aug 23, 1939 - The Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact is signed.

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"Not only would it [USSR] regain the territories it has lost to the Germans during WWII; it would also retain the territories it had taken as a result of the opportunistic but short-sighted ‘non-aggression’ pact Stalin had concluded with Hitler in August, 1939 – portions of Finland, Poland, and Romania, all of the Baltic States…It would seek territorial concession at the expense of Iran and Turkey (including control of the Turkish Straits), as well as naval bases in the Mediterranean. Finally, it would punish a defeated and devastated Germany through military occupation, property expropriations, reparations payments, and ideological transformation." (Gaddis 2006, p. 11)

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