Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 13:02:00 -0400
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-I: Stalin as political-military leader, part two


All Marxists can accept the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact as a legitimate
principled measure taken to defend a socialist nation. The Nazi regime and
Anglo-French imperialism were both reactionary and the Soviet people needed
to maneuver to defend themselves as the vicissitudes of history unfolded.
What is *not* principled is the political credibility that the Kremlin
placed in the Hitler regime.

On Sept. 29, 1939, the USSR signed a German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship
Pact that included secret protocols, among which was a stricture that each
party pledged to suppress any agitation against the other and to keep each
other informed of any outbreak. The result, according to Roy Medvedev in
"Let History Judge", was a complete halt to antifascist propaganda in the
USSR. Even worse, Soviet leaders began to depict Germany as a potential
victim of Anglo-French aggression. Molotov declared in the fall of 1939:

"During the last few months such concepts as 'aggression' and 'aggressor'
have acquired a new concrete content, have taken on another
meaning...Now...it is Germany that is striving for a quick end to the war,
for peace, while England and France, who only yesterday were campaigning
against aggression, are for continuation of the war and against concluding
a peace. Roles, as you see, change...The ideology of Hitlerism, like any
other ideological system, can be accepted or rejected--that is a matter of
one's political views. But everyone can see that an ideology cannot be
destroyed by force...Thus it is not only senseless, it is criminal to wage
such a war as a war for 'the destruction of Hitlerism,' under the false
flag of a struggle for democracy."

There was no need for Molotov to utter such foolish words. A nonaggression
pact does not involve this sort of legitimization of a criminal regime as
one resting on an "ideological system". Nazism rested on murder and
torture. If Molotov could not speak the truth about this, he should have
kept his mouth shut.

Stalin's foolish belief in the possibility of a peace with Hitler
compromised military preparations as I alluded to in my last post. A few
more words are in order with respect to the matter of Richard Sorge,
Stalin's top agent in Japan. Mark Jones reports correctly that Sorge
informed Stalin of an impending invasion by the Nazis. What he leaves out
is Stalin's reaction to Sorge's urgent reports cabled to the Kremlin in May
and June of 1941. Sorge had intelligence on the precise timing of Hitler's
attack, the size of the army, the operational plans, and the directions of
the main strikes.

Stalin's reaction?

He wrote on them. "For the archives". "To be filed" and forgot about them.

Stalin was foolish enough to believe that Hitler would never break his
word. Any facts that departed from this ridiculous belief were disregarded.
His public displays were in harmony with his beliefs. When Yosuke Matsuoka,
the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, left Moscow in April, 1941,
Stalin and Molotov surprised everybody by seeing him off at the railway
station. The German ambassador, who was there, reports that Stalin came
over and hugged him. He said in a voice loud enough for everybody to hear,
"We must remain friends, and you must now do everything to that end."

Louis Proyect




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