The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt

693 Pages·2018·7.33 MB·English

by  David Reynolds

‘A feast of
scrupulous research,
The Kremlin Letters
rewrites the history of
the war as we knew it.’
Gabriel Gorodetsky
THE
KREMLIN
LETTERS
Stalin’s Wartime
Correspondence with
Churchill and Roosevelt
THE KREMLIN LETTERS
i
ii
THE
KREMLIN
LETTERS
Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence
with Churchill and Roosevelt
edited by
DAVID REYNOLDS
and
VLADIMIR PECHATNOV
with the assistance of
ISKANDER MAGADEYEV and OLGA KUCHERENKO
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
iii
Copyright © 2018 David Reynolds and Vladimir Pechatnov
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.
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Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by Gomer Press Ltd, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018948874
ISBN 978-0-300-22682-9
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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. . . I think I can personally handle Stalin better than either your Foreign
Office or my State Department. Stalin hates the guts of all your top people.
He thinks he likes me better, and I hope he will continue to do so.
Roosevelt to Churchill, 18 March 1942
If only Stalin and I could meet once a week, there would be no trouble at all.
We get on like a house on fire.
Churchill, conversation with Colin Coote, 27 January 1944
In the history of diplomacy I know of no such close alliance of three great
Powers as this, when allies had the opportunity of so frankly expressing their
views.
Stalin, Yalta conference, 8 February 1945
v
Oleg Aleksandrovich Rzheshevsky
and
Warren F. Kimball,
who pioneered the way
vi
contents
List of Plates and Maps ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
1 Strange Encounters • (June to September 1941) 18
2 ‘Two Relatively Unrelated Wars’ • (September to December 50
1941)
3 ‘I Can Handle Stalin’ • (December 1941 to April 1942) 75
4 Molotov the Go- Between • (April to July 1942) 101
5 Churchill’s ‘Lump of Ice’ • (August to October 1942) 135
6 Casablanca: A Table Just for Two • (November 1942 to 169
January 1943)
7 Second Front When? • (February to April 1943) 204
8 Poles Apart • (April to July 1943) 234
9 Fighting Back: Ukraine and Italy • (August to September 277
1943)
10 Face to Face: Moscow and Tehran • (October to December 311
1943)
11 The Spirit of Tehran Evaporates • (January to March 1944) 353
12 ‘Force and Facts’ • (March to June 1944) 388
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CONTENTS
13 From East and West • (June to September 1944) 423
14 ‘Only the Three of Us’ • (October to December 1944) 476
15 Yalta and After • (January to April 1945) 528
Epilogue 584
Endnotes 601
Index 642
plates and maps
Plates
1. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, Tehran, 29 November 1943. FDRL.
2. Photographing the Big Three, Tehran, 29 November 1943. FDRL.
3. Letter from Stalin, 3 September 1941. RGASPI.
4. Churchill’s note, 21 September 1941. RGASPI.
5. Harry Hopkins in Stalin’s Kremlin office, July 1941. RSAFPD.
6. Ivan Maisky and Churchill at the Soviet embassy, London, 29 August 1941.
Photo by Picture Post / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.
7. Vyacheslav Molotov lands in Scotland, 20 May 1942. RDM.
8. Molotov leaves Washington, 4 June 1942. AVP.
9. Maisky and Molotov on the veranda at 10 Downing Street, May 1942.
RSAFPD.
10. Soviet and US airmen pose in front of a P-63 fighter, Ladd Field, Alaska,
1943. RDM.
11. Churchill, Stalin, Averell Harriman and Molotov in the Kremlin, August
1942. FDRL.
12. Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca, January 1943. FDRL.
13. Molotov’s draft to Churchill, with Stalin’s annotations, on the Darlan deal,
26 November 1942. RGASPI.
14. Churchill’s reply to Stalin’s birthday message, 1 December 1942. RGASPI.
15. Joseph E. Davies with Stalin and Molotov in the Kremlin, May 1943. AVP.
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