Diplomatic war of the Soviet Union in the Autumn of 1941

Abstract

After the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, a number of urgent and complex tasks were set before the Soviet diplomacy. Among other things, they had to: 1) internationally spread positive news and assessments of the prospects of the fight against the aggressor; 2) protect and put under supervision the foreign diplomatic missions in the USSR; 3) dissuade other countries, in particular Japan, from entering the war against the USSR on the side of Germany; 4) establish and specify under legal documents the allied relations with the Western powers. The paper discusses the way in which the Soviet diplomacy faced these problems. It states that over a certain period of time Kuibyshev (now Samara) was a reserve capital city, and even in many aspects the diplomatic capital of the USSR. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was evacuated there, as well as the foreign diplomatic missions, which remained there until 1943. Although the events on the battlefield were of decisive importance, the strong diplomatic activity of the Soviet Union, which took place in many fields and by various means, significantly contributed to overcoming the critical situation in the autumn and winter of 1941 - Japan was dissuaded to launch possible attack and stable allied relations were established with the leading Western powers by forming an anti-Hitler coalition, all of which eventually led to the victory in the war.

Keywords

• diplomacy
• soviet union
• ussr
• world war ii
• kuibyshev
• stalin