Russia at war 1941-1945

[ This tragic dilemma among the French Communists in the face of the. Soviet-German

Pact and the German invasion of France is examined in detail in the author's France, 1940-1955 (London, 1956), pp. 179-202. This chapter was, significantly, omitted from the Russian translation published in Moscow in 1959.]

Whether or not, as is now claimed by communists, certain French Communist leaders

took a firm anti-German lutte à outrance line in the first week in June, the Soviet leaders were very careful at the time to avoid anything that might have caused Hitler the least offence. Nevertheless, there was a significant change in the tone of the Soviet press as the French tragedy developed. At first it was distinctly malevolent towards France and

Britain. Thus in summing up the results of the first five days of the military operations in the West, Pravda wrote in its editorial of May 16:

During these first five days, the German armies have achieved considerable successes.

They have occupied the greater part of Holland, including Rotterdam. The Netherlands Government has already run off (sbezhalo) to England. It had been a long-standing ambition of the Anglo-French bloc to drag Holland and Belgium into its war against

Germany... After the Germans had forestalled Britain and France in Scandinavia, these two countries moved heaven and earth to get Holland and Belgium into the war... So far, the Anglo-French bloc can boast of only one success: it has thrown two more small

countries into the imperialist war; two more nations have now been condemned to

suffering and hunger.

No one will be deceived by the Anglo-French lamentations over the violations of

international law. As soon as the war had spread to Norway, the British grabbed the

Faroe and Lofoten islands—heaven only knows in virtue of what international law. We

now see how great is the responsibility of the Anglo-French imperialists who, by

rejecting Germany's peace offers, set off the Second Imperialist War in Europe.

There was no mention of the ruthless bombing of Rotterdam, and, on the following day, in a review of the military situation describing German successes, there were again the same phrases about the Netherlands Government having "run off" to London, "leaving the army and the country to their fate". On the same day Pravda published a particularly nauseating anti-British article by David Zaslavsky.

But, during the following week, with the Germans crashing on towards Dunkirk, the tone suddenly changed. The reports became much more factual. Every important Churchill

speech was quoted at some length, as was also Reynaud's famous patrie en danger

speech to the Senate on May 21. Significantly, much space was given to the question of American help to Britain and France. On June 5, Churchill's post-Dunkirk speech—"we shall fight on the beaches ... we shall never surrender"—was published under a three-column heading in Pravda. On the same day the paper announced that Molotov had

"raised no objection" to the British Government's appointment of Sir Stafford Cripps as Ambassador to Moscow.

When the resistance of the French army finally collapsed by the middle of June, and

Pétain asked the Germans for an armistice, the Russians seemed suddenly to become

obsessed with one great fear: which was that Britain might make peace with Germany—

for what would happen then? Most significant in this respect was the military survey in Pravda of June 20 by Major-General P. A. Ivanov: "Not only has the French Army been smashed, but France has now lost all her vital industrial centres. This is France's

débâcle.. . Another of Britain's allies has been put out of action, and now Britain is left face to face with Germany and Italy. Yet both sides have mighty economic resources, and therefore they may continue the war for a very long time yet, and it is much too early to try to foretell the outcome of this war.

[ Emphasis added]

It is highly symptomatic that the activity of the British air-force should have been switched from the battle in France to the bombing of economic targets in Germany." And there followed long and detailed accounts of British air-raids on Germany.

[TASS, London, quoting Reuter.]

There was not the slightest suggestion any more that a peace settlement between

Germany and Britain would be a good thing!

Stupefied by Hitler's overwhelming victory over France, Russia now dropped all further pretence of respect for the sovereignty of the Baltic States. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were occupied, draconian new labour legislation imposed on Soviet industry, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina occupied—all this was being done within the last fortnight in