Stalin полностью

Stalin, in the discussion, brushed off the circumstance that the war had been launched in winter. “We are a northern country,” he said, and “if our military leaders had studied the history of the Russian army and followed the fine traditions of the Russian army, then they would know that all of our most impressive victories were won in winter.” He mentioned Alexander Nevsky against the Swedes on the ice, Peter the Great against the Swedes and Charles XII on the Baltic, Alexander I’s conquest of Finland from Sweden, and Kutuzov’s victory over Napoleon.²⁵³ Stalin also criticized the army’s use of biscuits instead of dried bread toasts (sukhari), stating that in Finnish frosts, the biscuits froze and became inedible. “Kutuzov, a real count, visited the soldiers to see what they were eating, but the ‘self-made count’ Kulik did not do that. (General laughter.)” Despite this dig at Kulik, Stalin praised the artillery. “Now we know the secret of how to smash a fortified defense line. We are the only country that knows this secret. The answer is that first you need to crush the enemy physically and morally with heavy artillery, and after that send in the infantry.” Stalin added, “The rank and file constitute superb material, but the commanders turned out not to be on the heights. . . . The goal is to improve the commanding corps and then our army will be the best in the world.”²⁵⁴

On the final day of the plenum, Ribbentrop coincidentally instructed Schulenburg, in Moscow, to revive the invitation of a reciprocal trip by Molotov to Berlin. “It goes without saying that the invitation is not to be confined to Herr Molotov,” the Nazi foreign minister telegrammed. “It would suit our own needs better, as well as our really ever closer relations with Russia, if Herr Stalin himself came to Berlin. The Führer would not only be particularly happy to welcome Stalin in Berlin, but he would also see to it that he would get a reception commensurate with his position and importance, and he would extend to him all the honors that the occasion demanded.” Schulenburg replied that he felt confident Molotov would fulfill his obligation to reciprocate, albeit not in the current circumstances, for it would undermine the appearance of Soviet neutrality and potentially risk inviting a Western declaration of war against the USSR.²⁵⁵ Molotov, in a speech to the Supreme Soviet on March 29, 1940, venomously denounced Britain and France, insisting yet again that the Soviet Union would never become a “weapon of the Anglo-French imperialists in their struggle for world hegemony.” He said that a British buildup in the Near East might entail “objectives antagonistic toward the Soviet Union.”²⁵⁶

All the while, Soviet merchants were still shopping in Berlin. Also on March 29, Ivan Tevosyan, a German-speaking ethnic Armenian from Karabakh, met Göring. The corpulent Luftwaffe head promised shipments of the contracted Junkers 88 airplane in April and May, noting that “there has never been an instance in which I, Göring, did not keep my word,” and adding that “the interests of both countries demand that Germany and the Soviet Union are together. This is the Führer’s opinion. He has decided this firmly and irreversibly. . . . This wish of Hitler is known to the duce; England and France know about it.” Göring further observed that “he personally had told the Finns repeatedly that it was senseless for a small state to fight with such a large country and had recommended accepting the USSR’s conditions.” Tevosyan—who had barely escaped Beria’s clutches as an alleged “German spy”—underscored the friendly character of bilateral relations, “reconfirmed in the February 11, 1940, economic agreement,” but he pointed out that although the Soviets had shipped everything required of them, “Germany so far has not made a single shipment to the USSR, not one rivet.” Göring interrupted to express his regrets at this news of German delays. “I give you my word, I am the guarantee.”²⁵⁷

On March 31, a Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was established through the merger of Soviet Karelia and territories annexed from Finland (part of the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia). The KFSSR became the twelfth Union republic, but the only one whose titular nationality, ethnic Finns, made up a minority of its inhabitants (around one quarter). Stalin soon named Kuusinen the KFSSR’s head of state.²⁵⁸