Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

Molotov-Ribbentrop: The Pact That Changed Europe's Borders

By Kristyna Foltynova, RFE/RL

Eighty years ago -- on the night of August 23, 1939 -- Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing a nonaggression pact in Moscow that also contained a secret protocol carving up Eastern Europe into mutual spheres of influence. A week later, World War II began.