What Stalin Knew (55 page)

In order to organize troops for the invasion away from the eyes of the English

opponent, and in connection with the recent operations in the Balkans, a large

number of my troops, about eighty divisions, are located on the borders of the

Soviet Union. This possibly gave rise to the rumors now circulating of a likely

military conflict between us.

I assure you, on my honor as a chief of state that this is not the case.

From my side, I also react with understanding to the fact that you cannot

completely ignore these rumors and have also deployed a sufficient number of

your troops on the border.

In this situation I cannot completely exclude the possibility of an accidental

outbreak of armed conflict, which given the conditions created by such a con-

centration of troops might take on very large dimensions, making it difficult if not

impossible to determine what caused it in the first place.

I want to be absolutely candid with you.

I fear that some one of my generals might deliberately embark on such a

conflict in order to save England from its fate and spoil my plans.

It is a question of no more than a month.

By approximately June 15–20 I plan to begin a massive transfer of troops to

the west from your borders.

In connection with this, I ask you, as persuasively as possible, not to give in to

any provocations that might emanate from those of my generals who might have

forgotten their duty. And, it goes without saying, try not to give them any cause. If

it becomes impossible to avoid provocation by some of my generals, I ask you to

show restraint, to not respond but to advise me immediately of what has hap-

pened through the channel known to you. Only in this way can we attain our

mutual goals, on which, it seems to me, we are clearly in agreement.

I thank you for having agreed with me on the question known to you and I

ask you to forgive me for the method I have chosen for delivering this letter to you

as quickly as possible.

I continue to hope for our meeting in July.

Sincerely yours,

Adolf Hitler

Note:
No archival material has been found to authenticate these documents.—DEM

A P P E N D I X

≥

Those Executed without

Trial on October ≤∫, ∞Ω∂∞

Colonel Generals

Loktionov, Aleksandr D. Former commander, Baltic Special Military District

Shtern, Grigory M. Commander, Antiaircraft Defense Command

Lieutenant Generals of Aviation

Arzhenukhin, Fedor K. Chief, Military Academy for Command and Navigational

Personnel

Proskurov, Ivan I. Chief, Air Forces Seventh Army. Former chief, Military

Intelligence

Rychagov, Pavel V. Former chief, Chief Directorate, Red Army Air Forces

Smushkevich, Yakov V. Deputy chief, Red Army General Staff for Aviation

Divisional Engineer

Sakrier, Ivan F. Chief, Armaments Directorate, Red Army Air Forces

Major Generals

Kaiukov, Matvei M. Deputy chief, Artillery Directorate, Red Army

Savchenko, Georgy K. Deputy chief, Artillery Directorate for Political Affairs

Volodin, Pavel S. Chief of staff, Red Army Air Forces

260

APPENDIX ≥

Brigade Engineers

Sklizkov, Stepan O. Chief, Small Arms Directorate, Red Army

Sobornov, Mikhail N. Chief, Experimental Design Sector, Technical Council,

NKV USSR

Colonel

Zasosov, Ivan I. Chairman, Artillery Committee

Major

Nesterenko, Maria P. Deputy commander, Separate Special-Purpose Air Regi-

ment. Wife of General Pavel V. Rychagov

Civilians

Bulatov, Dimitry A. Secretary, Omsk Oblast Party Committee

Goloshchekin, Filipp I. Involved in assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his

family

Rozov, David A. Deputy People’s Commissar for Trade, USSR. Former chairman,

AMTORG

Taubin, Yakov G. Chief, Special Design Bureau, NKV USSR

Wives

Savchenko, Aleksandra I. Wife of Major General Savchenko

Rozova, Zinaida P. Wife of David A. Rozov

A P P E N D I X

∂

Chronology of

Agent Reporting

August 27, 1940:
RU report from Paris: ‘‘The Germans have turned down an

offensive against England. Preparations, apparently continuing for such an

eventuality, are merely intended to hide the movement of German forces to

the east, where there are already 106 divisions.’’

