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Table of Contents
The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 3
  • 10 January
  • 19 January
  • 20 January
  • 22 January
  • 26 January
  • 27 January
  • 30 January
  • 3 February
  • 4 February
  • 6 February
  • 11 February
  • 13 February
  • 14 February
  • 15 February
  • 17 February
  • 18 February
  • 20 February
  • 23 February
  • 25 February
  • 27 February
  • 28 February
  • 2 March
  • 7 March
  • 8 March
  • 9 March
  • 12 March
  • 14 March
  • 15 March
  • 16 March
  • 17 March
  • 19 March
  • 20 March
  • 22 March
  • 23 March
  • 25 March
  • 29 March
  • 31 March
  • 1 April
  • 6 April
  • 11 April
  • 12 April
  • 14 April
  • 15 April
  • 16 April
  • 17 April
  • 18 April
  • 28 April
  • 29 April
  • 30 April
  • 1 May
  • 2 May
  • 3 May
  • 4 May
  • 6 May
  • 9 May
  • 11 May
  • 15 May
  • 16 May
  • 17 May
  • 18 May
  • 19 May
  • 21 May
  • 22 May
  • 23 May
  • 25 May
  • 26 May
  • 27 May
  • 28 May
  • 30 May
  • 3 June
  • 8 June
  • 11 June
  • 12 June
  • 16 June
  • 17 June
  • 22 June
  • 23 June
  • 25 June
  • 28 June
  • 29 June
  • 30 June
  • 1 July
  • 2 July
  • 4 July
  • 5 July
  • 6 July
  • 7 July
  • 12 July
  • 13 July
  • 14 July
  • 15 July
  • 18 July
  • 22 July
  • 25 July
  • 28 July
  • 30 July
  • 4 August
  • 5 August
  • 6 August
  • 11 August
  • 20 August
  • 21 August
  • 22 August
  • 23 August
  • 24 August
  • 26 August
  • 28 August
  • 29 August
  • 30 August
  • 31 August
  • 1 September
  • 2 September
  • 3 September
  • 4 September
  • 2 September
  • 7 September
  • 8 September
  • 9 September
  • 12 September
  • 13 September
  • 14 September
  • 15 September
  • 17 September
  • 19 September
  • 20 September
  • 21 September
  • 22 September
  • 23 September
  • 27 September
  • 28 September
  • 29 September
  • 3 October
  • 4 October
  • 6 October
  • 7 October
  • 11 October
  • 12 October
  • 13 October
  • 14 October
  • 16 October
  • 17 October
  • 19 October
  • 21 October
  • 24 October
  • 26 October
  • 27 October
  • 28 October
  • 30 October
  • 31 October
  • 2 November
  • 3 November
  • 7 November
  • 9 November
  • 10 November
  • 13 November
  • 14 November
  • 15 November
  • 16 November
  • 18 November
  • 20 November
  • 21 November
  • 22 November
  • 27 November
  • 28 November
  • 29 November
  • 1 December
  • 3 December
  • 5 December
  • 8 December
  • 12 December
  • 14 December
  • 15 December
  • 21 December
  • 23 December
  • 24 December
  • 25 December
  • 31 December
  • 2 January
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  • 5 January
  • 7 January
  • 8 January
  • 11 January
  • 14 January
  • 15 January
  • 18 January
  • 19 January
  • 20 January
  • 21 January
  • 23 January
  • 25 January
  • 26 January
  • 27 January
  • 29 January
  • 30 January
  • 31 January
  • 2 February
  • 7 February
  • 8 February
  • 9 February
  • 10 February
  • 11 February
  • 15 February
  • 19 February
  • 21 February
  • 25 February
  • 8 March
  • 11 March
  • 12 March
  • 13 March
  • 16 March
  • 17 March
  • 18 March
  • Conversation with Butler on 18 March 1940
  • 19 March
  • 23 March
  • 27 March
  • Conversation with Halifax on 27 March 1940
  • 28 March
  • 29 March
  • 1 April
  • 2 April
  • 4 April
  • 5 April
  • 6 April
  • 8 April
  • 9 April
  • 10 April
  • 11 April
  • 12 April
  • 13 April
  • 15 April
  • 16 April
  • 17 April
  • 18 April
  • 22 April
  • 27 April
  • 28 April
  • 2 May
  • 4 May
  • 7 May
  • 8 May
  • 13 May
  • 14 May
  • 15 May
  • 17 May
  • 18 May
  • 19 May
  • 20 May
  • 21 May
  • 22 May
  • 23 May
  • 24 May
  • 25 May
  • 26 May
  • 28 May
  • 1 June
  • 4 June
  • 5 June
  • 6 June
  • 10 June
  • 11 June
  • 12 June
  • 14 June
  • 15 June
  • 16 June
  • 17 June
  • 18 June
  • 23 June
  • 25 June
  • 27 June
  • 28 June
  • 29 June
  • 30 June
  • 1 July
  • 2 July
  • 3 July
  • 4 July
  • 5 July
  • 6 July
  • 7 July
  • 8 July
  • 9 July
  • 10 July
  • 11 July
  • 12 July
  • 22 July
  • 23 July
  • 25 July
  • 26 July
  • 27 July
  • 28 July
  • 31 July
  • 5 August
  • 6 August
  • 7 August
  • 10 August
  • 14 August
  • 15 August
  • 17 August
  • 18 August
  • 20 August
  • 22 August
  • 30 August
  • 31 August
  • 1 September
  • 6 September
  • 7 September
  • 8 September
  • 9 September
  • 10 September
  • 13 September
  • 14 September
  • 16 September
  • 17 September
  • 4 October
  • 6 October
  • 9 October
  • 10 October
  • 12 October
  • 13 October
  • 20 October
  • 22 October
  • 2 November
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  • 12 November
  • 19 November
  • 30 November
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  • 16 December
  • 19 December
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© 2025
6 October
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2

