July 01, 2009

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

August 24, 1939

by the spring of 1939, world war appeared inevitable. Hitler had occupied Austria and annexed the Sudetenland, a province of Czechoslovakia, and soon thereafter he captured the rest of the country. All you had to do was look at a map of Europe to see that Poland would be next. Given these circumstances, the prime ministers of England and France decided to investigate the possibility of an alliance with the USSR, something that would have restored a balance of power in Europe, albeit a shaky one.

Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) was a leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. In 1937 he became Prime Minister, and in 1938 he signed the Munich Agreement with Germany, giving Hitler the Sudetenland. After returning to London he proudly proclaimed that he had brought “peace for our time.” Less than a year after he pronounced these words, World War II broke out. Chamberlain was already severely ill, and he stepped down on May 10, 1940, after Hitler invaded France. He died shortly thereafter.

Edouard Daladier (1884-1970) became Prime Minister of France in 1938. Together with Chamberlain, he conducted a policy toward Hitler that sought to “appease the aggressor.” He joined Chamberlain in signing the Munich Agreement. His government did not come to the aid of Czechoslovakia after the German invasion. In March 1940, he stepped down. When the Germans occupied France, he fled to French Morocco, where he was captured and tried by the Vichy government. He was later deported to Germany, and spent the remainder of the war in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

For some time, the Soviet Union had been urging western countries to create a collective security system to protect one another through non-aggression and mutual assistance treaties, in order to help prevent a new war. The main propagandist of this idea and the “face” of Soviet foreign policy at the time was the diplomat Maxim Litvinov, a man who did not fit the stereotype of the boorish Bolshevik. Rather well educated and fluent in English (he was even married to an Englishwoman), Litvinov delivered marvelous speeches at the League of Nations, was seen as an implacable foe of German Fascism, and became a sort of symbol of a “civilized” Soviet Union.

Maxim Litvinov (1876-1951), born Meyer Genokh (Max) Moiseyevich Wallach, was an active member of the Bolshevik Party. Before the revolution he spent time in Western Europe, where he arranged “covers” for various party machinations. He purchased arms abroad and exchanged currency that had been robbed from banks by his party comrades. After the revolution he became a diplomat. In 1930 he was appointed People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. In May 1939 he was forced into retirement and for some time was essentially under house arrest. During the war he served as Soviet ambassador to the United States. By 1946 his career was over. Legend has it that he slept with a pistol under his pillow, preferring to commit suicide than fall into the hands of interrogators. Another story has him advising American diplomats staying at his dacha to be tougher with Stalin. This conversation was tape recorded, but Stalin was supposedly afraid that arresting Litvinov might cause an international incident. As the story goes, Stalin thought it would be expedient to get rid of him some other way. There are various accounts of Litvinov’s death, including versions involving a car “accident,” but most historians believe he died of natural causes. Today, among his grandchildren are several prominent human rights activists.

In May 1939, just as an Anglo-French mission was setting out for the USSR to conduct negotiations, it was reported that the anti-Nazi Litvinov had been removed as People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs and replaced with the pro-German Molotov. The negotiations never got off the ground.

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986), one of Stalin’s closest comrades-in-arms, was incredibly devoted to him. He is among those who enabled and supported Stalin’s climb to power and helped him solidify his control. Molotov’s love of Stalin did not waver even after his wife, whom he adored, was arrested. Under Khrushchev, Molotov attempted to prevent official denunciations of Stalin, for which he was removed from his posts and expelled from the party. He refused to turn in his party membership card and it is said that he continued to pay his party dues. In 1984 he was restored to the party. He considered himself a fortunate person and dreamt of living to the age of 100, which he almost managed.

Meanwhile, Stalin had apparently been secretly exploring the possibility of closer relations with Nazi Germany. As early as 1936, the network of Soviet spies in Germany suspended their operations. Around this same time, David Kandelaki, who officially held the post of commercial attaché to Berlin, began secret negotiations.

David Vladimirovich Kandelaki (1895-1938) took his orders directly from Stalin. The commercial attaché conducted negotiations with Hitler that neither Stalin’s diplomats nor secret agents knew about. This was Stalin’s personal project. In 1937, Kandelaki was able to bring a draft agreement to Moscow. In 1938 he was arrested and killed. Stalin was careful to cover his tracks.

The Anglo-French mission conducted half-hearted negotiations in August 1939 and left empty-handed. At the same time, the German ambassador to the Soviet Union was actively working to bring the two countries closer together and was finding Soviet diplomats to be a receptive audience.

