760d.61/814: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 20—11:40 a.m.]
1116. The Military Attaché has ascertained, from what he regards as an exceptionally reliable source, that among the major difficulties [Page 1034] which the Soviet armed forces are encountering in Finland has been the expected confusion resulting from duality of command inherent in the system of Political Commissars.31 According to this information this duality of command and interference of the Political Commissars has resulted in a situation whereby regular army officers are afraid to assume the responsibility essential for the conduct of operations in the field.
It has been reported by another reliable foreign informant that a substantial body of Soviet forces advancing through the central portion of Finland has been cut off and surrounded by a Finnish counterattack.
- Concerning the reinstitution of the system of political, or military commissars in the Red Army in May 1937, see telegram No. 105, June 8, 1937, from the Chargé in the Soviet Union, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 376, and footnote 22, p. 377.↩