Russia at war 1941-1945

Anglo-Soviet and American-Soviet communiqués. .. This is of great importance to

the peoples of the Soviet Union, because the establishment of a Second Front in

Europe would create insuperable difficulties for the Hitlerite armies at our front.

Let us hope that our common enemy will soon feel on his own back the results of the ever-growing military co-operation between the three Great Powers.

There was, according to next day's Pravda, "stormy, lengthy applause" at this point; in reality, I noticed that the applause might have been greater than it actually was: it seems obvious that the "let-us-hope" had had a somewhat damping effect—which was to be reflected in some of the later speeches.

Molotov then said that the results of his visit to Washington had been less definite than those of his visits to London, but he stressed that the Soviet-American agreement on present and future cooperation was only "preliminary", adding, however, that general problems of war and peace had been lengthily discussed by him and Mr Roosevelt, and

that both the President of the United States and Mr Churchill had been very kind.

In conclusion, Molotov said:

Our strength is growing, our certainty of victory is stronger than it has ever been.

Under the great banner of Lenin and Stalin we shall wage this struggle till complete victory, till the complete triumph of our cause and that of all freedom-loving

nations.

Apart from discussing the British alliance, many of the other speakers took the

opportunity to speak of their own constituencies. Shcherbakov, representing Moscow,

recalled the struggle for Moscow and said, amid a storm of truly emotional applause:

"And now, Comrades Deputies, you can see your Capital intact! "

There was also a touch of emotion in the applause that greeted L. R. Korniets, a

representative of the now almost completely occupied Ukraine. Korniets, with his heavy drooping "Ukrainian" moustache did not mince his words: "We hope," he said, "that from agreements and words, the great Western Powers will proceed to action."

Zhdanov, representing Leningrad, who received an ovation almost as great as that given to Stalin, said:

The value of the Treaty is unquestionably enhanced by the fact that complete

agreement was reached in London and Washington in respect of the urgent tasks

for the creation of a Second Front in Europe in 1942...

He quoted a worker of the Kirov Plant (right in the front line) as saying:

"It strengthens our conviction that Hitler and his bloody clique will be crushed in 1942. Let us work with double and treble energy in helping the Red Army to carry

out its heroic mission."

Y. L. Paletskis, the Lithuanian representative, said he was convinced that there would not be "the slightest delay" in preparing the Second Front in Europe in 1942, as this was also in Britain's and America's interests; and the Latvian, Estonian, Georgian, Uzbek and other representatives spoke more or less on the same lines.

After three and a half hours of speeches, the Treaty was unanimously ratified. In Pravda on the following day Ehrenburg wrote a heartfelt couple of columns on "The Heart of England", in which he grew lyrical about London, its old stones, its soot and its "pastel skies". The raids on Cologne and the Ruhr were "only a beginning".

Already the small children of France, looking across the misty sea, are whispering:

"There's a ship over there." And the name of the ship is the Second Front.

The meeting of the Supreme Soviet was followed by a brief, one might say very brief, Anglo-Russian honeymoon. A few weeks later the sharp bickering over the Second Front began. It should be noted that at no time was the British aide-memoire mentioned on the Soviet side, or even hinted at—except perhaps for that "let us hope" in Molotov's speech.