August 1939: Stalin’s zugzwang

The study gives an objective assessment of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact and its consequences on the basis of an analysis of the alternatives of 1939. We consider various scenarios of the development of events shortly before and at the beginning of World War II. Findings of research show that the situation as it developed can be described with the chess term “zugzwang” because there was no safe way out of it, and Stalin thought that he had chosen the lesser evil, deciding to enter into a non-aggression pact with Germany

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