Советская внешняя политика и дипломатия 1939 – 1941 гг.: нетривиальный взгляд на события.

Content: The collection contains articles by famous Russian historians M. I. Meltyukhov and V. A. Nevezhin, as well as by an independent researcher A. Libin (Israel). The publications of M. I. Meltyukhov and A. Libin, which deal with the most important events in the international arena related to the genesis of the grandiose armed conflict that broke out in September 1939 and gradually assumed a planetary character, are of a generalizing nature. At the same time, both authors are by no means unambiguous in their assessments of the geopolitical factor and the role of the USSR in this process. M. I. Meltyukhov also carried out a detailed source analysis of the texts of the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany of August 23, 1939 and the secret protocol to it, finding a number of inconsistencies and inconsistencies in their versions published in the West and in Russia and attempting to explain this circumstance . V. A. Nevezhin, based mainly on previously unknown archival materials, highlights the role of I. V. Stalin and the Soviet media in the propaganda support of the foreign policy actions of the USSR. The attention of the historian was attracted by the anonymous newspaper publications preserved in Stalin's personal fund, partially or completely written by the leader and placed on the pages of Izvestia and Pravda. V. A. Nevezhin also for the first time introduces into scientific circulation the documents of the RGASPI and the AVP of the Russian Federation on the Soviet reaction to the neutrality treaty between the USSR and Japan of April 13, 1941. A. Libin belongs to the original interpretation of the motives that forced I. V. Stalin, a month before the German attack on the USSR, to publish his long-standing closed letter about the article by F. Engels "Foreign policy of Russian tsarism." (g)