Russia at war 1941-1945

no doubt about it: if there are such lunatics, there are quite enough strait-jackets waiting for them here (stormy applause). .. It is significant that some politicians and newspapermen in Europe and the USA should now be expressing their great

disappointment because the Germans, instead of moving farther east, have now

turned to the west, and are demanding colonies. One would think that parts of

Czechoslovakia were given to them as advance payment for starting a war against

the Soviet Union; and now the Germans are refusing to refund the money and are

telling them to go to hell... I can only say that this dangerous game started by the supporters of the non-intervention policy may end very badly for them.

In any case, Munich had brought no lasting peace. The world today was full of alarm and uncertainty; the post-war order had been blown sky-high; international law and treaties and agreements counted for very little. All disarmament plans had been buried.

Everybody now was arming feverishly, not least the non-intervention states. "Nobody believes any longer in those unctuous speeches about the concessions made to the

aggressors at Munich having started a new era of peace. Even the British and French

signatories of the Munich agreement don't believe a word of it. They are arming as much as the others are."

And Stalin added that, while doing her utmost to pursue a policy of peace, the Soviet Union could not look on impassively while 500 million people were already involved in war; and she had undertaken the task of greatly strengthening the military preparedness of the Red Army and the Red Navy.

Throughout, Stalin recalled, the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of peace. She had joined the League of Nations in 1934, hoping that, despite its weakness, the League could still act as a brake on aggression; in 1935 she had signed a mutual assistance pact with France, and another one with Czechoslovakia; a mutual assistance pact had also been

signed in 1937 with Mongolia, and in 1938 a non-aggression pact with China. The Soviet Union wanted peace; she wanted peace and business relations with all countries, so long as these did not impinge on her interests; she stood for peaceful, close and good-neighbourly relations with all her immediate neighbours, so long as these did not try, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the integrity of her borders; she stood for the support of nations which had become the victims of aggression and were struggling for their independence; she did not fear the aggressors' threats, and would strike with double strength any warmongers who might try to violate Soviet territory. (Long stormy

applause.)

The tasks of the Party in foreign policy were:

1) To pursue the policy of peace and of the consolidation of business relations with all countries;

2) To observe the greatest caution and not to allow our country to be drawn into conflicts by war provocateurs, who were in the habit of getting others to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them;

3) To strengthen in every way the military might of the Red Army and Navy;

4) To strengthen the international bonds of friendship with the workers of all

countries, workers in whose interest it was to maintain peace and friendship among peoples.