



MOLOTOV'S RADIO SPEECH: THE GERMANS ARE COMING - 1941

Our Cause Is Just

Go here for more about Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov .



Go here for more about Molotov's radio announcement . It follows the English translation of the full text transcript of Molotov's Our Cause Is Just speech, aired on June 22, 1941. Go here for the original Russian version of this speech .





Citizens of the Soviet Union: The Soviet Government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have authorized me to make the following statement:



Today at 4:00 o'clock a.m., without any claims having been presented to the Soviet Union, without a declaration of war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders at many points and bombed from their airplanes our cities Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas, and some others, killing and wounding over two hundred persons. Enemy air raids and artillery bombardment commenced also from bases in Rumania and Finland. This unheard of attack upon our country is perfidy unparalleled in the history of civilized nations. The attack on our country was perpetrated despite the fact that a treaty of non-aggression had been signed between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, and that the Soviet Government most faithfully abided by all provisions of this treaty. The attack upon our country was perpetrated despite the fact that during the entire period of operation of this treaty, the German Government could not find grounds for a single complaint against the USSR as regards observance of this treaty. The entire responsibility for this predatory attack upon the Soviet Union falls fully and completely upon the German Fascist rulers.



At 5:30 a.m., that is, after the attack had already been perpetrated, Von der Schulenburg, the German Ambassador in Moscow, on behalf of his government made the statement to me as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs to the effect that the German Government had decided to launch war against the U.S.S.R. because of the concentration of Red Army units near the eastern German border.



I replied on behalf of the Soviet Government that up to the last minute the German Government had not presented any claims to the Soviet Government, that Germany had attacked the U.S.S.R. in spite of the peaceful position of the Soviet Union, and that therefore Fascist Germany indisputably is the aggressor in this affair.



I must also emphasize, as spokesman for the Government of the Soviet Union, that our troops and our aircraft have committed no violation of the border at any point, and that therefore the announcement made this morning over Rumanian radio, alleging that Soviet aircraft had fired at Rumanian airports, is a complete lie and a provocation, attempting retroactively to cook up incriminating evidence against the Soviet Union for alleged non observance of the terms of the Soviet-German Pact.



Now, however, that the attack against the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet Government has issued an order to our troops to repulse the robber attack and to drive the German troops from our Motherland.



This war has been forced upon us, not by the German people, not by the German workers, peasants, or intellectuals whose sufferings we well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of Germany who have enslaved the French, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece, and other nations.



The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable conviction that our valiant Army and Navy and the daring hawks of the Soviet Air Force will discharge with honor their duties towards the Motherland and the Soviet people and will deal a crushing blow to the aggressor. This is not the first time that our nation has had to deal with an attack of an arrogant foe. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia our people's reply was war for the fatherland, and Napoleon suffered defeat and met his doom. It will be the same with Hitler, who in his arrogance has proclaimed a new crusade against our country. The Red Army and our entire nation will once again wage victorious war for the fatherland, for our country, for honor, for liberty.



The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its firm conviction that the entire population of our country, the workers, the peasants and the intelligentsia, every individual man and woman, will regard their obligations and their work with full awareness. The whole country must now be joined and united as never before. Each one of us must demand from himself or herself and from each other the discipline, the organization, and the selflessness worthy of a real Soviet patriot in order to supply the Red Army, the Red Fleet, and the Air Force with the means necessary to assure victory over the enemy.



The Government calls upon you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet Government, around our great leader and comrade, Stalin.



Our cause is just. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours.



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