Stalin's speech to the Politburo on 19 August 1939

Its genuineness analyzed by Carl O. Nordling

 

According to an article in the Swiss journal Revue de Droit International, Soviet dictator Stalin would have made a speech on 19 August at 10 o’clock p.m. The result of this was the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” with Germany. As is well known, this pact made Hitler feel safe enough to attack Poland in spite of the French-British guarantee to this country.

 

The gist of the alleged speech is that the Pact was needed precisely because it would induce Hitler to start a Euoropean war. Such a war was expected to exhaust the belligerents, thus paving the way for the U.S.S.R. to walk away with the whole lot, eventually. (See Stalin’s August 1939 speech, complete version.)

 

After the speech, the Politburo is said to have charged Dimitro Manuilsky (1883-1959) and Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1949) to work out instructions to give to Party leaders abroad. These instructions should explain the necessity of the Pact, and Stalin undertook to direct the work himself. Such instructions were actually published on 8 September, only three weeks after the meeting; see Stalin’s Politburo explains Ribbentrop pact.

 

Two versions of the speech are known, both defective, i.e. the Geneva version, (see Stalin’s August 1939 speech, French version), and the Moscow version (see Stalin’s August 1939 speech, Russian version), the latter possibly translated from a French original.

 

The authenticity of the alleged speech has been called in question by e.g. E. Jäckel (in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, October 1958, p. 383) and S. Sluch (in
Otechestvennaya istoriya, 1/2004). The latter titled his article "Stalin’s speech that was never held.”

 

There is, however, much evidence indicating that Stalin held a speech in which he expressed precisely the ideas that make up the extant versions:

 

Ever since 1925 Stalin had argued that an imperialistic war would break out and weaken capitalism. This war would lead to a proletarian revolution.1

 

In a speech to the Central Committee in 1925 Stalin had urged that the U.S.S.R. should enter the coming war, but enter last.2

 

The Finnish Communist leader Arvo Tuominen, who knew Stalin personally, felt absolutely sure (in 1941) that Stalin could have prevented the World War if he had wanted to.3

 

The Russian Colonel Grigory Tokaev in 1939 heard lectures by Ambassador Troyanovsky and Major-General Voloshin, both advocating the importance of coercing Germany and the Western Powers to fight each others to the death.4

 

The American consul in Prague reported  that Czech communists had heard similar things in Moscow in 1939.5

 

Thre are two different versions of the speech, which seems to preclude the possibility of an occasional case of deception by some ill-disposed journalist.

The concise instructions that were supposed to be a consequence of the speech existed long before any version of the speech was published.

 

In his official “denial” Stalin spoke a lot of peace proposals but did not deny that he had urged for a lengthy war that would exhaust the belligerents.6

 

Notes:

1. The essential Stalin. Major Theoretical Writings 1905-52. London 1973, pp. 93, 159-61.

2. Stalin, Iosif V., Sochineniya VII, 1947, p.14; Garthoff, Raymond L., Soviet Military Policy.

London 1966, p. 76.

3. Tuominen, Arvo, Neuvostoliitto Leninin perinnön vartijana. Stockholm 1941, pp. 9-13.

4. Tokaev, G.A., Stalin Means War. London 1951, p. 72.

5. Lukes, Igor, Czechoslovakia between Hitler and Stalin. New York 1996, p. 258.

6. Pravda, 30 November 1939, p. 3.

 

 

 

Carl O. Nordling