Original subtitles

WITH THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

THE RUSSIAN MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY

Bykovo village, Moscow Oblast, USSR. May 19, 1942

In the evening of the 19th of May of 1942, a Pe-8 bomber took off

from the Bykovo airfield near Moscow. The plane's centerbody section

had passenger seats temporarily installed, and the bombs were replaced

with additional fuel tanks. The crew and the passengers were on

an incredibly dangerous trip over German-occupied Europe.

The flight was one of the most guarded secrets of WWII.

Even the plane's commander had had no idea that a Soviet delegation

headed by People's Commissary for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov

would end up onboard. The route was extremely risky, and the odds

of reaching their destination safely were slim.

In 10 hours' time they landed in Northern Scotland, and in one day,

Molotov arrived to London for talks with the British Prime Minister.

Vyacheslav Molotov lived until the age of 96, longer than any other

Soviet government member. He joined the party as a boy, staying loyal

to the communist ideals to his last day. He was barred from

working in the Party and had to fight for restoring his position.

He led the Soviet government and was in charge of foreign policy…

but he said he was “not a real diplomat.” When his will was opened

"upon his death, the envelope contained his savings bank book;"

500 rubles for his funeral was the entirety of his savings.

LAND OF THE SOVIETS. FORGOTTEN LEADERS.

VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV.

Vyacheslav Molotov's real last name was Skryabin, and he would

say about himself: “Us Vyatka folks are hard as oaks.”

He was born on March 9, 1890 in Kukarka Sloboda of Vyatka Governorate.

His mother Anna Nebogatikova was from a wealthy merchant family,

and his father Mikhail Skryabin served as its estate manager.

Vyacheslav was the sixth out of seven children.

He grew up mischievous and cocky.

Vyacheslav was expelled from school at age seven for disruptive behavior.

After the family moved to Nolinsk, later be renamed to Molotovsk,

he had four years of a municipal training school.

Then he was admitted into a non-classical secondary school in Kazan.

Young Vyacheslav's achievements in math and natural sciences

brought his parents joy, and they never suspected that their son

had already started his revolutionary activity by then…

The provincial Nolinsk was full of people in political exile.

Vyacheslav would come here during school breaks to see his family.

It was here that he met his cousin's husband, a prominent

Kazan Bolshevik Andrei Kulesh. The young man joined the ranks of

social democrats, and from that day, his entire life served

only one thing: the Party.

After returning to Kazan to study, Vyacheslav founded the

Secondary School Students' Revolutionary Organization.

A committee was elected, and Vecha, as his friends called him,

became its chairman. The organization accepted social democrats,

Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists – anyone who shared the ideal

of overthrowing the monarchy.

In Kazan, Skryabin shared his room with four brothers.

He was unpretentious in daily life, but he was busy at every moment.

Besides studying at the secondary school and managing

the secret society, he played the violin and studied at a

free musical school of a local charitable merchant.

He was supposed to graduate summa cum laude, but one day before

the final exams, Vyacheslav's parents found out their son was expelled

from the secondary school for revolutionary activity and arrested.

From Molotov's memoirs:

“When I was little, father would beat me like a drum.

“He would lock me up in the closet, pick up a fleece,

“all the good stuff. When I was arrested for the first time,

“he came with a visitation.”

Vyacheslav and his associates were sentenced to exile in the

Vologda Governorate. Along with Skryabin, his closest friend

Aleksandr Arosev is sent there. In Tsarist Russia, life in exile

was barely different from normal life. The exiled even received wages:

8 rubles, and those with a secondary education like Vyacheslav, 11,

which is roughly $170 when converted to modern currency.

It was permitted to pass exams in exile: the rationale was that if

a person wanted education, it meant they dreamed of a career,

not of revolution.

From Molotov's memoirs:

“It was easy to escape from exile. Sometimes the constable tells

“you to appear, sometimes he can't be bothered with it.

“I decided to do all of my time the first time I was exiled

“because I wanted to graduate from secondary school.”

