40. Weinberg, Hitler’s Foreign Policy, II: 691–4; DGFP, series D, II: 473–7 (June 18, 1938); Grechko et al., Istoriia vtoroi mirovoi voiny, I: 104; Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 176. The British government tried to restrain the domestic press from crowing about Hitler’s apparent climbdown. Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement, 149.
41. Weinberg, Foreign Policy, II: 335, 465–6.
42. RGVA, f. 33 987, op. 3, d. 1144, l. 325.
43. Glavnyi voennyi sovet RKKA, 135–42 (RGVA, f. 4, op. 18, d. 46, l. 183–90). On Lake Khasan, see also Voennyi sovet pri narodnom kosmmissare oborony SSSR, 206–18 (RGVA, f. 4, op. 14, d. 2030, l. 108–23; op. 18, d. 47, l. 92–5: Nov. 26, 1938). On Aug. 4, 1938, in the middle of the Lake Khasan border war, the Soviet envoy to Czechoslovakia would assure Beneš that the Soviet Union would live up to its European military obligations regardless of the situation in the Far East.
44. Sakwa, “Polish Ultimatum”; DGFP, series D, V: 434, 442–3; DVP SSSR, XXI: 153–5 (Potyomkin, March 26, 1938). On March 24, Shaposhnikov, chief of the general staff, sent a draft war plan to Voroshilov stating that “the most likely enemies in the West were Germany and Poland.” Naumov, 1941 god, II: 557–60.
45. Gal’ianov, “Kuda idet Pol’sha.” Already in Feb. 1938, Potyomkin had told the Bulgarian envoy to Moscow that there might well be a new partition of Poland. Lipinsky, Das geheime Zusatzprotokoll, 24. See also Sluch, “Pol’sha v politike Sovetskogo Soiuza,” 162–3 (citing AVPRF, f. 05, op. 18, pap. 148, d. 158, l. 30: April 4, 1938); and Raack, “His Question Asked and Answered.”
46. Ragsdale, Coming of World War II, 81–2, 112–126, 166–7, 185.
47. The Romanian military did not oppose granting transit rights to the Red Army, but King Carol vetoed the idea. Ragsdale, “Soviet Position at Munich,” 35–72; Ragsdale, Coming of World War II, 81–2, 90–1; Hochman, Failure of Collective Security, 56–77, 144–69. No airlift of troops of the necessary magnitude for aiding Czechoslovakia took place even during World War II. See also Ragsdale, in “Munich Crisis,” who demolishes the assertions in Pfaff, Die Sowjetunion und die Verteidigung der Tschechoslowakei, 392–7.
48. RGVA, f. 33 987, op. 3, d. 1144, l. 150–5, 160, 183; 158–94; Seaton, Russo-German War, 56n16.
49. Ulam, Expansion and Coexistence, 254; Jackson, France and the Nazi Menace, 291; Jackson, “French Military Intelligence,” 88–9. Churchill (March 23, 1938) had put the question squarely to Maisky about the Red Army’s self-annihilation. Maisky suggested to Litvinov that Churchill be permitted to observe Red Army maneuvers to put to rest the impression derived from the terror. No such visit took place. DVP SSSR, XXI: 151–3; Gorodetsky, Maisky Diaries, 107; Steiner, “Soviet Commissariat of Foreign Affairs,” 755.
50. Primakov, Ocherki, III: 65 (no citation). Successive French military attachés had been reprimanded by superiors in Paris for “exaggerating” the USSR’s military capacity. Young, In Command of France, 145–49; Coulondre, De Staline à Hitler, 129.
51. On Sept. 2, 1938, Jean Payart, long-serving French chargé d’affaires in Moscow, asked Litvinov what assistance the USSR could render to Czechoslovakia, given the reluctance of Poland and Romania to allow Soviet troops and aircraft to pass through; Litvinov reminded him that it was France that was under treaty obligation in the first instance, and that if France came to Czechoslovakia’s aid, the Soviet Union would fulfil its obligations “utilizing every means at our disposal.” Litvinov repeated the Soviet proposal for an immediate conference of Great Britain, France, and the USSR with military representatives, but Payart left the last part out of his report to the French foreign ministry, and instead managed to incite the idea that the Soviet answer had been “evasive.” Steiner, “Soviet Commissariat of Foreign Affairs,” 763–5. Litvinov repeatedly warned Alexandrovsky in Prague to make sure the Czechoslovaks did not expect unilateral Soviet assistance.
52. Weinberg, Hitler’s Foreign Policy, 398; DDF, 2e série, IX: 394–5 (July 16, 1938), 402–4 (July 17), 437–8 (July 20), 487n2; Adamthwaite, France, 197–9.
53. Young, “French Military Intelligence,” 271–309 (at 287).
54. Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 246, 255–6, 271–2.
55. Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, IX/i: 751–6; Mueller, Das Heer und Hitler, 361.