On August 23, 1939, the entire world was stunned by startling news. An envoy of Nazi Germany had arrived in the Soviet Union, the world’s anti-fascist bulwark.

Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946) was one of the most prominent members of the Nazi Party and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs beginning in 1938. In 1946 he was sentenced to hang at the Nuremberg Trials. He practically had to be dragged to the gallows since he was in no condition to walk.

Friedrich-Werner Erdmann Matthias Johann Bernhard Erich Graf von der Schulenburg (1875-1944) was a German diplomat who began serving as ambassador to the USSR in 1934. Like many of his predecessors, he believed that Germany should avoid fighting Russia at all costs. He played a major role in the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In 1941, he attempted to warn Stalin about the preparations underway to invade the Soviet Union, but his warnings fell on deaf ears. After the war began, he and other German diplomats left Moscow for Turkey. Later he became involved in the anti-Hitler opposition and participated in Claus von Stauffenberg’s plot to kill Hitler. The conspirators planned to make Schulenburg minister of foreign affairs. He proposed crossing enemy lines to negotiate a cease-fire with Stalin. After the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler’s life, Schulenburg was arrested and hung.

It took the two diplomats – Ribbentrop and Molotov – almost no time to conclude their negotiations. It was clear that the most important points had been worked out long ago. Such was the inception of the non-aggression treaty, the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, with its secret protocols stipulating how the parties would divvy up spheres of influence in Europe and set the boundaries of their future conquests.

At the Kremlin banquet held in honor of his esteemed guest, a cheerful Stalin raised a toast to Hitler, saying, “I know that the German people love their Führer. I would therefore like to drink to his health.” Stalin’s second toast was to Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, “the man who ensures the security of the German state.” Ribbentrop was thrilled with the reception he was being given and said that at the Kremlin he felt like he was “among his party comrades.” One week later, Germany invaded Poland, marking the start of World War II.

Fazil Iskander, The School Waltz or the Energy of Shame:

“Children,” Alexandra Ivanovna said that day, “you shouldn’t say ‘fascists’ anymore…”

This was said in class, but I don’t remember what the occasion was, and it would be sacrilegious of me to make one up now. Maybe one of the kids got mad at a pal and called him a fascist, or maybe one boy asked another for a book in a loud voice, let’s say about a brave German Pioneer who outsmarted the Fascists. Back then, there were a lot of books like that.

She said this as if she was just talking about some new grammar rule we’d have to follow from now on. But there was obviously something involved in these words that neither she nor we realized. These words, unlike a lot of other words that we heard the teacher say, didn’t just go in one ear and out the other and didn’t enter the consciousness. They just hung in the air. And it was as if, hanging in the air, they became more and more solid with every second, became more and more distinct, became more and more legible. This was confirmed by the fact that, when she pronounced these words, many pupils were talking among themselves or absentmindedly off in their own world, as often happens at the end of first period, when everyone’s waiting for the bell. But in fact it was as if the words were hanging in the air and gradually the whole class tuned in to their legibility and it got quieter and quieter in the classroom, and finally there was a deathly silence for five or ten seconds.

Everyone was expecting that Alexandra Ivanovna would somehow explain her words, but she didn’t say anything. I remember, I clearly remember, the red blotches that appeared on the wrinkled neck of our elderly teacher. She maintained her silence, and the corner of her lips on one side of her mouth trembled ever so slightly.

The shame that I felt at the time and that to some extent overcame the entire class is something I’ll never forget.

MOLOTOV ON RIBBENTROP: “He toasted Stalin and me... Stalin unexpectedly suggested, ‘Let’s drink to the new anti-Cominternist: Stalin!’ He said this mockingly and winked at me... He had made a joke to see Ribbentrop’s reaction. Ribbentrop rushed to phone Berlin and reported ecstatically to Hitler. Hitler replied, ‘My genius minister of foreign affairs!’ Hitler never understood Marxists.” (Molotov Remembers, Ivan R. Dee, 1993)

MOLOTOV ON LITVINOV: “He was, of course, not a bad diplomat – good one. But at heart he was quite an opportunist. He greatly sympathized with Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev, and thus couldn’t enjoy our absolute confidence... I believe at the end of his life he turned rotten politically.” (Molotov Remembers, Ivan R. Dee, 1993)

July 01, 2009

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

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Molotov Remembers

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