In fact more was needed. Collisions between the Red Army and Japanese forces in the summer of that year showed worrying weaknesses in Soviet military capabilities. And not until September 1939 did the Russians, in this case under the command of the ruthless and efficient Georgii Zhukov, overwhelm the Japanese and teach them a lesson they would not soon forget - at the Battle of Khalkhin-Gol on the frontiers of Mongolia. But more important still was the fact that the Russians had retreated from the emerging war in Europe. The Nazi-Soviet pact, to which Hitler had agreed without consulting Japan, came as a grievous blow to Japanese aspirations of forcing the Russians to fight a two-front war. This failure of co-ordination between East and West was vital to Soviet survival, not only between 1939 and 1941, but even more after Hitler decided on war with Russia.
The Popular Front collapses, 1939
The Popular Front strategy, along with its siamese twin Collective Security, could last only as long as it served Stalin's purpose. The failure to form an effective ring around Nazi Germany highlighted the need to come to terms and drop the distinction hard won by Litvinov between democratic and non- democratic capitalist states. The brutal manner in which the Soviet Union was deliberately kept out of the solution to the crisis over Czechoslovakia by Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain in September 1938 marked the low point of trust between Moscow and the democracies. Similarly the collapse of Soviet efforts to sustain the Popular Front government in Spain, which received substantial military aid in both men and munitions despite adverse logistical difficulties, spelt the collapse of a policy intended to contain Fascism by other means. No longer would Moscow act to preserve the territorial status quo in Europe created by the Versailles Treaty system. As late as 9 July 1939 Stalin told Chiang Kai-shek that a 'satisfactory result' was not impossible in the negotiations with Britain and France.[156] But Stalin's price was the de facto reabsorption of the Baltic states as protectorates, with a fate not much different for Poland, and that meant the expansion of Soviet powerto the West, something Chamberlain feared even more than the Germans. Impatient at the lack of seriousness with which the British approached alliance negotiations with the Soviet Union and ever suspicious that these negotiations were merely there to enhance London's bargaining power vis-a-vis Germany, Stalin cut his losses and signed up with Hitler.
The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed on 23-4 August 1939 contained within it a secret protocol allowing for the partition of Poland and the Baltic states. This was a tragedy for the victim states. More important for the fate of the world, however, were the assumptions underlying the agreement, which Litvinov, for one - forced into premature retirement in May - considered entirely misconceived. Overestimating British and French power and underestimating that of the Germans, Stalin saw the pact as a means of throwing the entire capitalist world into confusion, from which the Soviet Union would draw unilateral long-term advantage, extending its territory and expanding the reach of socialism at one stroke. 'The extinction of this state [Poland]', Stalin said, 'in current conditions would mean one bourgeois Fascist state less! What would be so bad about extending the socialist system to new territories and populations as a result ofthe defeat of Poland.'[157] Indeed, Stalin's acts attracted unwanted and backhanded congratulations from Leon Trotsky in his place of exile. He unflatteringly compared the role of Stalin to that of Napoleon: though exterminating the revolution at home, he was obliged to spread it abroad.[158]
In an extraordinary outburst that echoed the unreal hopes of 1932-3, which had also led to disaster, Stalin commented thus on Germany and the Allies: 'We would not mind if they got into a good fight and weakened one another,' he said. 'It would be no bad thing if the position of the richest capitalist Powers (particularly England) was shattered at the hands of Germany. Hitler, without understanding or wishing for this, is shattering and blowing up the capitalist system.' The implications for Comintern policy were clear. Before the war, a contradistinction between Fascist and democratic regimes was correct. But, At a time of war between the imperialist Powers [it] would no longer be correct. Distinguishing between Fascist and democratic capitalist countries has lost its former significance.'[159] Thus the role now ascribed to the Communist parties in Europe and the United States was to oppose the war.
Nothing could have undermined their strenuous efforts to identify more closely with the nation than this. From the time the instructions went out, fraternal parties conducted a policy of defeatism that undermined the national war effort and made it that much easier for Hitler to conquer the greater part of the subcontinent. Anxious at the speed of the Wehrmacht progress, on 17 September Stalin invaded Poland in haste to meet the incoming German troops. Large numbers of senior Polish officers and other members of the elite were captured; a substantial number were then ordered to be shot by the Politburo on 5 March 1940.[160] Poland out of the way, Stalin moved to force the Baltic states to heel and, with the signature of the Friendship Pact with Berlin at the end of September he included Lithuania in with Latvia and Estonia as new Soviet protectorates. The blunt refusal of Social Democratic Finland to submit then resulted in war on 30 November, a conflict brought to an end after great cost only in March 1940. And by then Hitler was on the way to the total domination of Western Europe.
Stalin believed the Nazi-Soviet agreements had bought the Soviet government time both to expand and to prepare against the eventuality of a German attack. 'A German attack is also possible', he told the Letts. 'For six years German fascists and the communists cursed each other. Now an unexpected turn took place; that happens in the course of history. But one cannot rely upon it. We must be prepared in time. Others who were not ready paid the price'.[161] But Stalin badly miscalculated the speed of the German advance and failed to anticipate, as did most others, the rapid collapse of France. The key to sustaining a balance against Germany was French survival. Stalin was caught off guard because his own evaluation of both Britain and France seriously overestimated their power as against that of Germany. The reigning assessment of the balance of forces suggested stalemate rather than the victory of the Blitzkrieg.
On 9 April 1940 the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway. The Soviet leadership were evidently baffled by this unexpected turn of events. Voroshilov spoke of the international situation being 'extremely muddled' and called for vigilance.[162] Three days later, on 7 May the Soviet government re-established the ranks of General and Admiral. On 10 May the Germans attacked Belgium and the Netherlands. The only good news for the Russians was the resignation of the hated Neville Chamberlain and the reassuring reappearance of Winston Churchill, bent on defeating Hitler. On 14 May Holland surrendered and three days later German troops were taking possession of Brussels. Soon British and French forces evacuated Norway, giving way to German occupation on 10 June. Now the French capital itself lay in imminent danger. Initially, in September 1939, the PCF was strongly instructed to oppose the war for fear that Britain and France would win. Now it was instructed to sustain its opposition for fear of offending the Germans. At the very last minute, on 10 June, Comintern leaders Dimitrov and Manuil'skii sent a text drafted by the leaders of the PCF to Stalin with a request for advice. The draft declaration, though loaded with vituperative denunciation for the leaders of France, the capitalist system, the leaders ofthe French Socialists and avoiding any mention of Germany (!), ended with what effectively amounted to a call to arms to forestall 'capitulation'.[163] For good measure it was also sent to Molotov. Finally, on 13 June, permission came through for acting upon it and the Comintern secretariat formally approved the dispatch of appropriate instructions.[164] But on the following day German troops entered Paris and on 15 June the secretariat reported that it would not be appropriate to publish the declaration.49
156
Chiang Kai-shek,
p. 89.
157
F. Firsov, 'Komintern: opyt, traditsii, uroki - nereshennye zadachi issledovaniia', in
160
Excerpt from the minutes of the Politburo, 5 Mar. 1940: S. Stepashin et al. (ed.),
161
Report from Munters, 2 Oct. 1939: A Bilmanis (ed.),
163
From the Comintern archives: N. Lebedeva and M. Narinskii (eds.),