Secret Protocol (Molotov–Ribbentrop)
비밀의정서
Part of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The secret additional protocol signed alongside the German–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on 23 August 1939, partitioning Eastern Europe into Nazi and Soviet 'spheres of influence.' It divided Poland along the Narew–Vistula–San line, assigned Finland, Estonia, and Latvia to the Soviet sphere and Lithuania to the German sphere, and acknowledged Soviet interest in Bessarabia. The USSR denied the protocol's existence for nearly half a century, but in December 1989 the Congress of People's Deputies, acting on the findings of the Yakovlev Commission, officially acknowledged and condemned it; the Soviet original was discovered in the Russian Presidential Archive and made public in 1992.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) overview of the pact, its secret protocol, spheres of influence, and historical consequences
- Wikipedia (RU) detailed article on the secret protocol: Stalin's initiative, contents, denial, 1989 Yakovlev Commission, 1992 discovery of Soviet original
- sourcebooks.fordham.edu full text of the Treaty of Non-Aggression and the Secret Additional Protocol (Fordham University Internet Modern History Sourcebook)