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6 October
Churchill’s secretary called and asked me to come to see him at the Admiralty at 10 p.m.
A meeting which was clearly initiated and motivated by Maisky (Memoirs of a Soviet Ambassador, p. 32), probably as a result of Churchill’s famous radio broadcast on 1 October, in which he described Russia as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’, but then provided the key of ‘Russian national interests’ which could not allow Russia to see Germany ‘plant herself upon the shores of the Black Sea … That would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia.’ See M. Kitchen, ‘Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union during the Second World War’, The Historical Journal, 30/2 (1987), p. 415. Censored versions of Maisky’s initiatives were only reported to Molotov in part; DVP, 1939, XXII/2, doc. 667. The new spate of activities, which again would warrant Maisky’s continued stay in England, is attested by a stream of invitations to former allies to visit the embassy, as well as the recruitment of ministers to exert pressure on Halifax. See, for example, RAN f.1702 op.4 d.848 l.2 & d.940 l.10, 7 Oct. 1939, letters to Eden and Butler. By mid-October, Maisky was ‘in excellent form; excited over the growing prestige of the USSR as the most powerful and successful world state, in the strange world diplomacy of today’ and excited by the ‘great change of attitude’ towards him, ‘far more friendliness on the part of ministers, i.e. Churchill, Eden and Elliott’; Webb, diary, 15 Oct. 1939, p. 6751.
Not exactly the ordinary hour for receiving ambassadors in England, but the present situation is far from ordinary, and the man who invited me is also far from ordinary!
It’s dark and misty tonight. The clouds are low and gloomy. It’s pitch-dark on the streets. I reached Horse [Guards] Parade, where the Admiralty is located,


