121. Pravda, June 26, 1940; Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 233–53. Back at a meeting on June 19, 1940, Stalin had explained that workers in capitalist countries worked ten to twelve hours, and that the Bolsheviks had “understood the economy poorly” when introducing the seven-hour workday in 1927. The new labor law restored the eight-hour workday (without additional pay). He partly blamed indiscipline and turnover on Soviet trade unions (“not a school of communism, but a school of self-seekers”). Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 112 (June 19, 1940); Khlevniuk, “26 iiunia 1940 goda,” 89.
122. “Vot gde Pravda, Nikita Sergeevich!,”17.
123. Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 300–1, 327; Rittersporn, Anguish, 233 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 88, d. 550, l. 922–3, 101–3; GARF, f. 8131, op. 37, d. 137, l. 53–4; f. 9415, op. 5, d. 205, l. 5).
124. Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 239. Some managers were demoted or demonstratively arrested for failing to apply the draconian law, but job turnover and absenteeism persisted. “O kontrole nad provedeniem v zhizn’ ukaza presidiuma verkhovnogo soveta SSSR ot 26 iiunia 1940,” RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 676, I: 41–42ob.
125. Khlevniuk, “26 iiunia 1940 goda.” See also Markevich and Sokolov, “Magnitka bliz Sadovogo kol’tsa.” “We cannot be indifferent to who is joining the working class,” Stalin would lament later. “If this goes on in spontaneous fashion, the composition of the working class may be ruined. And correspondingly, the regime as a dictatorship of the working class may be ruined. But at present they latch on to anyone who turns up for a job.” Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 113 (Sept. 26, 1940).
126. Davies and Harris, Stalin’s World, 225 (citing RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1124, l. 46–7).
127. Das deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, II: 368–74.
128. Hillgruber, Hitlers Strategie, 168.
129. Trial of the Major War Criminals, XXXIV: 277 (Raeder for Assmann, Jan. 30, 1944).
130. Churchill, Second World War, II: 200 (letter to Smuts).
131. Hillgruber, Hitlers Strategie; Martin, Friedensinitiativen und Machtpolitik.
132. Raeder explained on July 11 that “in her weakened state, Britain will seek the support of the United States, in whose interests it is to preserve England as a powerful European state. This will automatically make the United States Germany’s enemy. The two Anglo-Saxon powers will retain or rebuild their maritime resources in order to defend their empire and will thus become the next natural enemies of Germany to be dealt with.” The next day Hitler ordered redirection of armaments investment to the Luftwaffe and the navy, with highest priority to U-boats. None of that would be achieved quickly. On July 13, Hitler convened a military conference at the Berghof. “He sees the answer (as we do) in Britain’s hopes on Russia,” General Halder wrote in his diary. Hillgruber, Hitlers Strategie, 147 (citing Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung, Teil A, July 11, 1940); Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 394 (citing BAMA RW19/164; and IWM EDS al 1492, Chef Wi Rue Amt, Aug. 20, 1940, Aktennotiz); Halder, Halder Diaries, I: 504–6 (July 13, 1940); Halder, Kriegstagebuch, II: 19–22.
133. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 355–6.
134. Churchill, Second World War, II: 230–1. Ciano, who met with Ribbentrop that day before the speech, recorded it as “a last appeal to Great Britain.” The next day, he met with Hitler and recorded: “He would like an understanding with Great Britain. He knows that war with the English will be hard and bloody, and knows also that people everywhere today are averse to blood.” Gibson, Ciano Diaries, 277 (July 19, 20, 1940).
135. “Telegramma I. F. Dergacheva I. I. Proskurovu,” 220 (June 6, 1940).
136. Dietrich, The Hitler I Knew, 124–5; Kershaw, Hitler: 1936–1945, 306–7; Weinberg, Germany and the Soviet Union, 107–8; Naumov, 1941 god, I: 91 (TsAMO, f. 23, op. 22434, d. 4, l. 261: “Meteor,” July 9, 1940).
137. Gavrilov, Voennaia razvedka informiruet, 440–1 (RGVA, f. 33987, op. 3, d. 1305, l. 438s), 443–5 (TsAMO, f. 23, op. 9171, d. 4, l. 61–9: July 20, 1940).
138. Gavrilov, Voennaia razvedka informiruet, 442 (RGVA, f. 29, op. 35, d. 98, l. 11ss–12ss: July 16, 1940).
139. Fuehrer Conferences, 1940, I: 81; Wheatley, Operation Sea Lion, 43 (quoting naval staff diary, July 21, 1940).
