On July 28, 1941 two of the most important political figures of World War II first met; Josef Stalin, dictator and warlord of the Soviet Union, and Harry Hopkins, one of the few people in the world who was trusted by Franklin Roosevelt. It was an informal meeting in Moscow that took place against the dramatic background of the ongoing German invasion of the Soviet Union. For Hopkins, it represented one of the more remarkable moments of an already remarkable career. A man both endearing and vaguely sinister, by 1941 he had become Franklin Roosevelt's second voice. Hopkins was clearly impressed with the Soviet dictator, who to him seemed both calm and knowledgeable. Stalin certainly turned on his special kind of charm and devoted a great deal of time to cultivating Hopkins. He had a personal air-raid shelter set aside for the visiting American, and made sure that it was liberally stocked with champagne, caviar, chocolates and cigarettes. Stalin also praised Roosevelt extravagantly, figuring that would please both the President and his intimate.

Hopkins had two overriding goals for the meetings. The first was to assure Stalin that Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, whom Hopkins had just left in London, were committed to supporting the Soviet Union in its life and death struggle with Nazi Germany. The second was to ask Stalin to list what the Soviet Union needed to help it resist the German invaders. The dictator was clear that the greatest threat posed by Germany was not its army – he expressed great confidence in Soviet tanks and stated that, if allowed time, Soviet numbers should prove telling. The greatest threat to the continued resistance of the USSR was the strength of the Luftwaffe. Hopkins summarized Stalin's views on the subject for Roosevelt: “He [Stalin] emphasized the fact that Germany has a strong and powerful air force, and that their present production of planes was probably between 2500 fighters and bombers per month, but not more than 3000 a month.”