Triple alliance negotiations

The Triple alliance negotiations (in Russian historiography, Moscow negotiations of 1939, Russian: Московские переговоры 1939 года) were held in Moscow in April − August of 1939 with the goal of creating a Soviet-Western triple alliance (USSR, Great Britain, France) for collective security against Axis powers. Throughout the negotiations, the Soviet diplomats (Maxim Litvinov and, later, Vyacheslav Molotov) were concentrated on building a war-fighting coalition. By mid-August of 1939, USSR became convinced that the discussions are at a dead end, opted to accept the German overtures instead, and in a week had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The negotiations can be considered a pivotal point on the road to the Second World War, a missed opportunity of an alliance that could have contained Germany at a much lower cost than the one ultimately paid by all three countries.