Schulenburg's tears

[DavidFrankenberg]

It is said that at the outbreak of war between USSR and Germany, the embassador of Hitler cried a lot when he announced it to the Soviet foreign minister Molotov. Schuleburg, it is said, had a reputation of Russia's lover...

In what extent is it true ?
Did Molotov confirm this ?

[Art]

According to Molotov's recollections (recorded by Felix Chuyev) Schulenburg was 'calm. Of course, he was not able to do anything'. According to an official minute Schulenburg expressed his deep regret several times and the conversion ended with him saying that he spent 6 years striving or friendly relations between Germany and SU, by he couldn't do anything against the fatum.

[Der Alte Fritz]

There was a group of Foreign Office official and military officers (attaches) who thought rapprochement with Soviet Union was a better course and had years of working with the Soviets.

[DavidFrankenberg]

According to Molotov's recollections (recorded by Felix Chuyev) Schulenburg was 'calm. Of course, he was not able to do anything'. According to an official minute Schulenburg expressed his deep regret several times and the conversion ended with him saying that he spent 6 years striving or friendly relations between Germany and SU, by he couldn't do anything against the fatum.

So it is a fairy tale in order to make Schulenburg more human than he was.

[GregSingh]

The story has some merit to it.
Wet eyes are quite common even these days when these guys are suddenly recalled from lucrative overseas/foreign posts.
Perhaps he wasn't necessary sad about a war breaking out, but losing his job over there!

[DavidFrankenberg]

Schulenburg is often depicted as a soviet sympathiser. He is supposed to have cried in 1941, he is supposed to have been a great admirer of the russian people etc...

But i what extent all this is true ?

Molotov said that he did not cry at all in 1941.
He also added that Schulenburg did not speak russian... he hardly he understood it and could not speak it well...
Could he be a great admirer of russian culture without speaking its language ?

All is said about him in the books does not seem very honest.

In the same order of idea, Ribbentrop is alos often described as a great fan of the soviet alliance... Beevor says in his Stalingrad that Ribbentrop told Dekanozov "say in Moscow that i was personnaly against this war"...
But is it true ?
Ribbentrop is often described as a cold and antipathic person, the Hitler's puppet, by Ciano or Molotov and many others. Could he tell such words to Dekanozov in 1941 ? It's doubtful.

[DavidFrankenberg]

It was Hilger, the counsellor of Schulenburg, who could not help crying when he gave the note of the declaration of war to Molotov the night of the 22 june of 1941.
Why did he cry ?
His mother was russian.

The same Hilger lost his son, shot dead in front of Moscow, during the winter 1941.
He was Hitler's translator during the Molotv visit in 1940.

Molotov said so to Chuev.

[stg 44]

Schulenburg is often depicted as a soviet sympathiser. He is supposed to have cried in 1941, he is supposed to have been a great admirer of the russian people etc...

But i what extent all this is true ?

Molotov said that he did not cry at all in 1941.
He also added that Schulenburg did not speak russian... he hardly he understood it and could not speak it well...
Could he be a great admirer of russian culture without speaking its language ?

All is said about him in the books does not seem very honest.

There is a lot of misinformation and stories that have a tendency to get repeated in the literature without being examined.

Schulenburg was a great proponent of an alliance with the Soviets and as a result of Hitler freezing him out of policy towards the Soviets and declaring war he joined the resistance against Hitler, which got him executed after the July plot failed.
I wouldn't take him not speaking Russian as a mark against his real feelings toward Russia or their culture, it's a difficult language and he was only assigned to the country late in life, which is hard time to try and learn a new language. He was 59 years old when first posted to Russia after a long career of serving in roughly 10 different nations, including being ambassador to Persia for 9 years. That's pretty darn late to be trying to learn a language, especially one as difficult and different to Germanic languages as Russian.

Russian language wikipedia is pretty favorable to the idea he was pro-Russian, at least insofar as an alliance between Russia and Germany was a good idea:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A8%D1 ... 0%B2%D0%B5

[DavidFrankenberg]

Schulenburg is often depicted as a soviet sympathiser. He is supposed to have cried in 1941, he is supposed to have been a great admirer of the russian people etc...

But i what extent all this is true ?

Molotov said that he did not cry at all in 1941.
He also added that Schulenburg did not speak russian... he hardly he understood it and could not speak it well...
Could he be a great admirer of russian culture without speaking its language ?

All is said about him in the books does not seem very honest.

There is a lot of misinformation and stories that have a tendency to get repeated in the literature without being examined.

Schulenburg was a great proponent of an alliance with the Soviets and as a result of Hitler freezing him out of policy towards the Soviets and declaring war he joined the resistance against Hitler, which got him executed after the July plot failed.
I wouldn't take him not speaking Russian as a mark against his real feelings toward Russia or their culture, it's a difficult language and he was only assigned to the country late in life, which is hard time to try and learn a new language. He was 59 years old when first posted to Russia after a long career of serving in roughly 10 different nations, including being ambassador to Persia for 9 years. That's pretty darn late to be trying to learn a language, especially one as difficult and different to Germanic languages as Russian.

Russian language wikipedia is pretty favorable to the idea he was pro-Russian, at least insofar as an alliance between Russia and Germany was a good idea:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A8%D1 ... 0%B2%D0%B5

You are right. Indeed, there is no reason to think that Schulenburg was particularly antirussian.
Molotov didnt say he was antirussian, but just that he was pretty cold.
Whatever, he didnt cry the 22 june, his counsellor Hilger did, which is understandable since his mother was russian and since he lived for 40 years in Russia.