War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Valentin Berezhkov, 1986 [1]

Item Information

Title:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Valentin Berezhkov, 1986 [1]
Description:
Valentin Berezhkov was Joseph Stalin's interpreter at conferences with Roosevelt and Churchill during World War II. In this first interview he begins with a lengthy description of the issues surrounding the Hitler-Stalin pact, including Soviet reactions when the Germans broke the agreement. He claims that the pact was essentially forced on the Kremlin by the West's hostile policies. He assesses the Grand Alliance and sketches Stalin's attitudes toward each of the allies, principally Roosevelt and Churchill. In recounting the Potsdam Conference he asserts that Stalin understood immediately the import of Truman's revelation of a nuclear test, and took it as an effort at blackmail linked to revisiting the question of Poland's borders, and beyond that to a more confrontational attitude toward the USSR. He notes as a sign of American and British untrustworthiness their decision not to share information with Moscow about the bomb earlier. He then discusses the post-war European order and Soviet understanding of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, both of which Mr. Berezhkov believes were directed against the USSR and were signs of Truman's more combative stance toward Moscow. He closes by stating that Stalin viewed the underlying objective of the bombing of Japan as being mainly "to make an impression" on the rest of the world.
Interviewee:
Berezhkov, V. M. (Valentin Mikhailovich), 1916-
Date:
March 25, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
WGBH > War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Global Affairs
Military Forces and Armaments
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 1893-1946
Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich, 1890-1986
Meissner, Otto
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Yalta Conference (1945)
Potsdam Conference (1945 : Potsdam, Germany)
World War II
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Communism
Capitalism
Nuclear weapons
Soviet Union
Germany
France
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953
Germany. Treaties, etc. Soviet Union, 1939 August 23
Teheran Conference (1943)
Great Britain
United States
Japan
Poland
Europe, Eastern
Zhukov, Georgii Konstantinovich, 1896-1974
Extent:
00:56:54
Link to Item:
http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-m901z4228j
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation