760D.61/1516: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 26—12:57 a.m.]
1232. The Moscow press today contains no reference to Finland. The sudden recrudescence yesterday of anti-Finnish items in the press62 after a month’s silence on the subject may have been due to [Page 347] Soviet knowledge of the Finnish agreement with Germany63 announced on the British radio today to permit German troops to pass through Finland en route to Norway. Although the paper in question has not yet been received by the Embassy, I am informed by an American correspondent that a recent edition of a paper in Petrozavodsk, Soviet Karelia, contained a violent attack upon Finland, asserting that the Society for Friendship and Peace with the Soviet Union is only prevented from becoming an overwhelming mass movement in Finland by the terroristic and repressive actions of the Finnish Government.
Repeated to Helsinki.
- The Ambassador in the Soviet Union had noted in his telegram No. 1217, September 24, 2 p.m., that the Moscow press had published seven news items critical of conditions in Finland. There was also a short announcement of the opening of direct rail and passenger traffic on September 23, between Finland and the Soviet Union, in accordance with the agreement of September 6, 1940. (760D.61/1515)↩
- The German-Finnish agreement for the transit of German troops through Finland to Norway was signed on September 22, 1940; it was announced in the Soviet press in a Tass despatch from Berlin on September 28. For text, see Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, series D, vol. xi, Doc. No. 86.↩