• AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          The Soviet Union was already at war with Japan. People try to make the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact out to be a huge deal, whether as Hitler or Stalin being best buds or Stalin pulling some 10d chess move to get the Nazis to invade Western Europe instead, but the whole point of the pact was so the Soviet Union wouldn't have to fight two fronts. That's literally it. Notice how once relations between the Soviet Union and Fascist Japan began to normalize, the Soviet Union quickly signed another non-aggression pact, this time with Japan. Operation Barbarossa would commence two months later, making the timing of the non-aggression pact most fortunate. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was null and void, but the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality pact was in play, so the Soviet Union once again only had to fight on a single front instead of contending with two. And when the triumphant Red Army marched over the ruins of Berlin, the Soviets basically said, "Pact? What pact?" before breaking the pact by liberating Manchuria from Japanese fascists. Once the Nazis were defeated, the Eastern front no longer existed, which meant the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality pact outlived its usefulness of ensuring the Soviet Union only had to fight one front.