Page 639

with some difficulty. We had to stop the car frequently to check our bearings. We eventually arrived. The familiar square seemed quite unfamiliar. The Admiralty building rose darkly out of the swirling fog like a fairy-tale fortress. Not a single light or human being in sight. I knocked and rang at the various doors and gates – silence. Were they all asleep in there? Or had this huge institution, which governed the movement of the British navy all over the globe, twenty-four hours a day, given up the ghost?… I was beginning to lose my patience. At last I saw a pale ray of light in the archway of the gates, and behind it there appeared a sleepy watchman. I explained my business. A few minutes later I was already sitting in the office of the ‘First Lord of the Admiralty’.
Churchill greeted me with a welcoming smile. The walls of his office are covered with a collection of the most varied maps of every corner of the world, thickly overlaid with sea routes. A lamp with a broad, dark shade hangs from the ceiling, giving a very pleasant soft light. Churchill nodded to the lamp and, pouring a whisky and soda,
When Charles Eade, editor of the Sunday Dispatch, met Churchill after Maisky had left, he found him ‘wearing a very easy-fitting dinner jacket and walking about in his socks,


Page 976

having kicked off his shoes. He smoked a big cigar and had a whisky and soda on his desk. He seemed to me to be a little drunk’; Eade papers, Eade 2/1 & 2/2.
said with satisfaction: ‘The lamp was here 25 years ago, when I was naval minister for the first time. Then it was removed. Now they’ve put it up again.’
How very English!
Then Churchill led me over to a wide, folding door in the wall and opened it. In the deep niche I saw a map of Europe with old, faded small flags pinned onto it in various places.
‘It’s a map of the movements of the German navy in the last war. Every morning, on receiving the naval reconnaissance information, the flags were moved, meaning that we knew the location of each German ship at any given moment. I ordered this map 25 years ago. It’s still in good condition. Now we will need it again. We just have to bring the flags up to date.’
I looked at Churchill with a smile and said: ‘So, history repeats itself.’
‘Yes, it repeats itself, and I’d be only too happy to philosophize about the peculiar romance of my returning to this room after a quarter of a century, were it not for the devilish task at hand of destroying ships and human lives.’
We returned to the present and I asked: ‘What do you think about Hitler’s peace proposals?’
Churchill sprang to his feet and, quite abruptly, began pacing the room: ‘I’ve just looked them through and haven’t had time to exchange views with my colleagues in the Cabinet. Personally, I find them absolutely unacceptable. These are the terms of a conqueror! But we are not yet conquered! No, no, we are not yet conquered!’
Churchill once again set about pacing the room in vexation.
‘Some of my Conservative friends,’ he continued, ‘advise peace. They fear that Germany will turn Bolshevik during the war. But I’m all for war to the end. Hitler must be destroyed. Nazism must be crushed once and for all. Let


Page 640

Germany become Bolshevik. That doesn’t scare me. Better communism than Nazism.’
But all this was just an opening flourish. The main story which Churchill wanted to discuss with me so late at night was the state of Anglo-Soviet relations.
Churchill asked me how we define the present state of our relations. I repeated to him what I had told Halifax on 27 September. Churchill listened to me attentively and then spent nearly an hour relating to me the British government’s view of Anglo-Soviet relations. The essence of this view is as follows.
Anglo-Soviet relations have always been poisoned by the venom of mutual suspicion, today more than ever before. What are these suspicions? Britain suspects the USSR of having concluded a military alliance with Germany and that it will openly come out, one fine day, on Hitler’s side against the Western powers. Churchill himself does not believe this, but many (including some in government circles) do. This circumstance cannot but affect the general tone of Britain’s attitude to the USSR. On the other hand, the USSR suspects Britain of pursuing a hostile policy toward the USSR and of various machinations against it in the Baltic, Turkey, the Balkans and elsewhere. This condition cannot but affect the general tone of the Soviet attitude to Britain. Churchill understands why our suspicions are especially acute today. The Anglo-Franco-Soviet pact negotiations were conducted in a repulsive way (I know his view on this matter) and have left bad memories in Moscow’s mind. But let the dead bury the dead. The present and the future are more important than the past. And the present and the future are precisely what Churchill wants to talk about.
His starting-point is that the basic interests of Britain and the USSR do not collide anywhere. I know this to have been his view in the past, as it is in the present. It follows that there is no reason why our relations should be poor or unsatisfactory.
In fact, what is the situation right now?
As a result of the events of recent weeks, East and South-East Europe have ended up outside the war zone. Is this a good thing or a bad thing from the point of view of correctly perceived British interests? A good thing. Therefore, the interests of the two parties in this matter coincide sooner than they conflict. We should not take too much to heart the criticism and indignation with which the Soviet–German non-aggression pact and the subsequent moves of the Soviet government have been met in Britain. This was due to their unexpectedness. The initial shock, however, has now passed, and people are beginning to see things in a more accurate perspective.
The Baltic States. The Soviet Union is going to be master of the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. Is this good or bad from the point of view of British


