75 Years Since the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Seventy five years ago the USSR and Nazi Germany carved up Europe into spheres of influence. Ultimately, the two dictatorships apportioned Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Moldova, and eastern Poland to the USSR and western Poland to Berlin. This pact directly led to the Nazi invasion of western Poland on 1 September 1939 and the later Soviet occupations of eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Moldova, and eastern Finland. The total human costs from the initial Soviet occupation of these regions from 17 September 1939 when the USSR invaded eastern Poland until the Nazi attack on the USSR on 22 June 1941 is still unknown, but I did this partial calculation five years ago. It shows a mortality rate of 50% by 1 October 1945 for deportees from the Baltic States and Moldova during 1940 and 1941.

Here is the post I put up last year on this date.