The Hitler-Stalin Pact (1939)
"On the occasion of the signature of the Nonaggression Pact between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the two parties discussed in strictly confidential conversations the question of delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. This discussion led to the following conclusions:
1. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR. In this connection the interest of Lithuania in the Vilno area is recognized by the two parties.
2. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Polish state, the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narew, Vistula, and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish state and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitively determined in the course of future political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly mutual agreement.
3. With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinterestedness in these areas.
4. This Protocol shall be treated by both parties as strictly secret."
This verbatim English transcript of the agreement was first published in the Soviet English-language magazine Vestnik in March 1990; and was reprinted in Washington Post (March 30, 1990): p. 24.
Another version of this document appears in the archives known as the Avalon Project, at Yale University Law School. The complete Non-Aggression Pact to which this was a secret annex, also is found there.
