Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

FRANCE IS TO BLAME 701Soviet Union has changed from an opponent into a supporter of theVersailles Treaty, and that this change is due to the establishment of aFascist regime in Germany. That is not true. Certainly we are far frombeing enthusiasts of the Fascist regime in Germany. But fascism is notthe issue, as is proved by the fact that Italian fascism, for example, hasnot prevented Italy from establishing the best of relations with thiscountry. Nor is the issue the alleged change in our attitude toward theVersailles Treaty. Certainly it is not for us,' Stalin said with bitternessand scorn, reminding militaristic Germany of her own sins, 'who havesuffered the humiliation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, to sing thepraises of the Treaty of Versailles. But' — and with the statement thatfollowed Russia broke with her former policy denned as 'with militarismagainst capitalism, with Germany against Versailles' — 'we do notadmit that because of this treaty the world must be precipitated into theabyss of another war!'Stalin accused Germany of having changed her foreign policy; hedeclared that a party had come into power, which, like the formerGerman Kaiser, wanted to seize the Ukraine and the Baltic States. True,he left the door open for an understanding by urging Germany torenounce her new anti-Russian policy and to return to the treaties ofRapallo and Berlin. But deafening applause greeted his words: 'Shouldanyone attempt to attack our country, we shall reply with a crushingblow that will teach him not to stick his snout into our Soviet garden.'Why had Germany and Poland come to an understanding ? What hadbecome of the hearty handclasp between Germany and Russia throughwhich Poland would be reduced to a little sweat produced by the contactof the two great hands? Hitler hastened to answer that he still desiredgood relations with Russia and that all his treaties were designed tofurther peace. On January 30, 1934, in his report to the Reichstag at theend of his first year of rule, he said that he wanted to take 'a conciliatoryattitude toward all other countries,' and that he was ready to come to anunderstanding with them 'even in cases where great — yes,unbridgeable — differences exist between their concept of governmentand ours.' This applied to democratic and anti-democratic states, whilewith regard