For educational purposes
In this first assessment of Stalin’s pre-war foreign policy since the start of glasnost, Soviet archive material and frank testomonies from crucial Russian eyewitnesses shed new light on Stalin’s mysterious and often controversial relationship with Hitler.
In this first assessment of Stalin’s pre-war foreign policy since the start of glasnost, Soviet archive material and frank testomonies from crucial Russian eyewitnesses shed new light on Stalin’s mysterious and often controversial relationship with Hitler.
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00:00Today, at four o'clock in the morning, German troops attacked our country, attacked our
00:19borders in many places.
00:22For 20 years, the Soviet people have been told by their leaders to prepare for invasion
00:27from abroad.
00:28But when the war came, neither the people nor their leaders were ready for it.
00:58The Road to War
01:12The USSR.
01:14The author is Charles Wheeler.
01:19Lenin and the Bolsheviks feared foreign intervention from the day of their coming to power.
01:25Earlier, in 1918, during the First World War, they signed a peace treaty with Germany,
01:31worrying about their weakened country.
01:35Lenin's actions lead to the liberation of thousands of German troops
01:38for an offensive on the Western Front and the Critical Front.
01:44To re-establish the Eastern Front, the allies sent their troops against Russia,
01:48thereby bringing it back to the war.
01:50The British sent their forces north, the French to the south,
01:54Japan and other allied countries also gave their support,
01:57and when the war was over, there were more than 100,000 foreign troops on Russian soil.
02:07In the north, the British commanders openly supported anti-Bolshevik sentiments,
02:11changing the character of the intervention.
02:14Not without reason, the Bolsheviks accused the foreign powers of trying to overthrow
02:19the world's first and most stable state.
02:24For four years, Lenin's troops fought a savage civil war against anti-Bolshevik forces.
02:30By 1922, the new Red Army had defeated its enemies,
02:35and the last foreign troops had been exiled.
02:41The foreign intervention gave the Bolsheviks a form of open propaganda.
02:45Never forget, said Lenin, that the enemy is on the airs regularly.
02:51The invasion is on the airs regularly.
02:57We thought that our country was threatened by the imperialists,
03:01and that the major enemy was England and its allies, Poland and Romania.
03:06When the Soviet trade representation in London was searched
03:10and diplomatic relations were torn apart,
03:13we decided to raise funds.
03:16People responded, sometimes gave coins, sometimes paper money.
03:20Everyone was very proud of it, of hope.
03:23Our money was created by the planes.
03:26We were very proud of it.
03:29We were very proud of it.
03:33Our money was created by the planes.
03:37In need of support, the young Soviet Union
03:40concluded a special agreement with Germany, which opposed Europe.
03:48In a state of complete secrecy, German officers in civilian clothes
03:52used Russian airfields for training,
03:55as well as for testing new types of planes.
03:59According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forbidden to have air forces.
04:03Learning German, Lenin wrote that history goes in zigzags and curved paths.
04:18Lenin died in 1924, when the country was completely controlled by the Bolsheviks.
04:23Such a state of affairs generated distrust of the rest of the world.
04:27Lenin left a will, in which he weighed our qualities
04:30against the rights of his six potential successors.
04:33Lenin's opinion was that none of them could lead the party,
04:36including Joseph Stalin,
04:39who was described as a rude, tough and capricious man.
04:47He was a cunning, clever politician.
04:50To him, all the talk of revolution, of communism, was a means.
04:55The goal was a state, a superpower, which was totally identified with himself.
05:01And the figure of Marx was not Lenin,
05:04whom he rarely quoted, but the Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
05:09By 1928, Stalin had won this struggle for power.
05:12He now launched a second revolution against the peasantry,
05:15which made up the majority of the population.
05:18He attacked the traditions, way of life and their religion.
05:25The revolution was a great success.
05:28The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:31The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:34The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:38The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:41The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:44The Bolsheviks were the first to attack the Bolsheviks.
05:56Stalin destroyed the kulaks.
05:59For millions of people, the only way to survive was collectivization.
06:04Those who resisted went to labor camps.
06:08The war against the peasantry was accompanied by starvation.
06:12At least 10 million people died.
06:18Stalin was the leader who was trusted.
06:21He was head of the party.
06:23Everything happened in his name.
06:26We were just simple party members.
06:29In 1928, I believed in those directives.
