The trade, transport, administrative, financial and other, more mundane, matters between the two countries had quickly been finalised on the first day of their talks. This left the second day for more important matters. Or surprises!
The following day, in the end, was something of an anti-climax. Stalin again said little, but his minions continually whispered in his ear throughout the talks. It was obvious that Khrushchev was orchestrating whatever it was the Soviets were trying to get at!
Minister Molotov asked about the independent ex-Yugoslav countries, and if they would join the European Alliance. Von Altendorf answered him, in a detailed reply that the cold facts of the matter were, apart from Serbia, the others had not yet shown any great degree of internal stability. There had even been some border incidents between some of the new states. Until these states ‘matured’, their membership of the Alliance was out of the question.
While Serbia could possibly be considered to be a suitable member under normal circumstances, the fact that the country was surrounded by unstable ex-Yugoslavia states, ruled against membership.
When asked about Greece, von Altendorf said much the same thing. He personally did not see that country being eligible to join the Alliance for the foreseeable future. Corruption, nepotism, and gross inefficiency were rife. Their government was too set in its ways to reform!
The Soviet Union’s two powerful anti-communist nations on their eastern border, China and Japan were of great concern to the Russians. They wanted to know what was Germany’s real relationship with them.
Von Altendorf knew that they understood perfectly well what the real relationship was. It was just another part of their ploy towards setting the scene for their desired arms limitation pact. Or possibly something else as well!
Nevertheless he patiently explained that they were both big trading partners of Germany, and while China was considered a nation friendly to Germany, Japan was a little less so. He added that he believed neither of those two countries harboured any aggressive intentions towards their Soviet neighbour. He reminded Molotov that he himself had said ‘only a fool would attack Russia!
A glimmer of a smile was seen on the Russian’s face.
Now Khrushchev openly entered the debate, in effect, getting down to the serious stuff. He queried why the European Alliance thought that they needed nearly three thousand tanks and mobile guns to defend themselves, when the only conceivable threat could be from the Soviet Union, who had deliberately slowed down their own re-armament in recent years and shown their peaceful intentions.”
‘Damn good question’, von Brauchitsch thought. ‘I must tell General Beck that the Soviet intelligence network is working well’. He would answer this one, and speak the plain truth — mostly.
“A direct question deserves a direct answer.” He paused, for effect. “Part of the answer lies in history. During the 1930s, we, in Germany, were aware of certain purges within your country. And that these actions resulted in many, many deaths. This was something we would fight with everything we possessed to avoid similar happenings in our own country. Germany, like all countries, has the right to a strong defensive capability.” He could sense the Soviets were uncomfortable with his mention of the purges, but the truth is the truth. Let them be uncomfortable!
He continued. “Up to the end of the European War in mid-1940, the Soviet Union was always seen by the previous Nazi regime as being a serious threat to Germany. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was almost paranoid about your country. This mind-set, inevitably led to a deeply entrenched mistrust of the Soviet Union throughout Germany. Although this attitude originated from the political leadership, it was unavoidable that it also affected the armed forces to some degree.
Since that time, however, consider how well the Soviet Union and Germany have worked together. Nobody can possibly argue that our two countries haven’t developed a very good trading relationship. We are each of us, the biggest single trading partner of the other. This works well for the benefit of both our countries. To allow anything to adversely affect this would be simply foolish.”
Another slight pause from him before he carried on speaking.
“It should also be remembered that the two best battleships of the Red Navy, two very powerful fighting machines, were supplied to you by us. That was not an act of an unfriendly nation.
The German armed forces have been reduced from over four million men in 1940, to fewer than one million today. I know that the Red Army is very much bigger than this.
The current main weapons systems — the jet fighters and tanks — of the German and Alliance armed forces, originate from designs approved and started in the late 1930s. To date we have not introduced anything else that is new or revolutionary.
The Soviet Union, however, started to introduce new aircraft, the Sturmovik, and tanks, the T34, both of which are very formidable developments, long before we introduced our own new weapons. We made no protest to you. We simply accepted that we had to upgrade ourselves, or become militarily inferior to the Soviet Union, which is, after all, the largest country in the world.
The number of battle tanks and mobile artillery that you have quoted, are held by the European Alliance and are spread across thirteen countries, most of which do not have a common border with the Soviet Union and therefore pose little external threat to you. Collectively the number is still deemed to be insufficient, even from a purely defensive aspect.”
Von Brauchitsch now tested the Soviets with one of his pet theories. “As regards your comment about the Soviet Union deliberately slowing down your rearmament, we believe you have re-located or built new factories deep inside Siberia, away from prying eyes, and that your production of aircraft and tanks is as high as ever.” He watched their reaction.
He was right! The sneaky bastards had done exactly that. They didn’t even try to deny it. Von Brauchitsch was puzzled by their reaction! He looked at von Altendorf.
The Baron cleared his throat and spoke directly to Krushchev and Stalin. “The past six years of peace have brought unprecedented prosperity to Europe, including the Soviet Union. We each have our own different political system. You do not like ours, and we don’t like yours. But, I think you will agree that at no time have we sought to impose our ideology on you. In fact we have refrained from any public criticism of your country. As Chancellor von Brauchitsch has just said, our two countries are working well together. Who in their right mind would wish to spoil it?
Germany has proved it has no wish for additional territories. We gave independence back to the European countries that we had decisively defeated in the European War. Neither did we demand the return of our old colonies in Africa from Britain in our peace negotiations. It was also suggested to us in late 1940, that we take over Italy and oust the Fascist dictator, Mussolini. We could have easily have done it, but we were not interested. Italy was a sovereign country and even though we disapproved of its government, we would not interfere.
The whole world witnessed the Alliance peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia at the request of their own Regent. It was undertaken with reluctance on our part, but to have taken no action would have caused the entire region to explode. We were in — and out — of that country in a matter of a few months.
I believe that the Soviet Union should regard these different actions as indisputable confirmation of our existing policies to promote peace and harmony across Europe.”