Stalin

Mar

15

1943

Stalin agitates for a Second Front in Europe

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Western Front. Soldiers of mopping up anti-tank battalion moving toward Vyazma after battles for Rzhev.

The Soviet troops spent the whole winter in the tense fighting, which continues even now. Hitler is carrying out important measures with a view to replenish and increase his army for the spring and summer operations against the U.S.S.R. In these circumstances it is for us extremely important that the blow from the West should not be put off, that it should be struck in the spring or in the early summer.

Jan

8

1943

Soviets offer ‘Gingerbread or the Whip’

Soviet troops advancing on Stalingrad.

Your encircled troops are in a grave situation. They are suffering from hunger, sickness and cold. The harsh Russian winter is only just beginning: hard frosts, cold winds and snowstorms are still to come, but your soldiers do not have winter uniforms and are living in unsanitary conditions. You, as commander, and all the officers of the surrounded troops know very well that there is no longer any realistic possibility of breaking through the encirclement.

Dec

19

1942

Soviet Army successes give Russians confidence

“Destroyed Stalingrad does not give up”.

Russia’s mind was focused on Stalingrad. When the offensive got into its stride, a deep feeling of gratitude and relief swept the country. This expressed itself in all kinds of ways: in extra hours worked in factories “for Stalingrad,” and also in that curious movement the origin of which is obscure, and which took the form of large money gifts to the Defence Fund.

Mar

5

1940

Stalin orders the Katyn Forest murders

In the NKVD POW camps and in the prisons of the western oblasts of Ukraine and Belorussia there is currently a large number of former officers of the Polish army, former Polish police officers and employees of intelligence agencies, members of Polish nationalist c-r (counterrevolutionary) parties, participants in underground c-r rebel organizations, defectors and so on. All of them are implacable enemies of Soviet power and full of hatred for the Soviet system.

Feb

10

1940

Stalin deports Poles from Russian occupied Poland

At two o’clock in the morning of 10 February 1940 my mother’s crying in the kitchen woke me up. I got up to see what was happening and, on opening the door, was grabbed by four men with rifles: two in NKVD uniforms, and two civilians with red bands round their sleeves. They searched me to ensure I wasn’t carrying arms, then allowed me to return to the bedroom, as they told us to pack our belongings for departure to the railway station in Klewan.

Dec

18

1939

Stalin’s 60th birthday telegrams

“On behalf of the working people of Finland, who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the heroic Red Army to liberate their country from the yoke of the whiteguard hangmen and hirelings of foreign warmongers, for the victory of the independent Democratic Republic of Finland …”

Aug

23

1939

Germany and Russia sign Non-Aggression Pact

Hitler and Stalin surprised the world when they announced a pact between themselves. The arrangement allowed Hitler to launch his forces against Poland knowing that he would not suffer from Russian interference. Furthermore he would be free to turn to West without worrying about his Eastern front in due. The clause dividing Poland with Russia [...]