06:33I trusted him because he was the General Secretary of the Central Committee.
06:43If collectivization was a disaster,
06:46the desire to industrialize the country changed the Soviet Union.
06:49In 1931, Stalin warned,
06:52we lag 50 years behind developed countries.
06:55If we don't catch up within 10 years, we will be crushed.
06:58The priority was heavy industry.
07:03The steel factories in Magnitogorsk are still the largest in the world.
07:08They were designed by Western companies.
07:11Partly, this was possible thanks to the work of prisoners.
07:14But there were also volunteers who remember their work with pride.
07:25I was immediately sent to work on the construction of the first track.
07:28We had to dig down to a depth of 5 meters.
07:31We had to dig down to a depth of 5 meters
07:34in order to expand the construction site.
07:37We did everything ourselves.
08:01It's hard. It's hard.
08:17It was difficult.
08:20But people were enthusiastic.
08:23They knew that they had to build four furnaces
08:26within the first five years.
08:30Four furnaces within the first five years.
08:33Four furnaces within the first five years.
08:39We needed this, because the war was so close.
08:42We needed this, because the war was so close.
08:47Later, during the war, these massive objects,
08:50located 2,000 miles east of Moscow,
08:53were the safest settlement in the Soviet Union.
09:00In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany.
09:03In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany.
09:06Within a year, Hitler had ended all cooperation with the Russians.
09:09Stalin tried to preserve friendship,
09:12but Hitler severed all the formalities.
09:15but Hitler severed all the formalities.
09:23Hitler's objective from his earliest days
09:26was to conquer the life space in the East.
09:29was to conquer the life space in the East.
09:32Soon after Hitler came to power
09:35and proclaimed his desire to destroy Bolshevism
09:38and capture the eastern territories
09:41that belonged to the Soviet Union,
09:44anti-Hitler propaganda began to gain momentum in our country.
09:47anti-Hitler propaganda began to gain momentum in our country.
09:50An example of this was the film by Sergei Eisenstein.
09:53An example of this was the film by Sergei Eisenstein.
09:56An example of this was the film by Sergei Eisenstein.
09:59It told of the cruelty of the Teutonic Knights
10:02who invaded Russia in the Middle Ages.
10:05who invaded Russia in the Middle Ages.
10:20THE FOURTH DAY...
10:23THE FORTH DAY...
10:26THE FOURTH DAY...
10:29THE FOURTH DAY...
10:32THE FOURTH DAY...
10:35THE FOURTH DAY...
10:38I don't know, not sure if the Germans are clever enough
10:41I don't know, not sure if the Germans are clever enough
10:44to come up with an idea
10:47I have to admit that on paper, of course, they can close any state
10:54But if we are serious, SIE does not depend on them
11:06But it seems that SIE does not depend on me
11:18Only once in my life I heard Stalin's speech
11:24I was also caught up in the influence of the spirit of worship
11:29And I was frightened by it
11:32He was absolutely calm
11:34What impressed me most was the enormous pauses that Stalin allowed himself
11:40It was power
11:42It was like a rabbit being hypnotized
11:45We were the rabbits, we were hypnotized
11:50In the mid-1930s, Stalin's revolution began to devour his own children
11:56There were terrible rumors about the main department of the NKVD in the Lugansk prison
12:01About mass torture and murders
12:04In a paranoid search for absolute power, Stalin eliminated anyone who once stood up against him
12:11There were no inviolable
12:14At that time, they thought that there were enemies who were working against socialism
12:22And so, in order to carry out our promises, we had to have purges
12:27Stalin explained, we were starting new aims, those who don't want to accomplish them have to be removed
12:36And so it was done
12:38And we believed
12:43One of Stalin's most inexplicable actions was the destruction of the top command of the army
12:49Some 30,000 officers, including 90% of the army commanders and all admirals, were arrested and many of them were shot
12:58It is well known that Stalin always had a very suspicious attitude towards the military
13:12Even though the military had never attempted to assert itself in the struggle for power
13:18Stalin was always afraid of the possibility of the existence of the army as a political force
13:24And it was enough, well, several such more or less, more or less...
