Alongside reports of the "election campaigns" in the Baltic States, the Soviet Press published extracts from a German White Paper disclosing "Anglo-French intrigues against the Soviet Union" at the time of the Finnish War, their plans to bomb Baku, and similar matters. And then came Molotov's Supreme Soviet speech of August 1, 1940 in
which he commented in his own peculiar way on all the spectacular and tragic events of the last few months. In a devious and subtly ambiguous manner he intimated that he was not displeased and perhaps relieved—as he most certainly was—that Britain had not
given up the struggle.
Germany has achieved a great success against the [Western] Allies. But she has not solved her fundamental problem, which is to stop the war on conditions desirable to her. On July 19 the Reichskanzler offered peace negotiations to Great Britain, but the British Government rejected his offer, interpreting it as a demand for
capitulation. It replied that it would go on till final victory. The British Government has even broken off diplomatic relations with France. All this means that Great
Britain does not wish to give up her colonies and wants to go on fighting for world domination, even though this will be much more difficult for her since the defeat of France and since Italy's entry into the war.
Having delivered this side-kick at "British imperialism", Molotov then proceeded: "The end of the war is not in sight. We are likely to be faced with a new stage of the war—a struggle between Germany and Italy, on the one hand, and Britain, supported by the United States, on the other." The reference to the United States was clearly intended to suggest that Germany's chances of winning the war were not necessarily good.
It is highly significant that even when things looked blackest for Britain, the Russians took a reasonably optimistic view of her chances; thus, the chief ideological journal of the Communist Party, Bolshevik of July 15, 1940 concluded its survey by saying that Britain was "far from finished", while a similar line had already been taken by the well-known economist, Prof. E. Varga in Mirovoye Khoziaistvo i Mirovaya Politika (World Economy and World Politics) early in June, when the collapse of France was already
imminent.
As for the future of Soviet-German relations, Molotov merely repeated, almost word for word, the TASS communiqué of June 23: "There has recently been in the British and pro-British press much speculation on the possibility of discord between the Soviet Union and Germany. Attempts have been made to frighten us with the growing might of
Germany. But our relations are not based on temporary ad hoc considerations, but on the fundamental state interests of the two countries."
What he said about Britain was at any rate distinctly less ill-tempered than anything said or published for a long time: "There have been no substantial changes in our relations with England. After all the hostile acts she has committed against us, it was hard to expect any favourable developments in Anglo-Soviet relations, even though the
appointment of Cripps as British Ambassador to Moscow may point to a desire on the part of Great Britain to improve her relations with the Soviet Union."
[ Emphasis added.]
The incorporation in the Soviet Union of the Baltic States, Bessarabia and North
Bukovina was presented by Molotov in a manner that was to be expected. It was, no
doubt, pleasing to see the Soviet Union recover some of the territories which had once belonged to the old Tsarist Empire, and even to annex an area— Northern Bukovina,
including the large city of Czernowitz—which had never been part of it. Northern
Bukovina, Molotov said, was chiefly inhabited by Ukrainians and Moldavians—and
these, as well as the inhabitants of Bessarabia, had now become Soviet citizens "with great joy". There was now every reason to believe that relations with Rumania would become normal again. As for the Baltic States, Molotov explained their incorporation in the Soviet Union in the following terms:
The mutual assistance pacts we had with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia did not produce the desired results. The bourgeois cliques in these countries were hostile to the Soviet Union, and the anti-Soviet "Baltic Entente" between Latvia and Estonia was latterly extended to Lithuania.
Therefore, especially in view of the international situation, we demanded a change in the government personnel of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and the introduction into these countries of additional Red Army formations. In July free parliamentary elections took place in all three countries, and we can now note with satisfaction that the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in a friendly élan elected representatives who have since unanimously declared themselves in favour of the introduction of the Soviet system in all three countries, and for their incorporation in the USSR. Ninety-five per cent of all these people had previously formed part of the USSR (sic).
Molotov reckoned that, since September 1939, the population of the Soviet Union had
increased by about twenty-three million people, all of which meant "an important increase in our might and territory".
Relations with Turkey and Iran, he went on, were now "fairly normal", despite the revelations in the German White Paper on the sinister role the two countries had played in the Anglo-French plotting against the Soviet Union. Relations with Japan—since the licking she had received at Halkin Gol—were now also "fairly normal", and a Manchukuo-Mongolian commission would shortly deal with the frontier problem
between the two countries. And then: "I shall not dwell on our relations with the USA if only because there is nothing good to report. [Laughter.] We understand that some Americans don't like our successes in the Baltic countries." He also referred to the gold belonging to the Baltic States which the USA had "grabbed", even though the Soviet Union had bought this gold from them.
He ended with the suggestion that the war would continue for a long time; and that "the entire Soviet people" must remain in a state of "mobilised preparedness" in view of the danger of a military attack on them. "We must not be caught unawares by any 'accident'
or any of the tricks of our foreign enemies."
Paletskis, Kirchenstein and Lauristin respectively representing Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, spoke at this Supreme Soviet meeting, and on August 2 new laws were adopted on the "Formation of the Moldavian SSR", on the "Inclusion of Northern Bukovina and the Khotinsk, Akkerman and Ismail districts of Bessarabia in the Ukrainian SSR", and on the "Admission of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR's into the USSR". These laws were passed at the request of the parliaments of the three countries, and in virtue of Arts. 34 and 35 of the Soviet Constitution. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was
instructed to fix the date for elections in the three countries. On August 10 Pravda published a "Poem on Stalin" by Salome Neris, a Lithuanian poetess.
Meantime, in the three Baltic States a purge was being carried out amongst "Fascist" and other unreliable elements, with Vyshinsky, Dekanozov and Zhdanov supervising these
operations; estimates vary as to the number of persons deported from the Baltic
Republics between July 1940 and the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, but it is not improbable that they ran into tens of thousands.
Although the Baltic States, like the rest of Europe, had been affected by the war in the West, consumer goods were still plentiful in cities like Tallinn and Riga, and even long afterwards, all the elaborate and ingenious pretexts Russians used to think up in 1940