The Secret Protocol: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Falsification of History

In 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany agreed to a nonaggression treaty named for its signatories, foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Kept hidden from the public was an addendum to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a “secret protocol” whose existence was denied by the Soviet Union until 1992. It defined new borders for German and Soviet spheres of influence, effectively preparing for the partition of Poland, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia. Shortly after signing on August 23, 1939, both the USSR and Nazi Germany invaded Poland. In this volume, Antonella Salomoni scrutinizes this consequential document and its afterlives, focusing predominantly on the discourse that surrounded it.

From the moment of the secret protocol’s inception—and the near-instantaneous rumors of its existence—it generated friction and competing narratives. The document became public during the Nuremberg trials, but the USSR declared it a fabrication evidencing the West’s willingness to falsify history. It continues to be relevant to the reconfiguration of history currently advanced by Vladimir Putin. By centering the rumors, accusations, and propaganda the pact precipitated, Salomoni illuminates how political actors can use and abuse history, how they create and disseminate truths and falsehoods, and how they can blur the boundary between facts and fictions even in the glaring face of black-and-white documentation.

Antonella Salomoni is a professor of contemporary history in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Calabria, where she teaches the history of human rights and social services, as well as cultures of peace. She also teaches the history of the Shoah and genocides in the Department of History and Cultures at the University of Bologna.

Antony Shugaar is a writer and translator from the Italian and the French. The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, he has been shortlisted for both the PEN and ALTA Italian translation awards. He is the English-language editor of FMR magazine.