大象传媒

Archive footage recreates the arrival of the German Foreign Minister in Moscow on the 23rd of August 1939. As the Kremlin bells chimed midnight, Germany and Russia signed a treaty of non-aggression, guaranteeing that each remain neutral if the other attacked a third nation.

Martin Sixsmith observes, "The Pact was a cynical marriage of convenience, and it meant old enmities had to be reversed." Wolfgang Leonhard, a young German living in Moscow at the time recalls: "On the same day all anti-fascist books were taken out of the libraries. All anti-Nazi films were taken out of the cinemas. There was no mention even of the existence of fascism any more." Poland was the biggest loser and within weeks had been invaded by Germany in the West and Russia in the East. The Nazi-Soviet pact shocked the world; would lead to the deaths of millions and the division of Europe, but it was not to last.

When the weakness of the Red Army was revealed, after a humiliating retreat from Finland, Germany responded. Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, began on the 22nd of June 1941. The army was unprepared and Stalin collapsed in a state of debilitated despair. It was 10 days until Stalin pulled himself together to address the nation, appealing to old 'bourgeois' values of nationalism and patriotism, urging a divided, discontented people to come together to defend their country: "This war is not an ordinary war. It is a great war of the entire Soviet people against the German fascist forces. This is a national war in defence of our country." It worked. But it would be a brutal and terrible fight to the death that revived Russia's deep-seated fears of national annihilation and conditioned the way its people thought of their country and of themselves for many years to come.

Historical Consultant - Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producer: Anna Scott-Brown & Adam Fowler
A Ladbroke Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.