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Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Author : Yu. Rubtsov
Professor, Doctor of Science (History)
DURING the last few decades, opinions about Vyach-
eslav Molotov, his role and his personality and about
practically all other prominent Soviet political figures,
for that matter, have swung back and forth from extol-
ment to unacceptable rudeness.
Molotov occupied many different posts in the Com-
munist Party and state structures, yet he is primarily as-
sociated with the Soviet Union's foreign policy. For
nearly 13 years, he remained the People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs/Foreign Minister of the Soviet
Union responsible for the country's foreign policy when it was struggling for international
recognition and consolidating its international position on the eve and during World War II.
It is more or less commonly believed in the West that the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
triggered World War II. In fact, Hitler was encouraged by the short-sighted appeasement pol-
icy of Western democracies. The Pact was a temporary military-political compromise, which
gave the Soviet leaders time and geographical space in anticipation of an inevitable armed
clash. The Soviet Union was guided by its security interests and the need to fortify the defense
lines at distant approaches.
Molotov was directly involved in drafting the secret protocols to the non-aggression treaty
of August 23, 1939 and the treaty on friendship and borders of September 28 of the same
year. He talked to Ribbentrop and signed the documents yet never admitted that such docu-
ments existed.
An analysis of Molotov's behavior at the talks with the Nazi leaders suggests that he was not
absolutely independent. We should bear in mind that he had no diplomatic experience and
that his contacts with foreign diplomats and his knowledge of any of the European tongues
were minimal. This strongly affected his first steps as the People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs.
Molotov compensated for the minimum of diplomatic experience by his huge experience of
administering many spheres of state activities. By the late 1930s, he became a mature and
versatile politician with his own opinions and enough determination and skill to defend them
in front of Stalin.
Western politicians could not ignore Molotov's contribution into the foreign policy successes
which, together with military victories, paved the Soviet Union's road toward victory over
Germany and its allies.
Molotov remained prominent on the international scene after World War II: he worked on
realization of the decisions of the Yalta, Potsdam and San Francisco conferences and actively
Molotov and Soviet Diplomacy During World War II