The Nazi-Soviet Pact in the Light of Transnational History: Persian Connections in German-Soviet Relations

Contributor(s): Professor Jennifer Jenkins | The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a central topic in the scholarship on the Second World War, is generally studied in its political and European dimensions. It was the instrument for the coming together of two unlikely ideological allies in the destruction and acquisition of Poland. By contrast the economic aspects of the Pact are understudied, although they were fundamental to how it functioned. They also worked through transnational networks that stretched far beyond Europe. Professor Jennifer Jenkins will take a new look at the Nazi-Soviet Pact by embedding it in German and Soviet economic policies toward the Near East, specifically with Iran, from the early Weimar period forward. She will also explore the history of German-Soviet-Persian economic cooperation in the interwar period, Iran's importance as a zone of cooperation between Germany and the USSR, and its place in the making of the Pact.