Editing Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (section)

===August negotiations===
{{See also|German–Soviet Credit Agreement (1939)}}
In early August, Germany and the Soviet Union worked out the last details of their economic deal{{Sfn|Ericson|1999|p=56}} and started to discuss a political agreement. Both countries' diplomats explained to each other the reasons for the hostility in their foreign policy in the 1930s and found common ground in both countries' [[anticapitalism]] with Karl Schnurre stating: "there is one common element in the ideology of Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union: opposition to the capitalist democracies" or that "it seems to us rather unnatural that a socialist state would stand on the side of the western democracies".{{Sfn|Nekrich|Ulam|Freeze|1997|p=115}}{{Sfn|Fest|2002|pp=589–90}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bertriko|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Subrenat|first2=A|first3=David|last3=Cousins|title=Estonia: Identity and Independence|url=https://archive.org/details/estoniaidentityi00subr|url-access=limited|publisher=Rodopi|year=2004|isbn=90-420-0890-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/estoniaidentityi00subr/page/n141 131]}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/hitler-and-stalin-werent-such-strange-bedfellows-11566512411?mod=searchresults&page=2&pos=2|title=Hitler and Stalin Weren't Such Strange Bedfellows|date=22 August 2019|website=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=21 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321000120/https://www.wsj.com/articles/hitler-and-stalin-werent-such-strange-bedfellows-11566512411?mod=searchresults&page=2&pos=2|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the same time, British, French, and Soviet negotiators scheduled three-party talks on military matters to occur in Moscow in August 1939 that aimed to define what the agreement would specify on the reaction of the three powers to a German attack.{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=502}} The [[tripartite military talks]], started in mid-August, hit a sticking point on the passage of Soviet troops through Poland if Germans attacked, and the parties waited as British and French officials overseas pressured Polish officials to agree to such terms.{{Sfn|Watson|2000|p=713}}{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=536}} Polish officials refused to allow Soviet troops into Polish territory if Germany attacked; [[Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs|Polish Foreign Minister]] [[Józef Beck]] pointed out that the Polish government feared that if the [[Red Army]] entered Polish territory, it would never leave.{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=537}}<ref name="Cienciala">{{Cite web|first=Anna M|last=Cienciala|author-link=Anna M. Cienciala|orig-year=2004|url=http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect16.htm|title=The Coming of the War and Eastern Europe in World War II|type=lecture notes|publisher=[[University of Kansas]]|year=2006|access-date=16 July 2009|archive-date=1 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801010755/http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect16.htm|url-status=dead}}.</ref>

On 19 August, the [[German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939)|1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement]] was finally signed.{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=525}} On 21 August, the Soviets suspended the tripartite military talks and cited other reasons.{{Sfn|Roberts|2006|p=30}}{{Sfn|Watson|2000|p=715}} The same day, Stalin received assurances that Germany would approve secret protocols to the proposed non-aggression pact that would place the half of Poland east of the [[Vistula]] River as well as [[Latvia]], [[Estonia]], Finland and [[Bessarabia]] in the Soviet sphere of influence.<ref name="murphy23">{{cite book|last=Murphy|first=David E|title=What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11981-X|page=23}}.</ref> That night, Stalin replied that the Soviets were willing to sign the pact and that he would receive Ribbentrop on 23 August.{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=528}}