195. In the same dispatch, forwarded by Merkulov to Stalin and Molotov, “Elder” reported that German officers had told him that Hitler had given a speech some days earlier at the Sports Palace during which he said “in the near future events will take place that will seem inexplicable to many. But the measures, which we will launch, are a state necessity, since the Red Menace has reared its ugly head over ‘Europe.’” Naumov, 1941 god, II: 152 (TsA SVR RF); Iampol’skii et al., Organy, I/ii: 292–3 (TsA FSK); Vinogradov et al., Sekrety Gitlera, 65–6 (TsA FSB, f. 3os, op. 8, d. 56, l. 1157–8). On May 6, Admiral Kuznetsov wrote to Stalin that the Soviet naval attaché in Berlin (Vorontsov) reported that a Soviet inhabitant named Bozer (a Jew from Lithuania) told the naval attaché’s aide that according to one officer in Hitler’s HQ, the Germans were preparing to invade on May 14 through Finland, the Baltics, and Romania, but Kuznetsov added: “I suggest that this information is false and specially directed in this fashion to reach our government in order to test how the USSR would react.” Volkogonov papers, Hoover Institution Archives, container 18.
196. Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 31n9 (no citation); Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 283; Nevezhin, Sindrom, 169–70; Nevezhin, Zastol’ia, 278–9. Sivkov was sacked from the military academy directorship. Nevezhin, Sindrom, 180 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1039, l. 32).
197. Kuztesova, “Nachalo voiny.”
198. Further, Stalin claimed that each division numbered 15,000 troops (twice the actual number in many cases). Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 26. Zhukov would remind Stalin on June 15, 1941, that “even 8,000-men divisions are practically twice weaker than German ones.” Bezymenskii, Gitler i Stalin, 427–33.
199. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 160 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 3808, l. 1–12); Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 27–8; Nevezhin, Sindrom, 170 (citing RGALI, f. 1038, op. 1, d. 2079, l. 31). Over the first six months of 1941, the Soviet Union would produce more than 1,100 T-34 medium tanks and 393 KV heavy tanks, not nearly enough to meet the general staff’s professed needs against a German adversary being supplied by all of Europe. In March 1941, Stalin was informed that industry had only enough parts to supply 30 percent of all the army’s tank and armored units. New aircraft models were running at 10 to 20 percent of the military’s needs. Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph, 375–6 (citing TsAMO, f. 15a, op. 2154, d. 4, l. 224–33).
200. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia,’” 28–9; Banac, Diary of Gerogi Dimitrov, 159–60; Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 282.
201. Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 116. See also Anfilov, “‘Razgovor zakonchilsia ugrozoi Stalina,’” 41.
202. Bezymenskii, Gitler i Stalin, 437.
203. Muratov, “Shest’ chasov”; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 291–3. There is no stenographic account of the May 5, 1941, speech and no written notes by Stalin found in his personal papers. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 294n2. Malyshev and Dimtrov wrote accounts for their diaries. Nevezhin, Zatsol’nye, 273–93. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia.’” This is the so-called “brief record” made by K. V. Semenov, a staff person at the defense commissariat.
204. Banac, Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 160.
205. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia,’” 29; Naumov, 1941 god, II; 161–2; Vainrub, Eti stal’nye parnii, 19; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 287–8, 290–1.
206. Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 115, 116–7; Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 284–5; Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 29–30; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 279–80.
207. Pravda, May 3, 1941.
208. Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 29–30; Naumov, 1941 god, II; 161–2; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 287–9 (at 289); Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 285; Nevezhin, Sindrom, 174–6.
209. Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 287; Zhipin, Kak fashistskaia Germaniia gotovila napadenie, 224; Liashchenko, “S ognem i krov’iu popolam”; Radzinskii, Stalin, 485 (quoting Chadayev, unpublished ms., “V groznye vremena,” GARF, without detailed citation). Sivkov was sacked a few days later. Nevezhin, Sindrom, 180 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1049, l. 32). Both of Sivkov’s brothers, Alexander and Pyotr, also military men, had been executed in 1938.
210. Schulenburg would send an account of the speech to Berlin only a month later, suggesting that Stalin seemed “anxious to prepare his followers for a new ‘compromise’ with Germany.” DGFP, series D, XII: 964–5 (June 4, 1941).
