ALEXANDER WERTH
RUSSIA AT WAR 1941-1945
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
1964
ALSO BY ALEXANDER WERTH:
France in Ferment (1934)
The Destiny of France (1937)
France and Munich: Before and After the Surrender (1939)
The Last Days of Paris (1940)
The Twilight of France (1942)
Moscow '41 (1942)
Leningrad (1944)
The Year of Stalingrad (1946)
Musical Uproar in Moscow (1949)
France 1940-1955 (1956)
The Strange History of Pierre Mendès-France (1957)
America in Doubt (1959)
The de Gaulle Revolution (1960)
The Khrushchev Phase (1961)
Copyright, ©, 1964 by Alexander Werth. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast.
To the Memory of
MITYA KHLUDOV
aged 19
Killed in Action
in Belorussia
July 1944
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART ONE
PRELUDE TO WAR
I Russia's 1939 Dilemma
II The Soviet-German Pact
III The Partition of Poland
IV From the Finnish War to the German Invasion of France
V Russia and the Fall of France—Baltic States and Bessarabia
VI Russia and the Battle of Britain: a Psychological Turning-Point?
VII Display of Russian Military Might—Molotov's Tragi-comic Visit to Berlin
VIII " 1941—it will be a Happy New Year"
IX The Last Weeks of Peace
PART TWO
FROM THE INVASION TO THE BATTLE OF MOSCOW
I Soviet Unpreparedness in June 1941
II The Invasion
III Molotov and Stalin Speak
IV Smolensk: the First Check to the Blitzkrieg
V Close-Up One: Moscow at the Beginning of the War
VI Close-Up Two: Autumn Journey to the Smolensk Front
VII Advance on Leningrad
VIII Rout in the Ukraine: "Khrushchev versus Stalin"
IX The Evacuation of Industry
X Battle of Moscow Begins—The October 16 Panic
XI Battle of Moscow II. Stalin's Holy Russia Speech
XII The Moscow Counter-Offensive
XIII The Diplomatic Scene of the First Months of the Invasion
PART THREE
THE LENINGRAD STORY
I The Dead of Leningrad
II The Enemy Advances
III Three Million Trapped
IV The Ladoga Lifeline
V The Great Famine
VI The Ice Road
VII Leningrad Close-Up
VIII Why Leningrad "Took It"
IX A Note on Finland
PART FOUR
THE BLACK SUMMER OF 1942
I Close-up: Moscow in June 1942
II The Anglo-Soviet Alliance
III Three Russian Defeats: Kerch, Kharkov and Sebastopol
IV The Renewal of the German Advance
V Patrie-en-Danger and the Post-Rostov Reforms
VI Stalin Ropes in the Church
PART FIVE
STALINGRAD
I Stalingrad: the Chuikov Story
II The " Stalingrad" months in Moscow—the Churchill visit and after
III Russians encircle the Germans at Stalingrad
IV Stalingrad Close-Ups. I: The Stalingrad Lifeline
II: The Scene of the Manstein Rout
V Stalingrad: the Agony
VI Close-Up III: Stalingrad at the Time of the Capitulation
VII "Caucasus Round Trip"
PART SIX
1943: YEAR OF HARD VICTORIES— THE POLISH TANGLE
I The Birth of "Stalin's Military Genius"
II The Germans and the Ukraine
III Kharkov under the Germans
IV The Economic Effort of 1942-3—the Red Army's New Look—Lend-Lease
V Before the Spring Lull of 1943—Stalin's Warning
VI The Technique of Building a New Poland
VII The Dissolution of the Comintern and Other Curious Events in the Spring of 1943
VIII Kursk: Hitler Loses His Last Chance of Turning the Tide
IX Oreclass="underline" Close-Up of a Purely Russian City under the Germans
X A Short Chapter on a Vast Subject: German Crimes hi the Soviet Union
XI The Partisans in the Soviet-German War
XII Paradoxes of Soviet Foreign Policy in 1943—The Fall of Mussolini—The "Free
German Committee"
XIII Stalin's Little Nationalist Orgy after Kursk
XIV The Spirit of Teheran
PART SEVEN
1944: RUSSIA ENTERS EASTERN EUROPE
I Some Characteristics of 1944
II Close-Up I: Ukrainian Microcosm
III Close-Up II: Odessa, Capital of Rumanian Transniestria
IV Close-Up III: Hitler's Crimean Catastrophe
V The Lull Before D-Day—Stalin's Flirtation with the Catholic Church—"Slav Unity"
VI The Russians and the Normandy Landing
VII German Rout in Belorussia: "Worse than Stalingrad"
VIII What Happened at Warsaw?
IX Close-Up: Lublin—the Maidanek Murder Camp
X Rumania, Finland and Bulgaria Pack Up
XI Churchill's Second Moscow Visit
XII Stalin's Horse-Trading with de Gaulle
XIII Alternative Policies and Ideologies towards the End of the War
PART EIGHT
VICTORY—AND THE SEEDS THE COLD WAR
I Into Germany
II Yalta and After
III June, 1945: Berlin Under the Russians Only
IV The Three Months'Peace
V Potsdam
VI The Short Russo-Japanese War—Hiroshima
Selected Bibliography
Chronological Table
Acknowledgements
MAPS
The Partition of Poland
The Soviet-Finnish War
The Battle of Kiev
The German Offensive against Moscow
Moscow: the Russian Counter-offensive
The Leningrad Blockade
The Leningrad Lifeline
The Black Summer of 1942
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Germans Trapped at Stalingrad
The Russian Winter Offensive 1942-3
The Kursk Battle
The Russian Spring 1944 Offensive in the South
The Russian Summer 1944 Offensive in Belorussia and Poland
The Liberation of Poland and Invasion of Germany
Towards Victory
Folding maps:
The German Offensive 1941-2
The Russian Counter-offensive 1942-5
Endpaper maps:
The USSR
MAPS DRAWN BY FREDERICK BROMAGE
INTRODUCTION
In his speech before the American University in Washington on June 10, 1963—a speech that foreshadowed the Moscow test-ban treaty two months later—the late President
Kennedy said:
Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries (the USA and the Soviet
Union) have in common, none is stronger than the mutual abhorrence of war.
Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with
each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the
Russians suffered in the course of the Second World War.
And he went on to say:
At least twenty million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's [European] territory, including nearly
two-thirds of its industrial base, were turned into a waste-land.