Russia at war 1941-1945

Then, after a tribute to Russia's women, intelligentsia, and collective farms, Stalin said: The satellites must now see clearly that Germany has lost the war. But their

Governments cannot be relied upon to break with Germany, and the sooner the people

take over and make peace, the better.

The Red Army, he said, had reached the Soviet frontier along 250 miles, and more than three-quarters of occupied Soviet territory had now been liberated. But to drive the Germans out of the Soviet Union was not sufficient. The wounded German beast must be finished off in his lair.

This phrase (though usually amended to "Fascist beast") was to become No. 1 slogan during the next twelve months.

And as if to discourage any ideas that the Red Army had already done the job, and that the Second Front was no longer all that important, he added:

The liberation of Europe, and the smashing of Germany on her own soil can be done only on the basis of joint efforts from the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the

United States as they strike from the east and the west. .. There is no doubt that only such a combined blow can smash Hitler Germany.

This was, politically, an important statement.

*

There was much display of cordiality towards the Allies during May: at a ceremony of the British Embassy on May 10 the G.C.B.E. was conferred on the Soviet Chief of Staff, Marshal Vassilevsky, and hundreds of other decorations were awarded. Molotov and

Clark Kerr exchanged speeches.

On May 26, the second anniversary of the Anglo-Soviet Alliance was marked by warm

editorials in the principal papers.

On May 25 and 27 Churchill's and Eden's speeches were reported at great length, and the Molotov-Eden exchange of anniversary messages was particularly cordial. Eden was

clearly alluding to the coming events when he spoke in his message of the "mighty onslaught" in which "our two peoples, hand-in-hand with our American and other allies", would win the war. Such a victory, he said, would strengthen the bonds of friendship and understanding on which the Anglo-Soviet alliance was based.

The suspension of diplomatic mail from Britain created a very happy impression in

Russia. It was clearly an indication of what was coming—and coming soon. Alexei

Tolstoy jokingly remarked to me one day: "If we Bolsheviks had done anything so outrageous, nobody would have been surprised; but if the correct English do such a thing, then they surely must have good reasons for doing so."

The Second Front—the Normandy Landing—came a few days later.

With the Russians preparing for their summer offensive which was expected to take the Red Army into Poland, this country, more than any other, continued to be in the centre of the Soviet Government's preoccupations. In April and May there were a number of

curious developments: the visits to Moscow of Father Orlemanski, of Dr Oscar Lange,

and of the leaders of the "Democratic Polish Underground."

The visit of Father Orlemanski, a parish priest from Springfield, Mass., was probably the most curious episode in the whole diplomatic history of the Soviet Union. People rubbed their eyes when they looked at the front page of Pravda of April 28 showing Stalin and Molotov smiling benignly in the company of the Rev. Stanislaw Orlemanski "who has come here to study the problems of the Poles and the Polish Army in the Soviet Union".

Stalin and Molotov were obviously anxious, through their contacts with Orlemanski, to kill three birds with one stone: to make a good impression on the Catholics in the United States; to appease and, if possible, win over the powerful Catholic clergy in Poland—

who were, for the most part pro-London—as well as the numerous priests in Lithuania

and Belorussin; and, possibly to lay the foundations for a rapprochement with the Vatican.

After about a week there, Orlemanski came out with a statement on the Moscow radio:

Dear fellow countrymen (he said), I left home on April 17. I came through the

United States, Canada, and Alaska, and across Siberia to Moscow. I travelled very comfortably. I had never flown before, and now I flew all the way from Chicago to Moscow! I am an American of Polish origin, and I am a Roman Catholic priest.