Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 полностью

Immediately after being apprised of Zhukov’s success in effectively winning from both sides, Stalin would make him the third chief of staff in the past six months.³⁷ “I have never worked in staffs,” Zhukov recalled protesting to the despot. “I have always been a line officer. I cannot be chief of the general staff.”³⁸

Continuing in his transformation of the military, Stalin also held fast to the view that the economic relationship with Germany served as a deterrent. Many foreign observers, too, surmised that Germany had far more to gain from trade than from a costly attempt at conquest.³⁹ In December 1940 and January 1941, after the despot had applied pressure (shutting down Soviet exports to Germany in the fourth quarter), German exports to the USSR suddenly ballooned.⁴⁰ In Moscow on January 10, the parties signed a new German-Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement, which the trade official Schnurre lauded as “the greatest Germany had ever concluded.” The USSR, upping its deliveries, promised to ship 2.5 million tons of grain, some from strategic reserves, and 1 million tons of oil by August 1941, in return for machine tools and arms-manufacturing equipment, whose delivery would begin in August.⁴¹ Hitler, however, saw menace. “Stalin is intelligent, clever, and cunning,” he stated at a Führer conference of military brass during the two days before the signing of the new trade agreement. “He demands more and more. He’s a cold-blooded blackmailer. A German victory has become unbearable for Russia. Therefore: she must be brought to her knees as soon as possible.”⁴²

Also in January 1941, Wehrmacht troops entered Bulgaria, where the Germans would soon install antiaircraft weapons and shore batteries on the Black Sea.⁴³ Molotov told Dimitrov that “the Soviet government has declared to the German government that Bulgaria and the Straits belong to the security sphere of the USSR.”⁴⁴ Major General Alexander Samokhin (“Sophocles”), the Soviet military attaché and military intelligence station chief in Belgrade, reported conversations to the effect that “the Balkans are becoming the decisive center of political events, more so because here is where the direct clash of the interests of Germany and the USSR begins.”⁴⁵ As late as January 17, Molotov was still pressing Schulenburg about Germany’s silence regarding Soviet conditions for joining the Tripartite Pact: “neither an answer nor a hello.”⁴⁶

ANXIETIES

In the evening of January 17, Stalin convoked a rare formal meeting of the politburo in the Little Corner to discuss the economic plan for 1941.⁴⁷ “For four to five months we have not assembled the politburo,” he stated. “All questions are prepared by Zhdanov, Malenkov, and others in the form of smaller gatherings with comrades who have the necessary expertise, and the practice of leadership has gotten not worse but better.” He continued, “In the economic sense, our state is not a single entity but consists of a series of pieces. In order to unite these pieces into one whole, we need railroads.” Just as France or Britain had connected their empires via ships, the USSR had to expand its railroads, which “would consume a lot of metal.” He went on to criticize the economic council inside the Council of People’s Commissars. “You are busy with parliamentarism,” he charged. “You pronounce big speeches. Issues are often resolved by the principle of who convinces whom, who gives a prettier speech.”

After the admonishments, at around 1:00 a.m., they went outside to inspect a new limited-edition automobile, which Stalin deemed “successful.” Then the group of about ten repaired to his apartment, one floor below the Little Corner, for supper. They sat until 7:00 a.m. “We sang songs, talked,” Malyshev, the commissar of medium machine building and a deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, recorded in his diary. “Comrade Stalin told us at length about his life and proposed a toast ‘to the old guys, who are eagerly passing power to the youth, who are eagerly taking this power!’” Stalin was promoting a new team of younger cadres into the government, Molotov’s bailiwick, such as Malyshev, who carried responsibility for the automobile industry. When the despot observed Malyshev drinking wine “in limited edition,” he grabbed two goblets, hurried over, and poured them both full. The pair drank to the bottom. Stalin then went around the room to pour everyone a full glass, laughing and commenting of Malyshev, with evident zest, “He’s a sly type, sly!”⁴⁸