COMRADE WINTERS LONDON JOURNEY - AMBASSADOR MAISKY

Comrade Colonel Professor Winters finally took the plunge and entered the Soviet Embassy at 13, Kensington Gardens. He was met in the entrance hall by none other than the Soviet Ambassador himself, Ivan Maisky:

Mr Ambassador Maisky, making clear his one allegiance.

Always a resourceful diplomat, Maisky kept this bust of Lenin to hand,
perhaps as an insurance policy in the case of political change in Moscow.

Stalin's purge of the Red Army and Navy, launched in the Summer of 1937, resulted in the liquidation of three out of five marshals of the Red Army, 13 out of 15 army commanders, eight out of nine admirals, 50 out of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, all of the Red Army's senior commissars (16 in total) and 25 out of 28 commissars of army corps. With such a terrible record, Comrade Colonel Professor Winters knew that his chances of survival were slim indeed.

But Maisky was smiling....

Ambassador Maisky at his desk - and smiling.

He could absolutely assure Comrade Winters that Comrade Stalin had no intention of recalling him from his vital command in Herefordshire; the thought of Winters' so-called "liquidation" had never even entered Stalin's mind. To the contrary, Comrade Stalin was his greatest admirer, and looked forward to the day when Winters finally established the mighty Herefordshire Soviet.

A message between Comrades, Stalin to Winters.
Liquidation had never entered his mind, honestly.

As a token of Stalin's esteem, arrangements had been made for certain very heavy weapons to be released from the Red Army's armoury and transported to Presteigne, and Stalin would be happy to hear of Winters' future military intentions...

VBCW Historical Notes

(1). There is still considerable debate in VBCW historical circles as to the reasons why, following the Disaster at Dinmore, Stalin changed his mind about the repatriation and liquidation of Winters. It may have been simply a matter of timing, for there were already strong rumours of an imminent Government counter-offensive in Herefordshire. It may therefore have been thought inadvisable to change Communist leadership at this precise point. There may also have been an intervention from the Liverpool Free State (LFS), with whom it is known that Winters had strong contacts - Stalin would have been wary of losing access to the port of Liverpool and "control" of the aircraft carrier, Red Invergordon. The best analysis seems to be that Winters' promised Stalin increased productivity from the Presteigne Motor Works (PMW), and also provided detailed plans for a Communist Victory even in the face of battlefield defeat - the so called "Special Revolutionary Operation". 

(2). Maisky kept a diary throughout his time as Ambassador to London. Aware that the diary could be subsequently be used against him, Maisky clearly "self edited" his true thoughts during its compilation. When the transcript then fell into the hands of the KGB, it was again edited; and then again for publication. It must be for these reasons that the published Maisky Diaries contain no mention of the VBCW, nor of Comrade Colonel Professor Winters and his visit to the Soviet Embassy.

(3). Maisky was himself "recalled to Moscow" in 1943. A decade later, during the post-war Stalinist purge centred around the so-called "Doctor's Plot", he was arrested and threatened with torture, subsequently "confessing" to have been a foreign spy for both the Japanese and, following his recruitment by Winston Churchill personally, the British. Maisky was only saved from execution by the death of Stalin in March 1953. Upon being told the news, Maisky refused to be believe it, thinking it a trap: he continued to insist upon his "confession" to having been a spy. It was only when Maisky was reunited with his wife and shown film of Stalin's funeral that he felt safe enough to retract the whole invented story. For Maisky's bio see his WIKI entry HERE.