Office of the Historian

The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)86

[Translation]

I have received your message of July 20. I am writing now only on the Polish question.

The events at our front are proceeding at an exceedingly rapid rate. Lublin, one of the big cities of Poland was occupied today by our troops which continue to advance.

Under these circumstances we are confronted in practice with the question of administration on Polish territory. We do not want and we will not establish our administration on the territory of Poland as we do not want to interfere with the internal matters of Poland. This should be done by the Poles themselves. Therefore, we deemed it necessary to establish contact with the Polish Committee of National Liberation,87 recently created by the National Council of Poland, which has been formed in Warsaw at the end of last year from [Page 1425] among representatives of democratic parties and groups, about which you must already have been informed by your Ambassador from Moscow.88 The Polish Committee of National Liberation intends to take up the creation of an administration on Polish territory, and this will, I hope, be realized. In Poland we did not find any other forces which could create the Polish administration. The so-called underground organizations guided by the Polish Government in London, proved themselves ephemeral, deprived of influence. I cannot consider the Polish Committee as Government of Poland, but it is possible that in the future it will serve as kernel for the formation of a provisionary Polish government from democratic forces.

As regards Mikolajczyk, I, of course, shall not refuse to accept [receive] him. It would, however, be better if he would get in touch with the Polish National Committee which regards Mikolayczyk favorably.

July 23, 1944.
  1. Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. The text of this message was sent by Stalin to President Roosevelt for his information on the same day.↩
  2. The Polish Committee of National Liberation had been established in Kholm (Chelm) by a decree of July 21, 1944, by the National People’s Council of Poland. It soon transferred its activities to Lublin. See also infra.↩
  3. Sir Archibald Clark Kerr was the British Ambassador in the Soviet Union.↩