How Soviet Cold Warriors viewed World War II: the inside story of the 1957 edition of the Big Three correspondence

Abstract

This article discusses the origins of the 1957 Soviet edition of the correspondence between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill during the Second World War. Using newly available documents from Russian archives it analyses various factors that led to this publication, traces its production process, and highlights the way the Soviet establishment tried to spin the World War II narrative in order to win the Cold War battle to establish the dominant historical narrative. Notwithstanding its Cold War origins, the publication retains its historical value but needs to be reassessed in the light of new sources and historiography.

Notes

¹Perepiska Predsedatelia Soveta Ministrov SSSR s Prezidentami SShA I Prem'er-Ministrami Velikobritanii vo vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny 1941–1945, vols. 1–2 [Correspondence between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidents of the USA and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945] (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1957); hereinafter Correspondence.

² For more on Molotov's role in Stalin's correspondence see Vladimir Pechatnov, ‘Kak Stalin i Molotov Pisali Cherchilly’, Rossia v Global'noi Politike [Russia in Global Affairs] VII (June-August 2009):158–168.

³ Felix Chuev, Sto Sorok Besed s Molotovym (Moscow: Terra, 1991), 83.

⁴ From Pavel Pospelov's (Pravda editor-in-chief) notes of a staff meeting of the newspaper's editors, 22 May 1945, Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (hereinafter RGASPI), f.629, op.1, d.93, l.278–281.

⁵ For Stalin's corrections of the whole text consult RGASPI, f.558, op.11, d.243, l.1–116.

⁶Fal'sificatory Istorii (Moskva: Istoricheskaya Spravka, 1948), 74–75.

⁷Dokumenty I Materialy kanuna Vtoroi Mirovoi Voiny. Iz Arkhiva Ministerstva Inostrannykh Del Germanii. Tom 1–2. Moskva, 1948.

⁸Perepiska, II, 69.

⁹ Podtserob and Pavlov to Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky, April 15, 1950, RGASPI, f.82, op.2, d.1091, l.1.

¹⁰ Podtserob, Pavlov to Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky, 19 April 1950, Ibid., l.21.

¹¹ The author's interview with Nikolay Yakovlev, 19 October 1995.

¹² Ibidem.

¹³Perepiska, II, 46.

¹⁴ Podtserob, Pavlov, Khvostov to Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky, 1 September 1951, RGASPI, f.82, op.2, d.1101, l.25–28.

¹⁵ Podtserob to Comrade Molotov, 31 May 1950, RGASPI, f.2, op.2, d.1091, l.98–100.

¹⁶ Herbert Feis, ‘The Three Who Led’ in Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967), 662.

¹⁷ Molotov, Vyshinsky to Comrade Stalin, 29 July 1950, RGASPI, f.2, op.2, d.1091, l.136–137.

¹⁸ Podtserob, Pavlov to Comrade Vysinsky, 18 February 1951, Ibid., l.127–128.

¹⁹ Garmash to Comrade Podtserob, 12 February 1951, Ibid., l.143–153.

²⁰ Podtserob, Pavlov, Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 26 June 1951, RGASPI, f.82, op.2, d.1101, l.8–11.

²¹ Podtserob, Pavlov, Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 10 and 18 May 1951, Ibid., d.1094, l.1–7, d.1097, l.1–10.

²² Podtserob, Pavlov, Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 21 May 1951, Ibid., d.1099, l.1.

²³ Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (hereinafter AVP RF), f.07, op.24, p.2, d.14, l.41.

²⁴ Podtserob, Pavlov, Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 10 August 1951, RGASPI, f.82, op.2, d.1101, l.19–20.

²⁵ Podtserob and Khvostov to Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky, 14 September 1951, Ibid., l.29–34.

²⁶ Vyshinsky to Comrade Molotov, 21 September 1951, Ibid., d.1102, l.1–4.

²⁷ Molotov and Vyshinsky to Comrade Stalin, 23 September 1951, Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation (hereinafter PA RF) f.3, op.34, d.63, l.140–149.

²⁸ Podtserob and Khvostov to Comrades Molotov and Vyshinsky, 24 September 1951, AVP RF, f.07, op.24, p.2, d.14, l.51.

²⁹ AVP RF, f.07, op.24, p.2, d.14, l.41.

³⁰ Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk, Cold Peace. Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 119.

³¹ Soviet embassy in Washington to comrade V. Bazykin, 24 September 1954, AVP RF, f.06, op.13a, p.4, d.95, l.4.

