Word: pacts
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Scott's second book was published just the other day. Its title is Duel for Europe, and it tells the inside story of Soviet policy during the two years before Hitler tore up his pact with Stalin and the Nazis marched into Russia. (The New York Times says Scott's unique knowledge of the Russian life and language makes this book "a work of first-rate importance" -and the New York Herald Tribune adds that while "ambassadors and military experts had a chance to see one side of the picture, John Scott-working and living with the Russian...
When Stalin set the European tinder-box ablaze by signing the nonaggression pact with Hitler in August 1939, the civilized world gasped: How could he? One simple answer might have been that the pact was a characteristic move in the hard-boiled game of Russian foreign policy. But ever since Russia became Germany's Finland, the other United Nations have desired a more detailed explanation of Stalin's pre-invasion policies. John Scott's book is an attempt to supply this explanation...
Round One. Once the Russo-German pact was concluded and Germany had invaded Poland, Stalin could feel that he had won Round One. The Russians were pleased that he had kept them out of what Pravda described as "the dirty intrigues of international imperialist swindlers and . . . warmongers...
Round Three. Next it was Hitler's turn. France was crushed and Britain expected invasion. To gain time to build up the Red Army, Stalin played the German pact for all it was worth. Cracked a British reporter: "Russia has become the largest of the small frightened neutrals." In the first nine months of 1940 Russia shipped nearly 1,000,000 tons of oil and huge quantities of fodder and grain to Germany. Russian industrial production was ruthlessly stepped up (it became a crime for a worker to arrive more than 20 minutes late). Marshal Timoshenko...
...Russo-Japanese nonaggression and neutrality pact was a diplomatic trump for the Kremlin-a way "to impress the Germans," says Author Scott. Stalin and Molotov went personally to the Moscow station to say farewell to the Jap signers. This joy had been celebrated in too much vodka. "Stalin went up to the aged and diminutive Japanese Ambassador General, punched him rather hard on the shoulder with an 'ah ... ha'. . . . The Japanese Military Attache staggered up to the dapper and fastidious . . . Soviet Chief of Protocol and slapped him on the back. Matsuoka got the giggles and thought that...