861.00 Supreme Soviet/29: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 1—9:50 a.m.]
342. At the joint session of both Houses yesterday the Supreme Soviet adopted a law introduced by Zhdanov to transform the Karelian Autonomous Republic into a constituent republic under the name of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, thereby raising the number of constituent republics to 12. The new republic will include the territory of the former Autonomous Karelian Republic and the territory ceded by Finland under the treaty of peace, with the exception of a small strip in the immediate vicinity of Leningrad. In explaining the change of name Zhdanov pointed out that certain of the regions obtained from Finland which will form part of the new republic are “purely Finnish”.
[Secretary of State Hull, in his memorandum of April 2, of a conversation with the Ambassador of the Soviet Union, Konstantin Alexandrovich Umansky, declared that the Soviet Union had “plunged into fighting with Finland to the surprise of all of us;” gave no definite answer when the moral embargo would end, except to say that “we do not know when his country may embark upon another war;” and stated that the United States Government possessed “the most satisfactory evidence of Russian bombing of civilian populations.” For text of the memorandum of this conversation, dated April 2, see volume III, page 266.]