The origins of Stalin's note of 10 March 1952

Cold War History

Volumn 4, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 66-88

  Loth, Wilfried ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF DUISBURG ESSEN   (Germany)

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EID: 34248056313     PISSN: 14682745     EISSN: 17437962     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14682740412331391815     Document Type: Review

References (44)

1. Speech at the inaugural meeting of the Protestant association of the CDU in Siegen, Siegener Zeitung, 17 March 1952.
2. English version in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Vol.7, pt.1, pp.169-72.
3. Gerhard Wettig, 'Die Deutschland-Note vom 10. März 1952 auf der Basis diplomatischer Akten des russischen Augenministeriums. Die Hypothese des Wiedervereinigungsangebotes', in Deutschland Archiv 26 (1993), pp.786-805
4. citation p.803; again taken up in idem, Bereitschaft zur Einheit in Freiheit? Die sowjetische Deutschlandpolitik 1945-1955 (Munich, 1999), pp.200-226.
5. Vojtech Mastny, The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity. The Stalin Years (New York/Oxford, 1996), pp.135, 137.
6. Stein Bjørnstadt, The Soviet Union and German Unificiation during Stalin's Last Years (Oslo, 1998), p.71.
7. 'Stalin's Directive', transmitted by Semionov to Pieck on 19 July 1949, in Rolf Badstübner and Wilfried Loth (eds.), Wilhelm Pieck - Aufzeichnungen zur Deutschlandpolitik 1945-1953 (Berlin, 1994), pp.287-91.
8. Cited in Elke Scherstjanoi (ed.), 'Provisorium für lädngstens ein Jahr'. Die Gründung der DDR (Berlin, 1993), p.11.
9. For further references see Wilfried Loth, Stalin's Unwanted Child.The Soviet Union, the German Question and the Founding of the GDR (Basingstoke/New York, 1998), pp.106-40
10. Archiw wneschnej politiki Rossijskoj Federazii (henceforward AWP RF).
11. A selection of documents on which this paper is based is published in Wilfried Loth, 'Die Entstehung der "Stalin Note". Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven', in Jürgen Zarusky (ed.), Die Stalin-Note vom 10. Mädrz 1952. Neue Quellen und Analysen (Munich, 2002), pp.19-115. For their support in preparing this article I want to thank Alexei Filitov, Ludmilla Krüger and Corinna Steinert.
12. FRUS 1950, Vol.4, pp.902-3.
13. Also see Jürgen Küsters, Der Integrationsfriede. Viermdchte-Verhandlungen uber die Friedensregelung mit Deutschland 1945-1990 (Munich, 2000), pp.525-38.
14. Gribanov to Vishinsky, 7 Feb. 1951, AWP RF f.082, op.38, p.233, d.74, ll.4-5.
15. Sowjet Ministrow Inostranych Del: Council of the Foreign Ministers of the Four Powers.
16. Gribanov to Gromyko, 24 Feb. 1951, AWP RF f.082, op.38, p.230, d.47, German version in Loth, 'Entstehung', p.63.
17. For the career and the current positions of the Soviet diplomats see the details in Andrei A. Gromyko et al. (eds.), Diplomaticeskij slovar' v trech tomach (Moscow, 1960-64)
18. AWP RF f.07, op.24, p.16, d.188, ll.37-38.
19. AWP RF f.07, op.24, p.16, d.188, ll.1-19, citation l.5.
20. FRUS 1951, 3/1, pp.1111 and 1118.
21. On the course of the Paris pre-conference see also Kusters, 'Integrationsfriede', pp.538-53.
22. Also see Loth, Stalin's Unwanted Child, pp.132-3.
23. In so far as it is impossible to talk about a lack of inner consistency in the proposals of Gribanov, as Bjørnstad, Soviet Union, p.55, does, who reports about it based on a draft of resolution of 9 August: Gribanov to Gromyko, 9 Aug. 1951, AWP RF f.082, op.38, p.239, d.108, ll.157-72.
24. Gribanov to Gromyko, 3 Aug. 1951, AWP RF f.082, op.38, p.230, d.47, l.12;
25. Wettig, Deutschland-Note, p.792, who is the first to mention this document, erroneously assumes that the project of the peace treaty had only now been taken up again.
