106. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 775, l. 1–16 (unedited). Both Stalin and Rolland edited the text. Rolland, Voyage à Moscou, 237–47. Rolland recorded the session in his diary immediately, and noted that it lasted from 4:10 to 5:50 p.m. Pravda (June 29, 1935) also reported a duration of one hour and forty minutes, while the logbook for Stalin’s office has two hours. “Moskovskii dnevnik Romena Rollanda,” 215–6; Na prieme, 168. Alexander Arosyev, the head of all-Union society for cultural ties with foreigners, who was present (and made the transcript), reported to Stalin that Rolland “repeated several times to me that he had not expected anything like that and that he had never in his life imagined Stalin that way.” Stalin wrote: “into my archive.” Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 377–8 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 795, l. 60–1). Rolland would also pepper Gorky with queries about Soviet repression.
107. “Moskovskii dnevnik Romena Rollanda,” 226–8 (July 9, 1935). Rolland read out a greeting on Soviet radio that July. “It’s a wonderful thing, to laugh . . . Genuine joy is . . . in us, comrades, in a well dispositioned spirit, in a proud consciousness, in any beloved labor, joy is in the work in the cornfield of all humanity.” Goriaeva, “Veilkaia kniga dnia,” 300–1 (GARF, f. 6953, op. 15, d. 53).
108. Rolland, Voyage à Moscou, 149–54 (July 4, 1935); “Moskovskii dnevnik Romena Rollanda,” 238–40. Stalin’s pipe, by now, had become a significant part of his iconography. Pravda (April 17, 1935), for ex., had run a caricature by Viktor Deni called “peace pipes” contrasting Stalin’s with that of a fat bulldog-faced bourgeois.
109. Hitler received Beck again in the afternoon, with Göring, Neurath, and Ribbentrop, but skipped Beck’s third and final conversation on July 4, when the Polish foreign minister summoned the courage to mention Germany’s freight arrears and the currency exchange problems Germany caused in Danzig. DGFP, series C, IV: 398–407 (July 3), 410 (July 4); Wojciechowski, Stosunki polsko-niemieckie, 205; Beck, Przemówienia, 164–5; Beck, Final Report, 92–9. A British Foreign Office summary mentioned deep Soviet fears of becoming simultaneously the object of Western and Japanese ambitions, as well as smaller countries’ opportunism. Lensen, Damned Inheritance, 465 (FO 371/19460–881, Colonel Ismay to Collier, July 8, 1935). The NKVD’s Prokofyev wrote to Stalin (July 11, 1935) about the arrest of a saboteur parachuted in by Japan; two of three were killed, one fled but was captured, and the politburo resolved to stage a public trial in Irkutsk. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 679–81 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 247, l. 105–7), 681 (l. 104), 683 (l. 157).
110. It is not clear the German foreign ministry even knew of Schacht’s proposal. Kandelaki wanted the offer in writing. Litvinov warned against it as a German “maneuver.” Weinberg, Foreign Policy, I: 221; DVP SSSR, XVIII: 646–7 (Litvinov to Potyomkin, June 26, 1935), 647 (Litvinov to Surits, June 27); Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 85–6, 127; Na prieme, 169.
111. On the unexpected twists and turns concerning finance and cash in a “planned” economy, see Arnold, Banks, Credit and Money; Nakamura, “Did the Soviet Command Economy Command Money?”; and Gregory, Political Economy, 213–42.
112. Stalin had played a key role in the moderation of investment targets in 1932–4, which proved important for stabilization. Davies et al., “The Politburo and Economic Decision Making,” 113–4. The state planning commission did have a few line-management functions, but mostly it served in an advisory capacity, and tried to counter the systemic prevarication of commissariats and factories. Gregory and Harrison, “Allocation under Dictatorship.”
113. Na prieme, 170.
114. The 22 billion included 6.5–6.7 billion for Orjonikidze’s heavy industry (vs. the proposed 6, and a requested 9), and 3.5 billion for Kaganovich’s railroad commissariat (vs. the proposed 3, and a requested 4.5).
115. Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 241–2; Adibekov et al., Politbiuro TsK RKP (b)—VKP (b): povestki dnia zasedanii, II: 673.
116. Davies et al., Years of Progress, 264 (citing GARF, f. 5446, op. 26, d. 66, l. 266, 264–6), 266 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 769, l. 159–60, 162–3); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 969, l. 1, 31–8; Kosheleva, Pis’ma Stalina Molotovu, 249–50 (Aug. 2, 1935); Davies, “Making Economic Policy,” 64–80.
