【Historical Review】The wonderful German-Soviet relations before World War II
Throughout history, we have often seen allies and enemies shift, but the tortuous relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union is perhaps the most incredible. Although the two countries were at odds with each other for tens of millions of lives and large swathes of territory, a closer look at their interaction in the 20 years before the war broke out reveals that they still maintained a "friend and brother" relationship at the last moment before the outbreak of war. This relationship may be described as "love and kill" in current Chinese film and television dramas, but the story behind it is more complex and full of drama.
This special relationship originated during World War I, when Germany and Russia were two major enemies. In order to get rid of the enemy on the eastern and western fronts, Germany decided to use a special weapon, the Russian revolutionary Lenin, to overthrow the Russian tsar. Germany sent Lenin back to Russia, and Lenin successfully launched the October Revolution, overthrew the tsarist regime, and subsequently declared his withdrawal from World War I. Germany not only achieved its goal, but also pressured Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, forcing Russia to pay reparations and cede territory. The inside story of all this is shocking.
However, it was in this context that Germany and the Soviet Union began a 20-year cooperative relationship, which can also be called "whimsical cooperation". After the end of World War I, the Allies worked hard to strip Germany of their power, and at the same time sent troops to intervene in the uprising of the Russian Communist Party, in an attempt to make these two old enemies, who had stood in different trenches, "brothers and brothers" in the new political landscape.
In 1922, Germany and the Soviet Union formally signed the Treaty of Raballo, beginning this "honeymoon period" that lasted 20 years. For the first time, the agreement ended hostilities, restored diplomatic relations, renounced demands such as reparations, and expanded economic and trade relations under the most-favored-nation principle.
However, the areas of greatest interest to both sides are how to cooperate militarily. For Germany, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was limited by the expansion of the army and the development of heavy weapons, and even prohibited offensive military exercises and training. Therefore, Germany was eager for military cooperation with the Soviet Union, which was not subject to these restrictions. Similarly, Western countries forbade the supply of modern weapons production lines to the USSR and did not allow them to help the USSR establish a modern military command and training system.
Unexpectedly, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a secret military agreement on the basis of the Treaty of Raballo that shocked Western countries even more, thus blatantly bypassing the restrictions of the Versailles Convention. This partnership allowed Germany to supply weapons production lines to the Soviet Union, while the Soviet Union provided extensive military bases and factories for the German army to study a variety of new strategies and tactics, including armored forces, air force and artillery, as well as to develop and experiment with new weapons. During this cooperation, Germany carried out a series of revolutionary military research on the experimental grounds of the Soviet Union.
Over time, Germany provided the Soviet Union with many weapons design drawings and production equipment, and strategic weapons that would be banned now had safe new manufacturing sites. Krupp makes artillery armored vehicles in Tula, Junckers in Moscow, and military poison gas in Samara. In addition, German armored and air forces conducted various trainings at Soviet bases, including even Goering, who later became a marshal of the Nazi Air Force. Not only that, Germany's "father of the airborne forces" Stuart Dent also established a paratrooper base in the Soviet Union to study new airborne combat tactics. In addition, even before the outbreak of World War II, Guderian, the Nazi "father of armored soldiers" who led troops to attack the Soviet Union, completed his experimental demonstration of blitzkrieg theory and tactics on Soviet soil.
However, after Hitler came to power, Germany's domestic policy changed, and the Nazi regime no longer engaged in open military cooperation with the Soviet Union as before. On the contrary, Germany preferred to barter with the USSR in "weapons for strategic goods". This is why the barter trade between Germany and China at that time was similar to the principle.
Germany tried to paralyze the USSR in this way, and at the same time ostensibly expanded trade with the USSR, especially when Germany massively massed troops to the borders of the USSR, behaving very aggressively, and even sending goods to the USSR in advance to demonstrate German "sincerity". This apparent sincerity led to a great deal of miscalculation by the Soviet Union, and it was not until June 22, 1941, when Germany suddenly launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, that Stalin realized that he had been deceived, and the "honeymoon period" between the two countries officially ended.
【Historical Review】The wonderful relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union has never been heard of, and the two countries have two wars before and after each other, and there is an extremely complex historical intersection. Behind this tortuous German-Soviet cooperative relationship reflects the treachery and complexity of international relations. This history also reminds us that history is not simply black and white opposites, and there are often incredible stories hidden behind it.