What was the position of Joseph Stalin on the 1938 Munich Conference?

Answer 1

Stalin was very unhappy with it. He had a treaty with the Czechs promising to give them military assistance - together with France, now one of the signatories of the treaty and backing out of that promise and leaving him hanging out to dry. The treaty convinced Stalin that his European partners could no longer be trusted, which ultimately led him to agree to the Molotov / Ribbentrop Pact with Germany.

Answer 2

By 1948, the Cold War was unfolding and there were no predictions when, if ever, this "war" would end. The issue of a divided Germany and a divided Berlin were hot international issues. It was at this time that Joseph Stalin decided to make a statement about the 1938 Munich Conference that was one of the major diplomatic issues that came about just before World War Two became a reality. For within a year of that conference, the Second World War would begin.The other major diplomatic event that preceded World War Two was the Russian-German Non-Aggression pact of 1939.

The official Soviet view on the Munich Conference was based on the politics of 1948. Soviet historians were required to produce writings that were in agreement with the views of the Soviet Communist Party, which meant the views of Joseph Stalin.

With that said, the Soviet Information Bureau published their version of the Munich Conference, both prior to it and the results of it.

The dialogue began with the events of 1937. According to the Soviets, it was clear that by 1937, a major war in Europe was being planned by Hitler with the direct aid and assistance of France and Great Britain. The Soviet Information Bureau revealed to the world that secret documents captured by Soviet troops after Germany's defeat revealed the true nature of the policies of Great Britain and France.

Please note that why it took three years to release these documents is not revealed within the Bureau's account of Munich.

The Bureau indicates that these documents show that Western policies were aimed against peace loving nations in Europe inorder to end their efforts against Nazi aggression. Also, more to the point, the policies of the West were aimed at isolating the USSR and using Hitler's aggression as a tool for their own means.

The Soviets also claimed that the United States also had copies of these German documents but had withheld them inorder to whitewash the motives of their Western friends who met with Hitler at Munich. Even worse, the US was interested in putting blame of Munich squarely on the shoulders of the USSR.

According to the Soviet view, the purposes of the Munich Conference, actually lie within the foreign policy documents of France and Great Britain well before the actual Conference. These archived documents have now come to the attention of the USSR and furnish the true meanings of prewar diplomacy aimed directly against the Soviet Union. The archived documents prove that the West was secretly redividing the map of Europe and were going to use Germany's aggression against the East and the USSR to implement them, while pretending to work against Hitler's schemes.

One such document reveals that Great Britain displays a conversation between Hitler and British Minister Halifax, in Germany and in the presence of the German Foreign Minister in 1937.

The records show the exact words of Lord Halifax. His words show that Great Britain informs the Fuehrer how grateful he is that the Nazi's have destroyed communism in Germany and has prevented its spread into Western Europe. Halifax informed Hitler that he is entitled to be regarded as the bulwark of the West against Bolshevism.

Furthermore, Halifax had proposed to Hitler that Britain and France should join the Berlin-Rome Axis.

This then, according to the USSR is why France and Great Britain gave Hitler what he wanted at the 1938 Munich Conference.

Many historians outside the Soviet sphere of influence doubt the credibility of these "discovered" documents.

Answer 3

In March of 1939, Joseph Stalin spoke about what he deemed to be the "Anglo-French" ruling circles regarding the Munich Conference of 1938. This was of course before he signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact later in 1939. The following are Stalin's exact words spoken at the Eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When he speaks about "non-intervention" he is referring to the Anglo-French non-intervention of Hitler's scheme to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. This next paragraph is from the Soviet Information Bureau of 1948 and gives a portion of Stalin's speech in 1939 concerning the issue. The punctuation may seem odd but this speech might be considered Stalin's typical writing and oracle style, and it's an English translation from Russian.

"The policy of non-intervention means conniving at aggression, giving free reign to war and consequently transforming the war into world war. The policy of non-intervention reveals an eagerness, a desire, not to hinder the aggressors in their nefarious work: not to hinder Japan, say from embroiling herself in a war with China, or better still, with the Soviet Union; not to hinder Germany, say, from enmeshing herself in European affairs, from embroiling herself into a war with the Soviet Union; to allow all belligerents to sink deeply in the mire of war; to encourage them to surreptitiously in this direction;......."

The Bureau goes on to say that the Soviet Union, alone has championed the rights of Czechoslovakia, and the Anglo-French ruling parties have published information doubting whether the Soviet Union will live up to its treaty of mutual assistance with the Czechs.

Answer 4

Stalin viewed the Munich Agreement of 1938 as cause for deep concern. Hitler's desire to look eastward could not only threaten all of Czechoslovakia, but Poland and the USSR.Stalin also realized that England and France were not predisposed to challenge Hitler. With a passive England and France, Stalin believed the USSR was at risk from German ambitions eastward.