Russia at war 1941-1945

The Pact was consistent with the Soviet Union's policy. "We stand for peace and the consolidation of business relations with all countries." Recalling Rapallo and the Soviet-German Neutrality Agreement of 1926, it said: "Yesterday's agreement

follows in the footsteps of the 1926 agreement, except that it goes still further, since Art. 1 precludes any aggressive actions against the co-signatory either alone or with other Powers, while Art. 2 provides for neutrality in the event of an attack on either signatory by a third power." Art. 3 called for consultation on matters of commoninterest. Art. 4 was particularly important since it obliged the signatories not to takepart in any grouping of Powers which might, directly, or indirectly, be aimed at theother signatory.

The editorial also highly commended Art. 5 providing for the peaceful and friendly

settlement of any disputes and for the creation of commissions in the event of more

serious conflicts, as well as Art. 6 which specified that the Pact was valid for ten years and was automatically renewable for five more years; here was a clear promise of a

lasting peace. The last paragraph concerned ratification "as quickly as possible".

Below the picture of the Kremlin meeting there was this announcement:

At 3.30 p.m. on August 23 a first conversation took place between... V. M. Molotov and the Foreign Minister of Germany, Herr von Ribbentrop. The conversation took

place in the presence of Comrade Stalin and the German Ambassador Count von

der Schulenburg. It lasted about three hours. After an interval the conversation was resumed at 10 p.m. and ended with the signing of the Non-Aggression Agreement of

which the text follows.

Another communiqué concerned the arrival in Moscow, at 1.30 p.m. on August 23, of

"the Foreign Minister of Germany, Herr Joachim von Ribbentrop" and the persons accompanying him, among them Herr Gaus, Baron von Dörnberg, Herr P. Schmidt, Prof.

G. Hoffmann, Herr K. Schnurre, etc. It also gave a long list of the personalities who had gone to the airfield to meet them, among them Deputy Foreign Commissar V. P.

Potemkin; Deputy Commissar for Foreign Trade, M. S. Stepanov; Deputy Commissar of

the Interior, V. N. Merkulov; the Chairman of the Moscow City Soviet, etc. Present were also members of the German Embassy, with Ambassador von der Schulenburg at their

head, as well as the Italian Ambassador and Military Attaché. On the following day

Pravda briefly reported Ribbentrop's departure "at 1.25 p.m. on August 24". The same people who had come to meet him had also gone to see him off.

The editorial that day, however, dealt with nothing more exciting than the State purchases of vegetables.

For the next few days nothing more was said about the Soviet-German Pact and,

surprisingly, there were no reports of any "spontaneous" and "enthusiastic" mass meetings anywhere in Russia approving it. The foreign press reactions, as reported in the Soviet Press, seemed remarkably inconclusive, except for the London Star which was reported to have blamed Chamberlain for what had happened. On August 29, Pravda

quoted H. N. Brailsford, the veteran Labour journalist, as saying something similar.

Equally inconclusive were the various news items printed—about military preparations in Poland, Britain, and so on.

Yet there was a great deal of uneasiness in the country; this may be gauged from the publication, on August 27, of an interview with Voroshilov in which he explained why the talks with Britain and France had broken down.

The talks, he said, had stopped because of serious disagreements. The Soviet