761.6211/158: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 31—10:25 p.m.]
494. Personal for the Under Secretary. In the light of the information contained in the concluding paragraph of my 465, August 24, which, while possibly not complete, is, up to the present, the only information that I have concerning any secret agreement between Soviet [Page 348] Russia and Germany, I am inclined to discount speculative rumors circulating in Moscow and in other capitals that any such agreement concluded between Germany and Soviet Russia involves Soviet military operations against Poland. It is my understanding that the agreement, while it recognizes certain areas in Eastern Europe as vital to the interests of the Soviet Union, which Germany would refrain from entering, and accords to the Soviet Union the right of territorial compensation in those areas should it so desire, there is no reason to believe that the agreement contained any obligation upon the Soviet Union to undertake offensive military action in Eastern Europe. The agreement, however, does not appear to preclude the Soviet Union from obtaining its compensation by military occupancy should it so elect.
It is my opinion that the Soviet Union desires to and will pursue an opportunist policy based entirely upon the developments arising out of any conflict in Eastern Europe. For this reason I consider it unlikely that the Soviet Union will take offensive military action during the opening stages of any such conflict but no possibility should be excluded in appraising the course the present leaders of the Soviet Union might pursue at any time.