RUSSIA: Stalin Shackles

Communist No. 1 had not only thrown 85 divisions of the Red Army into Poland and mobilized a total of more than 4,000,000 troops last week, but all over Russia thousands of fresh conscripts continued to be called to the hammer & sickle colors as though for some major effort.

Whether or not the Kremlin was preparing to take almost defenseless Bessarabia from Rumania like candy from a baby, and regardless of how much truth lay behind sensational reports of joint action in the Near East being contemplated by Russia and Turkey to overwhelm Syria, Palestine and Iraq, it remained an arresting fact that in Moscow the official tone was markedly anti-British, anti-French and pro-German.

In official Soviet radio news summaries of proceedings in the House of Commons, pointed omission was made of Winston Churchill’s declaration that Britain, France and Russia have a “common interest” in checking German agression. Moscow press and radio descriptions of Allied pulling of punches on the Western Front gave most Russians the definite impression that a truce to World War II was already at hand. Red Fleet, organ of the Soviet Navy, while noting that Britain and France have a superiority in tonnage of 374% over the Reich Navy, argued that German “blows to the British merchant marine on the seas and in ports, simultaneously with repeated air attacks on [British and French] industrial centres can lead to rapid, decisive results. . . . The treaty of friendship and development of economic relations with the Soviet Union and the security of Baltic trade routes make Germany independent of sea transport passing through the North Sea.

Third International. Soviet organs raked the French Cabinet savagely for its suppression of the French Communist Party, and at Moscow last week the long somnolent Third International, whose business is to foment “the World Revolution of the World Proletariat,” was again heard from in a broadside by V. Florin. He appealed to “workers of the World” to “fight against capitalistic warmongers.”

A speech by A. Hitler used to be the signal for every Soviet station to goon the air and try to drown him out. By order of J. Stalin all Soviet stations were respectfully silent during the Reichstag speech (see p. 34) and Russian listeners who understood German heard every word.* Soviet comment was uniformly favorable, particularly as to the Führer’s claim that Eastern Europe is now a sphere of Soviet-German influence in which they will tolerate no intervention by Britain and France.

Meanwhile, Moscow hotels overflowed with constantly arriving representatives of German shipping, oil and rye firms as well as engineers sent to help the Soviet Union improve its backward transport systems. This week two big Nazi planes brought an Economic Delegation of 14, and after they conferred with Soviet Premier Viacheslav Molotov a communiqué announced that Russia will “immediately begin supplying Germany [raw] materials and Germany begin filling orders [of finished products] for the U. S. S. R.”

“Business As Usual.” Against all these signs of what J. Stalin wanted Russians to think, for the Dictator’s control of press and radio is active and absolute, was a bland attitude toward Britain of “business as usual” taken by the Soviet Export Corp. The keen Bolshevik traders who run this big business saw merely that German submarines and mines in the Baltic blocked the usual Russian autumn shipments of timber to the British Isles. They promptly cabled to Norwegian, Swedish and Danish shipping firms, offering to charter Scandinavian freighters to carry Soviet timber out by way of ice-free Murmansk and the White Sea to Britain (see map). At latest reports the Scandinavians had not yet decided whether to lease their freighters, and anti-Soviet feeling was running especially high in Sweden.

Last Hour. While the larger issue of Soviet armed intervention or peaceful mediation in World War II remained a question, Moscow proceeded swiftly snapping what a Swedish commentator called “Stalin shackles” on the defenseless Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

In Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, which in exchange for trade favors had agreed to permit Red Army, Navy and Air Force units to dominate its soil from leased bases (TIME, Oct. 9), there was a great dither of excitement. J. Stalin had demanded that ratifications of the Soviet-Estonian Treaty be exchanged without fail in six days, a trick J. Stalin learned from A. Hitler when demanding a quick handover from little States like Austria and Czecho-Slovakia. Only an hour now remained before this time limit expired and the necessary papers had not yet arrived from Moscow. To nervous Estonians this seemed ominous. Already two Soviet military missions had arrived in Tallinn on trains heavily guarded by soldiers, and were living at the railway station.

What did the hitch about the papers mean? Was Russia just going to march in without treaty formalities? With only a few minutes to spare, the Soviet Minister to Estonia finally drove up to the Foreign Office, ratifications were exchanged and Foreign Minister Karl Selter expressed his perspiring relief. Next thing M. Selter knew, the Soviet Union calmly demanded an extra Red Army base in Estonia not mentioned in the Treaty.

“More Flexible.” When Foreign Minister Vilhelms Munters of Latvia alighted in Moscow to face Stalin and Molotov they asked him to sign approximately the same form of treaty as was forced upon Estonia, except that it was “more flexible” from the Russian point of view, provided that an indefinite number of “airdromes” and “bases” shall be leased by Latvia as the Red Air Force and Army may later require, while the Red Navy leases bases in the ports of Libau and Windau. Again J. Stalin demanded exchange of ratifications within six days, but departing Foreign Minister Munters was not simply packed off home by air as Mr. Selter had been. The Moscow railway station was decked with Latvian and Soviet flags, a Red Army guard of honor snapped to salute and a Soviet band was provided, possibly because the Dictator rather likes M. and Mme Munters, both of whom speak Russian. He gave them a party in Moscow some years ago.

