159. RGASPI, f. 82, op. 2, d. 1592, l. 4–7. In July 1940, after the two sides had hashed out a new demarcation of the Mongolia-Manchukuo frontier, the Japanese had proposed a neutrality pact, but Molotov told Ambassador Tōgō that “the Japanese had committed serious violations, and as a result we cannot consider the [1905] Portsmouth Treaty to be valid in its entirety.” Molotov sought to terminate Japanese oil and coal concessions on Soviet-controlled Northern Sakhalin, and reclaim Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, restoring Russia’s pre-1905 position in the Far East. After Nov. 1940, the Japanese would propose a bilateral nonaggression pact, but Molotov remained adamant. Another five months of negotiations would ensue. Presseisen, Germany and Japan, 273–7.
160. Volkogonov, Trotsky, 454–69.
161. Khaustov et al., Lubianka: Stalin i VChK, 182–4. Stalin further inserted into the Pravda report of Trotsky’s demise a hint of the biblical Cain and a reference to the old saw of Trotsky as Judas, making him not just a supposed murderer (à la Cain) but a traitor. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 521–4 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1124, l. 63–6). Stalin had also edited the Pravda editorial about the Soviet-Finnish Friendship Agreement (Dec. 4, 1939) and the Izvestiya editorial (Oct. 9, 1939) about a Reichstag speech by Hitler. Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 516–21 (citing RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1123, l. 41–51), 513– (d. 1124, l. 32–7).
162. Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 254–9.
163. Biulleten’ oppozitsii, no. 81 (1940): 5; Volkogonov, Trotsky, 342–4. “Whatever the circumstances of my death,” Trotsky had written in his will, “I will die with unshakeable faith in a Communist future.” Trotskii, Dnevniki i pis’ma, 167–8. On July 17, 1940, just weeks before his murder, Trotsky’s personal archive was shipped to the United States by train, arriving at Harvard University. Trotsky, Stalin, rev. ed., 863.
164. Deutscher, Prophet Outcast, 419–21.
165. Langer, Undeclared War, 129–46.
166. Degras, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, III: 470–4 (Sept. 21, 1940); McMurry, Deutschland und die Sowjetunion, 214.
167. Watts, Romanian Cassandra, 217.
168. Deletant, Hitler’s Forgotten Ally, 48–55.
169. Golubev et al., Rossiia i zapad, 198 (citing RGALI, f. 1038, op. 1, d. 2077, l. 56: May 7, 1940). Other coveted dachas also changed hands, sometimes in unorthodox fashion. Sartakova, “Nash pisatel’skii les,” 25; Antipina, Povsednevnaia zhizn’, 156–7 (citing RGALI, f. 631, op. 15, d. 457, l. 19).
170. Babichenko, Pisateli i tsenzory, 41. Many writers worked at factory clubs or publishing houses and were paid bureaucratic salaries, which in some cases exceeded their honoraria (royalties). Not many could count on reissues of their works, which paid 60 percent of the normal honorarium. Alexei Tolstoy, who had become chairman of the administration for protection of authors’ rights, got the latter organization’s staff to award him an advance of 83,000 rubles—an act that precipitated a special meeting in Sept. 1940. “His receipt of such an advance cannot in any way be justified,” stated Lev Nikulin, a member of the writers’ union apparatus. “This is when his average monthly earnings are 9,745 rubles.” Tolstoy answered that he had no savings, and that the theatrical season had ended. “I think there is nothing to be surprised about here,” he asserted. “Every month I pay 6,000 rubles to my first family.” The writers’ union decided to sack the functionary who had signed off on the advance. Antipina, Povsednevnaia zhizn’, 72–3 (RGALI, f. 631, op. 15, d. 451, l. 80, 85, 99, 4).
171. Antipina, Povsednevnaia zhizn’, 20 (citing RGALI, f. 631, op. 15, d. 501, l. 61: July 3, 1940).
172. Pravda, Aug. 15, 1940 (unsigned); RGASPI, f. 77, op. 1, d. 907, l. 1–5; Miller, Soviet Cinema, 67. The film was based upon a screenplay by Avdeyenko, who was subjected to withering criticism at the meeting. He was expelled from the writers’ union and the party, but not arrested.
173. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 573–604 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 1124, l. 134–45; f. 77, op. 1, d. 907, l. 12–82); Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 450–5.
174. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 587–9, 597.
175. Anderson et al., Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 599–600 (RGASPI, f. 71, op. 10, d. 127, l. 391, 396).
176. Na prieme, 311.
177. Ericson, Feeding the German Eagle, 123–6, 134–6.
