199. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 160 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 1, d. 3808, l. 1–12); Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 27–8; Nevezhin, Sindrom, 170 (citing RGALI, f. 1038, op. 1, d. 2079, l. 31). Over the first six months of 1941, the Soviet Union would produce more than 1,100 T-34 medium tanks and 393 KV heavy tanks, not nearly enough to meet the general staff’s professed needs against a German adversary being supplied by all of Europe. In March 1941, Stalin was informed that industry had only enough parts to supply 30 percent of all the army’s tank and armored units. New aircraft models were running at 10 to 20 percent of the military’s needs. Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph, 375–6 (citing TsAMO, f. 15a, op. 2154, d. 4, l. 224–33).
200. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia,’” 28–9; Banac, Diary of Gerogi Dimitrov, 159–60; Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 282.
201. Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 116. See also Anfilov, “‘Razgovor zakonchilsia ugrozoi Stalina,’” 41.
202. Bezymenskii, Gitler i Stalin, 437.
203. Muratov, “Shest’ chasov”; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 291–3. There is no stenographic account of the May 5, 1941, speech and no written notes by Stalin found in his personal papers. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 294n2. Malyshev and Dimtrov wrote accounts for their diaries. Nevezhin, Zatsol’nye, 273–93. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia.’” This is the so-called “brief record” made by K. V. Semenov, a staff person at the defense commissariat.
204. Banac, Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 160.
205. Pechenkin, “‘Sovermennaia armiia,’” 29; Naumov, 1941 god, II; 161–2; Vainrub, Eti stal’nye parnii, 19; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 287–8, 290–1.
206. Malyshev, “Dnevnik narkoma,” 115, 116–7; Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 284–5; Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 29–30; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 279–80.
207. Pravda, May 3, 1941.
208. Pechenkin, “‘Sovremennaia armiia,’” 29–30; Naumov, 1941 god, II; 161–2; Nevezhin, Zastol’nye, 287–9 (at 289); Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 285; Nevezhin, Sindrom, 174–6.
209. Muratov, “Shest’ chasov,” 287; Zhipin, Kak fashistskaia Germaniia gotovila napadenie, 224; Liashchenko, “S ognem i krov’iu popolam”; Radzinskii, Stalin, 485 (quoting Chadayev, unpublished ms., “V groznye vremena,” GARF, without detailed citation). Sivkov was sacked a few days later. Nevezhin, Sindrom, 180 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1049, l. 32). Both of Sivkov’s brothers, Alexander and Pyotr, also military men, had been executed in 1938.
210. Schulenburg would send an account of the speech to Berlin only a month later, suggesting that Stalin seemed “anxious to prepare his followers for a new ‘compromise’ with Germany.” DGFP, series D, XII: 964–5 (June 4, 1941).
211. Golubev et al., Rossiia i zapad, 111 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 125, d. 60, l. 58–9). The party apparatus held conferences on May 8 and 9, 1941, with editors of the major newspapers and journals and those responsible for the TASS news agency. Zhdanov, addressing a special gathering of fifty-four invited film industry personnel, directors, cameramen, actors, and studio heads, as well as twenty-seven top propaganda functionaries and newspaper editors, on May 14–15, blustered about the Baltics, Western Ukraine, Western Belorussia, and Bessarabia, and how “if circumstances permit, we shall widen the front of socialism still more.” Alexander Zaporozhets, head of propaganda for the army’s political directorate, was ordered to revise propaganda for the troops. But draft decrees were not readied until late May or in the case of the military, June, and would not be approved prior to June 22. Nevezhin, Sindrom, 186–251; Nevezhin, “Dve direktivy 1941 g.,” 191–207; Golubev et al., Rossiia i zapad, 105–7 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 121, d. 115, l. 3–7, 124, 162). Kalinin gave a provocative closed speech (May 20, 1941) to a party and Communist Youth League meeting of the Supreme Soviet presidium staff, in which he castigated Britain and France for fighting poorly, noting “if the same thing were happening here, it would be judged a criminal unpreparedness for war.” Kalinin suggested that “the army should think: the sooner the fight starts, the better.” He received a rousing ovation. Nekrich, Pariahs, 231–3 (citing RGASPI, f. 78, op. 1, d. 84, l. 6–7, 20–1, 35–6). In May, Soviet radio broadcasts directed at German soldiers took on an antagonistic tone. Hoffman, “Podgotovka Sovetskogo Soiuza,” 27.
212. RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 769, l. 176–176 ob.: April 28, 1941.
213. Stalin had the Central Committee approve the politburo recommendation by voice vote. “‘Naznachit’ tov. Stalina I. V.’ postanovelnie politbiuro TsK VKP (b) Mai 1941 g.”; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1039, l. 13; Naumov, 1941 god, II: 155–7 (RGASPI, f. 2, op. 1, d. 1a, l. 1, 3–4); Pravda, May 7, 1939; Izvestiia, May 7, 1939. The decree stated that Molotov was removed “in light of numerous declarations that he has difficulty fulfilling his duties alongside the duties of a people’s commissar.” Zhdanov arrived from Leningrad, and was the sole person Stalin received on May 5, for twenty-five minutes. A May 7 meeting in Stalin’s office evidently hashed out how a new Council of People’s Commissars would operate: present were Voznesensky, Molotov, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Beria, and Shakhurin. Na prieme, 332.
214. Khlevniuk et al., Stalinskoe Politburo, 34–5 (citing APRF f. 3, op. 52, d. 251, l. 58–60); “‘Naznachit’ tov. Stalina I. V.’,” 222.
215. Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 121. See also Petrov, “June 22, 1941,” 257 (Gnedich).
216. Boelcke, Secret Conferences, 158–9 (May 7). Alexander Kerensky told the New York Times that the formalization of Stalin’s power signified his active participation in the war on the Nazi side. New York Times, May 7, 1941.
217. DGFP, series D, XII: 791. See also Akhmedov, In and Out of Stalin’s GRU, 139–40.
218. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 151.
219. Halder, Halder Diaries, II: 100 (May 5, 1941); Halder, Kriegstagebuch, II: 400–2. Halder also recorded Krebs’s opinion that the Russian upper officer corps was “decidedly bad” and that “compared with 1933, picture is strikingly depressing. It will take twenty years to reach her old level.” Krebs was also dubious about Soviet pilots.
220. Naumov, 1941 god, II: 167–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 64, d. 675, l. 158–62). Pavlov composed his record of the breakfast that same day. Voiushin and Gorlov, “Fashistskaia agressiia,” 22– (citing AVP RF, f. 082, op. 23, pap. 96, d. 16a, l. 120–4).
221. Lota, Sekretnyi front, 59. Also in May 1941, the Germans sent a group of Berlin opera soloists to perform in Moscow, and the NKGB operative Zoya Rybkina (b. 1907), posing as a representative of the Society for Cultural Ties Abroad, attended the reception at the German embassy, where she discovered a pile of suitcases, and walls emptied of paintings. Voskresenskaia, Teper’ ia mogu skazat’ pravdu, 10–16; Voskresenskaia, Pod psevdonimom Irina, 38–44; Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 123. Vinogradov et al., Sekrety Gitlera, 166–8, 97–8 (d. 57, l. 1287–8: May 14). (“Rybkina” became a children’s writer under the name Voskresenskaya.) Also on May 7, Tito (“Walter”) sent two coded telegrams to Dimitrov reporting intensive German preparations for an attack. Lebedeva and Narinskii, Komintern i Vtoraia mirovaia voina, 536 (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 184, d. 7 no. 412, l. 112), 537 (no. 423, l. 116).