MOSCOW, August 14./TASS/. Discord between European countries, the US and other states in the field of collective security after WWI led to the rise of Fascism and Nazism. As a result, this triggered WWII, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society Sergei Naryshkin told a roundtable in the run-up to the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II that began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland.
"Eighty years ago, the reckless actions by some European states pushed the world towards the onset of the bloodiest war ever in the history of the mankind. When marking 100 years after the end of WWI, many reputed historians emphasized that the Versailles system created after WWI was imperfect," Naryshkin stated.
"It was based on the principle of disparity, the so-called great powers — England, France and the US — put their interests above the interests of the other participants in international relations. Later on, this imbalance made it impossible to build a system of collective security on the European continent and opened the door to German Nazism and Italian Fascism," he said.
A report titled: "The USSR-Germany: 1932-1941" from the Russian presidential archives was presented at the roundtable. The book brought together documents from the archives of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) declassified between 2006 and 2015.
"The documents featured in this book confirm that it was not the Soviet Union, but the Third Reich that initiated the non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939, where the spheres of influence were divided, among other things. This was a decision forced on the Soviet side, and the leadership of our country did not believe in a lasting peace with the aggressor," Naryshkin stressed.
He said all attempts by certain countries to bring the whole world under their sway had inevitably ended in failure. "We need history to learn lessons. One of its main lessons is that somebody’s bid to rule the world will eventually end in failure, as well as attempts to ensure one’s own security at the expense of the security of the others," he went on to say.
"It is trust dovetailed with realism in international relations that can ensure a lasting and secure peace around the world," he concluded.