Does the Pravda Story Foreshadow a Separate Russo-German Peace?
Dennett, Leon
Does the Pravda Story Foreshadow a Separate Russo-German Peace? By Leon Dennett PROM MUNICH TO r TEHERAN one thing hat become clear: yea cannot appease a dictator. Thit was at true of Hitler...
...Their contributions to intelligence, to civilized thinking and acting, are even more imposing...
...We must look beyond Stalin's policy of today so thst we may anticipate the difficulties of tomorrow...
...After the first World War, the cooperatives played a fine part in the work of .reconstruction...
...Moreover, despite bis nationalwtis trimmings, Stalin is still bask ally a Bolshevik who tea the "eapitaliat" powers as "Imperialist" rivals...
...It is foolhardy to pretend that there are no profound differences between Stalin's intentions and the British-American ideals as formulated in the Atlantic Charter...
...Rut that is only part cf the story...
...Yes, long before Munich, Russia was an anti-Vet sallies power which worked together with the German military machine...
...This means a gain of 86 per cent in a three-year period...
...Much bigger things are at stake...
...If Ger-msny can be reconstituted more or less intact with a "friendly" government subservient to Russia and the Esstern front liquidated through a separste peace, then nothing will prevent Russia from becoming tht center of a new grouping of powers at least in Central and Eastern Europe up to the river Elba...
...Some of our gullible liberal journalists who are always ready to give the Kremlin the benefit of the doubt have already found a ready answer: "Russia has been led to suspect that Great Britain, and probably the United States as well, have recently been engaged in conspiring with the Polish Government-in-Exile— a government containing bitterly anli-Human ele-went: . . ." Without going into the detaila of the tortuous Husso-Polish debate over borders, it ought to be made clear to the people of this country once and for all that at no time have the Poliah people had such a pregresaive and liberal government as they have today...
...But all territories not under direct or indirect control of the Kremlin are potential enemies...
...Bolshevism has always regarded India as the weakest link in the British imperial structure, a key to the dissolution of the British Empire...
...In this he is true both to fundamental precepts of Russian Bolshevism and Tsarist imperialism, for in the matter of territorial conquest and expansion Bolshevik nationalism and Tsarist nationalism are organically related, and the former stems from the latter...
...To be sure, Stalin distinguishes between immediate enemies and potential ones—areas within immediate reach and those yet distant...
...Will history repeat itself...
...Bat this collaboration mast he baaed aa thoreogh smdwretaadiag...
...But its publication in the organ of the master of the Kremlin is of profound international significance...
...The cooperator becomes a better neighbor, a better American and a better internationalist...
...Outside of Stalin's adherents, few in this country will pay credence to the story manufactured hu Prmxfa that "two trading British personalities" had been discussing with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Foreign Minister, a "separate peace with Germany...
...IUST as China is the key to Stalin's balance of •* power in Asia, Germany is in Europe...
...A coalition composed in the main of representatives of the Peaaant and Socialist parties, it corresponds more to the actual relation of forces inside Poland than any previous government...
...oa hard-beUed roe hem -not an iltostoas...
...Thit was at true of Hitler before the outbreak of the present vjvsr as it is of Stalin today...
...Purchases from marketing agencies amounted during the past year to $760 million...
...THE Pravda story following the newspaper's recent attack upon Wendell Willkie is, among other things, a blackmail warning to both Washington and London to desert our Polish ally and let Stalin solve the current border dispute unilaterally...
...It counted strongly on the revival of the nationalist spirit in India and in the dominions and slso upon Anglo-American rivalry...
...We cannot build an enduring peace and international cooperation upon thg quicksands of illusion: collaboration with Russis, essential to peace, must be built oil the firm rock of understanding, else it will be wrecked by the cyclone of political reality in the game of power politics...
...Indeed, it is the very pregresaive nature of the Polish Government in London that Stalin resents most...
...Once again the master of the Kremlin has applied the old and tried formula which served him so well for the past two decades both in international and domestic Politics: aceuto otheit uf the crijne that yon intend to commit yourtelf...
...Upon the outcome of this crisis depends the future of the post-war world...
...Thus his entire theory of "revolutionary isolationism"—the theory of the "third power" which sits on the fence while the imperialists chew each other to bite—waa predicated upon the tenet (dear to the heart of every Bolshevik) of '•imperialist contradictions...
...It has alwaya favored the atateet aid to the Rasslaa fighting forces...
...It has oftea hailed the heroic achievements of the Russian people and of the Red Army...
...In this, too, he is true to his Bolshevik predecessors...
...lateral territorial acoaieitioa, the creation ef Slav Congresses, "Free" German and Polish Com-mittee* and the "pre-capitahet" and reactionary changes in the Commanist Parties ef the United States and Great Britain...
...The great war in which we are now engaged has resulted not only in deeds of heroism and sacrifice, but also in s crisis in oar entire ideological and political system...
...Bat Resale, trying to sow distrust of Britain, ia sewlag smsng as diatraat of her own motives...
...Is this the meaning of the unfounded Pravda attack upon our British sllyl One thing is certain: ae analysis of Russia's foreign policy cannot limit itself to polite expressions of uncritical gratitude...