13:33So, to get a valid evidence, it only needed a few valid evidences to be made about their allegance with Stalin
13:45A notable example of this is the arrest of Marshal Tukhachevsky, commander of the Red Army and perhaps the most capable general
13:53According to the order, his entire family was arrested with him
13:57The men were shot and the women were sent to prison
14:00His sister Elizaveta was divorced from her five-year-old daughter and taken to Lubyanka
14:07It was summer and the windows were open
14:11The summer of 1937 was very hot
14:14At 11 o'clock in the evening, the men started screaming, screaming inhuman voices
14:21I tried to fall asleep
14:24They didn't allow me to cover my face with a towel
14:28They kept an eye on us all the time
14:31So I blocked my ears
14:34It was impossible to hear it
14:37And to this day I can't forget their screams
14:39Every night, the bodies of Stalin's most important victims were taken to a crematorium and a cemetery in the center of Moscow
14:48Their remains were dumped in a common grave
14:55The inscription reads, common grave number one, ashes of the unidentified victims
15:01Why did we not reject Stalin?
15:04Why did we not turn away from his regime?
15:07In my case, there was a simple answer
15:10It was 1933 and Hitler came to power
15:14In the Far East, Japan launched military operations
15:18And we felt that most of Hitler's troops were defeated
15:22And we felt that most of Hitler's troops were defeated
15:25In the Far East, Japan launched military operations
15:29And we felt that most of Hitler's troops were defeated
15:32And we felt that most of Hitler's troops were defeated
15:37Stalin needed friends
15:40He formed alliances with France and several Central European countries
15:44And he publicly supported collective security against aggression
15:50In Spain, Stalin found that collective security exists only on paper
15:56In 1936, General Franco raised a rebellion against the Republican government
16:02Franco was supported by Italy and Germany
16:05Hitler provided the Kondor Legion with aircraft and tanks
16:11Stalin sent to the Republicans food, aircraft and tanks
16:16But he did not organize military units
16:18France and England stayed out of war
16:21Allowing Italian submarines to freely cross the Mediterranean
16:31You have no idea how difficult it was
16:36Our ships were sunk
16:39First the Komsomol, then Sledovich and Peteletka
16:44All of which carried tanks and food
16:48All that happened with the silent approval of the Empress of the Seas of Britain
16:56So you see how Britain played into the hands of fascism
17:03In 1938, Czechoslovakia mobilized its army to fight Hitler's threat to England
17:10For Stalin, this crisis was the final test of the Western Committee on Collective Security
17:15Stalin was bound by an agreement to aid Czechoslovakia, as well as France
17:25Whether Stalin would support Czechoslovakia was a disputed issue
17:30Later, the Soviet Union declared the deployment of soldiers on the Western Front
17:34But no independent sources have ever found this
17:38However, the Russians had some preparation
17:42At the height of the crisis in September, Stalin sent 20 bombers to Czechoslovakia
17:48And promised that 40 more would follow
17:54Alexander Vetrov, the tank commander, demanded that similar actions were taken not only by the Russians
18:01We got the order to immediately concentrate our forces on the border
18:07And immediately to give possible help to Czechoslovakia
18:11We moved there, realized that we would have to fight
18:15We uncovered our ammunition, loaded up, according to the rules
18:20The Munich Conference proved to Stalin that he could not rely on the West
18:25France and England left Czechoslovakia
18:31The Soviet Union's refusal to attend the Munich Conference reinforced Stalin's suspicion
18:37that the Western countries would not object to Germany's plans
18:41The Soviet Union's refusal to attend the Munich Conference reinforced Stalin's suspicion
18:46that the Western countries would not object to Germany's plans
18:50Hitler's ambitions were directed to the East
19:08Soviet propaganda films prepared people for war
19:11For guns instead of oil, and the modernization of tractors in tanks
19:41In the summer of 1939, thousands of miles east of Manchuria,
20:00there was a short, sharp clash between Soviet and Japanese troops
20:07The Red Army, which had an advantage in tanks and planes, was led by the outstanding General Georgy Zhukov
20:16In a spectacular armored attack in the Battle of Halkhingol, the Japanese were defeated
