Protocolli segreti e "democidio": i due volti di un patto, specchio del Novecento

Despite the fact that secrecy and violence are crucial and persistent elements of politics, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact remains a significant case-study in theory and history of international relations because of the ability of involved states and diplomacies to articulate the connection between secrecy, violence and “democide” (R. J. Rummel) in an integrated and destructive way. Since the beginning the Soviet Union was not interested in maintaining the international status quo, but rather in searching for an arrangement with Germany which would enable both countries to invade the neighbours with impunity. Formally it was a “non-aggression pact” under which the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany each pledged to remain neutral in the event that either nation was attacked by a third party. Nevertheless, not only the Pact opened the gates of aggression in Europe, based on a cold calculation, but also the secret protocols of the Treaty included hidden plans of dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, planned in continuative secret protocols, anticipating potential “territorial and political rearrangements” of these countries submitted using force after the invasions and annexations conducted without declaration of war. The hidden plans became clear after a chain of invasions in accordance with the Pact (but prepared before it), followed by a systematic “democide” in order to remove “Soviet-hostile elements” from the brutally conquered territories (the Baltic States, Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Poland) or to gain Lebensraum by the tools of enslavement, massive forced deportations, and extermination of submitted peoples. Due to these aspects the characteristics of this Pact allow defining it as a true mirror of the bloody politics of the Twentieth Century.