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Table of Contents
The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 3
  • 10 January
  • 19 January
  • 20 January
  • 22 January
  • 26 January
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  • 30 January
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  • Conversation with Butler on 18 March 1940
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© 2025
28 May
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2

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28 May
It was with great relief that I left Geneva today. I took away with me a vague, unpleasant aftertaste. The weather had been foul throughout. The League of Nations smelled of carrion. But what repelled me most of all about Geneva was the fact that I witnessed at first hand the staggering might of the legal-procedural chicanery which has built its nest in the ‘Palace of Nations’. It is the apotheosis of chicanery. An impenetrable web of chicanery. Knots, traps and gaps at every turn. Everything is strictly regulated: every step or action taken by the Assembly, Council or chairman. Even breathing seems to be regulated at the League of Nations. The Secretariat is omnipotent, and Avenol an absolute dictator. He was awfully indignant at my behaviour (and did not conceal this in public). Regulations, traditions and precedents decreed that the chairman should follow the ‘advice’ of the secretary-general whenever in doubt. It has always been thus. The chairmen usually dance to Avenol’s tune like puppets. I took unheard-of liberties: not only did I refuse to be led on his string, but I took issue with him and acted contrary to his advice. He could not forgive me for


Page 555

that. Avenol told everyone that I was too ‘independent’ a chairman and that it was certainly not possible to call me the ‘mouthpiece of the Secretary General’.
Well, to hell with Avenol! All this is already behind us. I hope I shall never again have to ‘grace’ the ‘Palace of Nations’ with my presence.
This morning was exceptionally fine, in stark contrast to the entire preceding week. Bright sunshine, a cloudless sky, the sparkling blue lake. I decided to travel to Paris by car. Agniya was already waiting for me there, having gone by train the previous day. Sokolin accompanied us to Dijon. We went on from there in a group of three: Kozlovsky,
Yuri M. Kozlovsky, Litvinov’s private secretary, removed from this position in 1937.
Kushelevich and I.
We arrived in Paris at 8 p.m.
Yesterday, 27 May, Seeds presented the following proposals to Comrade Molotov in Moscow. They represent a concrete expression of the ‘principles’ discussed in the memorandum which Butler gave to me in Geneva on 25 May.
[There follows the text of the British proposals, which were based on Chamberlain’s evasive attempt to shift the negotiations to Geneva and conclude an agreement under the umbrella of the League’s covenant. Molotov was quick to dismiss the proposals as ‘unacceptable’. It was an Anglo-French attempt ‘to continue conversations indefinitely and not to bind themselves to any concrete engagement’.
Neilson, Britain Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, pp. 295–7.
]
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Document Details
Document Title28 May
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1939 May 28
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2
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