20:22But Japan's presence on the border with Siberia made Stalin feel uneasy
20:27The Battle of Halkhingol provoked anxiety among all of us
20:33because it meant a threat of war to the two fronts
20:43Moreover, it was impossible to predict who the enemy would be
20:47It might be Germany, Japan, the Allies, or it might be all the other Western countries
20:56In March 1939, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia
21:01Britain and France lost their calm
21:04They gave a guarantee to support Poland in response to Hitler's actions
21:08To fulfill their commitments, they had to get support from the Soviet Union
21:16A joint Anglo-French delegation went to Moscow
21:20But the attempt was not decisive enough, especially on the British side
21:27Negotiations with the West, England, and France did not bring results
21:32because actually, most of the people who had power in London did not want to make an agreement with us
21:40They were against the Soviets and were interested in destroying Bolshevism with Hitler's hands
21:50Secretly, the Soviets were also talking to Germany
21:53While the Franco-British negotiations were in a deadlock,
21:57the Foreign Minister of Germany, Ribbentrop, came to Moscow to sign a non-aggression pact with Stalin
22:03The allegation of Nazism and Communism shocked the world
22:08The non-aggression pact signed by the Soviet Union and Germany
22:13will not only strengthen friendly and peaceful relations between the two countries
22:18but will also serve the cause of unifying the world
22:23The non-aggression pact
22:27When the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was published, everyone was confused
22:34We always thought that Germany was enemy number one, that is to say, German fascism
22:45Attached to the pact was a secret protocol
22:47according to which Eastern Europe was divided into spheres of influence between the Communists and the Nazis
22:52Poland was to be partitioned
22:55Stalin would take control of Finland, the Baltic States, and part of Romania
22:59A copy of the document was found in 1945
23:03The signatures between the two ministers, Ribbentrop and Molotov, were submitted on August 23,
23:09eight days before World War II
23:12A few days later, Stalin invited his favorites, including a 29-year-old general, who was studying in the Kremlin
23:27Stalin brought us to the course of the matter
23:31He greeted us warmly and thanked us heartily
23:34We were talking to the English here
23:38He said, we had talked to the British and French, but nothing came of it
23:46Then Ribbentrop made a couple of proposals, and we came to an agreement
23:56Then Stalin turned the map in front of us
23:59You see that line? That is where you are going
24:03This is Eastern Poland, or Western Ukraine and Belarus
24:08That is ours
24:10Now the other side of the line goes to Germany
24:19And what are we going to get out of this, he asked
24:22It will mean the end of the action against Poland, which has always been a foe on our side
24:28That suits our interests to the full
24:33Then we were taken to another hall, where the banquet was already prepared
24:37We spent most of the night there, celebrating with Stalin, who even sang with us
24:49Of course, Stalin pursued his goals, choosing Hitler's allies, not Western countries
24:55Hitler offered Stalin a territorial reward
24:58In addition, Stalin had the opportunity to rebuild the Red Army
25:02He even said he admired the German dictators, especially their ability to negotiate with the enemy
25:11I must say that Stalin and Hitler never met
25:16Their relations were rather spiritual, but they certainly were
25:21To some extent, these relations influenced Stalin's idea of having some kind of partnership with Germany
25:32At that time, I, like everyone else, considered Stalin a genius
25:40Even with all his cruelty and resemblance to Ivan the Terrible, he remained a brilliant state figure
25:48He made a pact with Germany
25:56On September 1, Hitler began an invasion of Poland
26:01The brave but unarmed defenders had no chance
26:05Britain and France declared war on Germany, but did not help the Poles
26:10On the 17th day of the war, Poland was fully occupied
26:15Now, the Red Army began an offensive, attacking the Poles from the eastern rear
26:24After that, the Soviet and German artillery together struck enemy positions
26:29The Red Army and Wehrmacht officers moved their troops to the previously agreed occupation zones
26:40A map showing how Stalin and Hitler divided Poland between themselves