Despite his history of exile, Vyacheslav was accepted to the

Shipbuilding Department of the Petersburg Polytechnic Institute,

which was one of its most prestigious departments. However,

he transferred to Economics soon after.

Statistics and Economical Geography were the classes that

really interested the young Marxist.

St Petersburg, Russian Empire, 1912

He would only pass the exams that allowed him to go from one

Department to another, and put much more emphasis on self-education.

Colossal perseverance, patience and self-discipline were his integral

qualities for his entire life. These traits would be recognized

by his friends and his enemies, his contemporaries and historians.

In 1912 Bolsheviks begin printing their first legal newspaper, Pravda.

Molotov assigned the post of the editorial staff secretary.

He also met Iosif Djugashvili there for the first time. Their meeting

was in passing, they would only become friends and comrades later.

From Molotov’s memoirs:

“I left and Stalin arrived to the place of my exile,

“we missed each other. But we began correspondence.

“And when we met each other, we shared the apartment.

“Then he stole my girlfriend. So Marusya ran away to him.”

Throughout the next few years Molotov worked as a journalist

and a propagandist. In those years, Pravda always had a so-called

chief editor for arrests. The reason for that is, every new

call for revolution would cost the newspaper either a 500 rubles fine

or three months of prison for the chief editor.

There was simply no money to pay the fine, so instead,

simple workers would agree in advance to play the part of the editor.

Pravda would go through editors one after another, and the one

in charge of the staff was Skryabin. His propaganda articles

were published under the pen names Ryabin, Mikhailov, Zvanov…

As WWI raged, he moved to Moscow, where his new last name

finally stuck for good. Molotov, coming from the Russian for hammer,

sounded proletarian and industrial. There were also other reasons

for changing his last name.

From Molotov’s memoirs:

“My last name Skryabin is very hard for me to pronounce

“when I get nervous. So I picked the simplest last name, easy to

“pronounce. I was torn between calling myself Makhov and Molotov.”

In 1915, 18 months before final exams at the Polytechnic Institute,

Vyacheslav Molotov was arrested again. A year later, he ran

and returned to St Petersburg. To protect himself from another arrest,

Molotov used other people’s passports.

There were no pictures in the papers back then, so in five months,

he went through six last names.

Aleksandr Arosyev came to his aid as well after being conscripted.

It was he who gave his passport to his comrade and helped him

get a job with the Modern World journal. Meanwhile,

February of 1917 neared…

By the start of the February Revolution, Molotov was

one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party.

Together with Stalin he became one of the most loyal of Lenin’s allies

in preparing the Bolshevist coup.

And after the October revolt, he was elected to the Petrograd

Military Revolutionary Committee.

Molotov’s views, way of thinking and his very fate,

same as the fate of every Bolshevik of his generation,

was forever defined by the Civil War. A horror unseen before

that fell upon the former empire left no room for compromise.

Those who did not escape the country had to make a choice.

The war spared no one. Neither did the Bolsheviks…

Molotov had held the highest offices in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate

and the Volga area, handled the national economy, propaganda, and even

served in special forces having joined the military wing of the Party.

In March of 1921 the 10th Congress of the Bolshevik Party

declared the Civil War over. Molotov became Executive Secretary

of the Central Committee of the Party. Only a year passed before

this position, whose name was changed to General Secretary,

went to Joseph Stalin after he was elected.

1921 was important for Molotov’s personal life, as well.

At the 2nd Women’s Communist Conference in Moscow,

he met Polina Zhemchuzhina…

From Molotov’s memoirs:

“Polina did underground work in the Ukraine. She is from Zaporozhye.

“In the summer of 1921, I got married. Before that,

“I had no time for that business. I was a bachelor.

“My suitcase traveled along with me.”

Polina was the daughter of a Jewish tailor,

her real name was Perl Karpovskaya. Her brother, Sam Karp,

emigrated to the USA before the start of WWI,

where he became a successful entrepreneur.

