No, Stalin quite eagerly entered into the alliance with Nazi Germany. The quid pro quo was the joint invasion of Poland and a free hand for the Soviets in the Baltics. Stalin looked at the pact as a big win for the Soviet Union.
The gift of the Balkans was bait Hitler intended to retrieve from the start, and did so.
Stalin was played.
>>>No, Stalin quite eagerly entered into the alliance with Nazi Germany. The quid pro quo was the joint invasion of Poland and a free hand for the Soviets in the Baltics. Stalin looked at the pact as a big win for the Soviet Union.<<<
Please, learn history. A love affair between Stalin and Hitler is an urban myth.
Soviets were at war with Axis before the WWII as we know it ever started.
Both with Germany by proxy in Spain since mid-1930s and against Japan in Mongolia and China.
In fact a poor performance of Japan’s armed forces against the Russians in Asia was a primary reason to divert their efforts into Pacific against US, believed to be a soft target at the time.
As for 1938 Stalin was seeking alliance with both UK and France to attack Germany but Munich ruined his expectation and he was left on his own.
He knew the war with Germany was inevitable but he has just purged his entire military leadership and failed to update arsenals that stuck at a level of earlier 1930s technology.
German pact was a bargain, it offered non-aggression guaranties, time to retrain and rearm and also an ability to occupy a few nations as a buffer zones ahead of Germany.