Saturday, 26 February

Fine, warm and sunny

At 11.30 a.m. I studied Russian.

At 3.30 p.m. I went to the American Embassy to watch Phantom of the Opera.

At 7.30 p.m. Military Attaché Guo invited the Czechoslovakian Commander-in-Chief, and the head of the military delegation, Pukar, and others to the Military Attaché’s place. The atmosphere was quite good. Ms. Varshek said recently there have been two jokes among people of the Soviet Union.1) God heard that there was war in the world and he was quite angry, and asked the men around him who the culprit was. Some of them answered it was Stalin. Then God summoned Stalin and spoke to him and admonished him that he shouldn’t start the war. Stalin replied that the war was not started by him, because Hitler invaded his land and he had had to act in self-defence so he had no choice but to fight. The culprit should be Hitler. God then summoned and asked Hitler. He answered that he had had no choice but to fight because Churchill and Roosevelt encircled him, so the culprits should be Roosevelt and Churchill. God then summoned and asked Churchill and Roosevelt. Churchill and Roosevelt answered at the same time that Britain and the United States did not have armies in the battlefield, so they could not be the ringleaders. 2) At the Tehran Conference, Stalin told Churchill that because of Churchill’s birthday he had asked people to send a gift to Churchill’s home. When Churchill returned home, he found that it was a girl of several years old. He did not know Stalin’s intentions, and when he met Stalin the next day, he asked Stalin immediately. He said the girl he sent me was quite nice, but was far too young and so was of no use to him. Stalin answered that when the second war zone was opened the girl would have grown up and could be used. These two jokes reflect that the Soviet Union people are still doubtful about the opening of the second war zone.

The wife of old Embassy servant Ivan died in the Embassy today at the age of 72. She had served with her husband in the Embassy almost 50 years. Her husband went to Germany from the Soviet Union when the Chinese Embassy once dismissed its staff, and his wife accompanied him to Berlin. So Ivan could speak a little German, when the Soviet-German war started, he was arrested and we heard that he had passed away. When he worked here he was very loyal and we felt bad that we could not offer much help. So when I arrived in Moscow I tried my best to console her and give her some privileges, but she was not in good health and was fragile, and she experienced much change so that she could not stay on, so we all felt deeply sorry. I have asked Counsellor Liu and steward Li to deal with her funeral and if money is needed we needn’t be frugal. She has two married daughters and also several grandchildren. Counsellor Liu said that this morning she knew she was dying, and told her daughter that Ivan had come to fetch her. She also asked her daughter to change her clothes for her, all these are in keeping with our thoughts about ghosts and spirits in our country. Her will asked for the funeral to be managed by the Church, so I asked Liu and steward Li to see to it accordingly.