In 1930s, he would often be the middlemen in

Soviet-American trade negotiations, and he would stay

at the apartment of his sister and his brother-in-law.

At first the Molotovs shared a communal apartment with

Stalin and his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva. In 1926, when Molotov’s

daughter was born, he named her exactly like Stalin

had named his own daughter in February of the same year: Svetlana.

The wives of the leaders of the Soviet state became friends.

It was Polina who was the last person Alliluyeva would talk to

before her suicide.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva shot herself in November of 1932.

That suicide gave birth to many rumors. According to one version,

the reason was a severe illness that went with powerful headaches.

After Lenin’s death, Molotov completely supported Stalin

in his struggle against Trotsky. By then, his limitless tenacity

in political negotiations and meticulousness in bureaucracy

had already earned him the nickname Stone Butt.

Later the same qualities brought him both fame and no shortage

of enemies in the international diplomatic circles.

Having become Minister of Foreign Affairs, he would drive his staff

insane with endless rewrites the texts of diplomatic documents.

The habit to never betray his principles and always stick to his guns

always remained the most important one in Molotov’s life.

He was sure of doing the right thing in the 1930s many years later.

Vyacheslav Molotov found himself at the center of a tight program

of modernizing the state and collectivizing its agriculture.

Industrialization turned the Soviet Union into the largest

industrial country in the world, but it led to a drop

in the quality of life, discontent and resistance from the population.

The situation in the country was worsened by the beginning

of a period of serious terror.

Aleksandr Arosyev, revolutionary, Chekist, diplomat, stayed

Vyacheslav Molotov’s closest friend. They went through

arrests and exile together.

From the memoirs of Aleksandr’s daughter Olga:

“On Sundays, Vyacheslav Molotov would call, sometimes he would send

“his big government-issue car, and we would go to his state dacha.”

But Party decisions still took precedence over friendship for Molotov.

When Arosyev realized he could be arrested, he called his high-ranking

friend several times to ask for help and protection.

From Olga Arosyeva’s memoirs:

“Father called Molotov, ‘Vecha, I’m asking you to tell me what to do.’

“Molotov hanged up. After many more calls Molotov finally picked up.

“He only said one sentence: ‘Find a place for your kids.’

“Father walked away from the phone and said, ‘That’s it.’

“He decided against waiting for his own arrest.

“He put his secretary in the car, told the driver to go to Lubyanka.

“Dad never came back from Yezhov, whom he had known

“from Civil War days.”

On February 10, 1938, Aleksandr Arosyev was put before a firing squad.

Like other Politburo members, Molotov would sign so-called

execution lists and orders for arrest. Towards the end of his life,

passers-by, who would often recognize him, sometimes shouted

things with words like “butcher” or “murderer” as he walked away.

Molotov’s reaction to that was restrained. In his interviews he

admitted that there were overreactions, but then he would add:

“It was either us or them.”

From Molotov’s memoirs:

“Of course, we made a real mess of things. Saying that Stalin

“didn’t know anything about it would be absurd, saying that he

“was the only responsible would be wrong. Our Party careerism

“played its part, everyone was trying to hold onto his place.

“I’ve always considered Stalin and ourselves responsible,

“those who approved, who were proactive. And I was always proactive,

“I would always advocate taking measures. I’ve never regretted

“my harsh actions and I never will.”

Molotov headed the Government in the years when the country

was having a major economical breakthrough. During industrialization

in the 30s, industrial output grew by 850%. Even though the numbers

in official reports were somewhat exaggerated,

the facts spoke for themselves. Tens of thousands of new factories

were built, a plethora of dams, canals, roads and railroads.

The urban population grew by 30 million people. Collectivization

was taking off in the agricultural sector. However, forced creation

of kolkhozes and taking foodstuffs away from the peasants led to

several areas of the Soviet Union being struck with famine.

The Soviet leadership was only trying to find effective tools

for governing the country in socialist conditions.

Neighboring states were clearly hostile and suspicious towards USSR.

