Editing Munich Agreement (section)

===== Soviet Union=====
[[File:Польша показала Ивану его место.jpg|thumb|A political cartoon from Poland depicting the Soviet Union in the form of "Ivan" being kicked out of Europe: "I have a feeling Europe has stopped respecting me"]]
[[Joseph Stalin]] was upset by the results of the Munich conference. On 2 May 1935, France and the Soviet Union signed the [[Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance]] with the aim of containing Nazi Germany's aggression.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jabara Carley |first1=Michael |title=Who Betrayed Whom? Franco-Anglo-Soviet Relations, 1932–1939 |url=https://www.webdepot.umontreal.ca/Usagers/carleym/MonDepotPublic/Carley%27s%20Web%20site/Carley_Berlin_2014.pdf |publisher=Université de Montréal}}</ref> The Soviets, who had a mutual military assistance treaty with Czechoslovakia, felt betrayed by France, which also had a [[Little Entente|mutual military assistance treaty with Czechoslovakia]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Franco-Czech Treaty |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,717350,00.html |magazine=Time |date=7 January 1924}}</ref> The British and French mostly used the Soviets as a threat to dangle over the Germans. Stalin concluded that the West had colluded with Hitler to hand over a country in [[Central Europe]] to the Germans, causing concern that they might do the same to the Soviet Union in the future to allow its partition between the western nations. This belief led the Soviet Union to reorient its foreign policy towards a [[rapprochement]] with Germany, which eventually led to the signing of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] in 1939.{{sfn|Hildebrand|1991}}

In 1938, the Soviet Union was allied with France and Czechoslovakia. By September 1939, the Soviets were to all intents and purposes a [[co-belligerent]] with Nazi Germany, due to Stalin's fears of a second Munich Agreement with the Soviet Union replacing Czechoslovakia. Thus, the agreement indirectly contributed to the outbreak of war in 1939.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sakwa |first=Richard |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 1917–1991 |publisher=Routledge |date=1999 |isbn=0415122899 |page=225}}</ref>