Falsifiers of History - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Falsifiers of History ("Falsifiers") is a book published by the Soviet Information Bureau

Soviet Information Bureau

Soviet Information Bureau , commonly known as Sovinformburo ) was a leading Soviet news agency in 1941 - 1961. It was established on June 24, 1941, shortly after the opening of the Eastern Front of World War II by a directive of Sovnarkom and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the...

, edited and partially re-written by Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

, in response to documents made public in January 1948 regarding German–Soviet relations before and after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Background on Nazi–Soviet Relations documents

In 1948, the U.S. State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

published a collection of documents titled Nazi–Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office, which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. The collection included documents from, and about conversations with, Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

officials during negotiations regarding the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact negotiations

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was an August 23, 1939 agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany colloquially named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The treaty renounced warfare between the two countries...

, a 1939 agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany, along with the related 1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement. It also included publication of the "Secret Additional Protocol" of that Pact, which divided eastern Europe into "spheres of influence" between Germany and the Soviet Union, executed weeks before each country's subsequent invasion of Poland. The collection further contained "Secret Supplementary Protocols" to agreements between the countries, discussions regarding the 1940 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement

German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1940)

The 1940 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement was an economic arrangement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed on February 11, 1940 by which the Soviet Union agreed in period from February 11, 1940 to February 11, 1941, in addition to the deliveries...

, discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming an Axis Power

German–Soviet Axis talks

In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power. The negotiations included a two day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von...

and other German–Soviet negotiations and discussions.

Publication

Falsifiers was published in response to the documents made public in Nazi–Soviet Relations. Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

became personally involved in editing the work after receiving a translation of the Nazi–Soviet Relations document collection. On February 3, 1948, Stalin was presented with a typescript titled Reply to Slanderers. Stalin changed the title to Falsifiers of History (Historical Reports). Stalin personally edited the book, including striking and re-writing whole sections by handwritten modification.

Falsifiers originally appeared as a series of articles in Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

in February 1948. It was subsequently published in numerous languages and distributed worldwide. Separately, the Soviet Union later published a collection of documents it captured from German archives titled Documents and Materials Relating to the Eve of the Second World War.

Themes and issues

Falsifiers pointedly ignored Soviet relations with Germany, making no attempt to directly counter or deal with the documents published in Nazi–Soviet Relations. Rather, the main theme of the booklet is Western culpability for the outbreak of war in 1939. It argues that "Western powers" aided Nazi rearmament and aggression, including that American bankers and industrialists provided capital for the growth of German war industries, while deliberately encouraging Hitler to expand eastward. It depicted the Soviet Union as striving to negotiate a collective security against Hitler, while being thwarted by double-dealing Anglo–French appeasers who, despite appearances, had no intention of a Soviet alliance and were secretly negotiating with Berlin.

Falsifiers casts the Munich agreement

Munich Agreement

The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...

, not just as Anglo–French short-sightedness or cowardice, but as a "secret" agreement that was a "a highly important phase in their policy aimed at goading the Hitlerite aggressors against the Soviet Union." Falsifiers also included the claim that, during the Pact's operation, Stalin rejected Hitler's offer to divide the world, without mentioning the Soviet counteroffer to Germany's offer to the Soviets to join the Axis

German–Soviet Axis talks

. The parties never reached agreement on Axis entry. Stalin's account in Falsifiers was repeated in Soviet historical texts until the Soviet Union's dissolution

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...

. Regarding Soviet–German relations after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Falsifiers main theme frames Soviet actions as a legitimate attempt to build up an "Eastern front" to defend against inevitable Nazi aggression.

Falisifiers characterization of Western policy as anti-Communist, anti-Soviet, and pro-Nazi had been a prominent theme of Soviet propaganda before the Second World War, and such rhetoric more vigorously reemerged during the Cold War.

Importance

Soviet publications before the revelation of documents in Nazi–Soviet Relations had avoided discussing the Soviet–German pact. Accordingly, Falsifiers is novel because it is a first frank Soviet discussion of the German–Soviet pact in a publication. In addition, because Falsifiers was personally and extensively edited by Stalin, at the very least, it provides unique insight into the view of events that he was keen to publicize.

The book provides insight into Stalin's thinking and calculations in the autumn of 1940. In analyzing the text of Falsifiers surrounding Soviet–German talks regarding the potential entry as the Soviet Union as an Axis Power, historian Geoffrey Roberts argues that there is no reason that Stalin would not have signed a four-power pact if Germany accepted his November offer.

Some accusations made by Stalin in this book are however today supported by western historians, in particular the role played by France and England in the failure of a tripartite alliance with USSR before 1940.

Chapters and Sections

The arrangement of chapters and section titles is as follows:

Introduction

Documents Captured in Germany

A Distorted Picture of Events

Chapter 1: How Preparation for German Aggression Was Commenced

Dawes Reparation Plan

A Share In The Profits

The Golden Rain Of American Dollars

Factors Which Helped To Unleash Hitler Aggression

A Soviet Union Alone Pursued A Policy of Peace

The Soviet Principle of Collective Security

Western Powers Rejection Of Collective Security Pact

Chapter 2: Not a Struggle Against German Aggression, But A Policy Of Isolating the U.S.S.R.

