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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated on 1st and  2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.

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Telegram of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Germany a. A. Shkvartsev to the peopleʹs commissar for foreign affairs of the USSR v. M. Molotov

April 20, 1940 immediately

Molotov. On April 20, I visited Ribbentrop, whom I asked to convey to Hitler from you, the Soviet government, and also his birthday greetings and wishes of success in his work. Ribbentrop thanked him and promised to pass this on to Hitler at once. Then I asked Ribbentrop how he viewed the situation in the Balkans, referring to the article ʺafter Norway ‐ the Balkansʺ in todayʹs issue of volkischer‐beobachter. Ribbentrop replied that he had not read this article yet and asked to tell its content. When transmitting the final words of the author of the article: ʺthe German resistance on the coast of Norway ‐ and not only there ‐ to make sure that the plans of the allies to spread the war would not be forgottenʺ Ribbentrop chuckled and asked to bring him a newspaper. Meanwhile, he said that Germany is absolutely interested in maintaining peace in the Balkans. Geographically, Germany is not interested in the Balkans, but economically interested in the Balkan countries. Germany maintains political and economic ties with Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary. 

We are interested, he further stated, in the normal continuation of these ties. These connections are a thorn in the eye of the British. Recently, the British sent speedboats upstream of the Danube with secret service agents to create explosions in the Danube rapids at the iron gate. The agents were detained by the Romanians. An international commission is currently working on the Danube to prevent such acts by England. England, after its failures in Scandinavia, is making a lot of noise in the southeast. There was also much talk, Ribbentrop continued, that the Turks were in a position that did not sympathize with the Germans. It is believed that the Turks will open the Dardanelles to the British and French. It is difficult to say whether the Turks will agree to this so easily, he finished. Ribbentrop also said that before the war it was believed that the air force could not be an effective enemy of large units of the navy. They thought that aerial bombs were too light to inflict significant damage on heavy ships. The 7 months of the war showed that the aircraft is a more acute enemy of large warships. The dreadnought proved to be a weak enemy of the aircraft. Further, Ribbentrop, speaking about the importance of the occupation of Norway and Denmark, said that, I hope, Germany will soon win this war and then the Soviet‐German trade relations will be even more strengthened. Then Ribbentrop asked me if I had reported in Moscow about a conversation with him about relations between the USSR and Italy *. In his conversation with me, Molotov did not touch upon this question, which I once reported. Ribbentrop inquired about the health of comrade Stalin and comrade Molotov. Saying goodbye, Ribbentrop once again thanked Hitler for his congratulations and said that he would immediately pass them on to him.

Shkvartsev

Lip rf, f. 059, on. 1, p. 315, d. 2174, l. 264‐266.