Germany: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov talking with Gustav Hilger (centre) and Adolf Hitler, Berlin,...

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (9 March 1890-8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik, and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin. Molotov served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Premier) from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956. He served as First Deputy Premier from 1942 to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889-30 April 1945) was a German politician of Austrian origin who was the leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Fuhrer ('leader') of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of Nazi Germany he initiated World War II in Europe and was a central figure of the Holocaust.