Actually, the Sudetenland was closer to France (300 miles) than it was to the USSR (about 500 miles) And the USSR didn’t share a border with either Germany or Czechoslovakia, whereas France bordered Germany, so the Western powers probably figured Stalin didn’t belong at the Munich conference..
Stalin had actually been sending peace feelers to Hitler as early as 1935.
Sudetenland was ethnic German Czech territory bordering Germany.
> Actually, the Sudetenland was closer to France (300 miles) than it was to the USSR (about 500 miles) And the USSR didn’t share a border with either Germany or Czechoslovakia… <
Thanks for pointing that out. I just took a look at a map of 1938 Europe, and you are right. While Czechoslovakia as a whole was closer to the USSR, the Sudetenland was closer France.