Did the British use of Rudolf Hess to make Stalin afraid for a separate peace between Britain and Germany help to prevent a Soviet invasion of Iran before the 22 of june 1941?
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How would the British make Stalin afraid of a separate peace simply by jailing Hess? What’s the connection? I thought the British jailed him because he was an enemy who went to Scotland, not as a diplomat, but as an enemy agent trying to sow internal discord.
Stalin seemed to be very worried about the arival of Hess in Britain and even after 22 june 1941 asked Churchill about the ‘Hess affair’. Kim Philby was instructed to find out what was happening with Hess (Max Hastings; Secret War).
Sure, Stalin was worried about it because he may have been afraid of Britain exiting the War in Europe on somewhat favorable terms, but I don’t think Stalin had any plans to negotiate a separate peace himself. From the beginning, Stalin wanted to conquer Europe just like Hitler, and only ever pushed those plans to the side when they were unfeasible, so I imagine Stalin was going to push until he had decisive victory. The Soviet generals like Zhukov and Khruschev would not have stood for any partial victory when they could win a total victory over the Germans.