Editing Vyacheslav Molotov (section)

==Legacy==
Molotov, like Stalin, was pathologically mistrustful of others; much crucial information has disappeared. As Molotov once said, "One should listen to them, but it is necessary to check up on them. The intelligence officer can lead you to a very dangerous position.... There are many provocateurs here, there, and everywhere."{{sfn|Zubok|Pleshakov|1996|p=88}} Molotov continued to claim in a series of published interviews that there never was a secret territorial deal between Stalin and Hitler during the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].<ref>Molotov, 84.</ref> Like Stalin, he never recognized the [[Cold War]] as an international event. He saw the Cold War as more or less the everyday conflict between communism and capitalism. He divided the capitalist countries into two groups: the "smart and dangerous [[imperialists]]" and the "fools."<ref>Zubok and Pleshakov, 89.</ref> Before his retirement, Molotov had proposed establishing a socialist confederation with the [[People's Republic of China]]. Molotov believed that [[socialist states]] were part of a larger, [[supranational union|supranational entity]]. In retirement, Molotov criticized [[Nikita Khrushchev]] for being a "right-wing deviationist."<ref>Zubok and Pleshakov, 89–91.</ref>

[[File:Kasapano.jpg|thumb|right|For lack of better weapons, Soviet tanks in the [[Winter War]] were often destroyed with [[satchel charge]]s and [[Molotov cocktail]]s, a name coined by the Finnish defenders.<ref>{{cite web |title=Suomessa on yhä kolme aitoa Molotovin cocktailia |url=https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001159984.html |website=is.fi |date=16 April 2016 |publisher=[[Ilta-Sanomat]] |access-date=2022-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324192849/https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001159984.html|archive-date= 24 March 2023 }}</ref><ref name="kb molotov-cocktail">{{cite web |title="Molotov-cocktail" name usage in Swedish newspapers: 1940 |url=https://tidningar.kb.se/?q=Molotov%20cocktail&sort=&from=1940-01-01&to=1940-12-31 |website=tidningar.kb.se |publisher=[[National Library of Sweden|Kungliga biblioteket]] (KB) |access-date=2022-04-20 }}</ref> The name was a pejorative reference to the Soviet foreign minister.]]
The [[Molotov cocktail]] is a term coined by the Finns during the [[Winter War]], as a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons.<ref>Montefiore, 335.</ref> During the Winter War, the Soviet air force made extensive use of incendiaries and [[cluster bombs]] against Finnish civilians, troops and fortifications. When Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that they were not bombing but rather delivering food to the starving Finns, the Finns started to call the air bombs ''[[Molotov bread basket]]s''.<ref>John Langdon-Davies, "The Lessons of Finland," ''Picture Post'', June 1940.</ref> Soon they responded by attacking advancing tanks with "Molotov cocktails," which were "a drink to go with the food." According to Montefiore, the Molotov cocktail was one part of Molotov's [[cult of personality]] that the vain Premier surely did not appreciate.<ref>Montefiore, 328.</ref>

[[Winston Churchill]] lists many meetings with Molotov in his wartime memoirs. Acknowledging him as a "man of outstanding ability and cold-blooded ruthlessness," Churchill concluded: "In the conduct of foreign affairs, [[Cardinal Mazarin|Mazarin]], [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], [[Metternich]], would welcome him to their company, if there be another world to which Bolsheviks allow themselves to go."<ref>Winston Churchill, [https://archive.org/details/gatheringstorm00chur_0/page/368 ''The Gathering Storm''], Volume 1 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1948, ISBN 039541055X), 368–369.</ref> The former US Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] said: "I have seen in action all the great international statesmen of this century. I have never seen such personal diplomatic skill at so high a degree of perfection as Molotov's."<ref name=":2" />

Molotov was the only person to have shaken hands with Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, [[Rudolf Hess]], [[Hermann Göring]], and [[Heinrich Himmler]].<ref>See [https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/4622/Molotov-Vyacheslav-M.htm Traces of War]</ref> 
At the end of 1989 the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s government formally denounced the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.<ref>Jerzy W. Borejsza, Klaus Ziemer, and Magdalena Hulas, ''Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe'' (Berg Publishers, Berghahn Books, 2006, ISBN 1571816410), 521.</ref>

In January 2010, a [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] court accused Molotov and other Soviet officials of organizing [[Holodomor|a man-made famine]] in [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] in 1932–33. The same Court then ended criminal proceedings against them, as the [[Posthumous trial|trial would be posthumous]].<ref name="court accuses Stalin leadership 13-1-10">[http://www.kyivpost.com/news/city/detail/56954/ Kyiv court accuses Stalin leadership of organizing famine], ''[[Kyiv Post]]'' (January 13, 2010)</ref>