"Surgeon" Zaldostanov Pushed Belarusian Journalist For Question About Second World War

A journalist of Belsat TV channel asked Zaldostanov what he thought about the Soviet Union’s collaboration with Hitler at the beginning of World War II.

The video was posted by Radio Svaboda.

Historical background: a non-aggression pact was signed between Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union in Moscow on 23 August 1939 (“The Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact”). The agreement meant a rapid reorientation of Soviet foreign policy towards a rapprochement with Germany. A secret protocol to the agreement established a clear division of the parties' interests. Germany recognized the USSR’s interests in Latvia, Estonia, eastern Poland, Bessarabia and Finland.

Following the conclusion of the contract, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and on September 17, 1939 the territory of Eastern Poland was occupied by the Red Army, following which part of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (1939), and later the Baltic States and Bessarabia (1940) were included in the USSR; at the end of 1939, the USSR attacked Finland, unleashing the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.

On September 28, 1939, the Treaty of Friendship and the border between the USSR and Germany was signed. He established the demarcation line between the USSR and Germany (approximately following the Curzon Line), regularizing the elimination of the Polish state.