26:46It bears the signatures of both sides
26:49Ribbentrop signed on behalf of Hitler, and in Russian script the signature of Stalin himself
26:59Their plan, the Swallow's Tail, was under a certain brutality
27:04The Polish people were destroyed with unwavering cruelty
27:07In Soviet propaganda films, the Poles had been liberated from feudalism
27:12The estate of the aristocracy was given over to the peasants
27:16The overthrown upper classes were treated harshly, but in a good way
27:20The castles of old Polish Panska are being cleared
27:24There will be schools, hospitals, and peasant houses
27:29The reality is horrifyingly different
27:31One and a half million Poles were deported to Siberia
27:39Zofia Sulik was a schoolgirl, the daughter of a Polish general
27:43The whole family was deported
27:46We knew nothing at all where we were being taken
27:50We were being arrested in the middle of the night
27:53And that was all that we knew
27:56We might have been shot, we might have been put in prison
28:00We didn't know what to do, what was happening to us
28:05Russians, just like Germans, thought that Poland was a seasonal state
28:11And it had no right to exist
28:14They repeated that very many times after we were arrested
28:18Not before, but after we were arrested
28:21They kept repeating it, don't dream about Poland
28:25Because it doesn't exist and it will never exist
28:29That's what they were telling us, very many times
28:3513,000 Polish officers were also transported to the Soviet Union
28:40After seven months in prison, in war camps, they all disappeared
28:48In 1943, the remains of 4,000 Polish officers
28:53were discovered by the Germans in the Katyn forest in western Russia
29:00The evidence suggests that they were executed by a Soviet security force in 1940
29:13Stalin had taken control of Eastern Poland
29:16He's a Greenlander, he had taken control of three Baltic states
29:20He demanded that Finland give him territory and naval bases to protect Leningrad
29:25When Finland refused, Stalin provoked a military conflict
29:29In November 1939, he ordered the shelling of the Soviet border villages
29:34Blaming the responsibility for this on the Finns
29:37Stalin's opinion was that in such a small country like Finland
29:41it's ridiculous to recruit a large army
29:44So he said, only the Leningrad military region can handle such a task
29:49And he was wrong
29:53The Soviet troops died one after another
29:56The whole division was surrounded by the Finns
30:03Thousands of Russian soldiers froze to death or were sent to prison
30:12Finland had built up a strong defense line, the Mannerheim line
30:16The Soviet generals ordered a repeated suicide frontal attack
30:20The Red Army five times outnumbered the Finns
30:24The Soviet troops' shortcomings remained unnoticed for Hitler
30:31I, as a soldier, always believed that we had lost so many men
30:36because we were not prepared for all this
30:39We simply were not ready
30:44I had to walk up to my waist in the snow or go on skis
30:48We didn't have skis, I myself didn't have skis
30:51It was 50 degrees below zero
30:54and we had to get through the snow 1.5 meters deep
31:01Only in all I could do, only because of the great opposition of Finland
31:06the Russians won
31:09Years later, Nikita Khrushchev said
31:12victory at such a cost is only a moral victory
31:16but our people never knew that because they never heard the truth
31:22I propose to raise glasses for the great Stalin
31:26who leads us on the bright path to communism
31:37Moscow, let's celebrate the 39th
31:42and meet the song of the 40th
31:52The Great Patriotic War
31:58In 1940, on the Soviet-German border
32:02there was a striking example of Stalin's appeasement of Hitler
32:06In March, a group of 150 German communists
32:10who had been given asylum by Stalin and later sent to Siberia
32:15were suddenly transferred to a Russian sanatorium
32:17Among them was the widow of the deceased German Communist leader Heinz Neumann
32:22She and her companions were in poor health
32:32After we arrived in this sanatorium, we were assigned a special diet
32:37thanks to which we survived
32:40At the time, though we didn't know about it
32:44we were to play a role in the growing friendship between Stalin and Hitler
32:49This meant we were to be constantly tattled on
32:56What a joy it was to be in this strange place
33:00Instead of the camp guards, there were normal people watching us
33:04who would ask, are you all right?
33:06Did you sleep well?
33:09We were speechless, why these sudden changes?
