Stalin's speech on August 19, 1939

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Stalin's speech on August 19, 1939 is argued to have been a secret speech of Joseph Stalin to Soviet leaders, wherein he supposedly described the strategy of the Soviet Union in the eve of World War II. Published allegations on the content of this speech, as well as opposing views, have been suspect of being propaganda and disinformation.

1 Alleged summary
2 History
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Alleged summary

Stalin expressed an expectation that the war would be the best opportunity to weaken both the Western nations and Nazi Germany, and make Germany suitable for "Sovietization". The Soviet Union also expected territorial expansion to the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland with the approval of either the Western powers or Germany.

The opinions voiced by Stalin formed the base for the Nazi-Soviet pact of non-aggression, known as Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

[edit] History

Whether this speech was ever given by Stalin is still the subject of dispute by historians and no proof was unanimously accepted. According to Viktor Suvorov's book M-Day, Soviet historians laid special emphasis on proving that no Politburo meeting took place on August 19, 1939. Nevertheless, Suvorov reports in his book, Russian military historian Dmitri Volkogonov has found evidence that a meeting really took place on that day.

The first version of this speech was published on November 28, 1939, in the Swiss journal Revue de Droit International. Since then several versions, varying in content, have been in circulation.

In Pravda of November 30, 1939, the day of the outbreak of the Winter War, Stalin was asked for his opinion on the report of "the speech" allegedly made "by Stalin to the Politburo on August 19", in which he is said to have expressed the thought that the war should go on as long as possible, so that the belligerents are exhausted." Stalin denied this tactic. Pravda then quoted Stalin as saying [1]:

that it cannot be denied that it was France and England that attacked Germany and consequently they are responsible for the present war;
that Germany made peace proposals to France and England, proposals supported by the Soviet Union on the grounds that a quick end to the war would ease the situation of all countries and peoples;
that the ruling circles of England and France rudely rejected Germany's peace proposals.

In 1994, Russian publicist T. S. Bushuyeva published the alleged archival reference of the Speech in an article printed in the Novy Mir magazine (#12, 1994), based on what she claimed was recent findings in Soviet Special Archives of a text that according to her was supposedly recorded by a Comintern member present at the meeting. (The archive files location: Centre for the Preservation of Collections of Historical Documents, former Soviet Special Archives; fund 7, list 1, file 12239, in Russian: Центр хранения историко-документальных коллекций, бывший Особый архив СССР, ф. 7, оп. 1, д. 1223).

However, the actual original text is not available yet. Bushuyeva also printed a Russian translation of a version available in French language. This caused another surge of speculations on the issue. It turned out that the referred archival record is from the stock related to the documents of General Staff of French Army, a fact omitted by Bushuyeva.

An article in the Otechestvennaya Istoriya (History of the Fatherland), Отечественная история, 2004, № 1) by Sergey Sluch (С.З. Случ) critically reviews the history of the "Stalin's Speech", its textologial analysis, and possible reasons and sources of the possible forgery.

At the same time, "proofs" of non-existence of the speech are also being met with scepticism, in view of a similar vigorous denial of the Secret Protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Carl Nordling (himself an amateur historian, known for his Holocaust revisionism) has pointed out some counter-theses to Sluch' disapproval of the existence of such speech. [2]

[edit] References

Revue de Droit International, de Sciences Diplomatiques et Politiques (The International Law Review), 1939, Nr. 3, Juillet-Septembre. P. 247-249.
Otechestvennaya Istoriya Отечественная история, 2004, № 1, pp. 113-139.
A.L.Weeks Stalin's Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939-1941 ISBN 0-7425-2191-5

[edit] See also

Viktor Suvorov, a controversial historian who used the speech as an evidence for his thesis in works such as “Icebreaker”
“Stalin's Missed Chance”, a research work by military historian Mikhail Meltyukhov, covering Stalin's alleged offensive plans