Roger Moorhouse - The Devils' Alliance - Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941

68 implicit warning of the difficult times to come: Valdis Lumans, Himmler’s Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), 160.

68 “that an old culturally European land”: Arved Freiherr von Taube, quoted in Richards Olavs Plavnieks, “‘Wall of Blood’: The Baltic German Case Study in National Socialist Wartime Population Policy, 1939–1945” (MA thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2009), 36n73.

68 “Everything for which we had lived”: Dr. Wolfgang Wachtsmuth, quoted in ibid., 37n77.

69 even attracted some Jewish applicants: Lumans, Auxiliaries, op. cit., 160.

69 “They [the Estonians] saw the danger from the east”: Werner von Glasenepp, quoted in Plavnieks, op. cit., 39n83.

69 “All we had to do was raise our voice”: Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (London: André Deutsch, 1971), 135.

69 “avoid any commitments which would disturb”: DGFP, Series D, Vol. VIII, op. cit., Nos. 232 and 240, pp. 255, 267.

70 “since we civilians don’t seem to be making any progress”: William R. Trotter, A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939–1940 (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2000), 18.

70 “deplorable act of aggression”: Quoted in Robert Edwards, White Death: Russia’s War on Finland, 1939–40 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), 106.

70 Finns could field only 21,000 men: Philip Jowett and Brent Snodgrass, Finland at War, 1939–1945 (Oxford, UK: Osprey, 2006), 6.

70 Soviet confidence was naturally high: Trotter, op. cit., 34.

71 85 percent of senior officers: See Stéphane Courtois, T he Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 198.

72 “Where will we find room”: Trotter, op. cit., 40.

72 Molotov breadbaskets”: Ibid., 72.

73 “After a while” an eyewitness reported: Edward Ward, Despatches from Finland (London: John Lane, 1940), 54–55.

74 amid the scattered remains of their equipment: Trotter, op. cit., 169–170.

74 “On the sides of the road”: Ward, op. cit., 63.

74 rank and file approved of the punishment: Bair Irincheev, War of the White Death (Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2011), 117.

74 “We couldn’t see [the Finns] anywhere”: Soviet colonel quoted in Eloise Engel and Lauri Paananen, The Winter War (London: Scribner, 1973), 103.

75 “Belaya Smert”: On Häyhä, see Roger Moorhouse, “The White Death,” in The Sniper Anthology, edited by John L. Plaster (London: Frontline Books, 2012), 1–14.

75 “Finland must not be allowed to disappear”: Quoted in Martin Gilbert, Second World War (London: Fontana, 1989), 42.

75 “Only Finland,” he said in a radio address: Quoted in Roy Jenkins, Churchill (London: Macmillan, 2001), 567.

75 “Our task in this war”: Daily Sketch , December 22, 1939, quoted in Edwards, op. cit., 232.

75 500,000 hand grenades: Statistics from former defense minister Juho Niukkanen, quoted in Engel and Paananen, op. cit., 153–157.

75 over two hundred volunteers crowded into the Finnish consulate: Seppo Myllyniemi, “Consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Pact for the Baltic Republics and Finland,” in From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia and the World, 1939–1941 , edited by Bernd Wegner (Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books, 1997), 86.

76 Germans were watching events with “undisguised glee”: Khrushchev, op. cit., 136.

76 “Her army is not much good”: Frederick Taylor, ed., The Goebbels Diaries , 1939–1941 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982), 59.

76 “In these circumstances,” he wrote: Quoted in DGFP, Series D, Vol. VIII, op. cit., No. 526, 651.

76 wisdom of Helsinki’s decision to stand firm: Heinz Boberach, ed., Meldungen aus dem Reich: 1938–1945 (Herrsching, DE: Pawlak, 1984), 3:514, 524.

77 “we now appear to be a big gang of robbers”: Ulrich von Hassell, The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries, 1938–1944 (London: Frontline Books, 2011), 61.

77 “In all Italian cities”: Hugh Gibson, ed., The Ciano Diaries: 1939–1943 (New York: Doubleday, 1946), 174–175.

77 “refrain from any expression of sympathy”: DGFP, Series D, Vol. VIII, op. cit., No. 423, 494, December 6, 1939.

77 “the German Volk has nothing against the Finnish people”: Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, 1932–1945 (London: Tauris, 1997), 3:1896–1897.

77 “The Finns are whining”: Taylor, op. cit., 46.

77 But then the Soviets seemingly got cold feet: Tobias R. Philbin III, T he Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919–1941 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994), 129–131.

78 “accomplice of the Soviet Union”: German Foreign Office sources, quoted in Gerd Überschär, Hitler und Finnland: 1939–1941 (Wiesbaden, DE: Steiner, 1978), 91.

78 smashed a plate of food in fury: Khrushchev, op. cit., 137.

78 four hundred Soviet shells per minute rained down: Trotter, op. cit., 216.

78 perilous detour across the ice of Lake Ladoga: Ibid., 220.

79 as a naval base for a period of thirty years: David Kirby, Finland in the Twentieth Century (London: C. Hurst, 1979), 128.

79 estimated at over 200,000: Trotter, op. cit., 263.

79 “our people were never told the truth”: Khrushchev, op. cit., 139.

79 “These pacts are inspired by mutual respect”: Izvestia, November 1, 1939.

80 requested as a Soviet “military zone”: Valdis Lumans, Latvia in World War II (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 80.

80 right to establish a garrison in Vilnius: Leonas Sabaliūnas, Lithuania in Crisis: 1939–1940 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), 158.

80 “The Red Army knows only one government”: Select Committee on Communist Aggression (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1954), 3:232.

80 issued by Ivan Serov in the spring of 1941: The root of the confusion is the Select Committee proceedings of 1954, which published the text of the Serov Instruction but labeled it as “Order 001223.” The majority of writers and historians on this issue have since repeated the error.

80 “We are not going to seek their sovietisation”: Ivo Banac, ed., The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933–1949 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 120.

81 Soviet warships fired on an Estonian aircraft: Select Committee, op. cit., 241.

81 a local man was shot dead: Lumans, Latvia, op. cit., 85.

81 “a black cat [had] crossed the road”: Select Committee, op. cit., 318.

81 offered his country to the Germans as a protectorate: Misiunas and Taagepera, op. cit., 17–18; Myllyniemi in Wegner, op. cit., 87.

81 a “malevolent atmosphere” encouraged espionage: A. A. Gromyko and B. N. Ponomareva, eds., Istoriya vneshney politiki SSSR (Moscow: Nauka, 1980), 1:393.

82 “one of the greatest battles in history”: Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman, eds., War Diaries, 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (London: Phoenix Press, 2001), 59.

82 what came to be known as the blitzkrieg: See Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013).

83 “the neutrality of small states is a mere fantasy”: Izvestia, May 16, 1940.

83 “take the necessary steps to halt”: Select Committee, op. cit., 319.

83 hotbed of “pro-British propaganda”: Pravda, May 28, 1940, quoted in Select Committee, op. cit., 241.

84 obliged to return home ahead of schedule: Select Committee, op. cit., 242.