Falsificators of History

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Falsificators of History
Soviet Information Bureau, Moscow
(The Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo) was created on the third day of the war, on June 24, 1941, by a directive of the Soviet Council of People’s Commissioners and the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party “to bring into the limelight international events, military developments, and day-to-day life through printed and broadcast media.)
 
Introduction
 
The Soviet press has published the following communique issued by the Soviet Information Bureau, entitled "Falsificators of History (An Historical Note)":
 
At the end of January, the State Department of the United States of America, in collaboration with the British and French Foreign Offices, published a collection of reports and various records from the diaries of Hitlerite diplomatic officials, under the mysterious title: "Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939-1941."
 
As evident from the preface to this collection, as far back as the summer of 1946 the Governments of the United States of America, Great Britain and :France had already agreed to publish archive materials of the German Foreign Office for 1918-1945, seized in Germany by American and British military authorities. Noteworthy in this connection is the fact that the published collection contains only material relating to the period of 1939-1941, while material relating to the preceding years, and in particular to the Munich period, has not been included by the Department of State in the collection and thus has been concealed from world public opinion. This action is certainly not accidental, but pursues aims which have nothing to do with an objective and honest treatment of historical truth.

 
In order to justify in some way before world public opinion the unilateral publication of this collection of unverified and arbitrarily chosen records made by Hitlerite officials, the British and American press fabricated and circulated an explanation according to which "the Russians rejected the proposal of the West to publish jointly a full account of Nazi diplomacy." This statement of Anglo-American circles does not correspond to the fact. The real facts are as follows:
 
In connection with reports which appeared in the foreign press during the summer of 1945 to the effect that preparations for the publication of documents captured in Germany had been initiated in England, the Soviet Government approached the Government of Great Britain, insisting on participation of Soviet experts in a joint study of the German documents captured by Anglo-American troops. The Soviet Government held that publication of such documents without common consent was inadmissible and that at the same time it could not assume responsibility for the publication of the documents without careful and objective verification, for unless these elementary conditions were observed, publication of the said material could only lead to the worsening of relations between the member states of the anti-Hitlerite coalition.
 
The British Foreign Office, however, declined the Soviet proposal on the grounds that the Soviet Government had prematurely raised the question of exchanging copies of the captured Hitlerite documents.
 
It is also well known that on September 6, 1945, the American delegation to the Political Directorate of the Control Council in Germany submitted its draft directive on the handling of German archives and documents. This draft provided for the institution of a uniform procedure for the whole of Germany for collecting and keeping archives, and gave the right of access to them to representatives of member states of the United Nations. It also provided for the possibility of copying the documents and publishing these copies. This proposal was examined at four meetings of the Political Directorate, but its further examination was postponed at the request of the British and Americans on the plea that they had no instructions; subsequently, after the American representative had stated that the Government of the United States of America was preparing a new proposal, and had requested that the submitted draft be invalidated, this question was withdrawn from the agenda of the Political Directorate.
 
Thus, the allegation that the Soviet Government refused to take part in preparing the publication of German archive materials is false.
 
Simultaneously with the publication of the above-mentioned collection, a fresh campaign of unrestrained baiting and slander, as if at the wave of a magic wand, swept the United States and countries dependent on it, in connection with the non-aggression pact concluded between the USSR and Germany in 1939, and allegedly directed against the Western Powers.
 
Thus the true purpose for which the collection of documents on relations between the USSR and Germany in the period of 1939-1941 was published in the United States of America evokes no doubt whatever. This was not done for the purpose of giving an objective exposition of historical developments, but in order to present a distorted picture of events, to heap lies on the Soviet Union, to slander it, and to undermine the international influence of the Soviet Union as a truly democratic and staunch fighter against aggressive and anti-democratic forces.
 
This treacherous attitude is in conformity with the views on the character of inter-allied relations which are typical of the ruling circles of the Anglo-American countries, and the substance of which is that, instead of honest and sincere relations between allies, instead of mutual confidence and support, there is being pursued a policy of using every means, including even slander, for the purpose of weakening one's ally, of exploiting him in one's own narrow interests, and of strengthening one's own position at the expense of that ally.
 
One should not, moreover, lose sight of the efforts being made by the ruling circles of the United States of America to undermine, by means of their campaign of slander against the USSR, the influence of progressive elements in their own country, who advocate better relations with the USSR.
 
The attack on progressive elements in the United States of America is undoubtedly aimed at undermining their influence in view of the Presidential elections to be held in the autumn of 1948.
 
The collection is full of documents concocted by Hitlerite diplomatic officials in the depths of the German diplomatic offices. This fact alone should have served as a warning against unilateral use and publication of documents which are one-sided and tendentious, giving an account of events from the standpoint of the Hitler Government, and which are intended to present these events in a light which would be favorable to the Hitlerites. Precisely for this reason, the Soviet Government was opposed to unilateral publication of the captured German documents without preliminary thorough and joint verification of them.
 
Even the French Government news agency, France Presse, found itself compelled to admit that the procedure of publication of the materials to be published by the three Governments without the knowledge of the Soviet Union, "is not quite in accord with normal diplomatic procedure". Nonetheless, the British Government did not agree with this.
 
The American, British, and French Governments have unilaterally published the German documents without hesitating to falsify history in their efforts to slander the Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the struggle against Hitlerite aggression.
 
By doing so, these Governments have assumed full responsibility for the consequences of this unilateral action.
 
In view of this, the Soviet Government on its part feels itself entitled to make public the secret documents concerning relations between Hitler Germany and the Governments of Great Britain, the United States of America and France which fell into the hands of the Soviet Government, and which the above-mentioned three Governments concealed from public opinion.
 
They concealed these documents; they do not want to make them public. But we believe that after all which has taken place these documents must be made public, so that historical truths can be re-established.
 
The Soviet Government possesses important documents which were captured by Soviet troops during the smashup of Hitler Germany; publication of these documents will help to present a true picture of how Hitler's aggression and the Second World War were in reality prepared and developed.
 
The same purpose is also served by the historical note, "Falsificators of History", now being published by the Soviet Information Bureau under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
 
Secret documents pertaining to this subject will be published shortly.