covert armament production and training
facilities were initiated in 1921. These schemes would continue,
with varying degrees of success, for more than a decade until the
rise of Nazism in Germany put an end to it. The Spanish Civil War
saw not only thee two rival political philosophies but opposing
military doctrines also being tested against each other on the
field of battle. It is remarkable, therefore, that these two
nations emerged from this maelstrom to re-discover the spirit of
Rapallo'. It was a spirit which culminated in the signing of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. Within weeks, both sides
would display their unity as they fell together with ruthless
efficiency upon the hapless Poland. This book looks at how these
two strange bedfellows' dealt with western hostility and found ways
to accommodate each other in a bid to recover from the economic
devastation and dismantling of their historic territorial
boundaries. The extent to which cooperation was achieved is unusual
given the circumstances, especially as they had to contend with the
machinations of the Western Powers. The era of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact proved to be a brief liaison, one that
collapsed into savagery again when Hitler launched Operation
Barbarossa just a few months later.
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