243. Dullin, Men of Influence, 233–6. Already by late 1937, fourteen of the foreign consulates in Leningrad had been forced to close—including those of Germany, Japan, Italy, and Poland. Magerovsky, “The People’s Commissariat,” II: 337–8.
244. Foreign policy had already been delegated to a permanent commission of the politburo back on April 14, 1937. Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe politbiuro, 55, RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 986 (protocol for April 16, 1937).
245. In 1938, Litvinov had not traveled for his annual rest at Karlsbad, and had to summon his children home from England. Litvinov’s talkative British wife, Ivy, had already been sent to the isolation of the Urals some years before. Carswell, Exile, 165–8.
246. Ulricks, “Impact of the Great Purges,” 188–92; Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 130. Personnel arrested in the second wave included deputy commissar Stomanyakov (who tried to commit suicide but failed), as well as Litvinov’s personal secretary (Nazarov) and others. After the March 1938 Bukharin trial, rumors had circulated in Moscow of a public trial of diplomatic personnel, but as in the case of the Comintern, no public process took place. Conquest, Reassessment, 423.
247. Kennan, Russia and the West, 231, 336; Watson, Molotov, 153–6; Gnedin, Katastrofa i vtoroe rozhdenie, 105–15; Meerovich, “V narkomindele 1922–1939”; Chuev, Sto sorok, 332–3.
248. Voroshilov’s annual May Day holiday declaration to the troops for 1939 observed that “the capitalist world has entered the plane of new powerful shocks. The economic crisis threatens to become prolonged and more difficult than previous crises. Fascist aggressors, reshaping the world’s map by force, have dragged humanity into a Second Imperialist War. . . . Unbridled fascist military aggression, intoxicated by easy victories, does not cease to threaten new attacks against weak and intimidated countries.” Krasnaia zvezda, May 1, 1939, reprinted in Zolotarev, Russkii arkhiv: Velikaia otechestvennaia, XIII (II/i): 100–2 (RGVA, f. 4, op. 15, d. 25, l. 227–29).
249. Maiskii, Dnevnik diplomata, I: 385–6; Gorodetsky, Maisky Diaries, 182–3.
250. Gnedin, Katastrofa i votoroe rozhdenie, 108–10.
251. DBFP, 3rd series, V: 400 (Seeds to Halifax, May 3), 410 (Seeds to Halifax, May 4), 542 (Seeds to Halifax, May 19); Haslam, Struggle for Collective Security, 213–4.
252. Litvinov evidently did refer to Molotov as “fool” (durak), including over the phone, which he knew was eavesdropped, according to Litvinov’s daughter Tatiana, cited in Phillips, Between the Revolution and the West, 166. Litvinov is listed for a mere thirty-five minutes in the Little Corner on May 3, 1939: Na prieme, 258.
253. Stalin’s telegram on Molotov’s replacement of Litvinov mentioned “the serious conflict between the chairman of the People’s Council of Commissars, Comrade Molotov, and the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Comrade Litvinov,” and blamed Litvinov’s “disloyalty.” APRF, f. 3, op. 63, d. 29, l. 71; DVP SSSR, XXII/i: 327 (AVP RF, f. 059, op. 1, pap. 313, dl. 2154, l. 45); Sochineniia, XVIII: 174.
254. On Molotov’s influence on Stalin, see Volkogonov, Triumf i tragediia, II/i: 11–16. See also Gromyko, Memories, 30, 33, 404.
255. Watson, “Molotov’s Apprenticeship.”
256. Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 98–102. Sudoplatov was then deputy director of NKVD intelligence and in charge of the German desk.
257. Khrushchev, “Vospominaniia,” 18.
258. Zhukov added that “it was another matter later, when all the calculations turned out to be incorrect and collapsed; more than once in my presence Stalin berated Molotov for this.” Simonov, “Zametki k biografii G. K. Zhukova,” 49, reprinted in Mirkina and Iarovikov, Marshal Zhukov, II: 201–2.
259. Sheinis, Maksim Maksimovich Litvinov, 363. The dacha may have belonged to Stalin, who had awarded it to Litvinov.
260. Gnedin, Katastrofa i votoroe rozhdenie, 128–52. Gnedin would be the only one to survive to old age from the Soviet embassy or trade mission to Berlin.
