Foreign policy of the USSR in the eve of the Second World War

In recent years discussions have not faded about the reasons for the outbreak of World War II and the role of Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in this. At the same time, opposing views are expressed on the role of this Pact: from completely positive (the Pact allowed the USSR to delay the outbreak of war) to completely negative (the Pact launched World War II). In this regard, this article, dedicated to identifying the reasons for the outbreak of war and the role of the Pact, is topical. The purpose of the article, on the whole, is to present an alternative version of the topic “Assessment of the foreign policy of the USSR on the eve of World War II”. This version differs from the official that 1) recognizes the convergence of the USSR and Germany before the war as a significant cause of the beginning of the war; 2) consider this rapprochement with retrospective effect from the end of the World War I. There are many facts that do not appear in the official history textbooks. To achieve this goal the author analyzed a considerable number of sources: the official history textbooks for schools, scientific articles, and presentations at scientific conferences. The novelty of the work is to justify the provision according to which the conclusion of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 23, 1939 was a serious mistake of the Soviet Union, caused by the disregard of the incompetence of fascist Germany, demonstrated by it during the previous two years.