123. Stalin had gathered Molotov, Mikoyan, Zhdanov, Voroshilov, Beria, and Kaganovich in the Little Corner until 3:30 p.m. Na prieme, 270–1. Also, on Aug. 23, 1939, the Moscow city soviet resolved to award land around the main NKVD HQ at Lubyanka, 2, for the building’s expansion; several residential structures housing 440 people were slated for demolition. (The residents received a mere 2,500 rubles’ compensation and free moving costs, and had to find or build their own new housing on plots granted outside Moscow.) Construction would begin almost immediately even as plans were still being drawn up by the architect, Alexei Shchusev, who went through various designs. The war would interrupt construction, which would be completed in 1948. A lack of resources inhibited the blending of the facades of the existing building and the addition until later (1979–82). Pogonii, Lubianka, 2, 70–9.
124. Kalinin had told Schulenburg upon his appointment, “Don’t pay too much attention to the shoutings in the press. The peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union are linked by many different lines and to a great extent are dependent on each other.” Nekrich, 1941, 21 (citing German archives).
125. Berezhkov, At Stalin’s Side, 49–50.
126. “It was a move,” Hilger guessed, “that was calculated to put the [German] foreign minister off balance.” In fact, Stalin sought to demonstrate Moscow’s commitment to the new pact. Hilger and Meyer, Incompatible Allies, 301. On Aug. 23, 1939, the logbook for Stalin’s office shows Molotov, Mikoyan, Zhdanov, Voroshilov, Beria, and Kaganovich (listed from 1:12 p.m. or so to 3:30 p.m., before the negotiations), then Molotov from 2:15 a.m. to 3:35 a.m. Na prieme, 270–1.
127. Chuev, Sto sorok, 257.
128. Shaposhnikov, Vospominaniia.
129. Sontag and Beddie, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 69.
130. Kershaw, Hitler: 1936–1945, 210.
131. Hilger and Meyer, Incompatible Allies, 303. Sontag and Beddie, Nazi-Soviet Relations, using only German documents, attributed the Pact to Soviet initiative. This collection was immediately translated into Russian for Stalin and provoked his involvement in countervailing efforts, originally entitled “Answer to the Slanderers,” which in Stalin’s hands became Falsifiers of History, a work that would be published in Russian and English translation in 1948: RGASPI, f. 558, op. 2, d. 239–45. See also Nekrich, “Soviet German Treaty,” 9–13.
132. DGFP, series D, VII: 220 (Ribbentrop to the foreign ministry, Aug. 23, 1939), 223 (Kordt to Moscow embassy, Aug. 23, 1939); Herwarth, Against Two Evils, 165.
133. Van Creveld, Hitler’s Strategy, 186n8; Read and Fisher, Deadly Embrace, 488–9 (no citation).
134. Sontag and Beddie, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 72–3.
135. “Mr. Stalin and Molotov commented in a hostile way on the behavior of the British military mission in Moscow which had not told the Soviet government what it actually wanted.” Naumov, 1941 god, II: 580 (German record). See also Sontag and Beddie, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 72–6.
136. Antonov, “Anatolii Gorskii.”
137. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 581 (Politisches Archiv des Auswärtiges Amtes. Bonn, Bestand Büro RAM F/110019–30); Chuev, Sto sorok, 19. An alert SS adjutant, Lieutenant Richard Schulze, claims he managed to have his glass refilled from Stalin’s personal flask, and that it contained not vodka but water. Read and Fisher, Deadly Embrace, 256. Schulze appears in the Pact photos.
138. For the text of the Pact, and the secret protocol, see DVP SSSR, XXII/i: 630–2 (AVP RF, f. 3a, d. 243; APRF, f. 3, op. 64, d. 675a, l. 3–4). Izvestiya carried the announcement of the Pact later that same day (Aug. 24, 1939).
139. Volkogonov, Triumf i tragediia, II/ii: 107 (no citation). Berezhkov writes that the cocktail party went on until dawn and that only after that was Ribbentrop able to inform Hitler. Berezhkov, At Stalin’s Side, 40.
140. “‘Avtobiograficheskie zametki’ V. N. Pavlova—perevodchika I. V. Stalina,” 99.
141. This was Andor Hencke, the under state secretary, who added: “The cordial and yet at the same time dignified manner in which Stalin, without losing face, attended to each one of us, left a strong impression on us all.” Rees, World War II behind Closed Doors, 18 (citing Hencke’s 1950 interrogation, DGFP, series D, VII: 225–9).
142. Bullock, Hitler and Stalin, 676. See also Hoffmann, Hitler Was My Friend, 102–14. Two German photographers were present, Hoffmann and Helmut Laux. Hoffmann, Hitler Was My Friend, 109.
