I'm certainly no Soviet admirer or apologist as my last paragraph made clear. However, it seems a stretch to say that they helped create the Nazi tide. The Germ

I'm certainly no Soviet admirer or apologist as my last paragraph made clear. However, it seems a stretch to say that they helped create the Nazi tide. The Germans had such little respect for Soviet resistance, that they expected it to collapse like a house of cards within a few months. Hitler would have started the war, with or without the non-aggression pact.