Editing Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (section)

==Secret protocol==
On 22 August, one day after talks broke down with [[France]] and Britain, [[Moscow]] revealed that Ribbentrop would visit Stalin the next day. The Soviets were still negotiating with the British and the French missions in Moscow. With the Western nations unwilling to accede to Soviet demands, Stalin instead entered a secret German–Soviet pact.{{sfn|Watt|1989|p=367}} On 23 August, a ten-year [[non-aggression pact]] was signed with provisions that included consultation, arbitration if either party disagreed, neutrality if either went to war against a third power and no membership of a group "which is directly or indirectly aimed at the other". The article "On Soviet–German Relations" in the Soviet newspaper ''[[Izvestia]]'' of 21 August 1939, stated:
{{blockquote|Following completion of the Soviet–German trade and credit agreement, there has arisen the question of improving political links between Germany and the USSR.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8216847.stm Media build up to World War II] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321000125/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8216847.stm |date=21 March 2022 }}, ''[[BBC News]]'', 24 August 2009</ref>}}

[[File:Hitler Stalin Pakt Geheimes Zusatzprotokoll.jpg|thumb|The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (German copy)]]
[[File:Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 2.gif|thumb|Last page of the ''Additional Secret Protocol'' of the Pact (Russian copy)]]

There was also a secret protocol to the pact, which was revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945<ref name="mrtext"/> although hints about its provisions had been leaked much earlier, so as to influence Lithuania.<ref>Ceslovas Laurinavicius, "The Lithuanian Reaction to the Loss of Klaipeda and the Combined Gift of Soviet "Security Assistance and Vilnius", in: ''Northern European Overture to War, 1939–1941: From Memel to Barbarossa'', 2013, {{ISBN|90-04-24909-5}}</ref> According to the protocol, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland were divided into German and Soviet "[[spheres of influence]]".<ref name="mrtext">{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html|title=Text of the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact|date=August 23, 1939|publisher=Fordham|access-date=11 February 2003|archive-date=14 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114231303/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html|url-status=dead}}.</ref> In the north, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere.<ref name="mrtext" /> Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political rearrangement": the areas east of the [[Pisa (river)|Pisa]], [[Narew]], [[Vistula]], and [[San (river)|San]] rivers would go to the Soviet Union, and Germany would occupy the west.<ref name="mrtext"/> Lithuania, which was adjacent to [[East Prussia]], was assigned to the German sphere of influence, but a second secret protocol, agreed to in September 1939, reassigned Lithuania to the Soviet Union.<ref name="christie">{{cite book |last=Christie |first=Kenneth |title=Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: Ghosts at the Table of Democracy |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2002 |isbn=0-7007-1599-1}}.</ref> According to the protocol, Lithuania would be granted its historical capital, [[Vilnius]], [[Vilnius Region#Vilnius dispute|which was part of Poland during the interwar period]]. Another clause stipulated that Germany would not interfere with the Soviet Union's actions towards [[Bessarabia]], which was then part of [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]].<ref name="mrtext" /> As a result, Bessarabia as well as the [[Northern Bukovina]] and [[Hertsa region|Hertsa]] regions were [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|occupied by the Soviets]] and integrated into the Soviet Union.

At the signing, Ribbentrop and Stalin enjoyed warm conversations, exchanged toasts and further addressed the prior hostilities between the countries in the 1930s.{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=539}} They characterised [[United Kingdom|Britain]] as always attempting to disrupt Soviet–German relations and stated that the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] was aimed not at the Soviet Union but actually at Western democracies and "frightened principally the [[City of London]] [British financiers] and the English shopkeepers."{{Sfn|Shirer|1990|p=540}}