Large Soviet forces arrived this week in Libau and Windau, so large that Latvians feared more Red Army troops would be quartered on them than there are soldiers in the Latvian Army.

Lithuanian Maginot? Lithuanian Foreign Minister Juozas Urbsys, who followed Estonia’s Selter and Latvia’s Munters to Moscow, was reputedly presented with a startling Soviet proposal that the Red Army should construct strong fortifications along the Lithuanian frontier with Germany and should have the main railways crossing Lithuania from her ports to Russia permanently patrolled by Soviet forces, in addition to establishment of Red “bases.” Lithuania asked that its former capital Wilno, which was seized in 1920 by Poland and thus has now passed into Soviet hands be “restored.” The Moscow radio announced that “the workers of Wilno wish to belong to the Soviet Fatherland and not to Lithuania!” As the negotiations continued, there was talk in Moscow that Russia would return a part of the city and province of Wilno to Lithuania.

Finnish Bargain. Spunkier than the other Baltic States, Finland last week partially mobilized, prepared to drive a bargain with the Soviet Union rather than simply capitulate. Instead of going to Moscow himself, Finnish Foreign Minister Eljas Erkko sent his diplomatic subordinate, the Finnish Minister to Sweden Juho Paasikivi, a onetime Premier of Finland, now President of the Finnish Foreign Trade Association. “We are calm and feel not the slightest nervousness!” cried Finnish Premier Aimo Cajander, while letting it be known that reservists were being rushed to strengthen Finland’s defenses along the Soviet frontier. It was assumed that Dictator Stalin would demand the “lease” of several small Finnish islands near Leningrad and that this would have to be yielded in exchange for trade favors, but in case Moscow demands to lease the Aland Islands, owned by Finland dominating Stockholm, all Scandinavia was expected to join Finland in protest. “Moscow’s demands on Finland are followed with the greatest interest in Sweden,” said Stockholm’s Svenska Dagbladet. “If the Soviet thinks she can treat Finland as she has the Baltic countries recently, it will arouse . . . not only Scandinavia but the whole civilized world, and not least of all, the United States.”

A glance at the map shows that Russia does not need the Alands, unless she is imperialistically minded toward Scandinavia, and Swedes hoped Moscow would rest content for a time at least with having obtained prime ice-free outlets to the Baltic through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This gives Russia what she has long desired, a “Central Outlet” midway between her “Northern Outlet” via Murmansk and her “Southern Outlet” via the Dardanelles. Next Soviet thrust, Scandinavians devoutly hoped, may be in the Black Sea, possibly to persuade Rumania to “lease” at Constantsa a Soviet naval base.

Stalin and Saracoglu. Meanwhile, an endless stream of code cablegrams played ring around Europe between the Turkish Military Mission in London, Turkish President Ismet Inönü at Ankara and Turkish Foreign Minister Shokru Saracoglu who was now becoming a permanent fixture at Moscow, conferring every few days with Stalin and Molotov.

The Turkish Military Mission, wined & dined every night by lavish hosts who included the Lord Mayor of London, readily “initialed” a long-term agreement of mutual Turkish-British support, but refused to “sign” and indicated that what Turkey will actually do cannot be decided until President Ismet Inönü knows, among other things, just how much support the Bank of England is willing to give Turkish currency and just how much in the way of armaments the British care to send to Turkey. In circles close to His Majesty’s Government the “difficulties” of shipping arms to Turkey now and the “dislocation” this would cause in British armament schedules were gravely stressed. The emphasis was kept on hospitality, champagne and whiskey-sodas for the visiting Turks.

In Moscow the desultory Oriental bargaining between Stalin and Saracoglu turned upon what Turkey will do in case Russia alone or Russia and Germany or Germany alone should now decide to invade the Balkans. Stalin was reputedly pressing Saracoglu to agree that in any event Turkey would bar the British and French fleets from passing through the Dardanelles into the Black Sea to bolster up the Balkans. And in Ankara this same demand was vigorously made by German Ambassador Franz von Papen.

The Turks were still hesitating at latest reports but Russians considered it significant that Foreign Minister Saracoglu did something in Moscow which no foreign statesman has ever done before: he laid a wreath on the blood-red marble tomb of Nikolai Lenin in the Red Square.

*Soviet newspaper translations of the speech into Russian made a few minor but significant changes. Where Hitler named “Stalin” this was changed to “Russia.” The Führer’s assertion that “Soviet Russia remains Soviet Russia and National Socialist Germany remains National Socialist Germany” was telescoped and softened into “Russia remains Russia and Germany remains Germany!”