33:14After that, the German communists,
33:17fed and dressed in boots, gloves and fur coats
33:20were sent to the Soviet border
33:25When we got to the Soviet-German border
33:28we were driven across a rather unusual steel bridge
33:36I was too worked up and didn't notice the name of the river
33:42Then the Russian secret police handed us over to the Gestapo
33:50I felt that this is the end, we will never survive this
33:56Mrs. Neumann had spent two years in Soviet prisons and jails
34:00The Gestapo sent her to the German concentration camp in Rebensbruck
34:05where she remained until 1945
34:08A few of her companions survived
34:18As well as the Soviet-German pact,
34:21the Soviets and Germans signed a two-way trade agreement
34:24with oil and raw materials sent from the West
34:27in exchange for German machinery and weapons
34:29These Soviet supplies were a long way
34:32to weaken the Soviet blockade
34:35and replenish the stock of German military machinery
34:38for the coming Western campaign
34:45In the spring of 1940, German troops entered Paris
34:49They defeated France and England for five weeks
34:53The speed and scale of Hitler's victory in the West
34:56shocked Stalin
34:57He had always counted on the possibility of Hitler's attack on Russia
35:01But he hoped that this would not happen so soon
35:04France and the Western allies gave up very quickly
35:08Thinking about the pact, I, like many people,
35:12hoped that we would stay away from the war for a long time
35:16Maybe for a month, maybe for years
35:19And that the battles would continue in the West
35:22until finally our turn came
35:28Less than a month later,
35:30Hitler discussed with the generals the war against the USSR
35:34He would be ready to attack in a year
35:44Stalin hastily modernized his demoralized army
35:48To provide transport and new weapons
35:50he transferred factories and factories to military positions
35:54Production was gaining pace
36:06But even Stalin could not resurrect
36:09those thousands of officers who had been shot by his order three years earlier
36:13The lack of experienced military leaders
36:16could soon make itself felt
36:18We lost our best officers
36:21We lost our best officers
36:23plenty of officers
36:25Without a doubt, when the first calamity came
36:28it was because our troops were young
36:30never been under fire
36:32They did not know lots of things
36:34because we did not have sufficient time to train them
36:42So the destruction of our best people was a disaster
36:46We would not have lost 20 million lives in the war
36:49if that had not happened
36:56In the winter of 1940
36:58the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Molotov
37:01brought a noticeable chill to the Soviet-German relations
37:04This time there were no mutually beneficial agreements
37:07Russian fears were caused by the power of Germany
37:10gaining strength on the Soviet southern border
37:12Romania became a German colony
37:18Molotov explained to Ribbentrop that this was a threat to the security of the USSR
37:22In response, the Germans offered a tempting prize in the East
37:26India, explaining that Britain had lost its strength
37:29Molotov replied that it could be discussed
37:36On the third night of the meeting
37:38while Ribbentrop was describing the transfer of British heritage
37:41his monologue was interrupted by the British air raids
37:44As Churchill wrote later
37:46we were not invited, but we think that our presence was noticeable
37:55I think that the British have amassed all they could
37:59They knew that Molotov was in Berlin
38:01They wanted to surprise us
38:03They wanted to discredit the Germans
38:05because Goering said that not a single bomb would fall on Berlin
38:10But dozens or even hundreds of planes were flying over Berlin
38:15Ribbentrop said to Molotov
38:18You know, it's not safe to stay here
38:21Let's go down
38:23There was an elevator going down
38:26where there was an artificial bunker
38:29richly decorated with cups, obelisks and paintings
38:33mostly imported from France
38:37There they continued their conversation
38:41Ribbentrop said again that Britain was doomed
38:45that it would soon be destroyed
38:48Molotov asked
38:50If Britain was doomed
38:52why were we sitting here in the bunker
38:54and bombs are falling
38:56British bombs are falling on the capital of Germany
38:59At the very end of the meeting
39:01Hitler specifically emphasized his peaceful intentions
39:04towards the Russian people
39:06Before saying goodbye
39:07Hitler stopped and said
39:10Please tell Mr. Stalin
39:13that I consider him to be
39:16one of the greatest statesmen of our generation
39:25and he will go down in history as a wise statesman
39:28Then he added
39:30I hope that I will also find a place there
39:34and that is why both of us should meet
39:39Mr. Molotov
39:41I ask you to give him my personal invitation
39:46I think this invitation was an attempt
39:49to mislead not only the Soviet leadership
39:53but personally Stalin
39:55because when Molotov returned
39:57and reported on the details of his trip
39:59Stalin said that in the foreseeable future
40:02there will be no war with Germany
40:04Stalin believed Hitler
40:06even when in the spring of 1941
40:09he was warned from all sides
40:11about the concentration of military power of Germany
40:13on the Soviet borders
