Russia's Life-Saver: Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R. in World War II

187 Pages·2004·0.67 MB·English

by  Albert L. Weeks

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U.S. History (cid:129) Soviet History e
e
k R U S S I A ’ S
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“Russia’s Life-Saver lifts the curtain on exactly how crucial U.S. Lend-
Lease aid was to the U.S.S.R.’s eventual success against Germany in World
War II. Until now, all we in the West could really do was guess. We, of
L I F E - S A V E R
course, knew what we had lent (the numerator) but we didn’t know what
the secretive Soviets needed (the denominator). Using new evidence from
previously closed Russian archives and new research by native Russian his-
torians, and offering gripping conclusions, Albert L.s Weeks sets the record
R
straight about this truly pivotal period of twentieth-century history.”
L E N D - L E A S E A I D T O T H E
—Kenneth MacWilliams, U.S. private investor in Russia U
U . S . S . R . I N W O R L D W A R I I
since 1991, former Wall Street executive
S
S
The United States shipped more than $12 billion in Lend-Lease aid to
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Stalin’s Russia during World War II. Materials lent, beginning in late 1941
A
before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, included airplanes and tanks,
’
locomotives and rails, construction materials, entire military production
S
assembly lines, food and clothing, aviation fuel, and much else. Lend-Lease

is now recognized by post-Soviet Russian historians as essential to the Soviet L
war effort. Wielding many facts and statistics never before published in the I
United States, Albert L. Weeks keenly analyzes the diplomatic rationale for F
and results of this assistance. Russia’s Life-Saver is a brilliant contribution to E
the study of U.S.-Soviet relations and their role in World War II.
-
S
Albert L. Weeks has been an expert on Soviet Russia for more than A
fifty years. Weeks has served as a journalist, policy analyst, and profes-
V
sor and is credited with coining the name Sputnik while working for
Newsweek in 1957. His books include Stalin’s Other War (Rowman & E
Littlefield, 2002). R
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Russia’s Life-Saver

Russia’s Life-Saver
Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R.
in World War II
Albert L. Weeks
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2004 by Lexington Books
First paperback edition 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weeks, Albert Loren, 1923–
Russia’s life-saver : lend-lease aid to the U.S.S.R. in World War II /
Albert L. Weeks.
p. cm.
1. Lend-lease operations (1941–1945) 2. World War,
1939–1945—Equipment and supplies. 3. United States—Foreign
relations—Soviet Union. 4. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—United
States. 5. United States—Military relations—Soviet Union. 6. Soviet
Union—Military relations—United States. I. Title.
D753.2.R9W44 2004
940.53'2273—dc22
2003020274
978-0-7391-0736-2 (cloth alk. paper)
978-0-7391-4563-0 (pbk. alk. paper)
978-0-7391-6054-1 (electronic)
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
Assistance to Communist U.S.S.R. 4
Role of Soviet “Agents of Influence” 7
Today’s Assessments 7
2 The “Arsenal of Democracy” 11
America Edges toward War 12
The American Factor 14
Stalin Zigzags 15
Two-Pronged Approach 18
The “American Colossus” 20
The Birth of Lend-Lease 22
Lend-Lease Underway 25
Soviet Propaganda on Lend-Lease 28
3 Stalin and America 31
Dealing with the Man in Charge, Stalin 32
Stalin’s Weapon of Diplomacy 38
Stalin and FDR 39
Spies and Agents of Influence 41
Armand Hammer’s Role 49
4 Historical Roots of Lend-Lease—I 52
Traditional Russian-American Ties 54
Earliest Phase of Friendship 55
v
vi Contents
Russia in the American Northwest 58
Russia and the American Civil War 59
“Seward’s Folly” 63
5 Historical Roots of Lend-Lease—II 65
Russian-American Economic Ties 65
Earliest Period of U.S. Technological Assistance 68
Assistance in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 71
Railroad Building 72
Agricultural Machinery 74
U.S. Railroad Commission in Russia, 1917 76
Miscellaneous Technological Assistance 78
U.S. Technological Aid during the Soviet Period 80
6 Western-Soviet Relations before “Barbarossa” 86
Ambivalence toward Germany 87
America at a Distance 89
Perishable Nazi-Soviet Alliance 90
Warming toward the U.S.? 92
New Tensions with Germany 93
Shift toward the West 94
Preinvasion Détente Trend 96
“Ignoring” Warnings of Attack 98
The Welles-Umansky Talks 99
Demarche 103
7 The “Strange Alliance” Is Born 107
The Great Patriotic War Begins 108
Onwards to Aid 110
The First U.S.-Soviet Lend-Lease Talks 111
Planning the Main Routes 112
“The Russians Are Coming” 114
Lend-Lease Details 115
Trusting and Verifying 121
Vital Food Aid 122
Spasibo. . . But . . . 124
8 Summation: Will the Debt Be Repaid? 128
Silver Bullion to Stalin 129
Settling the Debt Issue 133
The “Gratitude Factor” 135
APPENDIX Mutual Aid Agreement between the
United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:
June 11, 1942 137
Contents vii
TABLES
Table I Lend-Lease Shipments to the Soviet Union
by Time Period, etc. 141
Table II Aircraft Deliveries to the Soviet Union (by Route) 144
Table III Aircraft Deliveries to the Soviet Union
(by Type and Route) 145
Table IV Vehicles Delivered to the Soviet Union
under the Lend-Lease Program 146
Table V Random Exports to the Soviet Union
under the Lend-Lease Program 147
Table VI Distribution of Tonnage by Ship Registry
(Vessels Involved in the Transfer of Lend-Lease to the
Soviet Union) 152
Table VII Cargo Shipped from the Western Hemisphere
to the Soviet Union 152
Bibliography 153
Index 165
About theAuthor 175

Preface
The present study of Lend-Lease was inspired by significant new re-
search, findings, and analysis published in Russia by native histori-
ans. During the last two years these histories about the wartime aid have
turned up new evidence from previously closed Russian archives.
On the successive sixtieth anniversaries of various phases of this crucial
aid to the U.S.S.R. that began in late 1941 and continued through 1945, it
is an appropriate time to update the most comprehensive study of Lend-
Lease to Soviet Russia written over thirty years ago by an American
scholar working on the topic at the time of Brezhnev’s tightly closed
regime. A second remaining major study on Lend-Lease is over fifteen
years old. Like the first, it is lacking in new data.1
Two courageous, assiduous Russian historians, Boris V. Sokolov and
Alla Paperno, joined by a few other, younger native scholars, have broken
through what they call the enforced silence surrounding the true extent
and effect of the assistance given the Soviets by the estimated $12.5 billion
worth of U.S. Lend-Lease during World War II. Their book-length works
were published in the late 1990s and in 2001.2Articles by them continue
to appear in Russian scholarly journals. One such piece of research, by
Russian historian Aleksandr Vislykh appeared in the November 12, 2001
edition of the Russian publication, Independent Military Observer(Nezavisi-
moye voyennoye obozreniye), bearing the title ”Lifesaver Lend-Lease: It Is
Not Necessary to Minimize Its Importance in Our Victory in the Great Pa-
triotic War” (”Spasitel’nii Lend-Liz Ne nado preumenshivat’ ego zacheniye v
nashei pobede v Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voine, in Nezavisimoye obozreniy”
[Independent Observer]).
ix