January 1995
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Under the aegis of the Nazi-Soviet pact the USSR gained time, space and resources in which to prepare for war. But there were two problems with this strategy. The first was that Russia was not the sole beneficiary of the pact. Nazi Germany also gained time, space and resources in which to prepare for war — against Russia. Moscow hoped that the phoney war in the west would not last and that eventually Germany would be drawn into a costly war of attrition with Britain and France. That hope was destroyed by the German blitzkrieg in Western Europe. When France fell in June 1940 Soviet Russia found itself in a position more vulnerable to attack than it had been in 1939. The Russians now faced a Germany with its military might unimpaired and with the combined resources of much of continental Europe at its disposal. Britain, led now by Churchill, seemed determined to fight on but its capacity to resist either Hitler or the siren voices of appeasement at home calling for peace seemed doubtful.