Stalin Digital Archive
Yale University Press
Yale University Press
  • Search
  • Browse
  • My SDA
    • Private Groups
    • Personal Folders
    • Private Group Folders
  • Resources
    • Stalin Digital Archive
    • User Guide
    • FAQ
    • Editor Projects
    • Private Group Tutorials
    • Institutions & Associations
    • Further Reading
  • About SDA
    • Overview & Donors
    • Collections
    • Editorial Board
    • Transliteration Policy
    • Publishers
    • News & Updates
RegisterLog In
Select documents to open Close
CancelOk

Login Required

A personal account is required to access tags, annotations, bookmarks, and all of the other features associated with the MySDA.

Username: (email address)
Password:
Forgot password?
Log In
  • Purchase a subscription
  • Renew your subscription
  • Need help? Contact us
Not registered?
Register for your MySDA account
Login
Cancel

Your subscription has expired.

Click here to renew your subscription

Once your subscription is renewed, you will receive a new activation code that must be entered before you can log in again

Close
Next Document > < Previous DocumentReturn14 April
You must login to do that
Cancel
You must login to do that
Cancel
You must login to do that
Cancel
You must login to do that
Cancel
Save to my libraryClose
14 April
-or-
Cancel Save
Print Close
(Max. 10 Pages at a time)


By checking this box, I agree to all terms and conditions governing print and/or download of material from this archive.
CancelPrint
Export Annotation Close
CancelExport
Annotation Close
Cancel
Export Citation Close
CancelExport
Citation Close
Cancel
Close
CancelOk
Report Close
Please provide the text of your complaint for the selected annotation


CancelReport
/ -1
Stalin Digital Archive
Back to Search
Stalin digital archive
Back to Search
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
  • 3 April
  • 8 April
  • 3 May
  • 7 May
  • 10 May
  • 22 May
  • 26 May
  • 28 May
  • 12 July
  • 1 December
  • 10 January
  • 16 January
  • 17 February
  • 12 March
  • 10 April
  • 16 April
  • 17 April
  • 18 April
  • 21 April
  • 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
  • 24 August
  • 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
  • 18 September
  • 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
  • 13 December
  • 18 December
  • 19 December
< Previous document Next document >
© 2025
14 April
    • Export Citation
    • Export Annotation
View:

By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1

Image view
  • Print
  • Save
  • Share
  • Cite
Translation Transcription
Translation
/ 2
  • Translation
  • Transcription
  • Print
  • Save
  • Share
  • Cite


Page 290

14 April
The Abyssinian envoy Martin came to see me. A tragic figure. He still shows up everywhere – at official receptions, in society, among diplomats – wearing his tunic covered in gold and a green-red-yellow sash over his shoulder. Outwardly, everyone still shows him respect and sympathy (some do so emphatically), but behind his back they ask: ‘How long will this last?’… Martin walks about as a living ghost, and at the same time as a bleeding wound on the conscience of ‘Western democracies’. His dark-skinned, full figure is a daily reminder of the triumphant insolence of the fascist aggressors, the myopic weakness of Western democracies, and the flagrant injustice committed right before our eyes with the connivance of England and France…
‘Do you see how they are toying with us?’ Martin exclaimed as he entered my office.
I understood at once that ‘they’ were the British government. Then Martin unburdened his heart to me. He told me about various trivial instances of ‘chicanery’ to which the Negus had been subjected by the British authorities and courts, the growing coldness on the part of so-called society, the icy propriety of the Foreign Office that freezes his heart, and much else in the same vein. Incidentally, when Martin paid his first official visit to Halifax in early March (he is still, formally speaking, an accredited envoy at St James’s!), he addressed the foreign secretary with the words: ‘I hope that in your work you will not forget the principle called justice.’ Somewhat disconcerted, Halifax replied: ‘Unfortunately, justice does not always triumph in our world.’
Today Martin came to request that I inform Moscow that the Negus and the Abyssinian people, who, despite everything, are waging a heroic partisan war against the Italians, are pinning their hopes on the USSR. Let Chamberlain’s plans for some members of the League of Nations to be relieved of their obligation not to acknowledge the conquest of Abyssinia fail! Let the Soviet government express its weighty opinion about the deeply treacherous plan plotted by the British government! As a last resort, let the Soviet government ensure that the question be postponed until the Assembly of the League of Nations, that is, until autumn. That would give four or five months, and then we shall see.
As I did not know Moscow’s decision on this question, I had to be very cautious. I tried to console Martin, telling him not to despair, but I must confess that my heart was heavy and troubled.
[An Anglo-French summit meeting in London on 28–29 April revealed the hegemony of the hosts. Daladier’s
Edouard Daladier, French minister of defence, 1932–34, 1936–38 and September 1939–March 1940; prime minister, January–October 1933, January 1934 and April 1938–March 1940.
passionate advocacy of stiff resistance to Hitler in Czechoslovakia,


Page 291

with Soviet help if necessary, did not carry the day. It was, Cadogan commented, ‘Very beautiful, but awful rubbish’.
This episode is covered by Steiner, The Triumph of the Dark, pp. 564–7, who argues that the oratory was double-edged, aimed also at relieving France of its obligations, which the chiefs of staff did not believe she could assume. This should be borne in mind when considering the accusations in the same vein levelled against the Russians, who, as the diary and related material show, were extremely well informed about the state of the Anglo-French negotiations and their aftermath.
Masaryk disclosed to Maisky that the British had been ‘highly defeatist’, arguing that ‘neither France, nor the USSR was in a position to render any effective help to Czechoslovakia’. He further revealed that on the eve of the talks, Hore-Belisha, the secretary of state for war, who was just back from Rome, had intimated that ‘the expansion of Germany in the direction of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans was inevitable, that England was not prepared for war, that as long as Hitler’s actions were confined to Europe there would be no war’.
DVP, 1938, XXI, doc. 153, 30 April 1938. Confirmed by Aleksandrovsky from Prague, see L. Bezymenskii, Gitler i Stalin pered skhvatkoi (Moscow, 2009), p. 141.
Briefed by Halifax, Maisky was left in no doubt that Britain, determined not to get involved directly in the conflict, was at best prepared to act as a go-between, though only once Beneš had made further substantial concessions.
TNA FO 371 21591 C3995/13/17, 5 May 1938, and Maisky’s version in DVP, 1938, XXI, doc. 163.
]
Transcription
/ 0
  • Translation
  • Transcription
  • Print
  • Save
  • Share
  • Cite
           
Document Details
Document Title14 April
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1938 Apr 14
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
Tags
Annotations
Bookmarks

  • Yale
  • Terms & Conditions
    |
  • Privacy Policy & Data Protection
    |
  • Contact
    |
  • Accesssibility
    |
  • Copyright 2018 Yale University
  • Connect with us:
  • Yale
  • Yale