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Table of Contents
The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 3
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© 2025
15 November
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2

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15 November
Beaverbrook lunched with us. I hadn’t seen him since that memorable lunch in the embassy in early July. Since then he has managed to make two trips


Page 674

to America and, as ever, was full of news, primarily from overseas. His most interesting revelation was that, in Beaverbrook’s words, Roosevelt is quite definite in his support of war and the participation of the USA in the war on the side of the ‘Allies’, because he believes that ‘fascism’ must be crushed once and for all. Of course, the isolationist sentiments of the American masses hinder the realization of Roosevelt’s intentions, but he will still do everything in his power to help Britain and France win the war. Under certain conditions (if, for instance, the Germans attacked Holland and Belgium) Roosevelt could even draw the United States into the war.
Beaverbrook himself opposes the war.
‘I’m an isolationist,’ he fretted. ‘What concerns me is the fate of the British Empire! I want the Empire to remain intact, but I don’t understand why for the sake of this we must wage a three-year war to crush “Hitlerism”. To hell with that man Hitler! If the Germans want him, I happily concede them this treasure and make my bow. Poland? Czechoslovakia? What are they to do with us? Cursed be the day when Chamberlain gave our guarantees to Poland! A peace conference must be convened immediately, without any preliminary conditions. Were this to be done, I’d support the move with all the means at my disposal, even if I had to ruin my papers to do so.’
According to Beaverbrook, there are two parties in government: the ‘war party’ led by Churchill (Hore-Belisha, incidentally, belongs to this group), and the ‘peace party’ led by Chamberlain (which also includes Simon, Hoare and Halifax). The former advocates the defeat of Germany as the premise for peace; the latter is ready to conclude peace at the first opportunity because it fears a revolution in Germany with all the ensuing consequences. For the moment the two parties are acting as one, because no hope for peace has appeared on the horizon so far. But should such a hope emerge, who knows what will happen?
In Beaverbrook’s opinion, peace depends first and foremost on the USA and the USSR. He pins little hope on the USA (Roosevelt wants war!), but what about the USSR? Beaverbrook expects a great deal of us. For obvious reasons, however, I was entirely noncommittal.
I asked Beaverbrook what would happen if the war dragged on.
Beaverbrook shrugged his shoulders and replied that he had little faith in ‘dynamic forms’ of war. It is far more likely, he said, that the present situation will last for a good while. It suits the ‘Allies’; as for Hitler, he doesn’t dare raise a real storm. Germany is in ferment (as witnessed by the recent explosion in Munich), and has encountered serious resistance from the outside for the first time. Hitler is at a loss and doesn’t know what to do. He wants peace more than anything, but peace will become impossible if war begins in earnest. It will only need German planes to carry out a couple of bombardments of London for any


Page 675

hope of peace to be nipped in the bud. Hitler understands this, which is why he hesitates to make a decisive move: maybe something will turn up?!…
I was interested to know Beaverbrook’s opinion about the future settlement, should the war take its course. With a dismissive wave of his hand, Beaverbrook uttered abruptly: ‘Nothing good will come of it! Already in 1919 the French were dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles. They found it too soft. Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister, 1906–09 and 1917–20; minister of war during the First World War; played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Treaty of Versailles.
thought that peace should have been concluded in Berlin. Should the Allies triumph now and enter Germany, I’m convinced that the French would destroy everything there which speaks of culture and civilization.’
‘And what would the British do in that case?’
Beaverbrook shrugged his shoulders.
Then we spoke about Anglo-Soviet relations. Beaverbrook would like to see them improved, but reproached us for delaying with our reply to the trade proposals. This makes a bad impression in London. We touched upon the Baltics and Finland. I informed Beaverbrook about the details. He said that personally he couldn’t care less about the Baltic Sea – the fate of the British Empire doesn’t depend on it. But, he added, the British are ‘a strange people’ and have ‘sentimental feelings toward small democracies’. That is why he ‘fears’ that if it comes to an ‘armed conflict’ between the USSR and Finland, this will be an even greater shock to British public opinion than the Soviet–German non-aggression pact.
I rebuked Beaverbrook for his comments and underlined the harmful and dangerous role played by the British press, including his own, with regard to the Finnish question. Beaverbrook tried to defend himself, but without much success.
Beaverbrook is sure that Chamberlain will retire soon for reasons of ill-health. He thinks that either Hoare or Halifax will succeed him. Churchill, apparently, has no chance at all. Even Eden is more likely to become prime minister. We shall see, however, whether Beaverbrook’s forecast proves correct, particularly as far as Churchill is concerned. I’ve noticed that Beaverbrook’s attitude to Churchill is very changeable: one day he might praise him as Britain’s greatest statesman, on another he might call him a ‘swindler’, ‘turncoat’ or ‘political prostitute’. Today he is madly annoyed with Churchill – isn’t that the real reason for his extreme pessimism about Churchill’s chances of becoming prime minister?
Time will tell.


Page 676

[While making his unauthorized overtures to his former allies in Britain, Maisky toiled hard to reconcile Molotov. In a tedious eight-page report, he addressed the crucial issue of whether England was heading towards war or peace. Having been reprimanded in a letter from Molotov of 11 November, Maisky reassured him that the present observations were based only on those politicians who counted. He portrayed Chamberlain as being firmly in the saddle, having successfully created a ‘united national front’ and having mobilized the Empire. In foreign policy, Chamberlain had been successful in isolating Hitler, now that the ‘anti-Comintern pact’ had lost its meaning, while the pact with the Turks had reconciled Britain with the Muslim world. On the whole, the position of British foreign policy had been ‘significantly enhanced during the first three months of the war’. Contradicting what he entered in his diary, he wrote to Molotov that he believed Chamberlain would ‘emerge victorious’ over the Churchill group and would seek to end the war through a dignified compromise. In the same breath he warned that Chamberlain’s policy remained hostile to the Soviet Union and ‘at the end of the day he might somehow succeed in diverting Hitler to the east’.
DVP, 1939, XXII/2, doc. 806, 23 Nov. 1939.
]
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Document Details
Document Title15 November
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1939 Nov 15
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2
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