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MOLOTOV'S RADIO SPEECH: THE GERMANS
ARE COMING - 1941
Our Cause Is Just
Go here for more about
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov.
Go here for more about
Molotov's radio announcement.
It follows the English
translation of the full text transcript of
Molotov's Our Cause Is Just speech, aired on
June 22, 1941.
Go here for the
original
Russian version of this speech.
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Citizens of the
Soviet Union: |
The Soviet
Government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have
authorized me to make the following statement:
Today at 4:00 o'clock a.m., without any claims
having been presented to the Soviet Union,
without a declaration of war, German troops
attacked our country, attacked our borders at
many points and bombed from their airplanes our
cities Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas, and
some others, killing and wounding over two
hundred persons. Enemy air raids and artillery
bombardment commenced also from bases in Rumania
and Finland.
This unheard of
attack upon our country is perfidy unparalleled
in the history of civilized nations. The attack
on our country was perpetrated despite the fact
that a treaty of non-aggression had been signed
between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, and that the
Soviet Government most faithfully abided by all
provisions of this treaty.
The attack upon
our country was perpetrated despite the fact
that during the entire period of operation of
this treaty, the German Government could not
find grounds for a single complaint against the
USSR as regards observance of this treaty.
The entire
responsibility for this predatory attack upon
the Soviet Union falls fully and completely upon
the German Fascist rulers.
At 5:30 a.m., that is, after the attack had
already been perpetrated, Von der Schulenburg,
the German Ambassador in Moscow, on behalf of
his government made the statement to me as
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs to the
effect that the German Government had decided to
launch war against the U.S.S.R. because of the
concentration of Red Army units near the eastern
German border.
I replied on behalf of the Soviet Government
that up to the last minute the German Government
had not presented any claims to the Soviet
Government, that Germany had attacked the
U.S.S.R. in spite of the peaceful position of
the Soviet Union, and that therefore Fascist
Germany indisputably is the aggressor in this
affair.
I must also emphasize, as spokesman for the
Government of the Soviet Union, that our troops
and our aircraft have committed no violation of
the border at any point, and that therefore the
announcement made this morning over Rumanian
radio, alleging that Soviet aircraft had fired
at Rumanian airports, is a complete lie and a
provocation, attempting retroactively to cook up
incriminating evidence against the Soviet Union
for alleged non observance of the terms of the
Soviet-German Pact.
Now, however, that the attack against the Soviet
Union has already taken place, the Soviet
Government has issued an order to our troops to
repulse the robber attack and to drive the
German troops from our Motherland.
This war has been forced upon us, not by the
German people, not by the German workers,
peasants, or intellectuals whose sufferings we
well understand, but by the clique of
bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of Germany who have
enslaved the French, Czechs, Poles, Serbs,
Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece, and
other nations.
The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its
unshakable conviction that our valiant Army and
Navy and the daring hawks of the Soviet Air
Force will discharge with honor their duties
towards the Motherland and the Soviet people and
will deal a crushing blow to the aggressor.
This is not the
first time that our nation has had to deal with
an attack of an arrogant foe. At the time of
Napoleon's invasion of Russia our people's reply
was war for the fatherland, and Napoleon
suffered defeat and met his doom.
It will be the
same with Hitler, who in his arrogance has
proclaimed a new crusade against our country.
The Red Army and our entire nation will once
again wage victorious war for the fatherland,
for our country, for honor, for liberty.
The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its
firm conviction that the entire population of
our country, the workers, the peasants and the
intelligentsia, every individual man and woman,
will regard their obligations and their work
with full awareness. The whole country must now
be joined and united as never before. Each one
of us must demand from himself or herself and
from each other the discipline, the
organization, and the selflessness worthy of a
real Soviet patriot in order to supply the Red
Army, the Red Fleet, and the Air Force with the
means necessary to assure victory over the
enemy.
The Government calls upon you, citizens of the
Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around
our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet
Government, around our great leader and comrade,
Stalin.
Our cause is just. The enemy shall be defeated.
Victory will be ours.
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