March 9, 1939.
Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov set out from Moscow with a letter from Yosef, formally beginning his journey to East Africa. Accompanying Litvinov was a fairly sizable negotiating delegation, demonstrating the Soviet Union's sincerity regarding this cooperation with East Africa.
Though it was already March, Moscow's weather remained bitterly cold, and unmelted snow still lay on the roads.
At Moscow Railway Station, Litvinov sat in his carriage and glanced at the mist condensed on the window, his heart full of anxiety. His deputy, Spiridonov, held a kettle and poured Litvinov a cup of hot water.
"Comrade Litvinov, Moscow's weather has not fully turned yet. You need to keep warm. Besides, this trip abroad will involve an enormous temperature difference from Moscow to East Africa."
Litvinov accepted the enamel cup and politely thanked him. "Thank you for your concern, Comrade Spiridonov. But do you know much about East Africa?"
Spiridonov sat in the chair opposite him and shook his head. "For the overwhelming majority of us, East Africa is an unfamiliar country. I previously handled diplomatic affairs in Europe."
"This is also my first time traveling to East Africa. Still, I imagine it should be a highly developed country, probably comparable to Germany."
"Perhaps!" Litvinov said. "In the last century, Africa was still a wasteland of civilization, cobbled together from indigenous tribes and fragments of colonies established by Westerners. Who could have imagined that such a place would one day give rise to one of the world's most powerful Imperialist countries?"
East Africa's existence had directly made Africa one of the most important political and economic blocs in the world today, alongside Europe and North America as one of the three cores that had dominated global affairs since the early twentieth century.
"East Africa's customs and way of life