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He had been mistaken about them, he admitted, in Finland. He and his generals had told them that in Finland they were really fighting for Russia. It had been wrong, psychologically. Most of them had been too young to care that Finland had once been part of Russia.
Now the Russians were fighting on their own soil for their own homes. He knew that their morale was high. He had seen it make a great difference. He hoped it would make the difference. And he bluntly told callers that Russia would eventually win the war.
But at midnight, every night, he was glad to try to forget some of it for a while. He went to his apartment and dined with his wife.* If anything was likely to delay him, he thoughtfully called her up and told her so.
* Stalin's first wife was a Georgian girl, Ekaterina Svanidze, whom he married in 1903, who died in 1907. His second wife was Nadezhda Sergeievna Alleluieva, whom he married in 1919, who died mysteriously in 1932. His present wife, with whom he has his midnight suppers, is presumably the black-haired, strong-bodied musician's daughter, Marina Raskova, an aviatrix. In 1938, with a group of her sister flyers, she made a beeline jump of 3,671 miles for a new women's international distance record.