Some have said that the Nazi-Soviet Pact was the single most important reason for the

start
of the Second World War. Would you agree with this judgement? Explain your answer.

I think that there are several reasons for and against that statement. The main reasons for the against
are displayed in SCAB.

Suspicion
Chamberlain never trusted Stalin, due to his commnist beliefs. Stalin didn't trust Chamberlain either.
He thought that Britain would pull out of the war; leaving Russia to fight Germany alone. This suspicion
made each side wary of signing the Pact. The Anglo-Soviet Pact agreed to defend Poland although
Poland didn't trust Russia or Britain in their country. They thought that they would invade them.
Choice
Stalin had the choice to either sign the Anglo-Soviet Pact with Britain, or the Nazi-Soviet Pact with
Germany. The first option brought lots of disadvantages but only a few advantages. Russia would have
to do most of the work and they wouldn't really benefit anything from it. The second option with
Germany provided many advantages. Including half of Poland. This gave Russia a bigger incentive to
join the Nazis instead of the British.
Appeasement
Appeasement had created a bad reputation for Britain and so they had to choose Germany so that the
reputation of the British wouldn't be inflicted upon them. Germany's reputation was one of security so
they knew that they would be protected, unlike if they had allied with the British.
Britain Delayed
Stalin had a requested a meeting with Lord Halifax, but he had been refused. The British did eventually
do something, they sent someone who was unable to do anything and they sent him by a boat so he
took a while to get there since he was going by a slow method.

This shows how the World War II could have been avoided by Britain acting sooner and making an
alliance with Russia. Instead, Germany did and they signed a pact to say they wouldn't fight. This
meant that Britain did not have Russia on their side.

It may not have been the most important reason though as things like appeasement were also
important towards the beginning of the world war as they made Hitler think he could get away with
everything, which proved wrong in the end when Britain declared war on Germany for invading Poland.

Overall, I think that the most important reason for the start of the second world war was the Nazi-
Soviet pact as this was what made certain that Poland was going to be invaded, especially since Poland
was between Russia and Germany. This meant that Britain knew this was their time to act and so this
led to the war. It also partly determined how long the war would last as it would last longer than if
Russia and Britain had been the ones to form the alliance.