Molotoff Predicts USSR Will Crush Nazi Invaders

[Globalization41]

Moscow, Associated Press, The New York
Times, Sunday, June 22, 1941: As Germany
struck at Russia by land and air in a dawn
invasion today the Soviet immediately accepted
the challenge, hurling the might of its Red
Army against the Nazis. ... The text of
Foreign Minister Vyacheslaff Molotoff's first
broadcast to the nation, six hours after the
outbreak of the war with Germany as translated
by Tass, the Russian news agency, follows:
Citizens of the Soviet Union: The Soviet
Government and its head, Comrade Stalin,
have authorized me to make the following
announcement: Today at 4 o'clock A.M.,
without any claims having been presented to
the Soviet Union, without declaration of war,
German troops attacked our borders at many
points and bombed from their airplanes our
cities Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas, and
some others, killing or wounding over 200
persons. ... There were also enemy air raids
and artillery shelling from Rumanian and
Finnish territory. ... 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 nonaggression had
been signed between the U.S.S.R. and
Germany and that the Soviet Government had
most faithfully abided by all provisions of the
treaty. ... The attack on the Soviet Union was
perpetrated despite the fact that during the
entire period of operation of this treaty of
nonaggression the German Government could
not find grounds for a single complaint against
the U.S.S.R. 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 of
Foreign Affairs to the effect that the German
Government had decided to launch war against
the U.S.S.R. in connection with the
concentration of Red Army units near the
eastern German frontier. ... In reply to this I
stated on behalf of the Soviet Government that,
until the very last moment, the German
Government had not presented any claims to
the Soviet Government, and for this reason
Fascist Germany is the aggressor. ... On
instruction of the government of the Soviet
Union I also stated that at no point had our
troops or our air force committed a violation of
the frontier and therefore the statement made
this morning by the Rumanian radio to the
effect that Soviet aircraft allegedly had fired on
Rumanian airdromes is a sheer lie and
provocation. ... Likewise a lie and
provocation is the whole declaration made
today by Hitler, who is trying belatedly to
concoct accusations charging the Soviet Union
with failure to observe the Soviet-German pact.
... Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has
already been committed, the Soviet
Government has ordered our troops to repulse
the predatory assault and to drive German
troops from the territory of our country. ...
This war has been forced upon us, not by the
German people, not by the German workers,
peasants, and intellectuals, whose sufferings we
well understand, but by a clique of bloodthirsty
Fascist rulers of Germany who have enslaved
France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Serbia,
Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece,
and other nations. ... The government
of the Soviet Union expresses its
unshakable confidence that our valiant army
and navy and brave falcons of the Soviet Air
Force will acquit themselves with honor in
performing their duty to the fatherland and to
the Soviet people, and will inflict a crushing
blow upon the aggressor. ... This is not the
first time that our people have 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 people will
again wage victorious war for the fatherland,
for our country, for honor, for liberty. ... The
government of the Soviet Union
expresses the firm conviction that the whole
population of our country, all workers,
peasants, and intellectuals, men and women,
will conscientiously perform their duties and do
their work. Our entire people must now stand
solid and united as never before. ... Each one
of us must demand of himself and of others
discipline, organization, and self-denial worthy
of real Soviet patriots, in order to provide for
all needs of the Red Army, Navy, and Air
Force, to insure 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 great
leader and comrade, Stalin. Ours is a
righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated.
Victory will be ours.

Lisbon, Portugal, Associated Press, The New
York Times, Sunday, June 22, 1941: The
fishing boat Fafe today brought in 26 survivors
of the 6,670-ton Portuguese freighter Ganda,
who said an unidentified submarine torpedoed
the vessel May 20, two days out of Lisbon.
The Ganda carried a crew of 50 and 21
passengers. Fate of the missing 45 was not
known. Several survivors were wounded.

Stockholm, Sweden, United Press, The New
York Times, Sunday, June 22, 1941: German
troops were reported attacking the Russian
Army on the Karelian Isthmus in a thrust
toward Leningrad today. ... The Swedish
newspaper Allehanda reported from Helsinki
that the Finns and Germans were smashing at
the Red Army on land captured by the Soviet
in the Russian-Finnish war. There were no
details as to progress of the fighting. [Finland
was denying these clashes.] ... Inhabitants of
the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic
reported that about 2 A.M. they heard gunfire
or explosions from the direction of Latvia so
strong that houses were shaking.

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... Globalization41.]