That was why agent networks of foreign intelligence services

were active all over the country. It was obvious that a new war

was coming, but neither the economy nor the military of the country

were ready for it. Molotov, like other leaders of the state,

realized that modernization of the industry and reinforcement

of the defense forces had to happen at any cost.

By 1938, Soviet military production grew 70-fold.

However, even that was woefully inadequate.

Documents show that on the brink of WWII Soviet war leaders, while

assessing the strength of the Red Army, were trying to understand

whether it was capable of beating back Romania and Poland.

USSR was still unprepared to repel an attack from a powerful enemy.

Only one thing left capable of preventing the war,

or at least delaying it: diplomacy.

The Commisariat for Foreign Affairs had to be led by someone

capable of achieving that task.

By that time, the situation in Europe had become menacing.

After Hitler’s rise to power, Germany’s military power kept growing.

In March of 1938, Austria was merged into it with a tacit approval

from France and Great Britain. Hitler instantly laid territorial claim

to Czechoslovakia, demanding that Sudetenland join Germany.

The Soviet Union issued a proposition to provide armed forces

to Czechoslovakia for its defense.

But those forces would have to march through Polish territory,

which Poland adamantly refused to let happen.

Polish ambassador in Paris Juzef Lukasiewicz stated

that Poland would declare war on the USSR if the Red Army

were to move through Polish land to help the Czechs.

September 27, 1938: Hitler informed the British and French ambassadors

that the German “operation” against Czechoslovakia would take place

the next day. British Prime Minister Chamberlain assured Hitler

that he could get it peacefully and in due haste.

Molotov and Stalin get news from Munich.

On September 30, Chamberlain and the Prime Minister of France Daladier

sign a treaty with Hitler and Mussolini as per which the Sudeten went

to Germany. Only after that were actual Czechoslovak representatives

let into the chamber where the treaty was being signed.

Czechoslovak delegates’ signatures weren’t even needed,

they were simply handed the document, their protests ignored.

Soviet representatives weren’t invited to Munich. Chamberlain declared

that he would sooner resign than sign a treaty with the Soviets.

He preferred an alliance with Hitler.

Future Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill,

upon finding out about the signing of the Munich treaty, said:

“England was given a choice between war and dishonor.

“It chose dishonor, and it will have war.”

France and England provide Hitler with the weapons he was

supposed to aim at the Soviet Union.

In 1938 Czechoslovak industry was among the most developed in Europe.

From the start of the German occupation and until the war with Poland

its factories produced almost as many military goods as

the entire industry of Great Britain. At the beginning of the war,

the German army commanded a significant number of Czech tanks.

Soviet leadership had no choice but to guarantee its own safety.

11 months left until the beginning of WWII…

May 3 1939, Molotov is appointed Commissary for Foreign Affairs.

His predecessor Maksim Litvinov was famous around the world:

he was a known fighter for peace, collective safety and restraining

Nazi aggression. But the situation called for different solutions.

Not only did not Molotov end the talks with Britain and France,

he continued them with more vigor. Those negotiations were his

school of diplomacy. During that time, he demonstrated the traits

that earned him his fame in the diplomatic circles:

high attention to detail, knowing how to defend his point,

and perseverance in reaching his objective.

Molotov would say he was “not a real diplomat.” But it was he who

created one of the best diplomatic systems in the world.

He seriously changed to the staff of Commisariat for Foreign Affairs.

Having extremely high standards for himself, he had them just as high

for his employees.

People devoted to their trade came to work at the Commisariat.

The workers never saw scheduled work hours nor days off

in the general understanding of the word. As they say, they have to

always be working. Day and night.

Their wages were no higher than the country average.

However, they were required to be completely selfless,

competent, responsible in resolving the problems they were given.

Many people couldn’t handle the stress and left.

Only the best and the most resilient stayed.

As the workers of the institution themselves would say, Molotov

managed to create a sort of “knight order of Soviet diplomacy.”