Fall 1940:
The Luftwaffe is ordered to dismantle communications stations and

other arrangements originally made to support the German invasion of En-

gland (ULTRA).

October 1940:
Korsikanets reports that he has learned from one source that

Germany will go to war after the first of the coming year and from another

source that war will come in six months.

December 7, 1940:
Soviet Ambassador Dekanozov receives an anonymous letter

saying that ‘‘next spring Hitler intends to attack the USSR.’’

December 29, 1940:
Ariets reports: ‘ War will be declared in March 1941.’’

January 4, 1941:
Ariets reports that he has learned from a friend in the military

that Hitler has approved an ‘‘especially secret’’ order, known to only a few

people, to prepare for war with the USSR.

February 7, 1941:
Agent Teffi (NKGB counterintelligence in the Greek embassy

in Moscow) reports: ‘‘There are growing rumors of a German attack on the

Soviet Union. There are two versions. The first is that it will occur after the

defeat of England. The second, which is more likely, is that Germany will

attack the Soviet Union first.’’

February 21, 1941:
Dora reports from Switzerland that ‘‘the German offensive

will begin at the end of May.’’

February 28, 1941:
Ariets describes three major German army groups readying

for attacks against the USSR. ‘‘The beginning of the attack is provisionally set

for May 20.’’

262

APPENDIX ∂

March 14, 1941:
A German major tells a military attaché: ‘ We are completely

changing our plan. We are moving east, to the USSR. We will take from the

USSR grain, coal, oil.’’

March 20, 1941:
Sumner Welles notifies Ambassador Umansky that the United

States has authentic information that ‘‘it is the intention of Germany to

attack the Soviet Union.’’

March 28, 1941:
Ambassador Dekanozov’s secretary receives a phone call:

‘‘Around May a war will begin against Russia.’’

April 2, 1941:
Starshina describes an air force plan for an operation. ‘‘Some think

it will come in May, some in June.’’

April 4, 1941:
Harry reports from France that the Germans are no longer consid-

ering invading England but will continue their bombing of the country.

April 5, 1941:
The Prague RU residency reports that the German invasion has

provisionally been set for May 15 and that it will be masked as a large-scale

preparation for the invasion of England.

April 6, 1941:
Dora learns from highly placed government officials in Berlin that

they expect the campaign to begin on June 15.

April 9–10, 1941:
Yun, an agent covering the U.S. embassy in Moscow, states

that after the war with Yugoslavia Germany will invade the USSR.

April 15, 1941:
Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt of the United States meets

with Solomon Lozovsky, deputy in the Foreign Affairs Commissariat, and

asks that Molotov be informed: ‘‘Beware of Germany. . . . There is more to it

than simple rumors; it would be madness for Germany to take this step, but

they can do it.’’

April 18, 1941:
In his memoirs, I. I. Fediuninski, commander of the Fifteenth

Rifle Corps, says that a German NCO came through the Soviet lines on April

18 claiming that the German invasion would come at 4:00 a.m. on June 22.

When told, M. I. Potapov, commander of the Fifth Army, said, ‘ You’re sound-

ing the alarm in vain.’’

April 19, 1941:
Churchill warns Stalin of Germany’s plans to invade.

April 23, 1941:
Vladimir Vrana, an RU agent working in the export division of

the Skoda plant in Prague, reports: ‘‘It is believed that Hitler will attack the

USSR in the second half of June.’’

April 23, 1941:
Vrach, an RU Bucharest source who got his information from a

colonel in the German air mission, reports the war will begin in May and end

in July.

April 26, 1941:
The Helsinki residency reports that highly placed German of-

ficers are convinced that Hitler will attack the USSR.

May 5, 1941:
Richard Sorge passes microfilm of telegram from Ribbentrop to

Ott, German ambassador to Tokyo, that says: ‘‘Germany will begin a war

against the USSR in the middle of June 1941.’’ AVS reports: ‘‘The date for

German military operations against the USSR was to have been May 15 . . . it

has now been moved back to the middle of June.’’ AVS learns from his source

Gerstenberg that the ‘‘month of June would see the beginning of the war.’’

