Russia at war 1941-1945

years... There is no hard feeling among the Russians about the Second Front, as far as I know... I do not know of two nations with fewer antagonistic interests and more common interests than the USA and Russia...

Eden also was very pleased with the Conference:

When we first arrived here, we thought the prospects were very bleak, and that all the Russians would do would be to scream for the Second Front. I should be

surprised if they started screaming now, for they now know it is coming. Instead, this Conference was very big stuff, the beginning of a new form of co-operation

between us. The teamwork was admirable. Today I discussed military problems

with Molotov for two hours. Poland? Yes, it will be discussed through diplomatic

channels...

On October 30, as President of the Anglo-American Press Association I presided at the lunch we gave to Eden and Cordell Hull (represented by Harriman) at the Hotel National.

We did not think Molotov and the other top Russians would come, but much to our

surprise the Protocol Department rang up and hinted that invitations would be welcomed.

Here was real cordiality! True, Molotov did not come, but Vyshinsky and Litvinov did.

In my speech of welcome I referred, among other things, to Eden's and Litvinov's gallant stand at Geneva and at Nyon, and made a crack or two at Chamberlain— without naming

him—which went down very well. Eden sat to my right, and the terrible Vyshinsky (now with a sugary smile) to my left, and the whole atmosphere was very matey indeed.

Quoting Churchill's remark, earlier in the year, about the "autumn leaves", Vyshinsky said: "Well, it is customary for the autumn leaves to fall in autumn, but if they fall in spring—well, I suppose that's okay, as long as they do fall." (He was now clearly resigned to the Second Front in 1944). Litvinov said the League of Nations had

unfortunately turned out to be a Tower of Babel, not a solid Pyramid; the nations of the world must do better next time.

Harriman was in a slightly truculent mood and pointedly talked about the war in the

Pacific, saying that if it hadn't been so successful there wouldn't be much prospect of America helping with the Second Front in Europe.

At the extravagant Kremlin Banquet that crowned the Conference, Stalin seemed in an

exuberant mood. Despite all the earlier unpleasantness over the Northern convoys, he now paid a tribute to the British Navy and the Merchant Fleet: "We don't talk much about them, but we do know what they do." The new head of the British Military Mission, General Giffard Martel rapturously congratulated Stalin on the forcing of the Dnieper only shortly before: "No other Army in the world could have performed such a feat!" The short era of mutual compliments and congratulations had set in.

The two chief American military representatives in the Soviet Union, the anti-Soviet General Michela, and General Faymonville who was notorious for the optimistic analyses of the military situation in Russia he had been sending Roosevelt ever since 1941, often to the disgust of the State Department—were both withdrawn and replaced by a regular Military Mission with General John R. Deane at its head. The Russians were soon to find him a very tough negotiator, who was particularly sticky in organising lend-lease

deliveries, always first asking the Russians for full explanations as to whether they really needed the stuff for military purposes, or merely for postwar reconstruction.

The Soviet press was very pleased with the Foreign Ministers' Conference. The

Revolution-Day Festivities on November 6 and 7, which were marked by tremendous

fireworks in honour of the liberation of Kiev by Vatutin's troops, took place in an

exuberantly cheerful atmosphere.

Stalin's speech reviewing the events of 1943—"the year of the great turning-point"—in which he paid the warmest tributes both to the Red Army and to the Russian war effort, was also particularly cordial in its comments on the Anglo-American Allies.

Taking together the blows struck at the Germans and their allies in North Africa