The awareness of belonging to that order would stay in Russian

diplomacy for a long time. Out of those who started work with Molotov

many later became famous state figures, such as future

Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Gromyko and many others.

In 1938, the Soviet government had two ways of

ensuring the country’s safety: either joining forces with the European

countries or signing a treaty with Germany like France and Britain.

No one thought German guarantees of peace were genuine,

but a treaty could delay the beginning of the war, which was

extremely important for the USSR.

Molotov understood the risks for the USSR.

Germany would certainly attack Poland.

In 1939 Poland owned sizable Ukrainian and Belorussian territories,

where 6 million of ethnic Belarusians and Ukrainians lived.

If German forces were to occupy Poland, only 250km would stand

between them and the capital of Soviet Ukraine, Kiev, and

no more than 50 from Minsk, the capital of Soviet Belorussia.

Another danger came from the North, where only a few kilometers

separated German ally Finland and Leningrad.

A major industrial and strategic center of the USSR was under threat

of capture at the very beginning of the war.

The first meeting between Molotov and the British ambassador

took place on May 8, 1939.

Less than 4 months remained until the beginning of WWII.

The British demanded an official declaration of support to

Britain and France in case of a German attack on Romania and Poland.

Molotov was willing, but he wanted to hear similar guarantees

from England in case the Baltic countries were threatened.

Neither the British nor the French would give any such guarantees.

A telegram from Molotov to Soviet ambassadors in London and Paris:

“As you can see, the English and the French demand unilateral

“and free help from us without agreeing to provide equal help.”

Just as fruitless were the trilateral talks between

the USSR, France and Britain in Moscow.

Two months remained before the beginning of WWII…

June of 1939 was beginning. Molotov suggested to France and Britain

they begin discussing military missions. They agreed, but their missions

only left for Moscow on the 5th of August.

Incredibly, they picked the longest possible route: to Lengingrad by sea,

and by train from there. They only made it to Moscow on August 11.

Twenty days remained until the beginning of the war…

Kliment Voroshilov represented the Soviet side of the talks.

It turned out that Admiral Drax who headed the British delegation

didn’t actually have any authority to sign papers.

The English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hoped to use

the talks as a way to pressure Hitler and prolonged them as much

as he could. It was obvious there was nothing to talk about

with the British.

Right during the talks Voroshilov receives a note from Stalin's

secretary: “Klim, Koba said to tell you to wrap it up.”

The Soviet Union had to negotiate with Germany

whether it wanted to or not. On August 23 of 1939,

German Minister of Foreign Affairs Ioachim von Ribbentrop

arrived to Moscow.

Seven days remained until the war.

Ribbentrop's meeting with Stalin and Molotov lasted three hours.

Around 2AM both Foreign Ministers in Molotov's office

signed the documents with yesterday's date on them.

Signatories pledged to abstain from attacking, to uphold neutrality

should one of the sides become the object of military action

taken out by a third party. They also would not join alliances

directed against the other party. The treaty also had a

classified protocol demarking spheres of interest in Eastern Europe

in case of “territorial or political reorganization.”

The protocol would see the inclusion of Latvia, Estonia, Finland,

Bessarabia and East Poland into the Soviet sphere of influence.

Lithuania and Poland were part of the sphere of influence of Germany.

The document later dubbed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

was the cause of many heated discussions even decades later.

Was signing it a Sovie attempt at delaying the war or

was it in cahoots with fascists?

“The desire to stave off the war by at least 6 months was great.

“Naturally, every person who kept abreast of the problems of that time

“had that desire. No one who was in a position like Stalin's

“had the right to make a mistake. It was all done to deny the Germans

“an excuse to start the war.”

On August 31, 1939, at a special session of the Supreme Soviet,

the treaty was ratified.

Several hours remained until the war.

The next day, Germany started World War II by attacking Poland.

One day later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

On September 17, a speech by Vyacheslav Molotov broadcast

on the radio informed the Soviet citizens that the Red Army

had entered Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

Along the new border of the Soviet Union, fortification lines

were being built which Western media later called the Molotov Line.

