Leningrad, Soviet Union
Have you ever noticed that in almost every photo of prominent politicians, there are a group of nondescript individuals milling around behind them? You recognize the frontmen, but the faces of the people in the background don’t always register.
The “leaders”, the ones in the front row, are the bombasts, the populists. They are the ones who tell you what you want to hear.
The people in the back row are the architects, they decide what you want to hear.
It is important to listen to the President, Chancellor, Führer, Chairman, Dear Leader, or whatever other Grandiose Title has to say, but to understand what is going to happen next in politics, we should pay closer attention to the quiet bureaucrats in the back row.
Assuming we can get anywhere near them; effective backroom players are ghosts.
Take for example, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin, the fellow behind Stalin in the photo above, wearing a hat. You have probably never heard of him, I hadn’t either, but Skyrabin’s influence on the outcome of 20th century political affairs was monumental.
Skryabin was “shy” and “quiet” as a teenager, but politically driven. He was educated at St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute and pursued a career in journalism. He joined the editorial staff of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, where he met Joseph Stalin and other prominent Communists.
Skryabin urgently wanted to be in the inner circle of the Bolshevik movement, but the reserved journalist was not attracting the attention of its leaders. In a bold move, Skryabin decided to gain some notoriety by changing his name.
The Soviet hammer and sickle emblem represents the collective industrial and agricultural strength of the Soviet Union.
In Russian, hammer is a “molot”.
Skryabin chose the name “Molotov”. He believed that the hammer reference had an “industrial and proletarian” ring to it, which he felt would endear him to powerful Soviet leaders. It worked!
In the years that followed, Molotov worked his way up the political ladder, becoming one of Joseph Stalin’s closest allies. At various times, he held positions within the Party, with titles that only a communist bureaucracy is capable of:
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers,
Responsible Secretary of the Russian Communist Party, and
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
Molotov became one of the most highly regarded influencers of the 20th century. He was very well known in senior political circles, but virtually unknown on the street.
Molotov became a member of the Soviet Military Revolutionary Committee, which planned the October Revolution and effectively brought the Bolsheviks to power.
In 1939, just before WWII, Molotov assumed the powerful assignment of Foreign Minister. In that position, he was responsible for negotiating with foreign powers worldwide.
Molotov (far left) was the only person to have shaken hands with Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler, but most people couldn’t have identified him in a coffee shop.
Molotov’s assignments during WWII read like a James Bond movie…
“After the German invasion, Molotov conducted urgent negotiations with the British and then the Americans for wartime alliances. He took a secret flight to Scotland, where he was greeted by high-ranking Allied personnel. The risky flight in a high-altitude Tupolev TB-7 bomber flew over German-occupied Denmark and the North Sea. From there, he took a train to London to discuss the possibility of opening a second front against Germany.”
After signing the Anglo–Soviet Treaty of 1942, Molotov left for Washington. He met US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On his flight back to the Soviet Union, his plane was attacked by German fighters and later mistakenly by Soviet fighters. Both missed.
Winston Churchill referred to Molotov as “… a man of outstanding ability and cold-blooded ruthlessness”.
The former US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said: “I have seen in action all the great international statesmen of this century. I have never seen such personal diplomatic skill at so high a degree of perfection as Molotov’s.”
Molotov (far right) with Joseph Stalin and President Truman.
Molotov continued his political career after the war. He held various notable positions in government but never achieved broad public recognition. He retired (some would say, “was shoved aside”) in 1961.
According to Stalin’s daughter, Molotov became very subservient to his wife in his declining years. “Molotov was a yes-man to his wife just as he was to Stalin”.
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (nee Skryabin) died in 1986 (96 years).
For all he accomplished, Molotov is remembered most for this…
During the Winter War of 1939-40, where the Soviet Union attacked Finland, Molotov was assigned foreign affairs duties as a propagandist. He declared on Soviet state radio that incendiary bombing missions over Finland were actually …
…”airborne humanitarian food deliveries” for their “starving” neighbours”.
The Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet incendiary cluster bombs “Molotov bread baskets” in reference to Molotov’s propaganda broadcasts.
In retaliation, the Finns developed a hand-held bottle firebomb to attack and destroy Soviet tanks. The Finns called it “a drink to go with his food parcels”, a …
… “Molotov Cocktail”.
Finish soldiers with Molotov Cocktail firebombs.
Canadian soldier in training. You never know when we might have use for one of Molotov’s Cocktails.
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