Russia at war 1941-1945

The visit ended inconclusively, and a fortnight passed before Stalin himself took up the ball and unlike Molotov in Berlin showed some interest in joining the Three-Power Pact as a fourth member. He might well have thought that he could not obtain any satisfaction from Hitler by any other means.

His main proposals were that the Germans clear out of Finland; that Russia sign a mutual assistance pact with Bulgaria, that she establish a military and naval base within range of the Turkish straits; and that Iran be recognised as a Russian sphere of interest. Stalin must have known that there was but a small chance that Hitler would accept these demands.

Even at this late hour, Stalin still made it clear that he was not interested in India or any other part of the British Empire. His primary concern was that Hitler should leave the Balkans and Finland strictly alone. No reply to these proposals was ever received from Berlin.

How was the Molotov visit presented to the Soviet people? The Soviet press certainly made a brave effort to show its readers that the Soviet-German Pact was still a good thing, and that relations with the Germans were still correct, if not cordial. And yet, the Soviet newspaper reader, well-trained to read between the lines, must have guessed that things had not gone too well, as he read the following items:

COMRADE V. M. MOLOTOV'S VISIT TO BERLIN, Berlin, November 12

(TASS):

Comrade Molotov was given a festive (torzhestvennaya) reception in Berlin...

[The Russian adjective is somewhere half-way between "festive" and "solemn". It might be translated as " V.I.P..]

Long before the arrival of his train at the Anhalter Bahnhof, there had assembled on the station platform the representatives of various German government organs,

the representatives of the German High Command, the Diplomatic Corps of Berlin,

members of the Soviet Embassy and Trade Delegation and foreign and German

journalists.

The platform was decorated with flowers and evergreens, and the main entrance of

the station with the State flags of Germany and the USSR. All the adjoining streets were crowded with people long before the arrival of the train.

Comrade Molotov was met by Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop; Commander of the

OKW, General Field-Marshal Keitel; the head of the Labour Front, Dr Ley; the

head of the German Police, Herr Himmler; the head of the German Government

Press Office, Dr Dietrich, State Secretary Weizsäcker, Herr Steeg, the Burgomaster of Berlin, and many others.

Herr von Ribbentrop then accompanied Comrade Molotov to his Bellevue

residence. The German press unanimously considers the arrival of Comrade

Molotov as a fact of first-rate political importance.

[ Pravda, November 13, 1940.]

And then:

In the afternoon of November 12 a conversation took place in the new Chancellery

between the Reichskanzler of Germany, Herr Hitler and Comrade Molotov, in the

presence of Ribbentrop and the Deputy Foreign Commissar, V. G. Dekanozov. The

conversation lasted more than two hours.

[ Pravda, November 13, 1940.]

On the following day, according to Pravda, Molotov had further conversations in Berlin, and left in the morning of November 14. The following communiqué was published:

In the course of his visit to Berlin on November 12-13, Foreign Commissar V. M.