Page 317 - The Chief Culprit

262 y e Chief Culprit

asked Stalin. When Molotov answered that he, Stalin, was in power, the latter looked at
Molotov with surprise, but said nothing. ‘Fine,’ he eventually pronounced. 3

e members of the Politburo hadn’t come to arrest Stalin. ey needed Stalin as a
symbol, a flag around which the remnants of a crushed division would rally in battle. ey
talked of saving the country, but Stalin did not listen to them. Without taking Europe, with-
out expanding the Soviet Union’s borders, the USSR would sooner or later crumble. Stalin
had lost the country founded by Lenin. In 1941, only Stalin could appreciate the full weight
of the German invasion. In 1941, the members of the Politburo could not fully understand
that Hitler’s invasion meant death for the Soviet Union. e Politburo forced Stalin to re-
sume power, and Stalin, with a careless wave of the hand, returned, fully aware that the cause
he had worked for his whole life was dead.