861.458/17a: Telegram
President Roosevelt to the President of the All-Union Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union (Kalinin)
Upon the national anniversary of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics26 I wish to extend to you my felicitations and sincere good wishes for the well-being of the people of your country and to tell you how enheartening the valiant and determined resistance of the army and people of the Soviet Union to the attacks of the invader is to the people of the United States and to all forces which abhor aggression. I am confident that the sacrifices and sufferings of those who have the courage to struggle against aggression will not have been in vain.
I wish to assure you of the desire of the Government and people of the United States to do everything possible to assist your country in this critical hour.
- No message had been sent on this occasion for the previous 2 years, but in consideration of the wartime change in relations, a telegram of felicitations was now deemed appropriate. See Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 790, footnote 95; and Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. iii, p. 235, footnote 18.↩