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Table of Contents
The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
  • 27 October 1937
  • 12 July
  • 18 July
  • 9 August
  • 30 October
  • 31 October
  • 1 November
  • 4 November
  • 5 November
  • 6 November
  • 7 November
  • 9 November
  • 10 November
  • 12 November
  • 15 November
  • 16 November
  • 17 November
  • 18 November
  • 23 November
  • 24 November
  • 25 November
  • 27 November
  • 28 November
  • 29 November
  • 1 December
  • 5 December
  • 6 December
  • 11 December
  • 13 December
  • 16 December
  • 17 December
  • 18 December
  • 19 December
  • 20 December
  • 24 December
  • 27 December
  • 31 December
  • 8 January
  • 9 January
  • 15 January
  • 18 January
  • 25 January
  • 26 January
  • 28 January
  • 1 February
  • 4 February
  • 6 February
  • 10 February
  • 12 February
  • 14 February
  • 15 February
  • 20 February
  • 21 February
  • 22 February
  • 28 February
  • 1 March (1)
  • 1 March (2)
  • 2 March
  • 4 March
  • 5 March
  • 6 March
  • 7 March
  • 8 March
  • 9 March
  • 11 March
  • 12 March
  • 13 March
  • 14 March
  • 15 March
  • 16 March
  • 17 March
  • 18 March
  • 19 March
  • 20 March
  • 21 March
  • 22 March
  • 23 March
  • 3 June
  • 5 June
  • 6 June
  • 12 June
  • 15 June
  • 16 June
  • 17 June
  • 19 June
  • 27 June
  • 2 July
  • 8 July
  • 9 July
  • 7 September
  • 4 November
  • 6 November
  • 8 November
  • 13 November
  • 14 November
  • 15 November
  • 14 December
  • 16 December
  • 20 January
  • 21 January
  • 26 January
  • 28 January
  • 29 January
  • 30 January
  • 31 January
  • 10 February
  • 8 March
  • 9 March
  • 10 March
  • 28 March
  • 2 April
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  • 12 July
  • 1 December
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  • 16 January
  • 17 February
  • 12 March
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  • 24 May
  • 9 June
  • 15 June
  • 16 June
  • 28 June
  • 1 July
  • 27 July
  • 29 July
  • 29 July
  • 1 August
  • 10 August
  • 23 August
  • 25 August
  • 12 September
  • 14 September
  • 19 September
  • 27 October
  • 6 November
  • 16 November
  • 17 November
  • 18 November
  • 24 November
  • 1 December
  • 4 December
  • 12 December
  • 14 December
  • 4 January
  • 15 January
  • 20 January
  • 25 January
  • 27 January
  • 28 January
  • 7 February
  • 11 February
  • 25 February
  • 1 March
  • 8 March
  • 11 March
  • 22 March
  • 23 March
  • 29 March
  • 31 March
  • 12 April
  • 14 April
  • 10 May
  • 4 August
  • 6 August
  • 7 August
  • 10 August
  • 11 August
  • 15 August
  • 16 August
  • 17 August
  • 20 August
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  • 26 August
  • 27 August
  • 28 August
  • 29 August
  • 30 August
  • 31 August
  • 1 September
  • 2 September
  • 3 September
  • 4 September
  • 5 September
  • 7 September
  • 8 September
  • 11 September
  • PS 1 October
  • 12 September
  • 13 September
  • 14 September
  • 15 September
  • 16 September
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  • 19 September
  • 20 September
  • 21 September
  • 22 September
  • 23 September
  • 24 September
  • 25 September
  • 26 September
  • 27 September
  • 28 September
  • 29 September
  • 30 September
  • 1 October
  • 6 October
  • 11 October
  • 13 October
  • 15 October
  • 17 October
  • 19 October
  • 20 October
  • 22 October
  • 25 October
  • 26 October
  • 27 October
  • 28 October
  • 30 October
  • 31 October
  • 1 November
  • 3 November
  • 9 November
  • 15 November
  • 16 November
  • 17 November
  • 25 November
  • 27 November
  • 7 December
  • 11 December
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  • 19 December
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© 2025
8 March
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1

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8 March
Undoubtedly, the decision to send Eden and not Simon is a mild form of anti-Soviet discrimination on the part of the British government, although Simon’s personal reluctance to go to the USSR also played its part. It also seems clear that the British government intends to scare Hitler and to make him more complaisant. Fine! The Bolsheviks have never made a fetish of prestige, have never sacrificed content for form. In actual fact, Eden is better for us than Simon, for Eden’s star is rising, while Simon’s is setting. Eden has been promoted by Baldwin, an influential Conservative, while Simon essentially represents no one. Compromised at home, he is liked neither by the Conservatives, nor the Liberals, nor Labour. Finally, Eden takes a tolerant attitude towards the USSR, while Simon is our inveterate adversary. Yes, Eden is much better! Walter Elliot, who entertained Agniya and me for lunch today, argued at length that a visit by Eden is preferable to a visit by Simon. Vansittart said the same. The press, especially the Daily Telegraph, commends Eden in every way and asserts that the lord privy seal ranks either fifth or sixth among the ministers. The press department has been soliciting for a sympathetic response in the Soviet press


