favourable to England, and that is manifested in stressing, perhaps excessively, Great Britain’s naval and air power and detailed commentary on every English victory in Albania or Africa. Since the war in the Balkans the press has showed its dissatisfaction with the imperative to write about Germany as an ally. At the same time it has been clearly favourable to Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria.609
Opinions of MOPR agitators and party speakers cast some light on political tendencies. Most people think that Russia wants to engage in the war as late as during its final, decisive stage, letting the two sides murder each other and become weak and incapable of active defence. Only then will Russia intervene and commence the victorious march of the international proletarian revolution. For now the Soviet Union has undertaken to support the weaker one so that it does not become swallowed too soon by the stronger one. When the chances become even after one will have murdered the other, Russia will be supplied, fresh, not exhausted, and strongest. So far Germany has no business in a war against Russia. It is intending peace for as long as possible in the East to have freedom of movement in the war against England and America. England is striving for the best possible relations with the Soviet Union and it does not want to engage in a conflict at any price in the hope that Germany will eventually have to engage in the East. The later Russia steps in, the worse for Germany and England, and the better for Russia. The Soviet Union’s time will come when the exhausted Germany breaks down. The proletariat will have its say then and it will receive help from the brotherly Red Army, which arm in arm with the German revolutionary army will establish the new order in the entirety of Europe. Or maybe Russia will undergo such an evolution in its imperialism that it will share the British possessions [5] with Germany, Japan, and Italy. In return for Finland, part of Romania, the Dardanelles, Western China, and Indian territory to the River Ganges they could actively help Germany destroy the British power. This opinion is popular predominantly among defeatists and pessimists who are overwhelmed by Germany’s successes and the Soviet Union’s concessions. By contrast, the pervading opinion among optimists and communists, blinded by faith in the indestructible
