After the Anschluss of Austria, Hitler turned his claims to the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, where the Sudeten Germans were the main population.
Having organized public unrest with the help of provocateurs, he demanded a referendum to exercise the "right to self-determination."
At the same time, the advance of German troops to the Czechoslovak border was carried out.

Czechoslovakia announced mobilization and turned to the USSR and France for help, referring to the Tripartite Agreement on Joint Defense.
The support of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union and France forced the Germans to move on to negotiations with Czechoslovakia.

On May 21, the Polish ambassador in Paris assured the US ambassador to France that Poland would immediately declare war on the USSR if it tried to send troops through Polish territory to help Czechoslovakia.

A week later, French Foreign Minister J. Bonnet said in a conversation with the Polish ambassador that "Goering's plan for the division of Czechoslovakia between Germany and Hungary with the transfer of Cieszyn Silesia to Poland is not a secret."
It became clear to France that Poland was interested in the division of Czechoslovakia and would not allow the passage of Soviet troops through its territory.

On August 11, 1938, the Polish ambassador Yu. Lipsky reported from Berlin that G. Goering suggested that he discuss in the near future, "of course, as always secretly and unofficially, the possibility of further Polish-German rapprochement." In the course of a preliminary exchange of views, "Göring returned to his idea that in the event of a Soviet-Polish conflict, Germany cannot remain neutral and not provide assistance to Poland", which, unlike Germany, "in his opinion, may have certain interests directly in Russia, for example in Ukraine.

In September 1938, the Germans again broke off negotiations with Czechoslovakia.
France announced the call for reservists, but a few days later, together with England, they made a joint "terrible" statement that in the event of war they would support Czechoslovakia, "but if Germany does not allow war, then she will get everything she wants."

On September 14, Chamberlain notified Hitler by telegram of his readiness to visit him "for the sake of saving the world." During a meeting with Chamberlain, Hitler stated that he wanted peace, but because of the Czechoslovak problem, he was ready to fight. Peace can be saved if Great Britain agrees to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany.

On September 19, Benes, through the Soviet plenipotentiary in Prague, addresses the government of the USSR regarding its position in the event of a military conflict, and the Soviet government responds that it is ready to fulfill the terms of the Prague Treaty.

And the French envoy in Czechoslovakia told the Czechoslovak government that if it did not accept the Anglo-French proposals, the French government would "not fulfill the treaty" with Czechoslovakia.

On the same day, the Ambassador of Poland Lipsky informed A. Hitler about the desire of the Polish government to completely eliminate Czechoslovakia as an independent state, since the Polish government considers "the Czechoslovak Republic as an artificial creation ... not connected with the real needs and healthy rights of the peoples of Central Europe."

On the night of September 21, the ambassadors of Great Britain and France, waking up President E. Benes, demanded that he immediately surrender to Germany. “If the Czechs unite with the Russians, the war may take on the character of a crusade against the Bolsheviks. Then it will be very difficult for the governments of England and France to stand aside."

On September 23, the Czechoslovak government announced a general mobilization. The Soviet government makes a statement to the government of Poland that any attempt by the latter to occupy part of Czechoslovakia will annul the non-aggression pact.

September 29 in Munich, Hitler meets with the heads of government of Great Britain, France and Italy. The Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia were denied participation in the meeting.
The next day, Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement. After that, the Czechoslovak delegation was allowed into the hall.

Having familiarized themselves with the main points of the agreement containing the requirements for the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, the representatives of Czechoslovakia protested: “This is outrageous! This is cruel and criminally stupid!”
“Sorry, but it’s useless to argue,” was the answer. Under pressure from the leadership of Great Britain and France, the Czechoslovak delegation signed the agreement.

In the morning, President Benes, without the consent of the National Assembly, approved this agreement.
American President F. Roosevelt joined the company of "Munich peacekeepers". He sent a congratulatory telegram to Chamberlain through his ambassador in London, J. Kennedy.

