Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 полностью

DISINFORMATION, CONFIRMED

On May 14, “Zeus,” out of Sofia, reported further on the concentration of German divisions. On May 17, two weeks prior to the onset of Soviet military maneuvers—which were publicly advertised—Stalin terminated the German tours of his weapons factories, and the very next day an exhibit at Moscow’s State Historical Museum cataloging Napoleon’s defeat, 1812 Fatherland War, had its grand opening. On May 19, “Dora” reported from Zurich that Nazi attack plans had been finalized. The next day, “Extern” reported from Helsinki on a pending attack. Out of Bucharest, on May 23, “Mars” reported that “the American military attaché in Romania said to the Slovak ambassador that the Germans will attack the USSR no later than June 15.”²⁶⁵

Talk of secret negotiations was rife. Dekanozov, following his third breakfast with Schulenburg, departed for Berlin (he arrived May 14), but he could not obtain an audience with Ribbentrop to follow up. The envoy appealed to the good graces of Otto Meissner, who had run the office of the president throughout the Weimar Republic, remained in that post when Hitler became head of state, and was viewed as especially close to the Führer, attending to the ceremonial side of the chancellery.²⁶⁶ The old-school Meissner happened to speak Russian, having spent considerable time in the country, and beginning in mid-May Dekanozov met with him about once a week—four times altogether. They discussed Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, as if the Wehrmacht troops deployed in Eastern Europe would be attacking the British positions in the Near East. “Otto Meissner quickly became his best friend,” recalled Berezhkov, who worked under Dekanozov at the Soviet embassy. “Meissner, also short and stocky, regularly joined the ambassador for lunch a few times a month and, slouching in a chair over cognac and coffee, would tell his host ‘in confidence’ that the chancellery was working on important proposals for the upcoming meeting between Hitler and Stalin.”²⁶⁷

Rumors spread beginning around May 25 that Germany was manufacturing Soviet flags for a state visit to Berlin. “The rumors we spread about an invasion of England are working,” Goebbels wrote in his diary that day. “Extreme nervousness reigns in England. As for Russia, we were able to organize a vast flow of false information. The newspaper ‘plants’ make it such that those abroad cannot figure out where is the truth, and where is the lie. This is the atmosphere that we need.”²⁶⁸ German intelligence reported to Ribbentrop that many in the diplomatic corps in Berlin were convinced Germany and the USSR had already reached a secret agreement, putting off the war.²⁶⁹ Pravda (May 25) published a satirical essay on the wild rumors among foreign diplomats.

Also on May 25, Stalin had in his possession an extraordinary report out of Berlin, where Berlings (“Lycée-ist”) had told Amayak Kobulov that, although there were 160 to 200 German divisions on the Soviet frontier, “war between the Soviet Union and Germany is unlikely, although it would be very popular in Germany at a time when the present war with England is not approved by the populace. Hitler cannot take such a risk as a war with the USSR, fearing a breach in the unity of the Nazi party.” “Lycée-ist” uttered the canard that “Hitler expects Stalin in connection with this to become more accommodating and end all the intrigues against Germany, and above all, to grant him more goods, especially oil.” Most remarkable of all, in connection with supposed Soviet plans to relocate the government to the interior, “Lycée-ist” issued a bizarre olive branch inside a threat: “The German war plan has been worked out in the greatest detail. The maximum duration of the war is 6 weeks. During that time Germany would conquer almost the entire European part of the USSR, but the government in Sverdlovsk would not be touched. If after that Stalin would desire to save the socialist system, Hitler would not interfere.”²⁷⁰