760C.61/7–2644: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 26—9:38 p.m.]
2756. There follows Embassy’s translation of Soviet Foreign Office statement regarding relations of Soviet Union to Poland, as published in Moscow newspapers for July 26. Text of statement was issued to foreign correspondents evening of July 25:
“The People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR has been authorized by the Soviet Government to make the following statement:
The Red Army, successfully going forward, has reached the state frontier between the Soviet Union and Poland. Pursuing the retreating German armies, Soviet troops together with the Polish Army operating on the Soviet-German front have crossed the Western Bug River, have crossed the Soviet-Polish frontier and have entered the boundaries of Poland. Thus a beginning has been made of the liberation of the long-suffering brother Polish people from German occupation.
The Soviet forces have entered Polish territory inspired solely by determination to smash the enemy German armies and help the Polish people in the cause of its emancipation from the yoke of the German invaders, and the reestablishment of an independent, strong and democratic Poland.
The Soviet Government declares that it considers the military operations of the Red Army on the territory of Poland as operations on the territory of a sovereign, friendly Allied state. In connection with this the Soviet Government does not intend to establish organs of its administration on the territory of Poland, regarding this as the affair of the Polish people. It has decided in view of this to conclude with the Polish Committee of National Liberation an agreement regarding relations between the Soviet Command and the Polish Administration.94
[Page 1428]The Soviet Government declares that it does not pursue the aim of acquiring any portion whatsoever of Polish territory or of changing the social order in Poland, and the military activities of the Red Army on the territory of Poland are determined solely by military necessity and the desire to give aid to the friendly Polish people in liberation from the German occupation.
The Soviet Government expressed firm confidence that the fraternal people of the USSR and Poland will together carry through to the end the war of liberation against the German invaders and will lay firm foundations for friendly Soviet-Polish collaboration.”
- An agreement concerning relations between the High Command of the Soviet Union and the Polish Administration following the entrance of Soviet troops into Polish territory was signed in Moscow on July 26, 1944, by Foreign Commissar Molotov for the Soviet Union and Osubka-Morawski for the Polish Committee of National Liberation. For text, see Louise W. Holborn (ed.), War and Peace Aims of the United Nations, vol. ii, 1943–1945 (Boston, World Peace Foundation, 1948), pp. 770–771.↩