Stalin полностью

The British press phoned Ivan Maisky at home to ask if it was true that Nazi foreign minister Ribbentrop was flying to Moscow; the Soviet ambassador, out of the loop, went with his wife, Agniya, to see Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.¹¹⁸ Göring’s proposed secret mission to London was canceled.¹¹⁹ Ribbentrop, flying on Hitler’s personal Condor, landed for a night stopover at Königsberg (August 22) and resumed his flight the next morning. His retinue was large, nearly forty persons, requiring two Focke-Wulf Condors. Genuine drama awaited on the German-Soviet frontier, at Velikie Luki. Markings on aircraft, unless they flew at very low altitudes, were generally not discernible. Stalin, ever hyperconspiratorial, had evidently not informed the Soviet border guard of his diplomatic conspiracy and, as a result, he almost destroyed his foreign policy coup. Soviet antiaircraft units fired on the Führer’s personal Condor, swastika on the tail, with Ribbentrop aboard. They missed.¹²⁰

The Nazi foreign minister reached Moscow with alacrity at around 1:00 p.m. on August 23, landing at Moscow’s main civilian airfield (near the Dynamo Stadium), a site that had been used for the coronation of Nicholas II, when a stampede over souvenir mugs had resulted in more than 1,000 deaths.¹²¹ There to greet Ribbentrop was deputy foreign affairs commissar Potyomkin, a name historically synonymous with false fronts and Russian deception. Escorted by Stalin’s personal bodyguard, General Vlasik, Ribbentrop rode in one of Stalin’s personal bulletproof ZIS limousines, outfitted with a Nazi flag. This was his first trip to Moscow and, in the words of German military attaché Köstring, the Nazi foreign minister was “nervous and agitated.”¹²² Their first destination was the freshly painted neoclassical former Austrian legation, now belonging to Nazi Germany, in the heart of old Moscow. After a short repast, Ribbentrop, accompanied by Schulenburg and Hilger, passed through the gates of the Kremlin, less than three hours after landing. They were greeted by the indispensable, physically unseemly Poskryobyshev, in colonel’s uniform, who escorted them upstairs to Molotov’s suite. In a surprise for the Germans, Stalin was present, too.¹²³

Schulenburg, by now in Moscow almost five years, had never even spoken to Stalin.¹²⁴ Schulenburg had previously served in Tehran, and his Moscow residence on Clean (Chisty) Lane “presented a lavish display of marvelous Isfahan carpets covering the walls, old weapons, shields with intricate inlaid designs, sabers, and swords,” a Soviet foreign affairs functionary observed, adding that “Persian miniatures hung all over the place, many of them erotic, which was quite shocking in those days.”¹²⁵ In Molotov’s office, Stalin’s medium height, military-style tunic, and baggy khaki trousers contrasted vividly with the tall Ribbentrop, in his European-cut suit.¹²⁶ A few aides and interpreters were present (neither Stalin nor Molotov could understand German).¹²⁷ Shaposhnikov, the elderly Soviet chief of staff, was the only military figure whom Stalin had included in both the diversionary action (the final talks with Drax) and the main battlefield (Ribbentrop). (Shaposhnikov shook in Stalin’s presence, not because he had difficulty composing himself but because he suffered from Parkinson’s disease.)¹²⁸ Ribbentrop brought a document signed by Hitler that accorded him “full power” to sign a state treaty.¹²⁹ The Nazi foreign minister’s great worry—besides contracting diarrhea from Soviet unsanitariness—was that he would be confronted by the fait accompli of an Anglo-French-Soviet military accord. Ribbentrop further worried that the wily Bolsheviks would drag out negotiations with him.