Stalin полностью

In Molotov’s Kremlin office that same evening, between 10:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m., Ribbentrop tried to convince Stalin that the Soviet Union was geographically immense compared with little Germany, and that Germany had been the one that annihilated Poland, so the Soviet Union ought to yield not just the ethnic Polish territories Stalin was proposing but also those around the San River, with the oil. Stalin launched a soliloquy about how “the main element of Soviet foreign policy had always been the belief in the possibility of German-Soviet cooperation. At the very beginning, when the Bolsheviks came to power, the world accused the Bolsheviks of being paid agents of Germany. . . . The Soviet Government has now renewed cooperation with Germany with a clear conscience.” He observed that “the Soviet government never had sympathy for England. It is only necessary to glance at the works of Lenin and his pupils to understand that the Bolsheviks always cursed and hated England above all.” Stalin wanted to hand over Polish territories “with ethnic Polish population,” but the oil region was occupied by ethnic Ukrainians, and these lands had already been “promised to Ukraine.” Finally, Stalin now wanted Lithuania, too. Overall, he said he was proposing a trade of four million people for two million, “and people are the most important thing one could receive.”³⁰⁴

Stalin and Molotov, according to the German notetaker, “insisted on their point of view.”³⁰⁵ Ribbentrop indicated that he would send a cable to Hitler regarding the Soviet proposals. He knew the Führer wanted Lithuania, where the Teutonic Knights had settled centuries before, and he was concerned about reports that Stalin was pressuring the Estonians—thought to be racially close to the Germans—for military bases. Soviet ultimatums were issued to the three Baltic states for “mutual assistance pacts,” beginning with Estonia, where the Red Army had massed 150,000 troops on the frontier. The next day at 3:00 p.m., the German delegation was back in the Kremlin’s Imperial Senate, but there had been no response from the Führer, who was off inspecting U-boats. Ribbentrop nonetheless indicated that he had consulted with Hitler, saying he was in agreement overall but wanted a few small changes. Soviet chief of staff Shaposhnikov unfolded a giant map on the green felt of Molotov’s conference table. The two sides discussed their differences, but within the parameters of Stalin’s proposal; Stalin offered a few tiny concessions (keeping a railhead here, yielding a forest there), and German and Soviet cartographers set to work on the details. Ribbentrop underscored the expected great value of Soviet economic assistance in the trade negotiations, then asked about the Baltic states. Prematurely, Stalin indicated that Estonia had agreed to his proposals for a pact and a military base.³⁰⁶ With regard to Bessarabia, he stated that “the Soviet government has no intentions at the current time of touching Romania.”³⁰⁷

Just before 6:00 p.m., Stalin announced a break for a banquet in Ribbentrop’s honor. Rather than the usual venue for foreign dignitaries (Spiridonovka), the festivities took place in the gilded St. Catherine’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace.³⁰⁸ Ascending the majestic sixty-six-step staircase, Ribbentrop was startled to encounter, in the land of Bolshevism, an immense oil painting of Alexander III. Twenty-four courses were served. The drink flowed like the Volga. Stalin sipped his customary wine, but the ex–wine merchant Ribbentrop sampled the pepper vodka (“so potent it took your breath away,” he noted). Here, with the amplitude of ancient Russian power on display, Stalin evinced his solicitousness but also his mischievousness. He introduced Ribbentrop to Beria by saying, “Look, this is our Himmler.” (SS chief Himmler, a onetime chicken farmer, also happened to wear a pince-nez.) Stalin was not done. As Molotov, the official host, pronounced toasts “in honor of Germany, its Führer, and its minister” and then toasted each member of Ribbentrop’s ample delegation, Stalin circumambulated the hall, clinking glasses with them. Suddenly the despot said, “Let’s drink to our people’s commissar of railways, Lazar Kaganovich!” and walked over and clinked glasses with Kaganovich, a Jew. The Nazi Ribbentrop was compelled to do likewise.³⁰⁹