26. Badstubner and Loth, Pieck, pp.371-3 (emphasis in the original).
27. In this context there is no mention of an 'alleged result' of the talks 'the coming about of which was not expected' as stated in Wettig, Bereitschaft, p.207.
28. Rossijskij gosudawstewennyj archiw sozialjno-polititschesokoj istorii (henceforward RGASPI) f.17, op.3, d.1090, Politburo-Resolution number 259, cited according to Bjørnstad, Soviet Union, p.124.
29. Reported by Kvizinsky in the epilogue to: Wladimir S. Semjonow, Von Stalin bis Gorbatschow. Ein halbes Jahrhundert in diplomatischer Mission 1939-1991, p.392. Semionov's disclosures to Kvisinsky were most likely made in the second half of the 1960s or at the beginning of the 1970s, when Kviszinsky as a member of the West Berlin Department of the Foreign Ministry worked closely together with Semionov, who in his position as Deputy Foreign Minister at the time was responsible for the politics on Germany.
30. See Sergo Bèria, Beria mon pire. Au coeur du pouvoir stalinien (Paris, 1999), pp.285-7 and 365f.;
31. Elke Scherstjanoi, 'Die Sowjetische Deutschlandpolitik nach Stalins Tod 1953. Neue Dokumente aus dem Archiv des Moskauer Außenministeriums', Viertelsjahrhefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998), pp.497-549, citation p.540.
32. 'In this case, there was nothing to be lost, because according to insights of the Soviet reconnaissance the Western Powers were not at all inclined to allow for a destabilization of the newly founded Federal Republic' (Semjonow, Von Stalin bis Gorbatschow, p.392).
33. Badstübner and Loth, Pieck, S.372.
34. It is, thus, impossible to speak of a mere 'commission for formulation', as Wettig, Deutschland-Note, p.797, does.
35. Europa-Archiv 6 (1951), p.4398.
36. By the same token, the draft package of 25 Jan. 1952 does not constitute for an 'analogical worded Stalin-resolution', as Wettig, Deutschland-Note, p.797, claims.
37. Dokumente zur Auβenpolitik der Regierung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik Vol.1 (Berlin, 1954), pp.73-6.
38. Draft for resolution of 18 Feb. 1952, with handwritten additions with blue pen, underneath: 'Decided upon. 20.2', ibid., l.166. As late as 17 Feb. Gromyko had transmitted a variation of the original draft of 2 Feb., ibid., l.163. The definite text of answer, among other publications, in Neues Deutschland, 21 Jan. 1952.
39. As stated by the SCC official for All-German Affairs, I.S. Bakulin, in a letter of 18 Feb. 1952, addressed to Semionov, AWP RF f. 0457a, op.13, p.66, d.5, ll.5-12, quoted with other reference to the campaign in Gerhard Wettig, 'Die KPD als Instrument der sowjetischen Deutschland-Politik. Festlegungen 1949 und Implementierungen 1952', Deutschland-Archiv 27 (1994), pp.816-29, here pp.822-5.
40. Also see the sampling of the headlines of the Tädgliche Rundschau in Jürgen Weber, 'Das sowjetische Wiedervereinigungsangebot vom 10. März 1952', Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B50 (1969), pp.3-30, here p.11.
41. Statement of the Federal government of 22 Feb. 1952, Europa-Archiv 7 (1952), p.4794.
42. In Björnstad's observations 'What if there had been a peace treaty?' (Soviet Union, pp.77-91) the material changes throughout the process of drafting the 'fundamentals' text also lack some emphasis.
43. Considering this evidence, Hermann Graml's thesis that Stalin only intended a propagandistic effect 'mainly for his own sphere of influence' ('Eine wichtige Quelle -aber mißverstanden' in Zarusky (ed.), Stalin-Note, pp.117-37, here p.120) cannot be supported.
44. See Wilfried Loth, 'Das Ende der Legende. Hermann Graml und die Stalin-Note'Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 50 (2002), pp.653-64