May 9, 1941:
Tupikov, military attaché and RU legal resident in Berlin, reports:

‘‘Defeat of the Red Army will be completed in one or one and a half months

with arrival of the German army on the meridian of Moscow.’’ Sofia agent

CHRONOLOGY OF AGENT REPORTING

263

Margarit reports that Germany plans to attack in June: ‘‘Germany is prepar-

ing to open hostilities against the USSR in the summer of 1941 before the

harvest.’’

May 11, 1941:
Starshina reports that ‘‘The First Air Fleet will be the main compo-

nent for operations against the USSR.’’

May 15, 1941:
Sorge reports that war will begin on June 21 or 22.

June 11, 1941:
Starshina reports that Göring will move his headquarters to

Romania. ‘‘The question of an attack on the USSR has definitely been de-

cided. One should consider the possibility of a surprise attack.’’

June 13, 1941:
Sorge: ‘‘I repeat: Nine armies with the strength of 150 divisions

will begin an offensive at dawn on June 22.’’ Boevoy, an RU agent of the Sofia

residency reports: ‘‘According to information from Zhurin [a member of the

Bulgarian High Military Council], the Führer has decided to attack the USSR

before the end of this month.’’

June 16, 1941:
Starshina: ‘‘All preparations by Germany for an armed attack on

the Soviet Union have been completed and the blow can be expected at any

time.’’

June 19, 1941:
American journalist Alice Leone-Moats tells everyone in the

American embassy in Moscow that Gebhardt von Walther, the German em-

bassy secretary, has told her that the attack will come on June 21.

June 19, 1941:
Willy Lehmann, Gestapo agent of the RU, reports that the attack

will come on June 22 at 3:00 a.m. NKGV Helsinki agent Monakh tells his case

officer that war will start on June 22.

June 20, 1941:
The Kosta network of the Sofia residency reports that war will

begin on June 21 or 22.

June 21, 1941:
KhVS (Gerhard Kegel of the German embassy, Moscow) reports

that Germany will attack on June 22 between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. Leopold

Trepper, illegal RU resident in Paris, advises Susloparov, the legal resident

there, that ‘‘tomorrow, June 22, [Germany] will suddenly attack the Soviet

Union.’’ That evening, German deserter Alfred H. Liskow says that during the

night the river Bug will be crossed with rafts, boats, and pontoons.

Glossary of Spies and Their Masters

Names in uppercase are those of intelligence officers and/or prominent govern-

ment officials; lowercase indicates recruited agents.

avs:
Code name of Kurt Völkisch, German press officer, German embassy,

Bucharest

Advokat:
Source of Helsinki residency

AGAIANTS, Aleksandr I.:
Named resident in Berlin NKVD residency in 1937

AGEICHIK, Yakov O.:
Colonel, chief of staff of the Ninety-second Border Troop

Detachment. Border institute representative

AKHMEDOV, Ismail G.:
RU officer in Berlin

Alta:
Code name of Ilse Stoebe, RU agent located in Warsaw and then Berlin

Albanets:
Émigré industrialist and former tsarist officer. Subsource for NKVD

Berlin residency

ALBERT:
Code name of Alexandr RADO, RU chief, Switzerland

ALEKSANDR:
Code name of Semen D. KREMER, RU officer in London

ALLAKHVERDOV, Mikhail A.:
Organized the Information Section of the Ger-

man Department, the first analytical component of the NKGB

Ariets:
Code name of Rudolf von Scheliha, German counselor of the German

embassy, Warsaw. Later with German Foreign Office, Berlin. A recruited RU

agent in both locales

ARNOLD:
Code name of Vasily I. TUPIKOV, RU military attaché, Berlin

AVS:
Code name of Kurt Völkisch, agent in Warsaw and Bucharest

Azorsky:
Code name of Vladimir Zaimov, agent of the Sofia residency