September 30, 1938 Chamberlain visits Hitler and signs the Anglo-German declaration of friendship and non-aggression.
The declaration stated that the adopted treaties “symbolize the will of both nations never again to fight each other” and will also “discuss and consult on matters of vital importance to Great Britain and Germany, settle all differences and thus contribute to the preservation of European peace ...”

The signing of this declaration, however, did not mean at all that Nazi Germany was going to adhere to it. Ribbentrop stated immediately after the end of the conference that Chamberlain "today signed the death warrant of the British Empire and left us to set the date for the execution of this sentence"

But Chamberlain had his own vision of the situation.
And before leaving Munich, Chamberlain told Hitler: “You have enough planes to attack the Soviet Union, especially since there is no longer a danger of Soviet planes being based on Czechoslovak airfields.”

The rejection of the Sudetenland was only the beginning of the process of dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Poland took direct part in the division of Czechoslovakia. She sent an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia demanding that the Teszyn region be handed over to her, where 80,000 Poles and 120,000 Czechs lived.
Knowing that Poland would not let the Red Army through to help Czechoslovakia, the government was forced to accept the terms of the ultimatum.

On September 30, the day the Munich agreement was signed, Poland, along with German troops, sent its army into the Teszyn region. The main acquisition of the Munich Agreement for Poland was the very powerful industrial potential of the occupied territory: the enterprises located there produced at the end of 1938 almost 41% of the iron smelted in Poland and almost 47% of the steel.

On October 7, 1938, under pressure from Germany, the Czechoslovak government recognized the autonomy of Slovakia, and on October 8, a decision was made to grant autonomy to Transcarpathian Ukraine. President Benes resigns.
On October 9, 1938, the Soviet government asked the Czechoslovak government if it wanted to receive guarantees of new borders and independence from the USSR.
But the government of Czechoslovakia refused the help of the Soviet Union, referring to the fact that this issue could be resolved only by the participants in the Munich Treaty.

Having lost 80 percent of energy resources and 25 percent of heavy industry, the Czechoslovak economy was increasingly included in the sphere of German economic interests. German monopolies intensively absorbed Czechoslovak enterprises.

Without stopping the actions of direct and indirect aggression against Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany began preparations for the seizure of Poland.
On October 24, J. von Ribbentrop presented an invoice for Poland's participation in the partition of Czechoslovakia.
He demanded that Gdansk be handed over to Germany, that an extraterritorial zone be provided for the construction of a highway and a railway that would cut the "Polish Corridor", to extend the non-aggression pact and join the Anti-Comintern Pact.

The Polish government rejected the German demands, stating that "for internal political reasons, it is difficult to agree to the inclusion of Danzig in the Reich."
In an environment of undisguised expansion to the east, Germany continued its successful economic cooperation with Western countries.

An Anglo-German naval agreement was in effect. It was possible to reach a cartel agreement between the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the Mining Association of Great Britain.
On October 13, 1938, an agreement was concluded between the US oil company Standard Oil and the IG Farbenidustri concern on the creation of an American-German society for the production of synthetic gasoline.
With the assistance of the American and British monopolies, Germany found itself ahead of its imperialist competitors in Europe in a number of important military and economic indicators.

In October 1938, Hitler told the Czechoslovak foreign minister that he would keep Czechoslovakia if she realized that she belonged unconditionally to the German sphere and that the only guarantee of her existence was a German guarantee.
In response, the Minister of Foreign Affairs promised to "turn the whole policy of Czechoslovakia 180 degrees" - in favor of cooperation with Germany, which, "of course, means the end of the Moscow-Prague-Paris alliance."

But the pliability of the new leadership of Czechoslovakia did not help. The division of the country continued. By the decision of the Vienna Arbitration, drawn up by the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Subcarpathian Rus and the southern regions of Slovakia are transferred to Hungary, an ally under the Anti-Comintern Pact.

