AQA A-LEVEL HISTORY 7042/2K ||Component 2K International Relations and Global Conflict, c1890–1941||QUESTIONS & MARKING SCHEME MERGED|| GRADED A+||

Section A Answer Question 01. Source A From a memo sent to members of the Polish Government by Polish Foreign Minister, Jozef Beck, 23 August 1939. Today’s announcements about the intended Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact prove conclusively that the Soviet government has been playing a double game for a long time, seeking to break our negotiations with Paris and London. We cannot be blamed for what is happening. In view of the significance of today’s events, I believe that the only answer is closer cooperation between England, France and Poland. The Germans will certainly encounter difficulties in negotiations with the Soviets. The Nazi-Soviet Pact surely implies there will be a collapse of Hitler’s ideology and of the Anti-Comintern Pact. Under these conditions, much depends on the decisive attitude of governments and the press in England, France and Poland. If necessary, I agree to publish the final phase of our negotiations with Moscow. These clearly show the dishonesty of the Soviet Union. I will also manage the attitude of our press and public opinion towards this aggressive Nazi-Soviet Pact. 5 10 Source B From a radio broadcast by William Joyce, 23 June 1941. Joyce, a former member of the British Union of Fascists, broadcast to the UK from Hamburg throughout the war. When, on 23 August 1939, Adolf Hitler made a pact of friendship with Joseph Stalin, some of you may have wondered if Hitler had betrayed western civilisation by siding with the Communists. Yesterday in his proclamation of Operation Barbarossa, the Führer was able to speak openly for the first time about the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He said that it was with a heavy heart that he sent his Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to Moscow that summer. However, he felt Britain left him no other choice but to take action as Britain had worked extremely hard throughout the summer of 1939 to build up a coalition of forces against the Third Reich. Hitler was compelled in self-defence to conclude a pact of immediate friendship with the Soviet Union, in which the signatories agreed not to attack each other and defined spheres of interest in Eastern Europe, ensuring Germany’s borders were secure. 5 10 3 IB/M/Jun23/7042/2K Turn over ► Source C From the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, 1971. Khrushchev was the secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee in 1939 and was with Stalin when the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed. I believe the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 was historically inevitable, given the circumstances of the time, and that in the final analysis it was profitable for the Soviet Union. It was a gamble: if we hadn’t made that move, our war against Germany would have started earlier, much to our disadvantage. It was very hard for us – as Communists, as anti-Fascists – to accept the idea of joining forces with Germany. For their part, the Germans too were using the treaty as a manoeuvre to win time. Their idea was to divide and conquer the nations which had united against Germany in the First World War and which might unite against Germany again. Hitler wanted to deal with his adversaries one at a time. Hitler was convinced that Germany had been defeated in the First World War because Germany tried to fight on two fronts at once. The pact Hitler signed with us was his way of trying to limit the coming war to one front. 5 10 0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the Nazi-Soviet Pact. [30 marks] Turn over for Section B