Hitler-Halifax Conversation

Hitler's Annexationist Actions Were Encouraged

The Soviet Union's Warning

The Munich Deal

The True Meaning Of Munich

Handing Over Czechoslovakia to Hitler

"Uniting Europe Without Russia"

Chapter 3: Isolation of the Soviet Union: The Soviet–German Non-Aggression Pact

Negotiations Between Britain and France And The Soviet Union

A Position of Inequality For The USSR

No Obligations Whatever Towards the USSR

The Soviet Proposal

Spurring Hitler To Attack the U.S.S.R

Military Negotiation Also Futile

Britain's Back-Stage Negotiation With Germany

Surrender of Poland To Hitler

U.S.S.R.'s Non-Aggression Pact With Germany

The Best Possible Course

Chapter 4: Creation of the "Eastern Front". Germany's Attack on the U.S.S.R., The Anti-Hitler Coalition And The Question of Inter-Allied Obligations

Creation Of The Eastern Front

Finnish Government Declines Soviet Union's Friendly Proposal

Safeguarding Security of Leningrad, Murmansk

Britain and France Supply Finland With Arms

A Plan For Military Operations Against the U.S.S.R.

A Turn In the Development Of The War

Fiasco of Policy of Appeasement

Germany Attacks the U.S.S.R.

The Anti-Hitler Coalition

What Actually Happened in Berlin!

Sounding The Position Of The Hitler Government

Negotiations Between U.S.A. and Germany in 1943

Postponing the Opening of the Second Front

U.S.S.R.'s Assistance To Its Ally

J. V. Stalin's Message to Winston Churchill On Preparation of Offensive

A Blow of Unparalleled Force

Statements responding to then Cold War issues

On Nazi–Soviet Relations	Thus, no doubt is left as to the true purpose for which the collection of documents on the relations between the U.S.S.R. and Germany in the period 1939–1941 was published in the U.S.A. This was not done for the purpose of giving an objective exposition of historical events, but in order to present a distorted picture of events, to heap lies on the Soviet Union, to slander it and to undermine the international influence of the Soviet Union as a truly democratic and staunch fighter against aggressive, anti-democratic forces.
Introduction, Page 6
On Nazi–Soviet Relations	The attack on the progressive elements inside the U.S.A. is undoubtedly aimed at undermining their influence in view of the Presidential elections to be held in the autumn of 1948.
Introduction, Page 7
On Nazi–Soviet Relations	The American falsifiers and their British and French associates are trying to create the impression that the preparations for German aggression which developed into the Second World War were begun in the autumn of 1939.
Chapter 1, Page 9
	The Soviet Union alone was doing everything possible in order to block the Fascist aggressors' way.
Chapter 1, Page 15
On Maxim Litvinov Maxim Litvinov Maxim Maximovich Litvinov was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat.- Early life and first exile :...	In order to confuse the reader and at the same time to slander the Soviet Government, Neal Stanford, the American journalist, asserts that the Soviet government was opposed to collective security, that M. M. Lltvinov was dismissed and replaced by V. M. Molotov in the post of Peoples Commissar of Foreign Affairs because he had been pursuing a policy of consolidating collective. security. One could hardly imagine anything more stupid than this fantastic assertion.
Chapter 1, Page 16
	As far back as in 1937 it became perfectly clear that a big war was being hatched by Hitler with the direct connivance of Great Britain and France.
Chapter 2, Page 19
On the Munich Agreement Munich Agreement The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...	The true meaning of the Munich conspiracy was then and there exposed by J. V. Stalin, who said that " ... districts of Czechoslovakia were yielded to Germany as the price of undertaking to launch war on the Soviet Union .... "
Chapter 2, Page 27
On the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact	It would be gross slander to assert that the conclusion of the Pact with the Hitlerites was part of the plan of the U.S.S.R.'s foreign policy.
Chapter 3, Page 44
On the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact	The claptrap of the slanderers of all hues to the effect that the U.S.S.R. should in no case have allowed itself to conclude the Pact with the Germans can only be regarded as ridiculous.
Chapter 3, Page 45
On the Winter War Winter War The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...	There could hardly be any doubt that the leading circles of Finland were in league with the Hitlerites, that they wanted to turn Finland into a springboard for Hitler Germany's attack on the U.S.S.R.
Chapter 4, Page 48
On the Winter War Winter War The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...	It should be noted that although by their whole policy with regard to the U.S.S.R. the Finnish ruling circles played into the hands of Hitler Germany, the Anglo–French bosses of the League of Nations immediately took the side of the Finnish Government, declared through the League of Nations that the U.S.S.R. was "the aggressor," and thereby openly approved and supported the war which the Finnish rulers started against the Soviet Union.
Chapter 4, Page 50
On the Winter War Winter War The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...	In the war which the Finnish reactionaries started against the Soviet Union, Britain and France rendered the Finnish militarists every kind of assistance. The Anglo–French ruling circles kept inciting the Finnish Government to continue hostilities.
Chapter 4, Page 50
On the Occupation of the Baltic states	Pacts had been concluded with the Baltic States, but there were as yet no Soviet troops there capable of holding' the defenses.
Chapter 4, Page 52
On the Occupation of the Baltic states	Only enemies of democracy or people who had lost their senses could describe those actions of the Soviet Government as aggression.
Chapter 4, Page 54
On Soviet negotiations to become an Axis Power German–Soviet Axis talks In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power. The negotiations included a two day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von...	As can be seen, this was a case of sounding out, of probing the position of the Hitler Government by the Soviet Government, which did not and could not end in any sort of agreement. Is it permissible for peace-loving States to practice such sounding of the enemy's position? Unquestionably it is.
Chapter 4, Page 58
	During the past war the Soviet Union set examples of such a truly allied attitude towards other countries, its comrades-in-arms in the struggle against the common enemy.
Chapter 4, Page 62
On Nazi–Soviet Relations	Naturally, the falsifiers of history and slanderers are called falsifiers and slanderers precisely because they do not entertain any respect for facts. They prefer to gossip and slander.
Chapter 4, Page 65

External links

Falsificators of history, an historical note; text of communique issued February, 1948 - page images of the original pamphlet issued by the Soviet embassy in Washington.

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