Thanks to the Soviet-German treaty, the USSR border was moved

hundreds of kilometers to the west. In 1941 this would play

a decisive role in defending the country, and also in foiling

the German plan of surrounding and capturing Moscow.

No one had any doubt that a war with Germany was going to happen.

The leader were doing whatever it could to buy time before it began.

Moscow was trying to convince Hitler that USSR upheld the treaty.

On the 9th of September Molotov congratulated the German leader

with having his forces enter Warsaw. In April of 1940 he expressed

his understanding and wished Hitler good luck after German forces

invaded Norway and Denmark. The Soviet Union's reaction was the same

when Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg were captured.

The USSR took action to remove the potential springboards

for future aggression coming from the Baltic Countries and Finland.

Treaties were signed with the governments of Estonia, Latvia

and Lithuania, according to which Soviet military bases were

established on their territories.

In Finland, which was unwilling to compromise with the USSR,

military action started, and by March 1940, when peace was signed,

the USSR managed to move the border almost 150km away from Leningrad.

However, German forces soon appeared on the Finnish side.

When German armies came right up to the Soviet border,

Stalin sent Molotov to Berlin for talks. He was the only one out of

all Soviet leaders who got to shake Hitler's hand.

From Molotov's memoirs:

“Hitler... There was nothing in his looks that struck you right away.

“But a very self-satisfied, you could say even say self-obsessed man.

“In the films they focus on his outside, they show him as insane,

“a lunatic, and that isn't true. He was very intelligent, but

“small-minded and dumb due to his narcissism and the absurdity of

“his basic idea.”

The Fuhrer refused to discuss the subjects Molotov proposed.

The country had to prepare for war.

On June 22 of 1945, at 12 PM, every radio in the country transmitted

People's Comissary Vyacheslav Molotov's address to his country.

It was he who announced the German attack on the USSR.

He said the words that came to symbolize early Great Patriotic War:

“Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.”

On May 6 of 1941, Stalin himself became head of the Soviet Government.

Molotov became his assistant. It was in that capacity that he

became one of the original members of the State Defense Committee.

Molotov was put in charge of serious diplomatic responsibilities:

negotiating with leaders of Great Britain, USA and other countries.

In May of 1942, Molotov flew out to London to establish

an Anglo-Soviet military alliance. The potentially fatal flight

over enemy territory without fighter plane escort with a passenger

had to happen due to extraordinary circumstance: talks with

the British Prime Minister Churchill and American President Roosevelt

in the mail lead to nothing.

A personal meeting had to happen.

There was little hope that it would be productive.

But there was no other option.

The flight to Great Britain on the Pe-8 plane under the command of

pilot Endel Pusep crossed the front lines and even areas

under German military occupation.

To stay unnoticed in the sky, they risked their lives flying

at record height at the time, with air temperature reaching -50C.

After a 10 hour flight the crew and its passengers landed in Scotland.

Molotov's visit to England became historic as the first ever flight

abroad by a member of the Government of the USSR, and singing

a treaty about military alliance in the war and post-war cooperation

became one of the most important events of the fight against Nazism.

After that, Molotov had to cross the ocean to USA for

talks at the White House. On the return flight from the USA

to Great Britain for anouther round of negotiation with Churchill,

the weather suddenly worsened and the plane ran into storm clouds.

Congelation began.

The bomber was being shaked so hard that a disaster seemed imminent.

From Winston Churchill's memoirs:

“It was the spring of 1942, when he stopped in England

“on the way back from the United States. He had a dangerous

“flight back home in front of him. At the garden gate on Downing St,

“which we used in order to conceal the secret,

“I squeezed his hand with force and we looked each other in the eye.

“Suddenly, he seemed very moved to me. It was about

“living or dying together.”

On the 12 of June of 1942, Vyacheslav Molotov returns to Moscow,

having completed the dangerous trekabove the ocean and enemy lines.

