Russia at war 1941-1945

Litvinov was temperamentally a "Westerner"—but he had received poor thanks from the West. As a Jew, he had been fiercely abused by the Germans for years. He was ill-suited for any new departures that might now become necessary for Soviet foreign policy. In the eyes of the Party he no longer carried sufficient authority, especially after the rejection by London of the Soviet Plan of April 17.

There was no perceptible change in the tone of the Soviet press or in official utterances after Molotov had become Foreign Commissar. The press continued to report the great

success in England and elsewhere of Russian anti-Nazi films like Professor Mamlock and Alexander Nevsky; patriotic speeches continued to be made about the might of the Red Army which would "smash any aggressor on his own territory if he ever dared attack the Soviet Union"

[ Thus, at the graduation ceremony of the Red Army academies on May 7—a ceremony

attended by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Zhdanov and others,

Kalinin declared: "Our people are convinced that, with an Army like ours, they can peacefully go on building and developing the Soviet state, a classless socialist society and communism. The international situation demands from you a state of constant

preparedness. I hope you will fully justify the confidence our people have placed in you."

And Colonel Rodimtsev, Hero of the Soviet Union (and a future hero of Stalingrad), said at the same meeting: "We swear to carry out the order of Comrade Voroshilov to smash any aggressor on his own territory..."] and the press continued to publish ominous little items like this one in Pravda (May 16):

HITLER'S VISIT OF INSPECTION.

Berlin, May 15 (TASS). Hitler today left for the Western frontier to inspect the so-called Siegfried Line. He was accompanied by staff officers and by Himmler, the

head of the Gestapo.

Was this meant to suggest that Hitler might, indeed, turn on the West and that the Soviet Union and not the West had better hurry and join forces? At any rate, even a month after Molotov's appointment Nazi Germany was still treated as No. 1 Danger.

When the Supreme Soviet met at the end of May, A. G. Zverev, the Commissar for

Finance, declared amid loud cheers that the expenditure on defence would be increased from twenty-three milliard roubles in 1938 to forty-one milliard roubles in 1939. "The stronger we are," he said, "the better will be the chances that peace will not be disturbed, and that the Fascist aggressors will not dare attack our country." This could only mean Nazi Germany.

In its comments on this vast increase in military expenditure, Pravda (May 27) was full of the usual bluster:

This figure of 40,885 million roubles means new guns, fast new planes, powerful new tanks... With such a mighty Red Army we can calmly look into the future, knowing

that no provocation by our foreign enemies can catch us unawares. We can calmly

go ahead with our third Five-Year-Plan... Provided with the most perfect equipment in the world, our Red Army will smash any enemy or any enemies, no matter where

they come from.

This was clearly intended as a warning to both Japan and Germany.

One of the most important landmarks during that grim summer was Molotov's survey of

the international situation before the Supreme Soviet on May 31.

He was highly critical of Britain and France, but the speech was, above all, an attack on Germany. After recalling the disasters that the Munich policy had already brought on Europe, Molotov said:

The aggressive powers today are becoming more and more arrogant. On the other

hand, the representatives of the democratic countries, having turned their backs on collective security, and having adopted a policy of non-resistance to aggression, are now trying to minimise the grave deterioration of the international situation.