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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
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  • 7 March
  • 8 March
  • 9 March
  • 11 March
  • 12 March
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  • 19 March
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  • 3 June
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  • 12 June
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  • 19 June
  • 27 June
  • 2 July
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  • 4 November
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  • 13 November
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  • 26 January
  • 28 January
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  • 30 January
  • 31 January
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  • 27 July
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  • 29 July
  • 1 August
  • 10 August
  • 23 August
  • 25 August
  • 12 September
  • 14 September
  • 19 September
  • 27 October
  • 6 November
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  • 17 November
  • 18 November
  • 24 November
  • 1 December
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  • 12 December
  • 14 December
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  • 25 January
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  • 28 January
  • 7 February
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  • 25 February
  • 1 March
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  • PS 1 October
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  • 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
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  • 27 November
  • 7 December
  • 11 December
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  • 18 December
  • 19 December
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© 2025
19 December
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1

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19 December


Page 395

Today we had a farewell dinner for Masaryk. He resigns on 30 December: he cannot serve the new Czechoslovak government. He will then go to the USA, where for the next 2–3 months he will give lectures, speeches, etc. He also hopes to see Roosevelt. He wants to educate the Americans a little about European affairs and to earn some money. Masaryk evidently has no means of his own, or very few, and one has to make a living. He expects to get two or three thousand pounds which, by his reckoning, would be enough to keep him going for some three years. Later, he’ll see. Masaryk has rented a small flat in Westminster (his permanent residence will be in London) and invited me to a house-warming party after his return from the USA. His plans are still vague. He only said to me: ‘I want to do something useful for democracy and progress.’
The number of defecting ex-diplomats is rapidly growing: Franckenstein, the Austrian, now naturalized and bearing the title Sir George Franckenstein; Martin, the Abyssinian, who has not been invited to a single official reception since 15 November (the date when the Anglo-Italian agreement came into force); and now Masaryk. All this in the course of just one year! What speed! The question arises: who next?
Today’s dinner was attended by Cecil, Lytton, Snell, Layton, D. Low, Grenfell,
David Rhys Grenfell, Labour MP, member of the Forestry Commission, 1929–42, the Royal Commission on Safety in Mines, 1936, and the Welsh Land Settlement Commission, 1936–56; secretary for mines, 1940–42.
Nicolson, Murray and others, about 20 guests all in all. I said a few words appropriate for the occasion. Lytton, Cecil and Layton also addressed the guests. Masaryk spoke in reply. There were two memorable moments. Speaking on behalf of the Englishmen present, Lytton said that he was ‘ashamed’ of his country’s behaviour during the Czechoslovak crisis, but he hoped to live to see the time when he would not be ashamed to welcome Masaryk again. In his endearing but very muddled speech, Masaryk uttered: ‘I’ll fight for the Lorelei to be sung in Germany again!’
During the Nazi period, the popular ‘Die Lorelei’, written by Maisky’s favourite poet, Heinrich Heine – a Jew – was attributed to ‘an unknown poet’.
[Munich had confirmed for Litvinov how futile it was to seek to recruit Britain and France to collective security. His outlook now conformed very much to the isolationist views held in the Kremlin, but his paralysis reflected his association with the discredited idea of collective security and his apparent refusal to consider the obvious alternative of reconciling with Germany. Maisky, whose room for manoeuvre had been significantly narrowed, retained some vestige of hope that the damage could be repaired. He tried relentlessly to galvanize into action oppositional elements inside government circles. Within the span of a single month, he entertained to lunch à deux at the embassy a wide array of politicians, including the high commissioners of New Zealand and South Africa, Cranborne, Harold Macmillan, Walter Elliot, Liddell Hart, Thomas Inskip, De La Warr,