Page 96

to the decision to send Eden. [Gordon-]Lennox
Victor Gordon-Lennox, diplomatic correspondent of the Conservative Observer and Daily Telegraph.
(diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph) even informed me today by phone that, according to ‘the most reliable reports’, Simon will leave the Foreign Office after the king’s jubilee, to be replaced by Eden… The Foreign Office is really trying!
I sent a long telegram to Moscow today requesting that Eden be received courteously. We’ll wait to see the reaction.
[The idea of a ministerial visit to Moscow was first mooted by Maisky in autumn 1934. The plan had been cooked up with Vansittart, behind the backs of Litvinov and Simon, long before the foreign secretary’s visit to Berlin was contemplated. Maisky hoped the visit would drive a wedge between the different factions in the Foreign Office, which were divided over the attitude to be adopted towards Germany. He received little encouragement from Litvinov, who (it is seldom recognized by historians)
One notable exception is Carley, ‘Down a blind-alley’, pp. 157–8.
continued to view the British with suspicion, assuming them to be the main stumbling block in the attempt to extend security arrangements to Eastern Europe. He feared that any Russian initiative might be snubbed by the British or used as a card in their negotiations with the Germans.
TNA FO 371 19450 N1072/17/38, Chilston to Vansittart and FO minutes, 2 and 5 March 1935.
Maisky, who had great faith in his ability to carry out a coup together with Vansittart and Eden, pursued his plans systematically. He used the platform of the League of Nations Union to publicize and push through his own initiatives. A lunch at the embassy with Lord Cecil
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood), president of the League of Nations Union, 1923–45; winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1937.
and Professor Murray,
Gilbert Murray, chairman of the League of Nations Union, 1923–38.
the two architects of the Union, set the scene for the move.
See his letter to Gilbert Murray in the Murray papers, Box 129, 2 Feb. 1935.
On 11 February, Maisky pressed Litvinov to provide him with guidelines for a forthcoming meeting, which he claimed had been proposed by Vansittart, but in fact had been suggested by him. Litvinov reluctantly allowed Maisky to ascertain what the British attitude was, but remained highly sceptical of the outcome, complaining that even the Germans believed that the British ‘were not in the least interested in the Eastern Locarno’.
DVP, 1935, XVIII, docs. 51, 63 & fn. 29.
Maisky did not shy away from seeking backing from some unexpected quarters: he approached Molotov, chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissars and Stalin’s right-hand man. An avowed rival of Litvinov, Molotov had acknowledged in his key report to the Seventh Congress of the Soviets, at the end of January, that ‘relations with England have returned to the normal course’. In a private letter, Maisky cunningly flattered him for his speech:
On the assumption that you may be interested in British political circles’ reaction … Three speeches at the congress attracted the most attention and comment here: your fundamental report, your speech about the reform of the constitution, and Tukhachevsky’s
Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky, marshal of the Soviet Union and a brilliant innovative military theoretician. Deputy and then chief of staff of the Red Army, 1924–28; deputy to the people’s commissar for defence, 1934–36. A victim of the military purges, he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death in June 1938; rehabilitated posthumously.
speech on the Red Army question … As for your reports


Page 97

… the tone of calm and confident strength that permeated them has been remarked on nearly always. It was impressive … the moods it has evoked in British political and public circles can be formulated roughly as: ‘A new great power has finally arrived in the world. Whether one likes it or not, it cannot be overlooked.’ Let me add from myself personally that I very much admired your report on the work of the government. It was impressive in its content, its architecture, and its tone. The only thing I regret is that I couldn’t be in the congress hall at the time it was delivered.
Quoted in Myasnikov, Maiskii: Izbrannaya perepiska, II, p. 13.
When Simon’s intention of meeting Hitler in Berlin came to light, Litvinov finally gave way to the pressure exerted by Maisky, allowing him a free hand to decide when the time was propitious to tender an invitation. He continued to insist, however, that the visit to Moscow should be undertaken by the same British minister who went to Berlin. Moreover, in order to test the sincerity of the British commitment to the idea of an Eastern Pact, he pressed for the visit to take place promptly and not in conjunction with the Berlin visit. Maisky, for his part, believed that Eden was a better prospect for the visit, particularly as he expected him to replace Simon in the near future. He therefore underplayed Litvinov’s demands in his conversations with Vansittart on 28 February, to the point that Vansittart was able to comment, after consulting the Cabinet, that it was ‘fairly sure that the visitor will be Mr Eden’. This was then presented by Maisky to Moscow as a final definite decision.
TNA FO 371 19450 N1110/17/38, 28 Feb. & 6 March 1935; this is the extended version of Vansittart’s instructions to Chilston, but Simon then used it for his own purpose of pushing through his reconciliation plans in Berlin, while keeping Russia in the picture


Page 415

by dispatching to Moscow a minor minister, devoid of any authority. See also TNA FO 371 18827 C1429/55/18, 20 Feb. 1935.
]
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Document Details
Document Title8 March
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1935 Mar 8
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
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