36. Of three main Red Army groups, a Northwestern (Leningrad military district), Western (Belorussian military district), and Southwestern (Kiev military district), the first was primarily to deter aggression from enemy use of Finland and the Baltic states, while the second and third would launch operations on enemy territory (north and south of the swampy Pripet Marshes) by means of mobile ground and air forces prepositioned and concealed in fortified frontier regions. Menning, “Soviet Strategy,” I: 218–9; Gorkov, “Gotovil li,” 30–1.
37. Reprinted (abridged) in Tukhachevskii, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, II: 233–9.
38. “Nakanune voiny (Dokumenty 1935–1940 gg.),” 168–9 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 400, l. 238ff.). Tukhachevsky’s argument resembled what Svechin had suggested back in 1926–27. Svechin, Strategiia, 184. Tukhachevsky had savaged Svechin as “a conduit for the influence of bourgeois ideology” in the introduction to the Russian edition of Hans Delbrück’s History of the Military Art, “Predislovie k knige G. Del’briuka,” in Tukhachevskii, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, II: 144. See also Kokoshin, “A. A. Svechin,” 134. Soviet war planning envisioned only enemies, no allies: Budushchaia voina, 35–6; Plekhanov, VChK-OGPU, 102; Stoecker, Forging Stalin’s Army, 148–9; Samuelson, Soviet Defence Industry Planning, 46–52.
39. DGFP, series C, IV: 1–2 (Schulenburg, April 1, 1935), 7 (state secretary, April 2); DVP SSSR, XVIII: 262 (April 4); “Nakanune voiny (Dokumenty 1935–1940 gg.),” 171–2 (Gekker for Berzin, April 4).
40. DBFP, 2nd series, XII: 766–7 (Chilston to Simon quoting Eden, sent March 30, 1935), 768–9 (March 31).
41. Eden deemed Stalin “the quietest dictator I have ever known, with the exception of [Portugal’s] Dr. Salazar.” Eden, Facing the Dictators, 153.
42. An “economic agreement” had been signed March 20, 1935, but the more critical loan terms were signed on April 9. DGFP, series C, III: 1028–31, IV: 28–38, 38–43; DVP SSSR, XVIII: 270–4. Schacht (now acting economics minister), who had sought to sabotage the credit negotiations, emerged as the lead proponent. Ericson, Feeding the German Eagle, 17–9; DGFP, series C, III: 367–9 (Aug. 29, 1934), 682–5 (Nov. 27, 1934), 930–3 (Feb. 14, 1935), 935–6 (Feb. 15), 960–1 (Feb. 25), 1002. See also Doering, Deutsche Aussenwirtschaftspolitk, 169–75; von Strandmann, “Grossindustrie und Rapallopolitik,” at 337.
43. Abramov, “Osobaia missiia Davida Kandelaki,” 147 (citing AVP RF, f. 082, op. 18, pap. 81, d. 7, l. 150–1: April 12, 1935). Kandelaki returned from Berlin and Stalin received him on April 13, May 4 and 5, July 5 and 7, 1935. Kandelaki appears to have imagined that opposition to Hitler existed and could be galvanized via improved relations, a view dismissed by Litvinov and Surits. Na prieme, 160, 162, 169; Roberts, “Soviet Bid for Coexistence.”
44. Laval had been stalling Moscow over the deadlocked negotiations with Germany for a multilateral Eastern Pact, but on March 30, 1935, fearful that events would outrun him, he had handed Potyomkin a text for a bilateral pact solely between France and the Soviet Union, and possibly one also with Czechoslovakia, and with Italy, all within the framework of the League. DDF, 1e série, X: 75–83; DVP SSSR, XVIII: 253–4. The politburo instructions for Litvinov specified that the Soviet government preferred a Franco-Soviet pact that included Germany, or if not, then Poland, or if not, then France, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic states. The French stuck to two bilateral pacts, France-USSR, Czechoslovakia-USSR. DVP SSSR, XVIII: 158–60 (Litvinov to Potyomkin: March 4, 1935), 174 (Potyomkin, April 9, 1935), 174 (April 10); Borisov, Sovetsko-fratsuzskie otnosheniia, 248–9; Herriot, Jadis, II: 530. It seems that both Edvard Beneš (Czechoslovak foreign minister) and Nicolae Titulescu (Romanian foreign minister) were at the French foreign ministry and helped draft the public announcement of France’s decision. Hochman, Failure of Collective Security, 51 (citing AMZV Prague, incoming 1935, Osuský from Paris, April 9). During three meetings in the Little Corner (April 22, 23, 28, 1935), Litvinov pressed for France’s much-reduced incarnation (no Germany, Poland, or even Baltic states); Stalin agreed. DVP SSSR, XVII: 280–6 (at 281: April 21, 1935), 292–3 (April 18, 1935), 295, 296; Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b) i Evropa, 322–3 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 18, l. 2), 323–4 (l. 5: April 19, 1935); DDF, 1e série, X: 322–5, 334–5; Na prieme, 160–1.