³²Foreign Relations of the United States. Diplomatic Papers. The Conferences at Malta andYalta 1945 (Washington, 1955), iii. For a masterful, detailed discussion of American debates about Yalta and FDR's World War II policy in general, see David Reynolds, ‘FDR's Foreign Policy and the Construction of American History, 1945–1955’ in David B. Woolner, Warren F. Kimball, and David Reynolds, eds. FDR's World. War, Peace, and Legacies. (New York: Palgrave,Macmillan, 2008).

³³ Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 14 October, 1954, AVP RF, f.06, op.13a, p.4, d.95, l.1.

³⁴ Ibidem.

³⁵ Excerpts from the minutes of the Collegium meeting of 30 October 1954, Ibid., l.16.

³⁶ Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 30 October 1954, Ibid., l.15.

³⁷ Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, n.d., AVP RF, f.06, op.14a, p.38, d.106, l.33–37.

³⁸ Molotov to the Central Committee, 19 March 1955, PA RF, f.3, op.34, d.63, l.153–154.

³⁹ Il'ichev, Tsarapkin, Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 21 March 1955, AVP RF, f.06, op.14a, p.38, d.106, l.9–10.

⁴⁰ Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 22 March 1955, Ibid., l.10.

⁴¹ That was his resolution on Khvostov's report, Ibidem.

⁴² Excerpt from the protocol N 113 of Presidium meeting of 24 March 1955, PA RF, f.3, op.34, d.63, l.152.

⁴³Pravda, 19, 20 March, 1955.

⁴⁴ Il'ichev and Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 24 May 1955, AVP RF, f.06, op.14a, p.38, d.106, l.39.

⁴⁵ TASS statement in Pravda, 24 March 1955; ‘Falsifikatsia Istorii na Sluzhbe Kholodnoi Voiny’ (Pravda, 20 January 1956).

⁴⁶ Khvostov to Comrade Molotov, 8 July 1955, AVP RF, f.06, op.14a, p.38, d.106, l.54.

⁴⁷The Soviet Union at the International Conferences during the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945. Vol. IV: The Crimea Conference of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (4–11 February 1945) [in Russian]. (Moscow, 1979). Most recently RGASPI published a new selection of Yalta documents based on the original unedited minutes of the conference's proceedings (Yalta-45. Nachertania Novogo Mira. Otv. red. Natalia Narochnitskaya. Moskva, 2010).

⁴⁸ Draft Statement by CPSU Central Committee, 6 June 1956, Russian State Archive of Modern History, f.3, op.12, d.59, l.79–80.

⁴⁹ Gromyko to Comrade Chernykha, 2 June 1956, Ibid., l.81.

⁵⁰Sovetsko-Angliskie Otnoshenia vo Vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny, 1941–1945. Documenty i Materialy. Tom.1–2, (Moskva, 1983); Sovetsko-Amerikanskie Otnoshenia vo Vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny, 1941–1945.Documenty i Materialy. Tom.1–2, (Moskva, 1984); Sovetsko-Frantsuzkie Otnoshenia vo Vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny, 1941–1945Documenty i Materialy. Tom.1–2, (Moskva, 1984).

⁵¹ Gromyko to the Central Committee, 22 May 1957, PA RF, f.3, op.34, d.64, l.18–19.

⁵² Excerpt from the Protocol of the 95^th meeting of the CC Presidium, 31 May 1957, Ibid., l.15.

⁵³ Kratkaia Spravka ‘Perepiska Predsedatelia Soveta Ministrov SSSR s Prezidentami SShA I Prem'er-Ministrami Velikobritanii vo vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny 1941–1945 gg.’, Ibid., l.59–63.

⁵⁴Malenkov.Molotov.Kaganovich 1957. Stenogramma Iyun'skogo Plenuma TsK KPSS I Drugie Documenty. (Moskva, 1998), 404–405.

⁵⁵ Gromyko to the Central Committee, 20 July 1957, PA RF, f.3, op.34, d.64, l.71.

⁵⁶ Excerpt from the Protocol of the 103^rd meeting of the CC Presidium, 26 July 1957, Ibid., l.69.

⁵⁷ Feis, 663.

⁵⁸ Among those Warren Kimball's seminal edition of the Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence stands out as a major scholarly accomplishment. More recent editions of the Stalin-Roosevelt and Churchill-Truman correspondence by Susan Butler and G.W. Sand are aimed at a general readership. Warren Kimball, ed., Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, 3 vols. (Princeton, 1984); Susan Butler, My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence Between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005); G.W. Sand, ed., Defending the West: The Truman-Churchill Correspondence, 1945–1960 (Westport, 2004).