Stalin knew what Moscow stood for and what its loss would mean. He
confessed as much to Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's representative, when
he said to him, "If Moscow falls the Red Army will have to give up the
whole of Russia west of the Volga." Nothing can illustrate his
desperate mood more clearly than his request to Roosevelt, reported by
Hopkins: "He, Stalin, would welcome it if American troops appeared on
some sector of the Russian front, and, what is more, under the
unrestricted command of the US Army."
Isaac Deutscher, Stalin's biographer, very rightly points out: "This
is one of the most revealing remarks of Stalin that have been recorded
by the chroniclers of the Second World War." Indeed, it shows as
nothing else how desperately Stalin saw his own position.
..............'Hitler Moves East' by Paul Carell
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