His work wasn't restricted to Diplomacy. As one of the members of the

government, Molotov was personally responsible for tank production.

The USSR had lost several of the biggest tank factories by then

in Kharkov, Stalingrad and other cities. New factories had to be

constructed in the Urals and in Siberia.

Despite this, tank industry led by Moloto produced over 95 thousand

tanks and self-propelled artillery platforms. The German industry

only produced 53800.

When the decision to create an atomic bomb was made in February 1943,

Vyacheslav Molotov was put in charge of the project.

Due to efforts by Vyacheslav Molotov and his Commisariat,

the anti-Hitler coalition with Great Britain and USA was finally created.

He initiated contact with the Free France movement which was

led by General de Gaulle.

Molotov was one of the people who deserve the credit for setting up

and hosting Allied forums: the Moscow Conference of three

Foreign Ministers in 1943, Tehran summits, and after the war, Potsdam.

Vyacheslav Molotov always considered himself more of a politician

than a diplomat. Among other reasons, because he couldn't speak any

foreign languages properly and all of his negotiations

were handled through an interpreter.

Many photographs show him with a cigarette, but he was never

a serious smoker: it was a trick to fill the pause

while he was being translated.

At official meetings, he would avoid small talk, setting up

a businesslike state of mind in his conversational partner.

Winston Churchill called him “a human who perfectly represented

“the modern conception of a robot.”

Molotov was still true to himself and concentrated on solving

the task at hand at any cost. Like always, during talks he would

turn out to be the most attentive and competent opponent.

The crisis point Molotov's life and career was the arrest of his wife

Polina Zhemchuzhina. There are many theories as to why Stalin

imprisoned the wife of his closest comrade.

She was accused of connections with the Zionist organization

and Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. At one Politburo session,

Stalin personally brought up her anti-Soviet and pro-Jewish activity.

At first Molotov abstained from voting, but then he supported the

opinion of the majority, admitting “serious guilt in not restraining

“Zhemchuzhina, who is family, from her missteps.”

Polina Zhemchuzhina was expelled from the Party.

She was arrested in January of 1949. but the politically charged

accusation of state treason was changed to a criminal one:

as it went, when she was Head of Administration of Ministry

of consumer industry, she was caught stealing. As a result,

she was exiled to Kostanay, Kazakh SSR, for 5 years.

Forever a loyal Stalinist, Zhemchuzhina told her husband:

“If the Party thinks that we should divorce, then that is what's best

“for us and for the Party.”

Molotov had practically no information about

what happened to her afterward. Beria alone would sometimes

whisper “Polina is alive!” as he walked past him.

From Molotov's memoirs:

“It was great luck to have her as a wife. Both beautiful and smart,

“but most importantly, a true Bolshevik, a true Soviet citizen.

“Her life went bad for her because she was my wife.

“She was a casualty of difficult times, but she understood everything,

“and not only did she not criticize Stalin, she wouldn't even listen

“when others did.”|

Right after the end of the war, Stalin became to take issue with

the work of his closest comrade: he thought Molotov acted too soft

under the pressure of Western countries, which went from Allies

during the war to rivals in the Cold War.

Despite all that, Vyacheslav Moloto continued to handle Soviet

foreign policy, solving complex international issues with

the determination characteristic for him. He actively researched

new possibilities of a peace treaty with Germany, advocated the

unification of both states, West and East Germany, through

a general election. But Stalin kept seeing excessive softness

towards their former allies. Once he even accused Molotov of

sabotaging the country's prestige so he could win favor

with the international circles. Later Molotov proposed to give back

the treasures of the Dresden Gallery, saved after the February 1945

bombing and partially restore in the USSR. In 1956 and 1960,

the collection was returned to the German people in installments.

Vyacheslav Molotov put a lot of effort into changing the image

of the USSR in the eyes of the West. He would go to New York

to take part in UN work. The longstanding political isolation

in which the USSR had existed was finally broken.

