Interview with Valentin Berezhkov, 1986 [1]

Item Information

Title:
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):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Meissner, Otto
Yalta Conference (1945)
Communism
Europe, Eastern
Potsdam Conference (1945 : Potsdam, Germany)
Great Britain
Capitalism
Nuclear weapons
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
World War II
Teheran Conference (1943)
Soviet Union
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 1893-1946
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
Zhukov, Georgii Konstantinovich, 1896-1974
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
Germany. Treaties, etc. Soviet Union, 1939 August 23
Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich, 1890-1986
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953
Places:
Belarus
United States
France
Japan
Germany
Poland
Moscow, USSR
Extent:
00:56:54:13
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_01211D7330DD413DA6B6CEBC76331312
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_01211D7330DD413DA6B6CEBC76331312