Winston Churchill

By Paul Neumann

As the prime-minister of the coalition War Cabinet, and the Minister of Defence, Churchill led his nation through the Second World War. Despite of his staunch enmity towards the communism, he made the alliance with the Soviet Union, and played a key role in creating of the anti-fascist coalition. He was also an architect of the Atlantic Charter and presided over the Allies' conferences in Casablanca, Quebec, Cairo, Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Former Naval Person
• Release date: Dec 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9788381890762

Book preview

Paul Neumann

Winston Churchill

Encounters with Stalin

© Paul Neumann, 2022

As the prime-minister of the coalition War Cabinet, and the Minister of Defence, Churchill led his nation through the Second World War. Despite of his staunch enmity towards the communism, he made the alliance with the Soviet Union, and played a key role in creating of the anti-fascist coalition. He was also an architect of the Atlantic Charter and presided over the Allies’ conferences in Casablanca, Quebec, Cairo, Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam.

ISBN 978-83-8189-076-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Contents

Winston Churchill

The youngest man in Europe

Winston is back

His enemy’s ally

Second front

When Churchill met Stalin

Reliable partner

Teheran conference

True lies

Struggle for influence

Second meeting in Moscow

Yalta conference

Beyond Yalta

From Potsdam to Fulton

The last of the Big Three

Landmarks

Cover

In downtown London, vis à vis the Westminster, a strange monument has been erected to honour the greatest hero of the British history of the 20th century. The bulky, dark figure of the prime-minister Winston Churchill has nothing in common with the gracious ancient heroes. A hunched old man resting on a cane looks grimly at the walls, inside which his speeches not once captivated the minds and hearts of his audience. The sculptor justly judged that Winston Churchill had no need for embellishments, that the bronze grace would become a sort of insult to the character of the man, whose passion and devotion to his country were in contrast to the gracious self-admiration. British people received Churchill exactly this way: True, not decorative, creator of the national history, who had been leading his country through the darkest hours of the war, the peak of the imperial sway, and its final decline.

The brightest British politician of the 20th century had lived a fantastic life, full of intense work – whether at the desk in his office, or at the commanding posts of the world war, or aboard of personal plane, or at the table of diplomatic talks. Whether in the underground bunker, or aboard the battle cruiser, in Teheran, Yalta or Potsdam, that outstanding writer and orator, politician and diplomat always bequeathed – Never surrender!

Churchill is famous not for one, single deed, one battle or campaign, or one achievement. He did not unite his country like Otto von Bismarck, and did not save it from disintegration like Abraham Lincoln; He was a statesman of different virtue, but without him Great Britain would experience the worst perils imaginable.

He served England the way everyone should serve his country – with wisdom, enthusiasm, and respect, but at the same time with cold-blooded calculation, and patience. To the Britons he has forever remained the man, whose personality at the time of peril embodied absolute all-national confidence that Britons never shall be slaves: We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Winston Churchill is considered the last politician of the classic imperial era. Thanks to his foresight he already in the beginning of the century properly estimated new technologies and weapons, while the political intuition let him properly evaluate the menace fascism brought to the whole world. Winston Churchill has been known for his Iron Curtain Speech, which put the end of the military and political alliance of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, and opened so-called Cold War. But he also has been known for his clear and unequivocal stance, as on 22 June 1941 he, the only world leader, firmly stood by the Soviet Union in its struggle with fascism.

Of course, he resented his country’s losing the leading role in world affairs. In this question he was a true conservative. He hated communism, but loved Cuban cigars, and Armenian brandy. He considered Joseph Stalin an incarnation of evil, but concluded a military alliance with him, and spoke favourably about Stalin in the British Parliament. And Stalin, in his turn, who saw in Churchill the worst enemy of the Revolution, nevertheless gave him this significant opinion:

There have been few cases in history where the courage of one man has been so important to the future of the world.

The youngest man in Europe

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a descendant of the famous 18th-century English militaryman and statesman John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was born in one of the top aristocratic families of Great Britain. Hence his ascension to the upper élite of the British power was partly predetermined, or at least favoured, although his strong, independent personality became a serious obstacle in such ascension. Yet, in the end, it was his personality that eventually brought him to the top.

To a young English aristocrat the path of education had been paved for centuries: first, home education, then one of the privileged schools of Eaton or Harrow, and finally classic education at Oxford or Cambridge university. Yet, the stubborn, undisciplined and often underachieving pupil used to be reprimanded. The doors to Cambridge or Oxford were closed to him; Winston hated mathematics, although he had an excellent memory. In general, he studied what he liked – it is a characteristic quality of creative minds. Eventually, he went to a military college. After two failed attempts. And he joined a cavalry school, which did not require exams in mathematics.

After 18 months of training (mainly horse-riding and shooting), Churchill was commissioned into a hussars’ regiment. He regretted that in the British colonies there were no uprisings that he could gloriously suppress. Later he wrote that his achievements had come from his own efforts. However, in the Victorian England nobility and family connections were of great importance. And his family was famous. It is true that his mother, an early widowed American, used to spend her capitals rather carelessly, but that allowed her and her son to have very influential friends and acquaintances. Anyway, Winston’s ambitious designs would not come true without his active efforts, which sometimes were coupled with substantial obstacles and serious risks.

