82. Volkogonov papers, Hoover Institution Archives, container 10, dated 26/27 Dec. 1938. Stalin had edited the proposal by Beria, composed at Stalin’s wish, to restrict NKVD surveillance and arrests of nomenklatura. Khaustov, “Razvitie sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti,” 364. An additional decree was issued reiterating the requirement for the NKVD to obtain army permission for arrests of officers and soldiers. Suvenirov, “Narkomat oborony i NKVD v predvoennye gody,” 34 (citing RGVA f. 4, op. 15, d. 21, l. 3ob.).
83. APRF, f. 3, op. 22, d. 91, l. 168–70.
84. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i NKVD, 14–5 (APRF, f. 3, op. 58, d. 6, l. 145–6); Volkogonov papers, Hoover Institution Archives, container 27; Iakovlov et al., Reabilitatsiia: Politicheskie protsessy, 40–1 (a copy of the telegram found in the Dagestan regional party committee: all such documents had to be returned to the Central Committee, so this one evidently survived thanks to negligence); Sluzhba bezopasnosti, 1993, no. 6: 2; Afanas’ev, Inogo ne dano, 561–2n2 (wrong date of Jan. 20, 1939). Kaganovich later testified (in 1957) that Stalin had written out the decree by hand. Kovaleva et al., “Posledniaia ‘antipartiinaia’ gruppa,” 86–9.
85. Prażmowska, Eastern Europe, 228.
86. DGFP, series D, DAP, V: 167–8 (Ribbentrop and Beck, Jan. 26, 1939); Gromyko et al., SSSR v bor’be za mir nakanune, 171–3 (AVP RF, f. 059, op. 1, pap. 300, d. 2075, l. 46–9: Surits, Jan. 27, 1939); God krizisa, I: 194–6; Mel’tiukhov, Sovtesko-pol’skie voiny (2001); Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 160–4. Citing hearsay from Hans-Adolf von Moltke, Luftwaffe Lieutenant-General Alfred Gerstenberg, the German air force attaché in Poland in 1938 (who would fall into Soviet captivity and be interrogated on Aug. 17, 1945) would assert that Hermann Göring, while traveling to Poland on the pretext of hunting, bribed Beck to work on behalf of Nazi Germany. Gerstenberg knew how much the Soviets despised Beck. Tainy diplomatii Tret’ego Reikka, 581 (TsA FSB, d. N-21147, t. 1, l. 35–53).
87. DGFP, series D, V: 159–61; Cienciala, “Poland in British and French Policy,” at 202, citing DDF, 2e série, XVI: 196 (May 17, 1939), and DBFP, 3rd series, VI: appendix II (foreign office on Danzig, May 5, 1939). Beck had also pursued “Third Europe,” a bloc to be led by Poland with Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Yugoslavia, but that had failed amid mutual hostilities. Roberts, “Diplomacy of Colonel Beck,” 579–614; Kornat, “Polish Idea of ‘The Third Europe.’” On the intense dislike for Beck even inside Polish circles, see Lukes, Czechoslovakia between Hitler and Stalin, 165n124.
88. Gavrilov, Voennaia razvedka informiruet, 26–7 (TsAMO, f. 23, op. 9717, d. 2, l. 93–5: Feb. 10, 1939). Retrospectively, a Polish journalist argues that, given the distasteful options, Beck should have yielded to Hitler’s demands for Danzig and an extra-territorial highway through the Corridor and joined him in an attack against the Soviet Union. Zychowicz, Pakt Ribbentrop-Beck. For Beck’s contemplation of possible concessions and his worries over the loss of international prestige and domestic political earthquake, see Weinberg, “Proposed Compromise”; Weinberg, “German Foreign Policy.”
89. Gromyko et al., SSSR v bor’be za mir nakanenu, 198–9; God krizisa, I: 228; Gavrilov, Voennaia razvedka informiruet, 28.
90. Gromyko et al., SSSR v bor’be za mir nakanune, 169–70.
91. From 1938, the regime had begun a crash radio construction program. Khaustov, “Deiatel’nost’ organov,” 369–70 (TsA FSB, f. 3, op. 2, d. 160, l. 4).
92. Baynes, Speeches of Adolf Hitler, I: 737–41; Hitler, untitled speech; Mommsen, “Hitler’s Reichstag Speech”; Kershaw, “Hitler Myth,” 240–1.
93. In a Jan. 25, 1939, circular, the Nazi foreign ministry identified the United States as the “headquarters of world Jewry.” DGFP, series D, V: 926–33.
94. Gerwarth, Bismarck Myth, 151 (citing “Wegbereiter des nueun Reiches,” Völkischer Beobachter, Feb. 15, 1939).