...Wind ill Willkie pleaded with as, "Don't sow distrust of Ramus...
...The fact that the "rivalries" dissolved into the military teamwork which is now taking place between Great Britain and the United States was undoubtedly a moo awakening for him...
...hence the attempt te seek a new balance of power conpled with ani...
...An Editorial-Cooperative Centennial IT was precisely a century ago that a few tailors in * Rochdale, England, started a movement that assumed world-wide proportions...
...Yet it is just such a abort-sighted view that is at the present moment held by many "experts" iif the United States and Great Britain...
...Ia paaiiebing this article sad others tike it...
...If all this seems conjectural it must be remembered that Russia is playing for big stakes...
...practical connection with the movement—even if undertaken to save a cent on the price of corn or beans—leads inevitably to habits of mutuality...
...Today there are more than 70,000,000 cooperators scattered through many lands...
...Above all, M mast he both mi rctipi't)clty...
...In Canada and the United States, they own and operate 112 mills, factories and refineries...
...Ia this article Loon Oeaaea clarifies the events which have led to the present dyaa-mlU-ladcn sitaatioa...
...the Soviet Government, at a careful analysis of recent history will clearly show, hates democratic socialists and liberals much more than it dors outright fascists and reactionaries...
...Thus all pacta and agreements entered into—as the Russo-Finnish Pact of 1940 and the Russo-Polish Pact of 1941 have amply demonstrated— are to be kept only as long as it is expedient...
...With their " added numbers, wealth ahd influence, they promise to do even more after the present war...
...Their fraction of the world's business is impressive...
...The cooperative wholesale organizations have gone into manufacturing and refining operations in a big way...
...A centennial conference held in Washington this week emphasizes the phenomenal growth- of' this movement here in the United States...
...It has been rumored in Washington and London that Stalin has been carrying on negotiations with the commander of the German armies in the Ukraine, General von Mannstein...
...Stalin has always regarded all territories and organizations not under his control as potential enemies which have to be destroyed or conquered...
...What baa happened ia a mystery to asset Americana...
...Stalin, who ia more fatalistic than his predecessors, respects and hates the acumen of British politicians like Churchill and some of the labor members of the British Government, but he considers them too impotent to stop the "objective" process of the Empire's disintegration...
...It was this, I am firmly convinced, plus a genuine desire to secure a lasting peace by reaching some sort of an understanding with Stalin on international problems, that prompted Secretary Cordell Hull to make a hasty trip to Moscow...
...Long before Hitler's military machine came into being the Russian people went hungry so that Stalin might build arsenals...
...It may be asked: and what about the Anglo-Russian twenty-year pact...
...Stalin's ambitions, reinforced by a nationalistic bureaucracy, are as great as the military machine that he has built For more than two decades Bolshevik Russia was geared to a war economy...
...The Cooperative League of America is a persistent and successful educational organization...
...It was announced there that the membership in this country has now mounted to 1,270,000...
...Incidentally, in the rase of India Russian interests coincide to a limited extent with those of Japan...
...The answer is simple...
...Pravda'$ Bombshellfnm new liBSUBS ravers, in taw sww-wair * petto*, totornatienal reoperation among all aatisem aa the only alternative to World War III...
...After the economic crisis of 1929 Moscow also emoted heavily on Hie internal disintegration of the United States...
...Oar purpose is to get the facta about the Soviet government before the American people and so famish the basis for a future understanding based oa something mere solid than propaganda...
...There is no doubt that both during and alter the war the relations between the United States, Britain, and Russia will play a decisive role...
...The New Ltader is carrying oa ae snti-Bassiss campaign...
...We can lose the war if we do not understand Russia...
...Ho suddenly discovered that the United States, Great Britain, a rein vigors ted and independent China and a satisfied India might predominate in the European and Aaiatic arena for a long time, leaving Russia once more to her "revolutionary" isolation Hence the attempt to eew sUstrast between England and the United] States...
...Even the slightest...
...We shall certainly lose the peace if we continue to gaze upon Moscow through rose-colored spectacles and ignore * the social and political contradictions between Russia and the western democracies...
...This view underwent a number of changes in the '30s, but up to the German attack upon Russia Stalin Aral/ believed that the United Stats, would never be strong saitsgh milttsuily to interfere hi the destinies el Europe and Asia...
...The New Leader congratulates them and wishes them increasing success...
...CTAI.1N has long been convinced that the British Empire is "decadent" and is not likely to survive a grave crisis...
...The whole spirit of this activity ia progressive...
...The news that the cooperative movement has really taken hold in this country is important from many points of view...
...Those who are familiar with Stalin's methods —and no normal, civilized human being reared on democratic procedure can possibly fathom them—will realize that Ae is preparing the ground for a pottiblo leparate Rusto-German peace...
...What prompted Stalin to publish so soon after the "harmonious" Teheran conference this fantastic story of Anglo-German peace negotiations...
...When the time is ripe, the fate of the Anglo-Russian and Rasso-Czech Pacts 'will be similar to Stalin's agreements with Finland, Poland and the Baltic States...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 4
