S8 Ep886: Winston Churchill viewed the Soviet Union as a necessary bulwark against Hitler, leading him to treat Stalin as a "brother-in-arms" despite Soviet crimes. To keep the Russian army fighting as "cannon fodder," Churchill diverted crucial equipment—including

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Winston Churchill viewed the Soviet Union as a necessary bulwark against Hitler, leading him to treat Stalin as a "brother-in-arms" despite Soviet crimes. To keep the Russian army fighting as "cannon fodder," Churchill diverted crucial equipment—including 200 Hawker Hurricane fighters and tanks meant for Singapore and North Africa—directly to Stalin. This massive transfer of resources retarded Britain's own domestic manufacturing and aircraft industries. Sean McMeekin argues that Churchill's "historical imagination" allowed the British to avoid direct land combat with Germany for several years while the Russians suffered the brunt of the casualties, leading to modern Russian moral blackmail arguments. (3/8)
1905 BAKU

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBSI in the world.
0:06.6	I'm John Batchel.
0:07.9	John McMeekin is the author of the new book, Stalin's War.
0:11.0	He's a professor of Bard College.
0:13.2	Stalin has needleed, hectared, used the rhetoric of Second Front for years.
0:20.3	Well, here it comes. 1984, We know it is D-Day.
0:24.1	However, there are many details inside this before D-Day actually happens. It's important to explore them all.
0:32.1	And it has to do with the lend lease. First protocol, second protocol, third protocol. It's not just the dollar figure,
0:40.5	which is enormous. It's the ability of the Soviets to plunder the United States, whole Ford
0:48.8	factories, suitcases of what we call intellectual property. At that time, they would have called them
0:55.9	blueprints, being guarded by NKVD men with submachine guns as they're transferred
1:01.8	unopened boxes to the Soviet Union. Sean, I had the image while I'm reading your
1:08.1	very careful and shocking explication of not just 70,000 tons of sugar
1:13.4	in the first protocol, but those boxes of plans in the third protocol extended. I had this image
1:19.8	that all of this equipment, all of these blueprints, all of the technology, all of the pieces
1:25.9	of the Ford plant went to some warehouse in the Soviet Union and was never touched.
1:31.2	Just winter outside, Stalin was doing it because this is the highwayman from the Tiflis massacre.
1:39.3	Grab as much as you can and think about it afterwards.
1:42.2	So, did Hopkins know this was happening? Did FDR know this
1:46.6	was happening? Did Stantinius, a friend of Hopkins, who will later become the Secretary of State
1:53.0	Truman for heaven's sakes, but did Stentinius know that they were plundering American technology?
1:59.9	Well, Hopkins certainly knew. I don't think Statenius knew
	...

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