victor is always right! Thus, in this war I have only the dictates
of my own conscience to follow.... Ice-cool, I shall resort to ac-
tions that will probably violate every valid law of nations. What
we need is space. And I hope to acquire the space we need in the
east.”
According to Colonel Beppo Schmid, Hitler had convinced
Göring of the vital importance of satisfying every political and
economic demand that the Soviets made meanwhile. Germany
relied on Soviet deliveries of oil, rare metals, and foodstuffs. The
Trans-Siberian Railroad was the one blockade-proof route for
the rubber and other supplies coming from the Far East. As
head of the Four-Year Plan, Göring had no option but to com-
ply, although he already bore the more irksome side effects of
the Nazi-Soviet pact, like the permanent attachment to his staff
of a swarthy little Russian liaison officer, Colonel Skornyakov,
with greater fortitude than courtesy (he referred to him openly
as “that bastard son of a vodkaholic”).
The field marshal was shocked as the extent of the Soviet
trade demands became known that December of . They in-
cluded not only German machine tools, weapons, and blue-
prints, but entire warships like the brand-new cruiser Lützow.
Ambassador Karl Ritter, who had conducted the trade talks in
Moscow, reported to Göring in mid-December:
Ambassador Ritter, December [as Göring jotted
in his diary]. Russian negotiations, promises: ,
tons of petroleum, , cotton, , flax,
,, wheat. Eighty million marks of timber; huge
quantities of manganese.
Our demands: butter, scrap metal, iron ore, flax,
oil plants, and oil cake.The trade talks were continued in Germany, and each item on