From the archives: Soviet-German pact, 28 August, 1939
The German Government was compelled to make peace with the Soviet Union in the hope that it would strengthen its bargaining powers with Britain and France, while avoiding a major war which the German war machine could not sustain. The Soviet Government seized upon the German dilemma to neutralise the Fascist drive to the East, destroying the Anti-Comintern Pact, weakening the Axis, and throwing the British and French capitalists into confusion. The cause of peace and the interests of the people gained, therefore, from the German-Soviet Pact.
• archive.scotsman.com