But with time, Stalin stopped inviting Vyacheslav Molotov

to his dacha where the most important problems would be discussed.

On March 4 of 1949, Molotov was let go from the post

of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The day of Stalin's burial, 9th of March, coincided with Molotov's birthday.

After the mourning rally, others wished him happy birthday

and asked what wanted for it. Molotov said,

“Give me Polina back.”

In March of 1953 Polina Zhemchuzhina was released

and returned to her husband.

They spent another 17 years together.

“So that the entire Party, the entire people guided by our Party,

“under Lenin's flag, progresses confidently in building Communism...”

In June 1953, Molotov was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs again.

After Stalin's death, he supported Nikita Khrushchev in his decision

to arrest Lavrentiy Beria and fire Georgiy Malenkov from the job of

Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union. By that time, the chasm between

the East and the West had grown.

There were constant talks of a new war...

...a nuclear one.

For one, American Army General Douglas MacArthur advocated a

nuclear bombing of China as early as in 1950, during the Korean War.

In the times of Khrushchev's Thaw, Molotov's personal authority

helped organize several meetings at the highest level that eased

international tensions. It was due to Molotov's efforts at the

Geneva Conference of 1954 that the war in Indochina,

waged by France supported by USA, was stopped. Next year,

in 1955, again in Geneva, there was a council of the heads of state of

four countries on ensuring collective safety in Europe.

Even though the summit yielded no practical results, it was the first

major initiative in establishing a dialogue between the rival powers

following the end of WWII.

Soon, Molotov and Khrushchev began to disagree on many points.

Among other things, they concerned foreign policy and the

viability of the Virgin Lands Campaign.

Molotov was against the Party constantly meddling with the economy

and against including Crimea into the Ukrainian SSR.

It culminated with Molotov heading the so-called Anti-Party Group

in 1957 against Khrushchev. After joining forces with Kaganovich

and Malenkov, he attempted to depose Khrushchev.

But Khrushchev's cohorts turned out to be savvier.

They called a Central Committee plenum where the Anti-Party Group was defeated.

Molotov was fired from all posts and expelled from Central Committee.

The three cities named after him were renamed in 1957.

Soon Molotov was even expelled from the Party.

Polina Zhemchuzhina admitted once:

“I'm a Party member, old Communist, I have a 120 ruble pension.

“But Vecha got expelled from the Party. So today, I support him.”

She died in 1970.

All Vyacheslav Molotov has left is his daughter Svetlana

and his little grandson Slava.

In the times of the Revolution, Vyacheslav Molotov

received Party Membership card #5.

And now, the oldest of all Party members had to fight for

being restored to its ranks. It only happened in 1984.

The new Party Membership card was awarded to him

by General Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko.

From Olga Arosyeva's memoirs:

"When Molotov turned 85, I called to wish him a happy birthday."

'What's so happy about it?' he asks me."

'What do you mean? You're 85! What an anniversary!'

'What's there to celebrate? When your life is useless, it's a burden,"

'and you don't enjoy it at all."

To a workaholic, someone used to serving the Party and the Cause

from an early age, being let go was one of the harshest blows.

When he was already a widower, Molotov would invariably toast to

"the same three things: "To Comrade Stalin! To Polina! To Communism!"

He lived to the age of 96, suffering 7 heart attacks in his long life.

On the 8th of November, 1986, a man died in a Moscow hospital

exactly 69 years after standing next to Lenin at Smolny as he declared

the Republic of the Soviets.

By then, Mikhail Gorbachev was already in charge.

He was buried next to his wife's grave at the Novodevichye cemetery.

After his death, his apartment and dacha were sealed, and KGB

took all of the papers out of there.

His descendants only have his selected memories

noted down by the political journalist Felix Chuyev.

Molotov would sometimes share them at his apartment, but mostly

at his dacha in Zhukovka, where he would take walks and

tapping the ground with his walking stick.

The walking stick British ambassador Archibald Kerr

gifted the head of Soviet diplomacy once upon a time.