Atomic Weapons and Soviet Diplomacy
NICOLAEVSKY, BORIS I.
Molotov's harsh turn at Geneva stemmed from H-blast Atomic Weapons and Soviet Diplomacy By Boris I. Nicolaevsky The turning point in the second Geneva Conference was Molotov's trip to Moscow for...
...After returning from Moscow, however, Molotov rudely and bluntly rejected all the West's compromise proposals, thus dooming the conference...
...The Geneva switch by no means ended the role of the atom bomb in Soviet policy...
...These absentees included, first of all, two Soviet Deputy Premiers, Vyacheslav Malyshev and Avramy Zavenyagin, both of whom are directly connected with the atomic industry...
...Now the Soviet bull has horns...
...It was probably responsible for the disappearance from Moscow of another considerable group of leading figures immediately after the anniversary celebration...
...Molotov's harsh turn at Geneva stemmed from H-blast Atomic Weapons and Soviet Diplomacy By Boris I. Nicolaevsky The turning point in the second Geneva Conference was Molotov's trip to Moscow for the celebration of the 38th anniversary of the October Revolution...
...doubtless they were observing the atomic experiments...
...Zavenyagin replaced Malyshev, who was known as a devoted "Malenkovite," immediately after Bulganin's advent to power...
...Whereas in previous years Western observers had recorded one or two Soviet atomic blasts each year (and not even every year), four were recorded between August and November of this year...
...Khrushchev recently declared that, during his and Bulganin's absence, vital decisions are made by Kaganovich...
...They were not even at the airfield to see Bulganin and Khrushchev off to India...
...The third in this series of experimental blasts was set for the period of the October Revolution celebration, and a large delegation, consisting of top-ranking Soviet political leaders, was sent from Moscow to observe it...
...Also missing from the Moscow celebrations were both First Deputy Defense Ministers, Marshals Alexander Vasilevsky and Ivan Konev...
...The journalists interpreted these words as indicating Molotov's readiness to compromise, but he and they were speaking two completely different languages...
...From the viewpoint of the Soviet leaders, they were unquestionably very favorable...
...Removed from the post of Minister of Medium Machine-Building (the name used in the USSR after June 1953 for the center directing the atomic industry), Malyshev has undoubtedly served as an adviser and aide to Zavenyagin...
...True, he had shown no great willingness previously to make concessions, but his negative replies had been clothed in cautious phrases...
...There was an exceptionally large number of absentees from the celebration...
...What were the results of the blast...
...Suslov sat next to Molotov, who flew to Geneva the next day...
...Stalin's Russia resembled a pugnacious bull which God had not endowed with horns...
...In this case, even Kaganovich left Moscow, despite the absence of his two chiefs...
...It seems highly significant to me that the months when the Bulganin-Khrushchev regime was particularly earnest in proclaiming its desire to cooperate with the West were also months of intensive Soviet work in developing atomic weapons...
...Atomic Energy Commission on August 4, the second on September 24, the third on November 10, and the fourth on November 23...
...Malyshev took over his atomic job in June 1953, immediately after the arrest of Beria, who had headed the atomic industry since 1945...
...Until now, Soviet foreign policy was essentially aggressive, but the USSR did not have a potent stockpile of atomic weapons and feared the might of those countries that did...
...Suslov's last Moscow public appearance was on October 23, when, with the other members of the Presidium, he attended a performance by a Turkmen opera company...
...The first was reported by the U.S...
...All Russia's affairs are taking a back seat to the H-bomb...
...Finally, one of those absent from the Moscow celebration was Ivan Suslov, a member of the Presidium and one of the Secretaries of the Party Central Committee...
...This mass exodus was also due to the atomic experiments...
...Why the sudden shift...
...The fourth atomic blast, which was reported by the AEC in Washington on November 23 and confirmed on November 26 by the Soviet Foreign Ministry, was the biggest of the explosions thus far set off in the USSR...
...The Moscow press reports that after Bulganin's banquet on November 7 Presidium members Lazar Kaganovich, Georgi Malenkov and Mikhail Pervukhin, Central Committee Secretary Dmitri Shepilov, and Defense Minister Georgi Zhukov left the capital...
...Konev is currently commander of the Soviet-bloc "anti-NATO," while Vasilevsky is a top war planner...
...Suslov left Moscow at about the same time as Molotov, but in the opposite direction-headed for northeast Siberia, where Soviet experiments with atomic weapons are being carried out...
...The strength of these explosions steadily increased and the Soviet arsenal now includes weapons in the megaton class...
...They were known in Moscow, of course, at once on November 7; and it is a safe guess that Molotov had them in mind when, at Bulganin's reception that evening, he declared to newspapermen that he was leaving Moscow "with better baggage...
...Consider the number of experimental explosions carried out in the USSR in those months...
Vol. 38 • December 1955 • No. 51
