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Soviets Confirm Nazi Pacts Dividing Europe

Soviets Confirm Nazi Pacts Dividing Europe
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August 19, 1989, Section 1, Page 1Buy Reprints
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After decades of denial, the Kremlin conceded for the first time today that ''without a doubt'' the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany secretly and illegally divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence before the start of World War II.

But Aleksandr N. Yakovlev, a member of the Communist Party Politburo and confidant of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, insisted that the secret pact had no bearing on the present boundaries of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Yakovlev's remarks, published in today's issue of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda, represented both a victory and a disappointment for nationalists in the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. These republics have long campaigned for condemnation of the pact, but they also argue - as do many Western governments and historians - that the Stalin-Hitler agreement paved the way for their annexation in 1940. Prelude to Attack on Poland

On Aug. 23, 1939, in a step that shocked the world, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav M. Molotov, and the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, signed a nonaggression treaty that opened the way to the Nazi invasion of Poland on Sept. 1.

What was not known was that in a secret protocol, the two sides also agreed on spheres of influence, dividing Poland and giving the Soviet Union a free hand in Latvia and Estonia, and in the border area of Rumania.

A second secret protocol a month later refined the spheres of influence in Poland and gave the Russians predominance in Lithuania, as well. During the war, the Soviet Union annexed the three states and forced the parliaments to seek admission to the Soviet Union.

After the conflict ended in 1945, the boundaries of Poland were changed to allow the Soviet Union much of pre-World War II eastern Poland, and the Poles were compensated by being given parts of eastern Germany.

The original documents were burned by the Nazis at the end of the war, but a microfilm copy that had been preserved was turned over to the British and the Americans, who disclosed their contents. The Soviet Government at the time denied the existence of the protocols, but more recently changed that to say that it could find no record of the secret agreement in its archives, and could not be sure.

The Kremlin's confirmation today of the secret protocols is indicative of its strategy in dealing with restive nationalities across the country.

Although the authorities now seem prepared to acknowledge historical wrongs and to encourage greater local economic autonomy, the liberties of the nation's 15 republics and scores of nationalities are still to be defined and regulated by Moscow. And Moscow seems determined not to allow the right to secede or to have more than modest autonomy from the central Government.

Mr. Yakovlev, while calling the secret protocols a ''collusion'' between Stalin and Hitler that had no legal basis, said it was nonetheless ''far-fetched to seek some kind of interconnection between the present status of the three republics and the nonggression treaty.''

His comments were published as Baltic-republic nationalists planned demonstrations to mark the 50th anniversary next Wednesday of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the first secret protocol, which they see as the beginning of the end of their 20 years as independent countries. Before World War I, the Baltic states had been part of czarist Russia. Their independence was recognized by peace treaties signed in 1920 by the new Soviet government.

Government officials and leaders of popular grass-roots movements in the Baltics have been agitating for greater autonomy - and, in some cases, full independence - from Moscow. But Mr. Yakovlev left no doubt that the soviet leadership will not sanction any severing of ties with the Soviet Union.

''Neither the agreement, nor the protocol added to it, determined the legal and political status of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,'' said Mr. Yakovlev, who is also chairman of a commission in the new Soviet Congress of People's Deputies that is looking into the secret protocols. Elections Cited

The official Soviet position is that the three areas became Soviet republics of their own free will, after their newly elected parliaments voted in July 1940 to request membership in the Soviet Union.

The elections, conducted after the Soviet Army invaded the three republics, are considered by many Western countries, including the United States, to be invalid as they were staged under military pressure and were weighted in favor of the Communists.

Mr. Yakovlev alluded to the elections in today's interview, when he said that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union not as a result of the secret protocols, but ''by virtue of other circumstances.''

Less than a year ago, the mere acknowledgement of the protocols would have been considered a major victory for nationalists in the Baltics, given the earlier refusal to acknowledge that the protocols existed.

The texts of the documents were published for the first time in the Soviet Union last summer, but only in newspapers in the Baltic areas. They first appeared in the national press in June, when a member of Parliament from Estonia read them at a session of the new congress, which was broadcast live on national television. The Government newspaper Izvestia reprinted his words as part of its daily transcript of the congress.

Though Mr. Yakovlev's interview in Pravda today comes closest to an official renunciation of the protocols, its effect is lessened by his assertion that such an admission does not change the status of the Baltics.

''Such a declaration is not enough for us,'' said Vitas Tomkus, a Lithuanian journalist and member of Parliament. ''They must also admit that we were occupied and that the elections of 1940 were a lie.''

While trying to contain nationalist discontent in the Baltics, the Kremlin also has to contend with unrest by Russian-speaking citizens who have migrated to the republics and now fear local calls for independence.

In a development in one such instance, non-Estonian workers in Estonia today suspended a 10-day strike, which was staged as a protest against a republic election law that limits voting and candidacy rights of recent arrivals to the republic.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: Soviets Confirm Nazi Pacts Dividing Europe. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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