Moscow has long argued that Russia was forced to sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 because Britain and France were not willing to join an anti-Hitler coalition. Now, it is offering an additional explanation: it says the Kremlin feared that unless it made a deal with Hitler, Germany and Poland would jointly attack the USSR.
That is the substance of documents the Russian Defense Ministry has released online under the title “A Fragile Peace on the Brink of War” (pakt1939.mil.ru), a collection that also includes Soviet reports about the enthusiasm of Ukrainians and Belarusians in Poland about the chance to live in the Soviet Union.