Page 641

interests? It is good. True, some Labour–Liberal sentimentalists shed tears over the ‘Russian protectorates’ established in Estonia and Latvia, but this should not be taken seriously. In essence, the Soviet government’s latest actions in the Baltic correspond to British interests, for they diminish Hitler’s potential Lebensraum. If the Baltic countries have to lose their independence, it is better for them to be brought into the Soviet state system rather than the German one. Moreover, the inclusion of the Baltic countries in the orbit of the USSR tallies with historical and geographical tendencies and, consequently, favours stabilization and peace in Eastern Europe.
Finally, the Balkans and the Black Sea. Churchill walked up to a big map of Europe and drew a sweeping line which approximately traced the new Soviet–German border and northern Rumania and Yugoslavia. He then exclaimed: ‘Germany must not be allowed any further! It is especially important not to let Germany reach the Black Sea.’
He set about arguing, with some feeling, that if Germany were to reach the Danube estuary, it would not only seize the Balkans, but would inevitably extend itself also to Asia Minor, Iran and India. It would want to possess the Ukraine and Baku. Neither Britain nor the USSR can allow this to happen. Here, too, their interests coincide rather than clash. The Soviet government is greatly mistaken if it thinks that Britain is plotting against it in Turkey and the Balkans. Britain is interested in one thing only: not to let Germany reach the Black Sea. Hence its Balkan policy, its friendship with Turkey, and its wish to be able to send its navy through the Straits if need be. But if the Soviet Union, alone or together with Turkey, blocked Germany’s access to the Black Sea, Britain might wrap up its Balkan policy and abandon its right of passage through the Straits. Britain has enough cares in other parts of the world.
What conclusion can be drawn from the above?
The conclusion is that today, just as before, the basic interests of Great Britain and the USSR do not collide, but coincide. It means that there is a common basis for good relations between our countries. The British government treats our declaration of neutrality as a positive fact, merely wishing for it to be benevolent neutrality.
I asked whether the Cabinet shared the thoughts which Churchill had just expounded to me. After all, I could hardly forget that only very recently Churchill was fiercely opposed to the British government, and Chamberlain in particular. Churchill replied: ‘Naturally enough, the Cabinet is not responsible for every nuance of my statements, but what I told you reflects the views, by and large, of the entire government.’
Churchill asked me what could be done to improve relations between the two countries. Were there no useful steps or measures that I might recommend?


Page 642

I refrained from offering advice. Churchill himself thought that the best way of alleviating tension would be to expand trade operations. Then, as though summing up his thoughts, he noted with a sly smile: ‘Stalin is playing a big game at the moment and is doing so felicitously. He can be satisfied. But I fail to see why we should be dissatisfied.’
We parted ‘like friends’. Churchill asked me to keep in close touch and to turn to him without ceremony whenever the need arose. I’ll keep this in mind.
Returning home through dark, overcast streets, I couldn’t help wondering: why was it Churchill, and not Halifax, who had that very important talk with me?
I can see two explanations: (1) the leading role which Churchill is gaining in the Cabinet and (2) Halifax’s extreme annoyance with the USSR ever since the Soviet–German pact, rendering him an unsuitable channel for improving Anglo-Soviet relations. I know that Halifax was very reluctant to invite me to see him on 23 September. Only strong pressure from the Cabinet forced him to do so.
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Document Title6 October
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
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DescriptionN/A
Date1939 Oct 6
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2
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