The government of fascist Germany, taking into account the capitulatory position of the Czech government and the Western powers, realized that the invasion of German troops would not meet with much resistance from the Czechs.
On October 21, 1938, Hitler signed a directive providing for the "rapid occupation of the Czech Republic and the isolation of Slovakia"

On December 6, 1938, during Ribbentrop's visit to Paris, the Franco-German declaration was signed, a kind of non-aggression pact.
The declaration proclaims peaceful and good neighborly relations between the two countries, the absence of unresolved territorial issues. Recognized as definitive, the existing border between France and Germany.

Declared determination to maintain contact with each other and hold mutual consultations on issues that could lead to international complications. The French Foreign Minister who signed the declaration, in a circular letter, informed the French ambassadors that the Reich had made it clear that he had a desire for expansion in an easterly direction.

The Declaration was a political agreement, essentially canceling out the Soviet-French Mutual Assistance Treaty of 1935.
The materials submitted by the diplomatic department to the British government, with satisfaction, say: "The signing of the document in Paris was a smart step on the part of Ribbentrop to cover Germany's rear and give her a free hand in the East"

On March 8, 1939, Hitler announced his plans to the highest ranks of the Reich. Before moving to the West, he considered it necessary to secure the rear, obtain guaranteed sources of raw materials and food, deprive France of allies, and prevent a "stab in the back."
Therefore, Czechoslovakia will be followed by Poland, the fall of which will make Hungary and Romania more compliant. In 1940, it will be the turn of France and England, and then the USSR, the war against which "remains the last and decisive task of German policy"

After 6 days, the Nazis began the final liquidation of the Czechoslovak state. On March 14, by order from Berlin, the Slovak fascists proclaimed the "independence" of Slovakia.

On the night of March 15, 1939, the President of Czechoslovakia, Hacha, was called to Berlin and familiarized himself with the treaty prepared in advance by Ribbentrop. It said that in order to maintain calm, order and peace in the region of Central Europe, the President of Czechoslovakia confidently hands the fate of the Czech people and country into the hands of the Fuhrer of Germany.
And the Fuhrer agrees to take the Czech population under the protection of the German Reich.

The next morning, Germany sent its troops to the lands that remained part of the Czech Republic, and declared a protectorate over them, calling it the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
On the same day, the President of Slovakia "on behalf of the Slovak government" sent a request to the German government to establish a protectorate over Slovakia, which was immediately granted.
Thus, with the tacit consent of the Western powers, Czechoslovakia was divided among the three predators by Nazi Germany, semi-fascist Poland and fascist Hungary.

As a result of the annexation of Czechoslovakia, the positions of Nazi Germany in Central Europe were significantly strengthened. At her disposal were additional resources of food and labor, gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Czech bank of issue. Germany captured 1,582 aircraft, 501 anti-aircraft guns, 2,175 cannons, 785 mortars, 43,876 machine guns, 469 tanks, over 1 million rifles,

As French General A. Beaufre wrote later, from a military point of view, Germany's gain was enormous. She not only deprived France of forty allied Czech divisions, but also managed to equip forty German divisions with captured Czech weapons.
Only the Skoda factories from August 1938 to September 1939 produced almost as much production as all British military factories during the same period.

Having received the news of the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain publicly declared in the House of Commons that England could not consider herself bound by an obligation to guarantee the integrity of Czechoslovakia.
In the French Parliament, Daladier not only did not utter a word in condemnation of the German aggression, but demanded emergency powers in order to suppress the protest of opposition forces condemning the Munich Agreement.
On March 19, the USSR government sent a note to Germany, declaring its non-recognition of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

It is not uncommon to hear about the bloodthirsty Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. True, it turns out that the Pact is not at all bloodthirsty, but logical, verified and justified. But in this note we will not discuss its details.
Let's look at who else made treaties with Hitler.

1. 1933. Pact of Four (Italy, Germany, England, France).
The "Pact of Four" was an attempt to counter the League of Nations with the "directory" of the four great powers, which sought to subjugate all of Europe to their hegemony. Ignoring the Soviet Union, the four powers tried to pursue a policy of isolating it, while at the same time eliminating other European states from participating in solving European affairs.

