Commenting on the continuation of the war, Molotov said on March 29, 1940:
Germany [ . . . ] has evidently become a dangerous competitor for the principal imperialist powers of Europe—Great Britain and France. They therefore declared war on Germany under the pretext of fulfilling their obligations to Poland. It is now clearer than ever how far the real aims of the governments of these powers are from the purpose of defending disintegrated Poland or Czechoslovakia. This war is to smash and dismember Germany, although this aim is still being concealed from the masses of the people under cover of slogans of defending “democratic countries” and the “rights” of small nations.
Inasmuch as the Soviet Union refused to become an abettor of England and France in this imperialist policy toward Germany their hostility toward the Soviet Union became still more pronounced. [ . . . ] As a matter of fact, the rights and interests of small countries are just so much small change in the hands of the imperialists.
The U.S.S.R. attacked Finland in December 1939. Soviet moves against Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia came in June 1940. Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were taken from Rumania that same month.
The Soviet Union also concluded an entire series of economic agreements with Germany. Between 1922 and 1933 the Soviet Union and Germany signed 6 credit and commercial agreements, while during the period 1933-1941, when Hitler was either accelerating his war preparations or actively engaged in aggression, the Soviet Union entered into 12 credit and commercial agreements with the Nazi regime.
Of these commercial agreements with Germany, Molotov commented on May 31, 1939:
While conducting negotiations with Britain and France, we by no means consider it necessary to renounce business relations with countries like Germany and Italy.
Ignoring its own role in building up Hitler, the Soviet Government now accuses the United States of being his sponsor. According to Russia's Encyclopedic Dictionary, volume 3 (1955):
The imperialists of the United States favored the Hitlerites in seizing power in Germany (1933) and connived at the German-Italian intervention against the Spanish Republic (1936-1939), the Italian aggression against Ethiopia (1935-1936) and the seizure of Austria by Hitlerite Germany (1938). They assisted in the conclusion of the shameful Munich agreement (1938) and encouraged Japanese aggression in China. The United States carried on a policy of connivance at the fascist aggression with the purpose of directing it against the U.S.S.R. The policy of the United States contributed to [the] unleashing of World War II of 1939-1945 (pages 254-255).
This statement is the exact opposite of the Soviet view at the time these events were happening. The 1941 Small Soviet Encyclopedia, volume 9, states:
From the very beginning Roosevelt took a distinctly negative attitude toward Hitlerite Germany and other fascist powers (page 240).
From the beginning of the war in Europe (September 1939) the United States officially declared its neutrality, but the Government refused to accept either the German aggression in Europe or the Japanese aggression in China (page 901).
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