40:15This was reported by intelligence
40:18and commanders of the border troops
40:20The most detailed report came from Churchill
40:23The British decrypted the German talks
40:25Stalin considered all these reports
40:27as an attempt to bring the Soviet Union into war
40:31At that time I was working in the council of ministers in the Kremlin
40:38Stalin considered that London was up to its tricks
40:43was trying to drive us into a conflict with Germany
40:46and he was afraid of that
40:54Marshal Zhukov, chief of the General Staff
40:57later recalled that he too
40:58was constantly begging Stalin
41:00to prepare for the German invasion
41:02Stalin said that he received a personal letter from Hitler
41:06assuring him that the German military power
41:09had nothing to do with the invasion of the Soviet Union
41:12Stalin definitely believed this
41:14At that time I thought that Stalin was far-sighted and intelligent
41:17and I couldn't doubt that he saw the heart
41:21I believed in him
41:23What Stalin wanted
41:25was not to be involved in this war
41:29to avoid it
41:31to prevent it from happening
41:33Of course, he also thought that Hitler
41:36never prepared to get into a situation
41:39where he would have war with France
41:43and he could expect an invasion from the British
41:47to France or somewhere else
41:50and in this situation
41:52to start another war with the Soviet Union
41:56would also be irrational
41:59Stalin considered Hitler to be a very intelligent politician
42:04always calculating all his moves
42:08he could not start an invasion of the USSR
42:12without somehow settling the problem
42:15On the German side of the River Bug in Poland
42:18the Army Group Center was waiting to attack
42:22along the Soviet border
42:25from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea
42:28Hitler concentrated 4.5 million soldiers
42:32Out of sight in the forests and in the opposite bank
42:36the Red Army scouts sent another warning to Moscow
42:40but they were told to relax
42:43Those who stood on the border
42:46decided to catch fish
42:48Those of us who served on the border
42:50decided to go hunting
42:52We had to keep our mouths shut
42:54If we had accused our officers of doing their work
42:57that would have been told
42:59not to raise a panic
43:01which meant we had to shut up
43:03That was the problem
43:07If we had been warned a week before an attack
43:11or at least four days before an attack
43:13our forces would have been prepared
43:16and the war would have been different
43:27The last Soviet reports of Hitler's attack
43:30did not report any danger
43:32The main news came from the railway station Brest-Litovsk
43:35located 2 miles from the border
43:38Passengers are well taken care of here
43:40Passengers who have been to Brest
43:43always have a good impression of this station
43:50The closing part of the village celebration
43:57The last stage
44:00We need to hurry
44:02It is not so easy to take the wounded comrade out of the battle
44:11The Germans attacked at dawn on June 22
44:15They advanced 50 miles a day
44:20It was the first hours of the war
44:2212,000 Soviet planes were destroyed
44:25most of them still on the ground
44:29The Germans were not afraid to attack
44:32The Germans were not afraid to attack
44:34The Germans were not afraid to attack
44:36The Germans were not afraid to attack
44:37Most of the wounded are still on the ground
44:46Tens of thousands of killed
44:48and hundreds of thousands of civilians captured
44:51That's the price of staleness and Stalin's persistence
44:56Even such idiotic orders came
44:58Our planes were destroyed in the first days
45:00but after a while, they came in an order to knock down the enemy planes
45:03How?
45:04We were blinded by that act of armed aggression in Germany, with Hitler's Germany.
45:13It seemed genuine, we believed in it, and the nation was misled.
45:17The main blame for this lies with Stalin.
45:26At the start of the German invasion, the Red Army commanders tried in vain to telephone Stalin.
45:32They were still under orders not to open fire on the enemy.
45:35It took several hours for Stalin to agree that this was war,
45:39and 12 days for him to call the people.
46:02This is the western part of Belarus, part of western Ukraine.
46:09There is a serious danger over our Motherland.
46:15Stalin's long-suffering subordinates were now to endure the horrors of war.
46:35In the Soviet Union, the Nazis made no distinction between enemy soldiers and civilians.
47:05There were villages where there was not a single survivor.
47:36Films were used by the Central Studio of Documentary Films of Moscow,
47:40the Belgian Royal Film Archive,
47:43Film Export Czechoslovakia,
47:45the Imperial Military Museum,
47:48the British Film Chronicle Archive,
47:50the Wiss News Archive,
47:52and the German Federal Archive.
47:55The BBC was produced jointly with the Arts and Entertainment Network,
48:01the Australian broadcasting corporation MTI Films and Video,
48:06the consultant Richard Overy,
48:08the operators Richard Adam and Martin Petmore,
48:12the sound editor Brian Biffin,
48:15the editor of the chronicle Brandon Mellon,
48:18the coordinator of the state TV station Yuri Startsev,
48:21the editor-in-chief Mike Jackson,
48:24the producer of the series Dennis Blakeway,
48:27and the general producer Bill Trehearn-Jones.