The "Pact of the Four" meant "a collusion between the British and French governments and German and Italian fascism, which even then did not hide their aggressive intentions. At the same time, this pact with the fascist states meant the rejection of the policy of strengthening the united front of peace-loving powers against aggressive states"

But due to disagreements among the participants and the discontent of other countries, the Pact of Four was never ratified.

2. 1934 Pilsudski-Hitler Pact (Germany, Poland).
Non-aggression pact between Germany and Poland. It was supplemented by an agreement on trade and navigation, separate agreements on issues of the press, cinema, radio broadcasting, theater, etc.
It was envisaged that the pact would remain in force even if one of the contracting parties went to war with third states.

3. 1935 Maritime Anglo-German agreement.
The British government granted Hitler's demand that "the power of the German fleet should be 35% in relation to the total power of the British Empire." The proportion of 35:100 was to be applied both to the total tonnage of the fleet and to each class of ships.

With regard to submarine forces, Germany was entitled to equality with Britain, but undertook not to exceed 45% of the tonnage of British submarine forces. It was envisaged that in case of violation of this limit, Germany would inform the British government.
Germany also assumed the obligation to comply with the qualitative limits established by the Washington Treaty of 1922 and the London Treaty of 1930.

In fact, the Germans were given the opportunity to build 5 battleships, two aircraft carriers, 21 cruisers and 64 destroyers.
The result of the agreement was the final elimination of all restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. In terms of the authorized tonnage of the fleet, Germany was equalized with France and Italy - the victorious powers in the First World War.

4. 1936 Anti-Comirtern Pact (Germany, Japan).
A treaty between Germany and Japan, which formalized (under the flag of the struggle against the Comintern) a bloc of these states in order to gain world domination.
In November 1937, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, and later a number of other states.
In 1939-40 the Pact was turned into an open military alliance (see the Berlin Pact).

5. 1938 Munich agreement (England, France, Germany, Italy).
The agreement concerned the transfer of the Sudetenland by Czechoslovakia to Germany.

The meeting in Munich at the Fuhrerbau took place on September 29-30. The basis of the agreement was the proposals of Italy, which practically did not differ in any way from the requirements put forward earlier by Hitler at a meeting with Chamberlain. Chamberlain and Daladier accepted these proposals.

At one in the morning on September 30, 1938, Chamberlain, Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler signed the Munich Agreement. After that, the Czechoslovak delegation was admitted to the hall where this agreement was signed.
The leadership of Great Britain and France put pressure on the government of Czechoslovakia, and President Benes, without the consent of the National Assembly, accepted this agreement for execution.

5.1. On September 30, a declaration of mutual non-aggression was signed between Great Britain and Germany.

5.2. A similar declaration by Germany and France was signed a little later.

6. 1939 German-Romanian economic treaties and agreements.
Bonded treaties imposed on monarcho-fascist Romania, which made the Romanian economy dependent on the military needs of fascist Germany.

7. 1939 German non-aggression pact against the Baltic countries.
For Germany, the purpose of the treaty was to prevent Western and Soviet influence in the Baltic states and the encirclement of Germany (a non-aggression pact with Lithuania had already been concluded in March 1939 after the German ultimatum over Klaipeda).

The Baltic states were to serve as an obstacle against the intervention of the USSR in the planned invasion of Poland.

Germany offered to conclude non-aggression pacts with Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden on April 28, 1939.
Sweden, Norway and Finland refused. Drafts of the agreements were ready in early May, but the signing was postponed twice as Latvia requested clarifications.

8. 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Germany, USSR).
Non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR.

On August 19, 1939, the Soviet-German economic agreement was signed, and on August 23, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The pact provided for a non-aggression pact and obligations to maintain neutrality if one of the parties became the object of hostilities by a third party.

An additional protocol to the treaty on the delimitation of spheres of mutual interests in Eastern Europe in the event of "territorial and political reorganization." The protocol provided for the inclusion of Latvia, Estonia, Finland, the eastern "regions that are part of the Polish state" and Bessarabia in the sphere of interests of the USSR, Lithuania and western Poland in the sphere of interests of Germany.

Interesting, right?
What, again, Stalin is to blame for everything ?!

Stalin is constantly blamed for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They say they Razderbanili Poland and started a war.

Well, first of all, there was no "pact". There was a "contract". Non-aggression pact.
Secondly, this treaty was preceded by some other "pacts".

For starters, who signed agreements with Hitler and Mussolini long before Stalin? Oh, suddenly! On September 30, 1938, the so-called Munich Agreement was concluded, according to which Great Britain and France gave the Third Reich the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Representatives of the USSR, by the way, were denied participation in the negotiations.

The “Pact” on draining the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis was signed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.
Two years ago, in 2014, the "non-aggression pact" between Yanukovych and the Maidan opposition was signed by the ministers of France and Germany. Do not suggest analogies and parallels?

Actually, here is a photo of the whole company, do not get out (from left to right, as listed above).

But back to history. In the spring of 1939, Nazi troops invaded Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union, which had a mutual assistance agreement with Czechoslovakia, is ready to intervene and asks Poland for a corridor so that Soviet troops will protect Czechoslovakia from the Nazis.

By the way, of all the countries participating in the League of Nations, only the USSR tried in March 1938 to protest against the annexation of Austria, but Great Britain sharply opposed the Soviet efforts, again suddenly.
And it was the Soviet representative who declared at the plenum of the Council of the League of Nations the need for urgent measures in support of Czechoslovakia, as well as the demand that the question of German aggression be raised in the League of Nations. What was ignored by the UK and France (does it remind you of anything?).
Moreover, the Soviet government makes a statement to the government of Poland that any attempt by the latter to occupy part of Czechoslovakia will automatically annul the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Poland.

And now Poland refuses the USSR the right of passage for the Soviet army. It got to the point that the Polish ambassador in Paris, Lukasiewicz, assured the US ambassador to France, Bullitt, that Poland would immediately declare war on the USSR if he tried to send troops through Polish territory to help Czechoslovakia, and if Soviet planes appeared over Poland on their way to Czechoslovakia, they would immediately they will be attacked by Polish aircraft.
Instead of helping the Czechs, Poland itself invades Czechoslovakia and captures the Teszyn region (after which the USSR had every right to declare war on Poland). In fact, Poland divides Czechoslovakia with the Third Reich, which was a preliminary agreement between the Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck and the Foreign Minister of the Third Reich, the notorious Ribbentrop.
The so-called "Beck-Ribbentrop Pact". What happened? Pilsudski worse than Hitler?

And here he is, by the way, together with Goebbels.

And in the third photo is just the Polish Minister Beck. Oh, who is he with? Is it Adolf?
Wasn't it Horace Wilson, adviser to the British Prime Minister, who declared that "Germany and England are the two pillars that maintain a world of order against the destructive onslaught of Bolshevism"?

It turns out that the capitalist ideology (liberal, democratic, whatever) is equal to Nazism? Should the British monarchy be strongly condemned for collaborating with the Nazis? Where is the democratic community looking? It's time to call to account the damned hypocrites who made agreements with Hitler!
Buy you a mirror, gentlemen "democrats"?

P.S. I must admit that in this situation, Winston Churchill looks worthy, who said precisely on this occasion: “England was offered a choice between war and dishonor. She has chosen dishonor and will get war."

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. And the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) did not take a year to completely seize power in Germany. Between winter and summer, several important events took place in the country that turned the NSDAP into the main political force of the country. Thanks to the burning of the Reichstag, which was blamed on the communists, the Nazis published the law "On the protection of the people and the state." The Law on Emergency Powers, adopted later, placed legislative power in the hands of the imperial government. Trade unions were banned, and a little later, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, accused of high treason. Finally, the law "Against the formation of new parties" turned Germany into a one-party state.

Germany was actively preparing for war - even the tasks in school textbooks reflected the direction of the Nazi government's thoughts: “A modern night bomber can carry 1800 incendiary bombs. What is the length of the path along which he can distribute these bombs if he drops one bomb per second at a speed of 250 km per hour? How far apart will the explosion craters be? How many kilometers can 10 such planes set on fire if they fly at a distance of 50 meters from each other? How many fires will there be if 1/3 of the bombs reach their targets and 1/3 of them catch fire?

The aggressive aspirations of the Nazis were obvious to the Soviet Union. Mutual hatred replaced Soviet-German friendship: the campaign against communists and socialists spoke for itself. Of particular concern was the fact that the largest Western European powers - Great Britain and France - took a course towards cooperation with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: on July 15, 1933, the "Pact of Consent and Cooperation" was signed: the four powers of Europe formed a commonwealth that was supposed to deal with the solution of international problems in Europe, including the task of opposing communism. Soviet diplomats rightly feared the formation of a single anti-Soviet bloc of capitalist states.

Under these conditions, the Soviet government set out to conclude non-aggression and mutual assistance pacts with those capitalist countries that it considered "non-aggressive." In December 1933, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the intensification of the foreign policy activities of the Soviet state in order to prevent war on the basis of a collective security plan." This course quickly bore fruit: a number of non-aggression pacts were concluded with Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Afghanistan, and even the two powers that participated in the "Pact of Four" - France and Italy. In addition, treaties of friendship with Turkey and of guarantees and neutrality with Iran were signed. However, the hopes of the Soviet government that it would be possible to agree with Poland on the creation of a Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak bloc that would prevent Germany from possible aggression against one of the participating countries failed: on January 26, 1934, a non-aggression pact was signed between Germany and Poland , which went down in history as the Pilsudski-Hitler Pact.

After that, it was important to achieve the conclusion of an agreement on mutual assistance, at least with Czechoslovakia. Back in April 1935, the governments of both countries began mutual contacts to conclude such an agreement, but the Czechoslovak government was in no hurry to agree - it wanted the USSR to convince France to conclude such an agreement first. Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes considered the Soviet Union a rather weak military power and doubted that if Hitler invaded Eastern Europe, both countries would be able to resist him. But if France also comes into play ... Beneš overestimated the last one. But be that as it may, Soviet diplomats managed to conclude a similar agreement with France, and on May 16, 1935, the Soviet-Czechoslovak mutual assistance pact was finally signed by Benes and the Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Sergei Aleksandrovsky.

The text of the main articles of the document actually repeated the provisions of the Soviet-French treaty, with the exception of the 2nd article, where there was such a wording: “Obligations of mutual assistance will operate between them only because, under the conditions provided for in this treaty, assistance will be provided to the Party - the victim of the attack from France." In the event of a threat of invasion, both sides were to immediately begin joint consultations, and at the start of direct aggression against one of them, to provide each other with military assistance.

The Mutual Assistance Treaty with Czechoslovakia was an undeniable victory for Soviet diplomacy. Together with the Soviet-French treaty, it had the character of a tripartite agreement. Given the traditional French Germanophobia, the fear of a German military revenge, over time this agreement could become the basis for a system of collective security in Europe. However, this foreign policy success was nullified by the future allies of the USSR in the fight against Hitler, who so far did not want to conflict with him. Alas, the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty did not save Czechoslovakia from dismemberment. When Hitler put forward Germany's rights to the Sudetenland, the Soviet government actively offered Great Britain and France to defend Czechoslovakia with their combined forces. However, the governments of both Western European countries considered that they would be able to “pay off” Hitler with a small piece of a foreign country - both powers defiantly refused Stalin’s services and did not even invite Soviet representatives to the Munich Conference in September 1938. The consent of the "great powers" of Europe to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany was the first step towards the loss of integrity by Czechoslovakia: in March 1939, Germany imposed a German protectorate on the Czech Republic and Moravia, banning local parties and liquidating the opposition. The official start of the Second World War was inexorably approaching, although in fact it had already begun.