In 1895 Churchill travelled to Cuba, where local rebels were fighting with the Spanish colonial rule. He published several newspaper articles about his adventures. Then he left for the Indies, but did not find a better occupation than sports and collecting butterflies. The boredom of the garrison life made him turn to reading historical books and philosophical treatises. He kept writing articles for London newspapers, and even published a book in 1897.

The only action Churchill saw in the Indies was suppressing a rebellion of a local tribe, during which he showed courage and inventiveness. So, when the British started a colonial war in Sudan, Churchill used his mother’s connections to join the troops as an officer and war reporter (journalism paid 20 times more than military service). Career officers used to call him a medal hunter and self-promoter, but Churchill kept writing and did not think about a military career, since it required long and difficult years of effort and risk.

In the autumn of 1899, there was published his two-volume account of the conquest of Sudan – The River War. He honestly described how did his countrymen desecrate Moslem holy places, and how did they scoff the tomb and remains of the leader of the Sudanese uprising – Muhammad Ahmad (Mahdi). He also told the truth about the despicable trick of the British propaganda: to portray the enemy as heinous monsters, who deserve to be mercilessly exterminated.

[1]

But soon he removed such unflattering opinions about his own countrymen from the second edition of the book.

[2]

Young Winston started thinking about a political career, and truth became politically incorrect. Nevertheless, he was not elected to the Parliament.

At the age of 24 Winston Churchill was already a man, to whom many observers of the British political scenes prophesized a great career.

So, Winston Churchill left for South Africa as a reporter of the war with the Boers – the descendants of the Dutch colonists. There the descendant of Duke of Marlborough was taken prisoner – not out of cowardice, but because his unit was encircled and forced to surrender. He managed to escape in a railway carriage; he hid in a mine with the assistance of a local Englishman. A substantial amount of money – £25 – was promised for his capture, but it remained unclaimed: Churchill returned home. At that time the British suffered one defeat after another, and Churchill’s adventures made him a minor national hero. Especially so, that he vividly described his adventures.

Churchill became famous and rich. Now he made it to the parliament. At once he organized with his friend Lord Hugh Cecil a group of young Conservative Party MP’s, who mocked the parliamentary tactics of harassing their own leaders; they called themselves The Hughligans. On that occasion he got a taste for whisky and brandy, as well as sybaritic life style, but ambitions, sound mind, and the willpower helped him to cope with bad habits and build his career. In 1925 he became the Chancellor of the Exchequer – the second person of the government. For that he had to overcome his hatred of mathematics. The next step would be the office of the Prime Minister – his coveted and ultimate goal.

Yet, in 1929 the Great Depression put the world economics on the brink of collapse. To Churchill it spelled a disaster in his political life. He was not invited to form the new government. Not only he had to abandon the dreams about the prime-minister’s office, but even a ministerial portfolio became unreachable. He was shoved to the political obscurity for 11 years. On top of that, there came the crisis in his family life. It seemed that everything was over to Churchill.

In the Parliament he felt at home. He criticized the leaders of his own party in order to annoy them to the point that they would invite him to the government just to get rid of the bully. Churchill was in hurry to climb up the ladder of the political life. But his efforts were all too visible, and his spectacular actions induced worries among his competitors. Once he was excluded from the government, he took this opportunity to pass to the camp of his former political opponents – the liberals. That gained him the pejorative nickname The Blenheim Rat, but he deserted the sinking ship of the conservatives just in time: political situation in Great Britain was radicalizing, left-wing forces were gaining more power, and the Conservative Party lost the next election by landslide.

It is difficult to comment on Winston Churchill’s socio-political beliefs. In general, they came down to the desire to preserve the British Empire that ruled the waves and many nations, as well as the power of the rich aristocrats in the country. That fully agreed with his personal interests, taste for wealth and power, and hatred of democracy, socialism, and communism. He knew how to go about his capital, and climbed the ladder of personal career even at the expense of the interests of his own political party.

Of course, such a betrayal did not mean a change in his beliefs or advocacy of certain political principles. In fact, such a ratty turn-coating between the political camps was not a genuine invention of Churchill’s times. Ruling classes of England assumed the same positions as Churchill did. As the situation in the world and the country changed, so did their policies: sometimes it was needed to win the support of the capital, sometimes of the labour; sometimes they proclaimed free trade, and sometimes introduced regulations to the free market, and so on. In political games opportunists win more often than ideologists. So, Churchill was an opportunist; very clever, intelligent, and when necessary – dishonest political player. Politics was his life, but unlike ordinary careerists, he did not treat politics as a goal, but as the means to achieve the goals. Although in pursuit after the personal goals, he did not neglect national interests.

Churchill had created his own version of the personality cult. He never missed an opportunity to mention his person and emphasize his personal quality (and he really had a lot of them). As many as 40 books about his life and deeds were published during his life. In his career he relied on the whole staff of assistants, and in particular – Sir Edward Howard Marsh, his friend and secretary, whose polymath intellect and artistic taste formed Churchill’s image.