Page 397

Eden, Vansittart, Butler, Samuel Hoare, Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), William Seeds
Fulfilling a lifetime ambition, William Seeds, who had studied Russian and spent time in the Russian capital at the turn of the century, was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1938, conducted the negotiations on the triple alliance in Moscow, and was recalled to London after the Soviet invasion of Finland in December 1939.
(the newly appointed ambassador to Moscow), Randolph Churchill, Lord Cecil and Horace Wilson.
Maisky’s extra-parliamentary activities had become so pronounced that they were reported by the French ambassador to Paris, DDF, 2 Serie, XIII, Doc. 313.
Beyond fraternizing, Maisky went on wooing his collaborators with gifts of caviar and vodka as the year drew to a close.
See, for instance, RAN f.1702 op.4 d.1325 l.1, Dalton to Maisky; d.1367 ll.7–8, Cummings, editor of News Chronicle, to Maisky, 27 Dec.; d.1357 l.6, Eden to Maisky, 30 Dec. 1938.
However, attuning to his master’s voice, Maisky conveyed to Litvinov his conviction that Chamberlain’s policy would be aimed ‘not at resistance but at a further retreat in the face of the aggressor’. He had heard from Chamberlain’s entourage the following remark: ‘What sense is there in feeding a cow which Hitler will slaughter anyway?’ Likewise, following his long-sought meeting with Eden, who he had hoped might challenge Chamberlain’s leadership, Maisky hastened to confirm to Litvinov that ‘Chamberlain has his hands firmly on the wheel.’ ‘I was glad to observe in your last report,’ responded Litvinov, ‘that you do not overrate the successes of the English opposition.’ He was suspicious of the self-flagellation indulged in by Cabinet ministers at Maisky’s lavish luncheons, viewing this as a misleading ‘manifestation of correctness’ aimed at concealing the conspicuous deterioration in relations.
Exchange of letters between Maisky and Litvinov, God Krizisa, I, nos. 42, 60 & 71, 25 Oct., 25 Nov. & 4 Dec. 1938.


Page 398

A series of post-Munich by-elections, which Litvinov followed closely, saw the opposition fail to capitalize on growing public doubts about the agreement. And not until May 1940 did the opposition within Conservative and Liberal ranks succeed in creating a cohesive bloc that could seriously challenge the parliamentary majority, although the oratory of Churchill and Lloyd George would ‘enliven many a debate’.
N.J. Crowson, Facing Fascism: The Conservative Party and the European dictators, 1935–1940 (London, 1997), pp. 331–2.
The year 1938 thus ended miserably for Maisky. He had become estranged from Litvinov, his sole remaining succour in Moscow – himself teetering on the edge of the abyss. Earlier in the year, Maisky had – tongue in cheek – welcomed Narkomindel’s infusion of ‘new blood’ to the embassy and promised to ‘help these new people stand on their own two feet’. However, in what seems likely to have been a move aimed at self-preservation, he warned that the new cadre ‘had no experience of diplomatic work, particularly considering the difficult and sensitive work which takes place in centres such as London’.
Quoted in I. Ivanov et al. (eds), Essays on the History of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Moscow, 2002), II, p. 201; RAN f.1702 op.4 d.143 l.62, Maisky to Litvinov, 10 Nov. 1937.


Page 396

Having been reprimanded in Moscow during his early summer vacation, his private sphere was now invaded. This culminated in a harsh report by an investigation committee concerning the décor and workings of the embassy. The precarious and degrading position of a Soviet ambassador at the time is well reflected in Maisky’s rebuttal:
… Over the last few years I have tried to augment and renew the embassy’s collection of paintings in order to represent suitable works by old and new artists. Thus I have added … a few paintings by contemporary Soviet artists, some portraits of Comrade Stalin … a bust of Lenin and other works … I can confirm that modernity is more in evidence in the London embassy at the current moment than in the majority of other embassies.
… The way in which clause 7 [of the report] is formulated might lead one to think that there are no portraits of the leader in the embassy. The truth is entirely the opposite. In the very reception room under discussion there is a large, life-size, well-executed portrait of Comrade Stalin by Sokolov,
Mikhail Ksenofontovich Sokolov started his career as a prolific innovative suprematist painter and ended up painting in a socialist realist fashion as a member of the Moscow Institute of Painters and Graphic Artists (1936–38). It was during this time that Stalin commissioned from him the portrait, as well as a painting of Lenin’s arrival at the Finland Station to take charge of the revolution in Russia in 1917. Stalin is depicted disembarking from the train, following Lenin, although he had actually not been present. In 1938, Sokolov was arrested and banished, imprisoned for seven years in Siberia.
so displayed as to dominate the room. Given the architectural features of the room, I consider it unnecessary for there to be any other portraits here either for political or artistic reasons. There are many further portraits of the leader in other rooms and areas of the embassy.


Page 442

AVP RF f.017 op.1 pop.15 p.3 ll.16–18.
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Document Details
Document Title19 December
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1938 Dec 19
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
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