Chapter 363 Containing the Soviet Union

Listening to Molotov's words, Joseph Stalin's thick eyebrows slightly frowned, and he kept smoking his pipe, as if he was thinking.

It was a small matter for France to compensate for the losses of the Batumi incident, and the losses of the Batumi refinery were not too large, only tens of millions of rubles. Signing the "Non-Aggression Agreement" with Japan was not a big deal. The situation on the East Asian continent was not favorable to Japan. If Japan insisted on going west and north, Stalin would not be afraid, and would just teach it a lesson. What really worried him now was Germany's tendency to contain the Soviet Union.

Germany now proposed to abolish the "Versailles Treaty", "Saint-Germain Treaty", "Trianon Treaty", "Sevres Treaty" and "Lausanne Treaty". In Stalin's view, this was not to deal with Britain, but to contain the Soviet Union.

Because the abolition of the "Saint-Germain Treaty" and the "Trianon Treaty" meant that Western Ukraine (which was the Austrian Crown Territory) could be legally incorporated into Germany and the revival of the Great Hungarian Kingdom.

The annexation of Western Ukraine to Germany was of course to make it a reactionary fortress to contain the Soviet Union.

A Greater Hungary with a population of more than 20 million, including Croatia, Transylvania and Banat, will definitely become Germany's watchdog in the Balkans.

Now, while Germany recognizes the illegality of the Treaty of Bessarabia, it also proposes to consider the current situation in Bessarabia!

This means that Germany is trying to pull Romania into their European Community - this is very possible in Stalin's view, because the surname of King Carol II, who now rules Romania, is Hohenzollern, and he is a relative of Emperor William.

If Emperor William reserves some interests for Romania on the issue of Transylvania and supports Romania on the issue of Bessarabia, Carol II will most likely turn to Germany.

And Germany's proposal to abolish the Treaty of Sevres and the Treaty of Lausanne is also aimed at the Soviet Union in Stalin's view. Because these two treaties dismembered the Turkish Empire, Russia's former enemy. If they are abolished, although the Turkish Empire cannot be resurrected, the current Republic of Turkey may still gain huge benefits from it, such as merging with Syria under French rule to form a federation - such benefits are certainly not obtained in vain, and must be at the cost of Turkey joining the military group headed by Germany!

Once Turkey becomes Germany's ally, Iraq and Iran will inevitably follow suit. The Soviet Union's passage to the Middle East and the Indian Ocean will also be completely blocked.

In addition, Germany has repeatedly expressed its willingness to mediate the Soviet-Finnish War, which Stalin believes is also intended to contain the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's attack on the Mannerheim Line has been going on for some time. Although it has not made the final breakthrough, Finland has already shown signs of fatigue. The final failure is only a matter of time. In this case, what is the purpose of Germany's mediation?

Isn't it to save the reactionary white Finland? Then turn the white Finland into another white Poland to prevent the socialist Soviet Union from entering Northern Europe!

"Germany's victory on the Western Front is undoubtedly a great victory of socialism over capitalism, and it is a victory achieved through the joint efforts of the two countries and the two parties."

Stalin was silent for a long time, but when he opened his mouth, he spoke in a flowery manner, as if he was having a cordial meeting with Comrade Hitler.

He said: "We, the Soviet Union, also participated in the war against British and French imperialism. We not only supported Germany materially, but also sent planes to bomb Syria, which dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of French imperialism, eliminated a large number of French air and ground forces, and effectively supported the German army on the main battlefield on the Western Front."

Stalin's words at today's enlarged Political Bureau meeting were naturally to characterize the Western Front campaign - although the Soviet Union was about to become the target of German containment, Stalin still had to maintain the good situation of moving from victory to victory. He must not deny the previous line of cooperation with Germany so quickly, otherwise it would seem that he, the great leader, was not wise enough.

"But we cannot be one-sidedly pro-German in our diplomatic line. Some capitalist countries, such as the United States, are still progressive, and in many aspects the United States is not worse than Germany."

Stalin took a few puffs of cigarettes, and then said: "Therefore, in the next stage, we must focus on developing friendly relations with the United States... In the future world, it is very likely that socialism will not immediately defeat capitalism, but socialism and capitalism will compete with each other in the field of productivity. It is very likely that there will be two or three socialist powers and two or three capitalist powers in the world coexisting peacefully. This is a new situation and new situation that we need to pay attention to!"

The faces of the members of the Political Bureau in the conference room all changed slightly. Stalin's speech today seems to be very important! The foreign policy of the Soviet Union is about to undergo a major change!

