When one contemplates this primitive world, one is convinced that nothing will drag it out of its indolence unless one compels the people to work. The Slavs are a mass of born slaves, who feel the need of a master. As far as we are concerned, we may think that the Bolsheviks did us a great service. They began by distributing the land to the peasants, and we know what a frightful famine resulted. So they were obliged, of course, to re-establish a sort of feudal régime, to the benefit of the State. But there was this difference, that, whereas the old-style landlord knew something about farming, the political commissar, on the other hand, was entirely ignorant of such matters. So the Russians were just beginning to give their commissars appropriate instruction. If the English were to be driven out of India, India would perish. Our role in Russia will be analogous to that of England in India. Even in Hungary, National Socialism could not be exported. In the mass, the Hungarian is as lazy as the Russian. He’s by nature a man of the steppe. From this point of view, Horthy is right in thinking that if he abandoned the system of great estates, production would rapidly decline. It’s the same in Spain. If the great domains disappeared there, famine would prevail. The German peasant is moved by a liking for progress. He thinks of his children. The Ukrainian peasant has no notion of duty. There is a peasantry comparable to ours in Holland, and also in Italy, where every inch of ground is zealously exploited—also, to a certain extent, in France. The Russian space is our India. Like the English, we shall rule this empire with a handful of men. It would be a mistake to claim to educate the native. All that we could give him would be a half-knowledge—just what’s needed to conduct a revolution! It’s not a mere chance that the inventor of anarchism was a Russian. Unless other peoples, beginning with the Vikings, had imported some rudiments of organisation into Russian humanity, the Russians would still be living like rabbits. One cannot change rabbits into bees or ants. These insects have the faculty of living in a state of society—but rabbits haven’t. If left to himself, the Slav would never have emerged from the narrowest of family communities. The Germanic race created the notion of the State. It incarnated this notion in reality, by compelling the individual to be a part of a whole. It’s our duty continually to arouse the forces that slumber in our people’s blood. The Slav peoples are not destined to live a cleanly life. They know it, and we would be wrong to persuade them of the contrary. It was we who, in 1918, created the Baltic countries and the Ukraine. But nowadays we have no interest in maintaining Baltic States, any more than in creating an independent Ukraine. We must likewise prevent them from returning to Christianity. That would be a grave fault, for it would be giving them a form of organisation. I am not a partisan, either, of a university at Kiev. It’s better not to teach them to read. They won’t love us for tormenting them with schools. Even to give them a locomotive to drive would be a mistake. And what stupidity it would be on our part to proceed to a distribution of land! In spite of that, we’ll see to it that the natives live better than they’ve lived hitherto. We’ll find amongst them the human material that’s indispensable for tilling the soil. We’ll supply grain to all in Europe who need it. The Crimea will give us its citrus fruits, cotton and rubber (100,000 acres of plantation would be enough to ensure our independence). The Pripet marshes will keep us supplied with reeds. We’ll supply the Ukrainians with scarves, glass beads and everything that colonial peoples like. The Germans—this is essential—will have to constitute amongst themselves a closed society, like a fortress. The least of our stable-lads must be superior to any native. For German youth, this will be a magnificent field of experiment. We’ll attract to the Ukraine Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes. The army will find areas for manœuvres there, and our aviation will have the space it needs. Let’s avoid repeating the mistakes committed in the colonies before 1914. Apart from the Kolonialgesellschaft, which represented the interests of the State, only the silver interests had any chance of raising their heads there. The Germans must acquire the feeling for the great, open spaces. We must arrange things so that every German can realise for himself what they mean. We’ll take them on trips to the Crimea and the Caucasus. There’s a big difference between seeing these countries on the map and actually having visited them. The railways will serve for the transport of goods, but the roads are what will open the country for us. To-day everybody is dreaming of a world peace conference. For my part, I prefer to wage war for another ten years rather than be cheated thus of the spoils of victory. In any case, my demands are not exorbitant. I’m only interested, when all is said, in territories where Germans have lived before. The German people will raise itself to the level of this empire.
From Hitler’s Table Talks (1941-1944)
From Hitler’s Table Talks (1941-1944)
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