Curated playlist
Germany–Soviet Union relations (1918–1941)
- German–Soviet Axis talksIn November 1940, Berlin greeted Molotov with an orchestra playing The Internationale.
- Soviet offensive plans controversyA former Soviet intelligence officer claimed Stalin planned to attack Germany first.
- Vyacheslav MolotovFinns named the Molotov cocktail after Vyacheslav Molotov, who called bombing raids food deliveries.
- Joachim von RibbentropJoachim von Ribbentrop sold champagne before he became Nazi Germany's foreign minister.
- Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)Hitler gave Czechoslovakia's president two choices: cooperate or face armed destruction.
- Anti-Comintern PactThe Anti-Comintern Pact had a secret clause naming the Soviet Union. The public text did not.
- Molotov–Ribbentrop PactHitler decided Stalin looked like a man he could do business with. Their 1939 pact split Eastern Europe in secret.
- Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)In 1940, one Estonian army unit on Raua Street in Tallinn fought back against the Soviet takeover.
- Operation BarbarossaHitler first called his invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Otto, then renamed it Barbarossa.
- Winter WarIn the Winter War, a small Finland with almost no tanks held off the Soviet Union for three and a half months.
- Treaty of Brest-LitovskRussia lost 89% of its coalfields when Sokolnikov signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty.