Less than a month before Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II, he signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Less than two years later, he broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in the early morning hours of June 22, 1941. There were plenty of evidence for German aggression before the war broke out, yet Stalin nevertheless signed the pact which contained the secret protocol that divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet …showed first 75 words of 1205 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1205 total…more documents will appear from the archives that will be able to shed more light on this very dark subject. The dispute as to the exact toll of the purges will probably never be settled. The final count may never be known. However, it will always remain undisputed that the purges during the 1930s initiated by Joseph Stalin brought massive repercussion in all sectors of the society and greatly endangered Soviet Union's sovereignty and viability