Eric Assmus ( died 1937/1939, literally Erih Asmus) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

German descent Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War ...

. Preceded by

Boris Shtein Boris Yefimovich Shtein (; 1892 – 14 March 1961) was a Soviet diplomat and historian. He was a member of many Soviet delegations in the 1920s and 1930s and served as a diplomat at the United Nations in the 1940s. In later life Shtein dedicated hi ...

, Assmus was Ambassador to Finland from 1935 to 1937. He contacted Finnish Prime Minister Toivo Kivimäki on 15 June 1935 that "in case of a military conflict in the

Mainland Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by so ...

, the Soviet Union could be forced to occupy some parts of Finland". On 10 February 1936, Kivimäki reported his private conversation with Assmus to

Juho Kusti Paasikivi Juho Kusti Paasikivi (, 27 November 1870 – 14 December 1956) was a Finnish politician who served as the seventh president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coaliti ...

"in case Germany starts a war to any direction, Russia is forced to annihilate Finland to defuse it. It is possible that the enemy great power could use Finland to attack Russia, and to prevent this Russia have to occupy Finland. According to Russian military experts this would happen in days".Polvinen, Tuomo "''J.K. Paasikivi: Valtiomiehen elämäntyö 2 1918–1939''" (in Finnish), p. 399

After Assmus left

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, he was arrested and executed by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. In 1938, the NKVD agent Boris Yartsev started unsuccessful negotiations between Finland and the Soviet Union.

References

Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Finland Great Purge victims from Germany Executed Soviet people Soviet people of German descent Year of birth missing 1930s deaths Year of death uncertain {{Europe-diplomat-stub