a. The Russians laughed about their alleged promises of future behavior. This is the conversation that Litvinov had with staff at his embassy after the 'agreement' was signed:
"Well, it's all in the bag. They wanted us to recognize the debts we owed them and I promised we were going to negotiate. But they did not know we were going to negotiate until doomsday. The next one was a corker; they wanted us to promise freedom of religion in the Soviet Union, and I promised that, too. I was very much prompted to offer that I would personally collect all the Bibles and ship them over."
Manly, "The Twenty Year Revolution," p.33.
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