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

130 “unique experience” of “Russian melodies”: Hamburger Tageblatt, advertisement for the “Siberian Cossack Choir,” May 29, 1940, 7.

130 Their show was cancelled: See Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, June 1941.

131 exclaimed that he stood by every word of it: Morgan, op. cit., 117.

133 “broke upon the world like an explosion”: Winston S. Churchill, T he Second World War (London: Penguin, 1989), 158.

133 describing the event as “a complete bombshell”: Stephen Howarth, August 1939 (London: Curtis, 1989), 130.

133 judged a Nazi-Soviet pact “unlikely”: The National Archives (hereafter “TNA”), FO371/23686/N 4146/243/38, August 26, 1939.

134 “These crises really are too tiresome”: Henry “Chips” Channon quoted in Irene and Alan Taylor, eds., The Secret Annexe (Edinburgh, UK: Canongate, 2004), 436; Harold Nicolson quoted in Nigel Nicolson, ed., Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters, 1930–1939 (London: Collins, 1966), 411; Sir Alexander Cadogan quoted in David Dilks, ed., The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 1938–1945 (London: Cassell, 1971), 200.

134 figures had shifted little by the summer: Mass Observation Archive (hereafter “MOA”), University of Sussex, August 1941 file, ref: SxMOA1/2/25/4/A/3.

134 he would eventually come in on Britain’s side: MOA, ref: SxMOA1/2/25/4/A/3/6.

134 “I don’t want to seem alarmist”: Keith Jeffery, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service, 1909–1949 (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), 312.

134 “I heard his words”: Hugh Dundas, quoted in Patrick Bishop, Bomber Boys (London: HarperPress, 2007), 103.

135 “consistency and trustworthiness of Russian and of German diplomacy”: “The Russo-German Deal,” Times , August 23, 1939, 13.

135 possessed of an “Olympian manner”: Andrew Roberts, The Holy Fox (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991), 2.

136 “war of nerves”: Edward Raczyński, In Allied London (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962), 20.

136 guarantee was not extended to include aggression: Anthony Carty and Richard A. Smith, Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice and the World Crisis (Boston: Kluwer Law International, 2000), 286, quoting TNA FO 371/23130/C12124.

136 Polish “anxiety” was such that Warsaw: Cadogan minute, from FO 371/23130/C11884, quoted in Carty and Smith, op. cit., 286n139.

137 “This is not a question of fighting for Danzig”: Graham Stewart, His Finest Hours: The War Speeches of Winston Churchill (London: Quercus, 2007), 17, 21.

137 “Our world is committing suicide”: Robert Rhodes James, ed., Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967), 215.

137 “I’m willing to fight Fascism if necessary”: Mass Observation Diarist 5269–5, quoted in Juliet Gardiner, Wartime Britain: 1939–1945 (London: Headline, 2004), 5.

138 appearing on the SS special arrest list: Walter Schellenberg, Invasion 1940: The Nazi Invasion Plans for Britain (London: St. Ermin’s Press, 2000) 217.

139 Low summed up the confusions, fears, and absurdities: Low cartoons: “Uncle Joe’s Pawnshop,” Evening Standard, October 2, 1939; “Someone Is Taking Someone for a Walk,” Evening Standard, October 21 1939.

139 “Public opinion here is revolted”: “Stalin Shows His Hand,” Times , September 18, 1939.

139 “the French Government took the same view”: TNA, War Cabinet proceedings, CAB 65/1/18, September 17, 1939, 141–142.

139 “stink somewhat since August 23”: Cadogan minute from September 23, 1939, quoted in Paul W. Doerr, “‘Frigid but Unprovocative’: British Policy Towards the USSR from the Nazi-Soviet Pact to the Winter War, 1939,” Journal of Contemporary History 36, no. 3 (2001): 428.

139 Other commodities were also considered: TNA, War Cabinet, CAB 65/1/34, October 2, 1939, 271–272.

140 outgoing shipments to be torpedoed by German submarines: Ibid., 272.

140 “Russia’s abiding aim is to spread world revolution”: TNA, Chiefs of Staff Committee Memorandum, CAB 66/2/24, October 9, 1939, 196–206.

140 “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”: Quoted in Stewart, op. cit., 20–21.

141 merits and demerits of a British declaration of war: TNA, War Cabinet, CAB 65/1/57, October 23, 1939, 478.

141 “not sure how the matter should be handled”: TNA, War Cabinet, CAB 65/2/45, December 11, 1939, 383.

141 “drive a wedge”: Roberts, op. cit., 190.

141 “exports to the USSR were probably tantamount”: Halifax, quoted in Doerr, op. cit., 429.

142 with a cargo of tungsten, antimony, and tin: TNA, Economic Warfare weekly report, CAB 68/4/39, January 28, 1940, 8.

142 Soviets might be persuaded to restrict their deliveries: TNA, War Cabinet, CAB 65/6/22, March 29, 1940, 187.

143 “We should strike at Russo-Germany”: Quoted in Patrick Osborn, Operation Pike: Britain Versus the Soviet Union, 1939–1941 (London: Greenwood Press, 2000), 121. Patrick Osborn’s excellent book is the only authority on this fascinating episode.

143 “if only we could detach Russia from Germany”: Campinchi quoted in TNA, War Cabinet, CAB 65/6/22, March 29, 1940, 188.

143 “Russia is now allied to Germany”: Quoted in Jukka Nevakivi, The Appeal That Was Never Made: The Allies, Scandinavia, and the Finnish Winter War, 1939–1940 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1976), 109.

143 “would collapse from the slightest blow”: Charles Richardson, “French Plans for Allied Attacks on the Caucasus Oil Fields January–April 1940,” French Historical Studies 8, no. 1 (1975): 156.

144 War Office duly approved the construction: Osborn, op. cit., 141.

144 recorded as being German-built Messerschmitt Bf-109s: Ibid., 147. It is not impossible, but it is nonetheless unlikely, that the aircraft seen were really Messerschmitt Bf-109s. Only five such aircraft had been delivered to the USSR, so the chances of one being sighted over Baku are slim.

145 “manner in which the oil fields have been exploited”: Quoted in ibid., 108–109.

145 “they appear to have found a willing tool”: Quoted in Harry Hanak, “Sir Stafford Cripps as British Ambassador in Moscow, May 1940 to June 1941,” English Historical Review 94, no. 370 (January 1979): 55.

145 “the repercussions of the dislocation”: Quoted in Osborn, op. cit., 148.

146 one in four RAF crews could drop: Richard Overy, The Bombing War (London: Allen Lane, 2013), 267.

146 “It is an amazing idea”: Hansard, March 19, 1940, quoted in Osborn, op. cit., 118.

146 3 percent of Germany’s fuel stocks: Quoted in ibid., 247.

147 Stalin even ranked second as a “respected” leader: MOA, June 1939 Directive, ref: SxMOA1/1/6/8/36.

147 recognizing the need for cooperation with Stalin: Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang, eds., Listening to Britain (London: Vintage, 2011), 98, 130.

148 “accept Russian help”: Ibid., 193.

148 “Russia will be helpful to us in her own time”: Ibid., 222.

148 “playing her own game”: Ibid., 289, 292.

149 “ignorant cunning, shrewd, cruel and unscrupulous”: Mary E. Glantz, FDR and the Soviet Union (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), 48, 51.

149 subversion of three independent states: Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 208.

149 “not only horrified, but thoroughly angry”: Quoted in ibid., 209.

150 signing Finland’s death warrant: Quoted in Lynne Olson, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight over World War Two, 1939–1941 (New York: Random House, 2013), 95.