On this day in 1939: Stalin and Hitler signed the treaty "On Friendship and Borders"
87 years ago, on September 28, 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany, having jointly destroyed Poland, signed a new agreement that expanded on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The anniversary is being marked as a historical reminder.
On September 28, 1939, a month after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had jointly invaded and divided Poland, the two totalitarian leaders, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, finalized a new agreement known as the treaty "On Friendship and Borders."
The document was a direct continuation of what had begun with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed weeks earlier, which had outlined the division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence for the two powers. While the August pact described those spheres in relatively general terms, the September treaty set out more concrete borders between the territories controlled by the two regimes and further outlined their future plans for the region.
Context
The treaty was signed at a point when Poland no longer existed as an independent state, its territory having been split between the two aggressors. The agreement cemented this new status quo and laid the groundwork for continued Soviet-German cooperation, which also affected the fate of other Eastern European countries, including the Baltic states.
This date in history is remembered as one of the turning points that reinforced the early stages of World War II and set in motion consequences that shaped Europe's political map for decades to come.
