Office of the Historian

The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)83

[Translation]

I have received your message of April 184 on the Polish question. In my message to the President85 on this question, which I am also sending to you, I am answering to all principal questions connected with the work of the Moscow Commission on Poland. As regards other questions, which you touch upon in your message, I have to say the following:

1.
The British and American Ambassadors—members of the Moscow Commission do not want to regard the Provisional Polish Government and insist on inviting for consultation Polish leaders regardless of their attitude toward the decisions of the Crimea Conference on Poland and toward the Soviet Union. They insist on obligatory invitation to Moscow for consultation for instance Mikolajczyk, doing this even in an ultimative form, not taking into consideration that Mikolajczyk openly spoke against the decisions of the Crimea Conference on Poland. However, if you consider it necessary, I would be ready to influence the Provisional Polish Government to remove its objections against the invitation of Mikolajczyk, provided the latter would make a public statement about the recognition by him of the decisions of the Crimea Conference on the Polish question and that he supports [Page 205] the establishment of friendly relations between Poland and the Soviet Union.
2.
You wonder why the Polish theatre of military events should be secret. In reality there is no secret. You overlook the circumstances that sending to Poland of British observers or other foreign observers is considered by the Poles as insult to their national dignity, and if one bears in mind, that the present attitude of the British Government to the Provisional Polish Government the latter considers as unfavorable. As regards the Soviet Government, it cannot but take into consideration the negative attitude of the Provisional Polish Government toward the question of sending foreign observers to Poland. Besides, you know, that when a different attitude is shown to the Provisional Polish Government it is not hindering entry into Poland of representatives of other nations and does not create any obstacles for them as it is in the case with representatives of the Czechoslovak Government,86 the Yugoslav Government87 and others.
3.
I had a pleasant talk with Mrs. Churchill. She made a great impression on me. She has transmitted to me your gift. Permit me to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the gift.

April 7, 1945.
  1. Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. Forwarded to the President by Soviet Ambassador Gromyko under cover of a letter dated April 9, not printed, in pursuance of instructions of Marshal Stalin.↩
  2. The text of Churchill’s message to Stalin of April 1 had been transmitted to President Roosevelt in the Prime Minister’s message 929, March 31, p. 191.↩
  3. Supra.↩
  4. The Czechoslovak Government in Exile, at London, announced on January 31, 1945, its decision to recognize the Lublin Committee as the Polish Provisional Government.↩
  5. The Yugoslav Government on March 30, 1945, announced its intention to recognize the Warsaw regime as the Polish Government.↩