Further complicating matters , the purge of the People 's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs forced the Soviet Union to close down quite a number of embassies abroad . At the same time , the purges made the signing of an economic deal with Germany less likely : they disrupted the already confused Soviet administrative structure necessary for negotiations and thus prompted Hitler to regard the Soviets as militarily weak
purge
Great Purge
Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941