Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front by Serhii Plokhy

Author:Serhii Plokhy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780190061036
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Soviet interference with the American parties at Poltava leaves little doubt that SMERSH and security officers like Major Zorin were acquiring more and more power at the base, sidelining military commanders like Kovalev. Many Americans knew that they were under surveillance, and that knowledge, coupled with frustration gathering over the previous weeks and months, contributed to their growing desire to have as little as possible to do with the Soviets.

In February, Zorin filed a report decrying the deterioration of Soviet-American relations at the base and citing numerous examples to show that the Americans were limiting Soviet officers’ access to their base and were under orders not to socialize too much with the Soviets or tell them anything.

The SMERSH officers blamed the American change of attitude not on their own actions, but on the anti-Soviet views of the American commanders. “Changes of attitude on the part of the American command,” wrote Zorin, “are to be explained by the hostility of the remaining leadership to the Soviet Union.” The report quoted no less a figure than Colonel Hampton, who had allegedly told one of SMERSH’s informers: “You are trying to impose your Marxism everywhere, but it’s already out of date for America. We have people who refuted Marx long ago.”

Zorin also cited an episode in which Hampton took off from the Poltava airfield in a Douglas aircraft even though General Kovalev had refused to clear the flight, as he was waiting for a go-ahead from Moscow. Hampton refused to wait. He had just returned from the Saki airport in the Crimea, where he was making preparations for the arrival of the Big Three for the Yalta Conference, and had to fly back to continue his work. Fed up with Soviet delays and obstructionism, he was in no mood to tolerate them any longer.14 The fraying of the Grand Alliance continued apace.

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