Russia Should Own Up to Stalin-Hitler Friendship
The Kremlin is in denial about some shameful pages of World War II history. It’s not a sign of strength.
Ancient history, modern politics.
Photographer: Photo 12/Universal Images Group EditorialOn Sept. 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland. Germany, which had done the same in the western part of the country two weeks earlier, acquiesced under the terms of a notorious neutrality agreement between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin that divided parts of eastern Europe into Nazi and Communist spheres of influence.
That’s just history in most of the world, but it’s contemporary politics in some of it. An Associated Press correction last week and reactions to it show that the question of whether the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were allies at the dawn of World War II remains a hot-button issue for many Russians and eastern Europeans.