Segev: Was Stalin to blame?

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/899363.html

Was Stalin to blame?

By Tom Segev

Mischa Shauli sat at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., completely
beside himself. It had been years since the first time he heard about the
existence of a document said to prove that Stalin, not Hitler, bore the main
responsibility for World War II, and for years he had searched for it with
all his skills as a professional detective. Shauli's last position was as
Commander Shauli, Representative of the Israel Police in Russia. Previous to
that he had been head of the police fraud investigation unit for the
Southern District.

A few years ago Shauli read "Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War,"
by Bogdan Rozen. Rozen, who now lives in England, wrote it under the
pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov. Shauli, impressed by the book, translated it
into Hebrew and saw to its publication here.

 From out of the sea of details, a coherent thesis emerges: Stalin dragged
Hitler into war to force Europe into chaos and facilitate a communist
revolution on the continent. According to Shauli, there is evidence to back
up this theory, including a speech by Stalin himself as well as a report
obtained by the U.S. Consulate in Prague. The report has been mentioned here
and there over the years, but it has never been published, because no one
knows where it is today.

Shauli, 59, believed that the definitive evidence was out there, hiding
somewhere. He believed, and did not give up, repeatedly setting out to find
it, going as far as Washington. No one is happier than he is today: The
document is in his possession, and now the history of World War II may have
to be rewritten: It was Stalin's fault.

The document, from October 1939, consists of three pages in English that
purportedly reflect a dialogue in Moscow between a delegation from
Czechoslovakia and a senior Soviet Foreign Ministry official. The Czechs
tried to find out why the U.S.S.R. had signed the nonaggression treaty with
Nazi Germany, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939. A few days later
the Germans invaded Poland, and World War II began.

The Soviet official, Alexandrov by name, explained to the Czech delegation
that had the Soviet Union signed an agreement with the West, Hitler would
not have dared to launch a war, and without that war there would have been
no possibility of imposing communism in Europe. He also listed the benefits
to the Soviet Union of the pact with Nazi Germany, and of the war.

The veracity of the document must be proved, and even if it turns out to be
genuine, its significance is worthy of debate. Mischa Shauli is continuing
his investigation. No, he said this week, he does not fear that shifting
responsibility for the war from Hitler to Stalin "acquits" Hitler; he is
responsible for other crimes.