Moreover, "one-sided pro-Germanism" has never existed. The Soviet Union has always been swinging between Britain, France and Germany. Now Stalin proposed to "focus on developing friendly relations with the United States" and "peaceful coexistence of socialist powers and capitalist powers", which obviously blocked the possibility of standing on the side of Germany to form a socialist axis.

If necessary and under the right conditions, even the possibility of establishing an anti-German alliance with the United States and Britain is not ruled out!

Of course, the Soviet Union's asking price was quite high. It could not use the lands in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, which were under German control and had to be seized at the cost of the blood of millions of GC fighters, as the offer from Britain and the United States.

"Comrade Molotov," Stalin said after a pause, "send electricity to Comrade Litvinov (ambassador to the United States) and ask him to purchase the latest fighter jets and aircraft engines from the U.S. government."

"Okay." Molotov immediately wrote down Stalin's order in his notebook - Stalin's request was not a price in favor of Britain and the United States, but just a test of the water temperature.

If we are not even willing to sell new fighter jets and engines, there will be nothing left to talk about.

"In addition," Stalin said after taking a few more puffs of cigarette, "Comrade Molotov, you will personally lead the team to Geneva. Focus on discussing with Germany the abolition of the Treaty of Bessarabia, the Finnish armistice and the Soviet-Japanese Non-Aggression Agreement. Treaty these three issues.”

Molotov asked: "Comrade Stalin, if Germany makes a request to conclude an alliance treaty, how should it respond?"

Stalin held his pipe and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said: "This is impossible. Now they will not form an alliance with us. They will only consider containing us."

…

"Two marshals, the Soviets fought badly on the Mannerheim Line, didn't they?"

On the special train bound for Switzerland, Hitler suddenly asked about the Soviet-Finnish war.

Hersmann and the sickly Marshal Margrave Hammerstein looked at each other.

Hammerstein had always been an important figure in Schleicher-Hersmann's group, which allowed him to serve as chief of the general staff for a long time. However, he was a bit old and had been in poor health. Because he was too overworked as the commander-in-chief of the Western Front these days, he suffered a stroke at the end of the French Campaign and did not recover until early June.

However, his age and physical condition were obviously not suitable for serving as chief of staff, so Hessmann took over. This time the old marshal went to Switzerland in the name of a member of the peace delegation. In fact, it was Emperor William who made him stand out.

However, Hitler, who knew little about military affairs, respected Marshal Harmanstein very much and regarded him as a great soldier comparable to Moltke (both of them defeated France). Therefore, on military issues, the old marshal could still deceive Hitler with his words. of.

"Leader," Harmanstein said, "actually the Soviet Red Army did not fight badly. It is normal to lose 100,000 or more lives after breaking through a solid and dangerous position like the Mannerheim Line of Defense."

"But you only lost 35,000 people in conquering Belgium and France." Hitler said.

The losses in the Western Front campaign have been calculated. About 20,000 people were killed and about 15,000 were seriously injured or missing. Another 100,000 people were not seriously injured and could return to the military camp, so it was not considered a loss.

The Germans are cheating! Hersmann wanted to tell Hitler this, but in the end he analyzed it very seriously: "Leader, the setbacks the Soviets encountered on the Mannerheim Line were mainly due to their lack of technical weapons for attacking fortresses, such as super-large caliber artillery. We sold a few Big Bertha to them at the beginning of the year, but we didn’t give them many shells. They ran out of shells when they attacked the Brest Fortress in Poland, so they could only use 305mm. Artillery was used to bombard the Mannerheim Line. The Finns also had artillery of the same caliber, so the Soviet Red Army suffered more heavy casualties, but they were still able to capture the Mannerheim Line. "

"Furthermore, the terrain of the Karelia Isthmus is very dangerous, and there is no room for detours." Marshal Harmanstein and Hersman had similar opinions on the issue of dealing with the Soviet Union - they both won't fight if they can. After all, The Soviet Union was a large country with a large population and a harsh environment, making it uncertain to fight.

"But some people say that Stalin's purges seriously damaged the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army, which is why they fought so hard in Poland and Finland."

Hitler said that he didn't know where he heard things from. Hersman smiled and shrugged, and said: "Leader, Stalin's Great Purge did damage the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army to a certain extent, but it is not a few officers and soldiers that determine a country's combat effectiveness, but the fighting will of the entire nation. The French had very good officers, and no one arrested them and shot them, and they also had very good weapons and equipment. But the spirit of the entire nation was broken, and people were no longer willing to go out and die for the country. But in the Soviet Union. "The situation is completely different. The Russians have always had a fighting spirit, and Soviet propaganda and brainwashing have strengthened their fighting spirit. They will not collapse when they encounter setbacks like France, but will fight us to the end."

"So, how are we going to deal with the Soviet Union?" Adolf Hitler asked.

Hirschman whispered, "Contain!"